§ SIR W. LAWSON (Cumberland, Cockermouth)I beg to ask the hon. Member for Walsall whether he intends to take any further steps with regard to the Petition "presented on 26th June, by the hon. Member for the Ripon Division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, from inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland," in favour of the Compensation Clauses, seeing that the Select Committee on Public Petitions report—
That many of the signatures are in the same handwriting, that some few names are fictitious, and that a very small number are obscene, and they are of opinion that the Orders of the House have not been complied with.
§ SIR C. FORSTER (Walsall)The Committee of Public Petitions have found that the Petition recently presented by the hon. Member for the Ripon Division of the West Riding of Yorkshire in favour of the Licensing Clauses of the Local Taxation Bill contained 611,342 signatures. The Committee have gone carefully into the matter, and have discovered that while 7 per cent, of the signatures are in the same handwriting, others are obscene. These facts, no doubt, detract (from the value of the Petition, but the Committee are of opinion that they do not afford sufficient grounds for its rejection, especially as it was so numerously signed.
§ SIR W. LAWSONAre we to understand that 40,000 of the signatures were in the same handwriting?