COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 5 June 1888)

§ MR. T. M. HEALY
said, he would respectfully submit that it was highly irregular on the part of the Government to pretend to use private Members' days for measures of this kind. The Government should set down their Bills for a Government day. He objected to the setting the Bill down for a day when there was no hope of it being taken—it was a mere farce.

§ MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)
said, he did not care when the Bill was put down for, but he would ask the right hon. Gentleman if the Government did or did not seriously intend to proceed with it?

§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)
said, the objection of the hon. and learned Member for Longford seemed to be to the Bill altogether. [Mr. T. M. HEALY: No.] The hon. and learned Member had just moved that the Order be discharged. [Cries of "No!"]

§ MR. T. M. HEALY
said, it was the King-Harman Bill he referred to.

§ MR. A. J. BALFOUR
said, the complaint of the hon. and learned Member was that the Government proposed to set down the Bill for a private Members' day.

§ MR. T. M. HEALY
After the contradiction he had given, would it not be only decent to withdraw the remark about the discharge of the Bill?

§ MR. A. J. BALFOUR
said, he quite admitted his mistake. As to the Government acting improperly in putting down Bills for private Members' nights, as the House was well aware, the rights of precedence for the Business promoted by private Members on certain days were well defined; but the Government had a perfect right, a right which had been exercised by every Government, of putting down their Bills after the other Orders, and, by so doing, there could be no conceivable interference with the rights of private Members. He was, 1236 therefore, at a loss to understand the objection of the hon. and learned Member. He could assure the hon. Member for South Tyrone (Mr. T. W. Russell) that he was extremely anxious to proceed with all the Irish Government Bills, but the hon. Member must know the circumstances that had prevented their being proceeded with. In putting it down for to-morrow he was actuated by a desire not to lose any possible chance of advancing the Bill.