§ MR. HUGH ELLIOT (Ayrshire, N.)I beg, Mr. Speaker, to ask you the following question on a point of order:—Whether, when a scheme under the Educational Endowments (Scotland) Act, 1882, is laid upon the Table of the House of Commons, and an Address to the Crown is moved against such scheme, it would be in order, upon such Motion being put, to move that the said scheme be referred to a Select Committee to examine into the merits of the scheme and report to the House within the statutory period required by the Act for the consideration of these schemes by Parliament? I ask the question because a considerable number of schemes of great importance are coming before the House next Session, and we should like 1742 to know what the procedure of the House of Commons is with regard to these schemes before they are actually laid on the Table.
§ * MR. SPEAKERIn reply to the hon. Gentleman, I have to say that I do not think it would be in order, when a scheme comes before the House in the circumstances stated by the hon. Member, to move an Amendment that that particular scheme be referred to a Select Committee. The course is prescribed by Statute that an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty praying Her Majesty to dissent from or amend a particular scheme, but a Motion such as that suggested by the hon. Member to refer a particular scheme to a Select Committee, would be outside the machinery provided by the Statute, and would have to be made if the hon. Gentleman wished to make it as an independent Motion.