HC Deb 12 March 1894 vol 22 cc129-30
MR. SEXTON (Kerry, N.)

Mr. Deputy Speaker, I have to submit a question to the Government upon a matter concerning the rights of Members and the Business of the House. In the course of the evening I tendered to the Clerk Assistant at the Table a Notice showing that I desired my name should be included to-morrow in the Ballot for the introduction of Bills. The Clerk Assistant informed me that I should add to my name the title of the Bill I proposed to introduce. He does not appear to be aware of the unbroken practice of the House, almost from time immemorial, with regard to the Bills introduced on the first day of the Session. Several Members put down their names for the Ballot, but they do not state the title of their Bills until their names are drawn and read out in the House. Every Member of the House is interested in more than one Bill—he would be of very narrow sympathies and intelligence were it otherwise—and the effect of the settled rule and practice of the House is this: that if a Bill in which an hon. Member is concerned obtains a place, his name is called, and he could give notice of another Bill. But under the new system and the somewhat irregular manner in which it was introduced tonight many Members may give notice of the same Bill, and when an hon. Member is called upon and fixes a day for the Second Reading of that Bill, all the other Members who are drawn lose their days. That is a fundamental change in the rights of Members of the House. That is a change that can only be accomplished by a ruling of the House. The matter has already been considered by two Committees of the House, and these Committees held that the procedure with regard to the introduction of Bills could only be disposed of by an Order of the House itself, and they recommended that the matter was one which the House only should deal with. I believe this proceeding on the part of the Clerk Assistant has been taken in pursuance of a proposal or a scheme put forward by Mr. Speaker upon his sole authority. When Mr. Speaker made the proposal I respectfully stated that the alteration ought to be made by a vote of the House itself, and pointed out to him that under the proposed now system if 20 Members gave notice of the same Bill 19 of them would find when their names were called that they had lost their chance at the Ballot. The action of the Assistant Clerk would have the effect of depriving us of the chance of the Ballot this year. Many of my hon. Friends near me handed in Notices at the Table to-night, but the Assistant Clerk returned some of them and said that he would give the others to some servants of the House to be disposed of in some other manner.

* MR. DEPUTY SPEAKER

Order, order! It is now 12 o'clock, and the Motion has lapsed.

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