HC Deb 03 February 1893 vol 8 cc403-4
DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)

Will you, Sir, kindly, for the instruction and convenience of the House, repeat the ruling given by you on a former occasion as to the way hon. Members may secure and retain their seats during the evening?

MR. SPEAKER

In answer to the hon. Member's question, I have to say that there is no fixed rule or Standing Order regulating the manner in which hon. Members may secure their seats. But there is a well-understood custom by which hon. Members who have attended prayers should have a right to the seats they then occupy, and they have asserted their claim by placing a card at the back of the seats. More than that, hon. Members who are engaged in Committees upstairs have been accustomed a short time before the meeting of the House to secure the seats they wish to occupy by placing their hats upon such seats for the purpose of retaining them. But that claim is not made good until the hon. Member who owns the hat attends at prayers, so as to establish a definite claim to the seat. Some scats in the House are allotted by the courtesy of Members to gentlemen who have occupied them for a long period, and I hope that that is a custom that will be preserved. I have said that there is no fixed rule, but it is quite possible for a Member to have two hats, or even more, for the purpose of securing seats either for himself or his friends. That clearly is a violation of the spirit of the rule, and I may venture to say, in conclusion, that no rule nor practice nor custom can possibly be effective unless it be generously interpreted, and unless applied, as I am sure it will be, with that mutual forbearance and courtesy which I hope is the characteristic of this House.

MR. W. REDMOND (Clare, E.)

I desire, Sir, respectfully to ask, is it not a fact that Members who are attending Committees may secure their seats for the evening by means of a pink card instead of placing their hats thereon? And may I ask whether it would not be advisable to make the rule for retaining seats hold good for the whole Session, so that the hon. Members of the various Parties in the House may, as far as possible, sit together? For myself I am lost where I am.