§ MR. PICTONI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the precedents cited in May's Parliamentary Practice, page 678 (edition 1883), according to which it has been usual, in anticipation of a Dissolution, to take only part of the Estimates, leaving the remainder to be voted by the new Parliament; and whether, in view of these precedents, the Government will refrain from asking for more than half the amount of the Civil Service Estimates?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe practice to which the hon. Gentleman refers hardly appears, so far as I understand, to support the suggestion conveyed in the question. Several illustrations are mentioned by Sir Erskine May of special circumstances under which Votes on Account had been taken, and in four of these the Votes preceded the Dissolution, and in none of them would the facts afford a precedent appropriate to the present condition of affairs.
§ MR. PICTONI should like to ask if the right hon. Gentleman does not remember that in three of the cases the Dissolution occurred after the date at which the House is now sitting, and 595 only half the Votes were taken before the Dissolution?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURYes; but in 1841, 1857, and 1859 the Government had been defeated upon a Vote of Want of Confidence before the Vote on Account was taken. But the hon. Member will have observed that that has not yet occurred.