§ MR. KENYON (Denbigh, &c.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, in view of the block of traffic already existing at Hyde Park Corner, St. James's Street, Pall Mall, Charing Cross, and other centres of traffic, which delays the transit of Members living at the north end of the Metropolis from free access to the House of Commons, he will consent to a Motion postponing the meeting of the House during the present week till 5 p.m.?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. W. E. GLADSTONE, Edinburgh, Midlothian)I do not think that Members can fail to take notice of the inconvenience caused by the block of traffic in the approaches to this House. I am not aware that it is likely to be aggravated to-morrow, and I do not know whether the arrangements made will succeed in preventing any aggravation. We all suffer inconvenience from the extraordinary policy of the authorities who for 30 or 40 years, have been endeavouring to concentrate traffic in Parliament Street, as though it were the one street in London into which it was desirable to bring all the traffic which could be possibly be brought into it. That has been the wise policy pursued, and I am afraid we have no choice but to bear it. I do not consider myself in a position to propose any shortening of the hours of Business in this House tomorrow, especially since we arrived at the decision last week, which gave a certain definite measure of time for the stages of the Irish Bill in Committee. It would be almost, I think, a breach of faith on the part of the Government to propose any arbitrary abbreviation of the period.