HC Deb 02 March 1891 vol 350 cc1942-4
MR. COBB (Warwick, S.E., Rugby)

I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he his prepared, with regard to this Bill, to accept the Amendments down on the Paper, striking out of it all interference with the Parliamentary register?

MR. RITCHIE

I fear that we can hardly expect to make any progress with the Bill this evening. If we could make progress with it I should be glad, as the Bill is urgent. After all, it simply deals with a question of machinery. So far, I have putdown on the Paper all the Amendments to which the Government are prepared to agree.

MR. COBB

Does the right hon. Gentleman know that the object we have in view is merely to assist him in making a simple change without making any alteration in the Parliamentary register?

MR. RITCHIE

I do not know what the hon. Member means by simple change, but I know that the Amendments on the Paper raise a vast number of questions of great importance, dealing not only with registration but also with amendments of the Electoral Laws. They are questions which the Government could not undertake to consider in connection with this Bill.

MR. COBB

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that all the Amendments that were put down by myself in regard to the Parliamentary register were simply put down because the Bill dealt not only with the County Council register, but with the Parliamentary register?

MR. RITCHIE

The law as it stands at present says distinctly that the revision of the County Council register, and of the Parliamentary register must take place at the same time; there could be no separation in regard to them.

SIR J. GOLDSMID (St. Pancras, S.)

Is it not the fact that so far as London is concerned the unanimous feeling is that the Bill should apply to the Parliamentary register? Does the hon. Member for the Rugby Division claim to represent the majority of the electors of the country?

MR. J. LOWTHER (Kent, Isle of Thanet)

May I ask if I understood my right hon. Friend to express an opinion that Amendments tending to extend the scope of the measure should be discouraged?

MR. RITCHIE

I must have been misunderstood. This is a Bill simply to alter the machinery of registration, and the Government could not undertake to consider Amendments which would in any way affect the franchise, whether Parliamentary or County Council.

MR. H. GARDNER (Essex, Saffron Walden)

Will the right hon. Gentleman be prepared to consider mere alterations in the dates mentioned in his Bill?

MR. RITCHIE

Such an Amendment would mean a very material alteration in the law, and that is an alteration which I cannot entertain. The dates in the Bill have been settled after most careful inquiry, and I do not think any change in them would be likely to advance the object which hon. Gentlemen opposite have in view.