HC Deb 26 July 1897 vol 51 cc1091-2
MR. HUBERT DUNCOMBE (Cumberland, Egremont)

asked the First Lord of the Treasury whether the Motion which stood in the name of the hon. Member for Burnley relating to South Africa was to be treated as two distinct Resolutions or as one?

THE FIRST LORD OF TTTE TREASURY

I was going to put a question on the point of Order on the very matter which has been raised by my lion. Friend in the Question just put to me. It will be in the recollection of the House that, cm the discussion which took place last Tuesday, I promised, in response to an appeal made by the right hon. Gentleman opposite (Sir William Harcourt) and others of less authority, that I would give a day for the discussion of a Motion upon the subject of the South Africa, Committee, provided that it was definite in its character. A Notice of Motion was thereupon read out by the hon. Member for Burnley, and was put upon the Paper and was always regarded as one Motion. I observe, however, now that it is divided into two paragraphs, and the question of Order, Sir, I would put to you is whether under the circumstances in which this Motion is put down, you would regard it as proper to put it as one Motion from the Chair or as two?

*MR. SPEAKER

I think, where precedence has been given by the Government to a Motion, that Motion should be left in the shape in which it stood at the time precedence was accorded to it. Unless, therefore, the Leader of the House consents to the Motion of the hon. Member for Burnley being moved in the shape in which it now appears, or unless there be some necessity of Parliamentary procedure which requires that it should be divided into two questions (which I do not think exists in the present case), I should feel it my duty to put it as it originally stood—that is to say, as one question. I ought to add, as sonic hon. Members seem to be under the impression that the form in which the Motion now stands on the Paper is one which was submitted to me for my approval, that that is not the case. I was not aware of any change until I saw it on the Paper.