§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAIN (Birmingham, W.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the Government intend to adhere to or to depart from the provisions of Clause 9 in the Government of Ireland Bill, dealing with the retention of the Irish Members?
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONEIf it, is the intention of my right hon. Friend to ask whether we have finally made up our minds to adhere to or to depart from the provisions of Clause 9, he must excuse me if I point out that the regular and ordinary time of stating our intention is when we come to the discussion of the clause in the House. My right hon. Friend's intention must be to ask whether we intend to propose the clause as it is. 342 My reply to that is that we do intend to propose it, and to submit it to the House. There are a number of points of difficulty in relation to it, the merits of which we have endeavoured to set forth as fairly as we can. We will profit by the discussions, but we have at present no intention of recommending any change.