§ MR. JOHN MORLEY (Montrose Burghs)I beg to ask you, Mr. Speaker, as a point of Order, whether under the Resolution passed by the House on 27th February, the First Lord of the Treasury can move that Clauses 4, 5, 13, 14, and 15 of the Land Bill be withdrawn, seeing that, with regard to Clause 4, it is not a withdrawal in the ordinary Committee practice, but a withdrawal in order to substitute another clause for it. The next point is whether the Motion to withdraw must not be made before the claim is reached, and whether Clause 4 has not already been reached, inasmuch as the Question 'that Clause 4 stand part of the Bill" has already been put to the House and partly discussed.
§ * MR. SPEAKERAs to the first Question there can be no doubt as to the right to move to withdraw the I clauses. The right hon. Gentleman's point will arise later on when the Motion is made to add this now clause and 154 when the Chairman of Committees is in the Chair, and it would not be right for me to anticipate the Chairman's decision. As to the second point, that is also one on which I ought not to express an opinion. The right hon. Gentleman asks me to give an opinion as to the effect of certain proceedings taken in Committee on Thursday upon a question which will be raised in Committee to-day. That, I take it, is a matter on which I should be wrong in offering any opinion, as the whole of the facts are within the knowledge of the Chairman of Committees, and not in my knowledge, and the responsibility is with him. I should be quite wrong if I attempted to anticipate his decision.