§ MR. LABOUCHERE (Northampton)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he will consider the expediency of this House sitting on Saturday next, with a view to the Council for the Prorogation and Dissolution being held on the subsequent Monday, in order to include Saturday in the legal days for polling; and whether it will be open to any returning officer to send a special messenger to the Writ Office immediately after the Council for the Dissolution has been held and to receive the writ for a constituency by said messenger, so as to enable him to issue the statutory notice on that day, and thereby render the following Saturday one of the legal days for polling?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.As the hon. Member knows, the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Wolverhampton (Mr. H. H. Fowler) pressed me very strongly on Monday to state explicitly and finally the day for Dissolution. I was rather disinclined to do so then, but I yielded to his exhortations and stated that the two Councils for Prorogation and Dissolution would be held on Tuesday. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make an alteration in the date now, and I think the public would have reason to complain if a statement thus publicly made were withdrawn from. As to the second part of the hon. Member's question, I am advised that, having regard to the provisions of the Act 53 Geo. III., cap. 89, the course the hon. Member proposes would be illegal.
§ MR. LABOUCHEREWill the right hon. Gentleman say what are the difficulties in the way of a Saturday Sitting and the Council meeting on Monday?
§ MR. BALFOUROne of the difficulties—I need not go into them in detail—consists in my having publicly stated in answer to a question put to me that the Dissolution would be on Tuesday. Every one concerned has made his arrangements upon that understanding, and I do not think we ought to depart from it.
§ MR. LABOUCHEREDoes the Attorney General confirm the First Lord's view of the law, that the Writs could not be handed to a special messenger?
§ MR. LABOUCHEREAre we to understand that the House will sit tomorrow, and that then a Motion will be made for adjournment to Monday
§ MR. BALFOURYes, I think the House must sit to-morrow to take the last stage of the British Columbia Loan Bill. When that Bill is disposed of, and other unopposed measures are passed, a Motion will be made for adjournment to Monday.
§ MR. LABOUCHEREThen I beg to give notice that, on the Motion for Adjournment, I shall call attention to the way in which Her Majesty's Government have thrown difficulties in the way of the exercise of the franchise by large numbers of the artisan class in the General Election.
§ MR. BALFOURThe hon. Member, of course, is within his right, but I regret to say that other engagements will prevent my being here to answer, for the third time, his arguments on this subject.