§ (Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Mr Jackson.)
§ COMMITTEE.
§ Order for Committee read.
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND(Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)It is not my intention to proceed with this Bill to-night, but to propose that the Committee be deferred till Monday. I would, however, like to ask hon. Members below the Gangway oppoposite whether they intend to persist, in the numerous Amendments which they have put on the Paper. If they do so, it will be impossible for me to proceed with the Bill further. The Amendments really open up a wide field of questions which ought not to be discussed at all.
§ MR. MAURICE HEALY (Cork)Mr. Speaker, I should like to say that the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary for Ireland (Sir Michael Hicks-Beach) has, by the appeal he has made, put us in a position of some difficulty. The Bill of which he has given Notice to take the Committee on Monday next raises a somewhat large question. I do not intend to discuss the provisions of the measure; but I must point out to the right hon. Gentleman that there is really no urgency whatsoever in the matter with which the Bill proposes to deal. Upon a previous occasion the right hon. Gentleman has asserted as a reason for bringing in the Bill that the Court of Common Pleas cannot be fully constituted until the appointment suggested is made. That is not the fact. The Court of Common Pleas is fully constituted with two Judges, and under the present system two Judges can sit.
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order! The hon. Gentleman is now discussing the merits of the Bill.
§ Committee deferred till Monday next.