§ Motion made, and Question proposed,—"That no Bills, other than Government 161 Bills, be introduced in anticipation of the ballot, and that all Members who desire to ballot, whether for Bills, or Motions for the first four Tuesdays of the session, do hand in their names at the Table during the sitting of the House on the first or second day of the session, and that a copy of such notices be handed in at the latest during the sitting of the House on the third day of the session:
§ "That the ballot for the precedence of the said Bills and Motion be taken on the third day of the session at a convenient time and place to be appointed by Mr. Speaker, and that the introduction and First Reading of Bills on the fourth day be taken before Questions and as soon after Three o'clock as Mr. Speaker may deem convenient."—(Mr. A. J. Balfour.)
§ MR. DUNCOMBE (Cumberland, Egremont)said he intended to move an Amendment to the resolution in Older to afford himself an opportunity of calling attention to desirable alterations in the rules of procedure. He had noticed in previous sessions an extraordinary reluctance on the part of the Government, the Leader of the House, and the Front Bench generally, to allow the House to consider in any way the rules of procedure. Yet that, after all, was a matter in which the House was deeply interested, and as he could see no other chance of bringing on the question, he had been forced to propose an Amendment on the present occasion. It did not seem to him to be a dignified proceeding that the House should allot the days to be devoted to the discussion of private members' Bills in a haphazard manner. The present plan was what he might call a gamble. Numbers were drawn at haphazard. The effect of the Amendment would, on the other hand, be to make sure that precedence was given to Bills in which the majority of the Members of the House were interested. Surely that was a fair and reasonable proposal. It was only natural that precedence should be given to such Bills as those in which, for or against, the largest number of Members were interested. Of course, some objection might be raised even to that. It might be said, for instance, that the same Bill would take precedence session after session. That, however, might easily be guarded against by an arrangement that when a Bill had once been 162 fully discussed it should not have precedence in any subsequent session of the same Parliament. It would, he submitted, be more in consonance with the dignity of Parliament, and better for the orderly conduct of its proceedings, if the motion just made by the First Lord of the Treasury were altered in the manner he ventured to propose.
§
Amendment proposed—
In line 4, after the word 'names,' to insert the words, 'together with the name of the Bill or motion for which they desire precedence.'"—(Mr. Duncombe.)
§ Question proposed—"That those words be there inserted."
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.I hope the hon. Gentleman does not allege that either the Government or I have any desire to burke any legitimate discussion on our rules of procedure. Surely in the last four or five sessions we have had more debate in that direction than in the years before. As regards this particular Amendment, the rule I have proposed was framed simply for the convenience of the House, and it has been found to work well and has met with general approval. No substantial complaint, so far as I have heard, has ever been raised against it, and while I shall be pleased to have its operation carefully watched, and shall not shrink from proposing or supporting any alteration which may be found to be necessary, I do think that until some weakness has been proved to exist it would be well to leave it in the form in which it now stands.
§ SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN (Stirling Burghs)I think the right hon. Gentleman is wise in not summarily adopting this proposed alteration of the rule. The object of the hon. Member who proposes it is, I presume, to arrive at some better way of determining the priority of private Members' Bills. At present we trust to blind fortune. The ballot has at all events one advantage, and that is that no one is to blame except fortune if a given Bill is not discussed. I quite admit that this is not a very brilliant method of conducting our debates, or the discussions of any serious assembly; but every other mode which has been proposed would be subject to 163 grave objection, and even that suggested by the hon. Member would be open to the strong objection that hon. Members would be continually canvassed in advance for their support, and the Paper would—especially in the recess, when promises are easily given—be covered with their names. No doubt this is a matter we should bear in mind. Our rules of procedure are certainly open to improvement, but I think it would be rash on our part to make the proposed alteration without further inquiry.
MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)said they had been told by the right hon. Gentleman that the selection of measures for discussion was left to blind fortune, and that that was not a proper procedure for an assembly of this kind. But he would point out that the selection was not entirely left to blind fortune. Syndicates were occasionally formed of persons in favour of certain Bills, and these did their best to correct the errors of blind fortune, and to put pressure upon her which, being a lady, she was not always able to withstand. Further than that, he would like to point out that if the Amendment were adopted it would, while giving precedence to some measures, altogether prevent the discussion of others in which only a few Members were interested. The First Lord of the Treasury had said that of late years improvement had been made in the procedure of the House. With that he did not quite agree.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURWell, changes.
MR. GIBSON BOWLESChanges for the worse. But in view of the serious events this House had now to consider he thought it would be better not to make the proposed change. The hon. Member for Egremont might rest content with having called attention to the matter, especially as the right hon. Gentleman had undertaken to consider the situation with a view to possibly effecting an improvement at some future day.
§ MR. DUNCOMBEAfter what has fallen from the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition, I do not intend to press the matter further, and I ask leave to withdraw my Amendment.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
§ Main Question put, and agreed to.
164§ Ordered, That no Bills other than Government Bills be introduced in anticipation of the ballot, and that all Members who desire to ballot, whether for Bills or Motions for the first four Tuesdays of the session, do hand in their names at the Table during the sitting of the House on the first or second day of the session, and that a copy of such notices be handed in at the latest during the sitting of the House on the third day of the session.
§ That the ballot for the precedence of the said Bills and Motions be taken on the third day of the session at a convenient time and place to be appointed by Mr. Speaker, and that the introduction and First Reading of Bills on the fourth day be taken before Questions and as soon after three o'clock as Mr. Speaker may deem convenient.