§ MR. BARTLEY (Islington, N.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he is aware that the proposed Rules for getting the Government of Ireland Bill through Committee were published in certain Party papers some hours before they were announced in this House; and whether they were officially 366 communicated to these Party papers before being made known to the House?
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONEThe hon. Member has probably by this time learnt that he was under a misapprehension as to what took place. The Resolution now before the House was not communicated in the manner which he supposes, for some words which it contains had not been finally decided upon at the time; but the moment I made my statement in the House the right hon. Member for Berwickshire did his best to make known the substance of the Motion to the Leader of the Opposition, and he likewise communicated it to one of those impartial institutions outside which has an admirable superiority to Party prejudices.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOUR (Manchester, E.)It may be convenient to the House if I were to put a question to you, Sir, on a point of Order, in relation to the Motion which stands in the name of the First Lord of the Treasury and the Amendment of the hon. Member for South Tyrone. That Amendment would come in after the word "That" in the original Resolution. If you were to put the Motion that all the words after the word "That" stand part of the Question, and that Motion was affirmed, any other Amendment on the details of the Resolution would be excluded. I would like to ask you whether you will so put the Question upon the Amendment of the hon. Member for South Tyrone as not to exclude such further Amendments?
§ MR. SPEAKERThere is an exact precedent. On the application of the late Mr. Parnell I did exactly the same thing, and I shall certainly do it now. I will put the Question "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the Question" only down to a certain point, so as to safeguard any further Amendments.