MR. JAMES LOWTIIERI beg to to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether his attention has been called to a published letter, dated 22nd May, purporting to have been addressed by the Duke of Devonshire to an elector in the Southport Division of Lancashire in support of one of the candidates then contesting that constituency, for which a new writ was moved upon 12th May; also to a letter to a similar effect alleged to have been written by the Bishop of Liverpool; and, if the said letters be genuine, what action he proposes to take with a view either to the enforcement or repeal of the Sessional Order passed at his instance at the beginning of this Session, in which it is declared to be a high infringement of the liberties and privileges of the Commons for any peer, prelate, or other lord of Parliament to concern himself in the election of Members to serve for the Commons in Parliament; and whether, in view of the repeated disregard of the said Sessional Order by Cabinet Ministers and other leading Peers countenanced openly in a recent instance by Members of the House of Commons of long standing, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the First Lord of the Admiralty, he proposes any longer to recommend the retention of an Order which, as he himself has stated, this House is powerless to enforce.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR, Manchester, E.)As regards the letters to which my right hon. friend refers, know nothing about them, and consequently do not know whether they were or were not private letters addressed to individuals. I presume, however, that they were, and if they were I do not think they would contravene the Sessional Order laid down by the House. That, however, is a matter on which I am no greater authority than my right hon. friend. As regards the general question, I have two or three times explained to the House the opinions I myself hold, and I do not think it necessary to repeat those opinions.