§ MR. SEXTONI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, with a view to enable Members to make necessary arrangements, what proposal the Government intend to make to the House with respect to the Christmas holidays?
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONEMy answer is a very succinct one. Our proposal under the present difficult circumstances cannot be more than this—that the House should adjourn on Friday, December 22, and should meet again on Wednesday, the 27th.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI think it is probable, Sir, that some occasion will be given to the House to debate the statement of the right hon. Gentleman. I will at the present moment merely ask him whether he has in view the fact that, if the House is asked to meet at that time, a very large number of gentlemen must be absent whose presence here is very necessary for the proper discussion of the Bill?
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONEI am not at all sure that the observation of the right hon. Gentleman is more applicable to the arrangement I have suggested than to any other form the right hon. Gentleman might be inclined to prefer. I am quite aware that much inconvenience is consequent upon the protracted Sittings of the House and the very slow progress of business, by which remark I do not intend to convey any blame or censure. We believe our first duty is to adhere to that business and to use our best endeavours to carry it out.
§ SIR R. PAGETMay I ask whether the right hon. Gentleman will make some arrangement by which Members of the House in the first week of the coming year will be enabled to attend to their 1384 duties at Quarter Sessions and County Councils? I may perhaps be allowed to say that those who are concerned in those matters conceive that their duty lay as much in the country as in the House.
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONEMy answer is clear: I think we may entertain a reasonable hope that the business in which we are engaged will be so far disposed of as to obviate in a great degree the inconvenience to which the hon. Member refers.