HC Deb 20 August 1889 vol 339 cc1767-9
MR. SEXTON

Perhaps I may remind the First Lord of the Treasury that there are still 70 Votes to take in Supply, many of them highly contentious, and that the Irish Sunday Closing Act is included in the Expiring Laws Continuance Bill. Under these circumstances, I would ask whether the Order for the SECOND READING of the Irish Sunday Closing Bill is to be kept on the Paper, thereby keeping Members interested in the matter in attendance until Supply is disposed of, although there can be no possibility of completing legislation on the Bill this Session.

MR. R. POWER (Waterford)

I have only risen to say that the Sunday Closing Bill will meet with the most strenuous opposition. There are 17 notices of Amendment to the Second Reading, and these may occupy 17 days in discussion.

MR. T. W. EUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)

Before the right hon. Gentleman replies to the question I wish to ask him whether in the month of January last, after the Act had been 10 years on the Statute Book, and renewed every year, having been passed in 1878, and after it had been reported favourably on by a Select Committee, he did not give a pledge to a deputation which waited on him at Dublin Castle—that pledge being one of the Cabinet—that the day for argument was past and the Bill must now be passed.

THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR, Manchester, E.)

It is perfectly true that in January last a deputation of gentlemen, I think representing all Parties in Ireland, waited upon me at the Castle, and I told them after consultation with my Colleagues that though we should not bring in the Bill as a Government measure, we would do our best to enable a discussion to be taken on it in this House and for the Bill to be passed if the House should so decide. The House is aware now of the situation of public business, and the hon. Member for Waterford (Mr. R. Power), as representing some hon. Gentlemen below the Gangway, has informed us of the strenuous opposition which this measure is likely to receive. There are now 20 Notices of Amendment down to the Second Reading, and if that stage should be passed, there would, no doubt, be Amendments in Committee placed on the Paper proportionable to this number. Under these circumstances, I fear it would be absolutely useless—speaking as a practical man, who has to deal with Parliamentary forces as they are, and not as I should wish them to be—to hold out any expectation whatever that it will be possible to pass the Bill, even if the House desired it, at this time of the Session. That is the decision we have come to, but with the most profound reluctance. We have had to sacrifice, as the House knows, many Bills of our own in which we are deeply interested, and to which we were pledged quite as deeply as we were to the Irish Sunday Closing Bill. I am sorry that Bill has to share the fate of other measures; but I think my hon. Friend opposite (Mr. T. W. Russell) will yield to what is, after all, an absolute necessity in this case, and I can only say if he regrets the course we are driven to pursue, he does not regret it more sincerely than I do.

MR. LEA (Londonderry, S.)

I beg to give notice that in Committee on the Expiring Laws Continuance Bill I shall call attention to the conduct of the Government in connection with the Irish Sunday Closing Bill. I shall also ask the Government what steps they propose to take to redeem their honour, and I shall also call attention to how utterly impotent this House apparently is to legislate on behalf of the Irish people.