HC Deb 01 March 1900 vol 79 cc1453-5
MR. KIMBER () Wandsworth

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury will he explain why the Royal Assent to Acts of Parliament is not given in the English language but in Norman French, a language which at this day is but imperfectly understood and by only a few of the people of this country. May I say that the question has been so altered since I presented it at the Table that the point I put in it is no longer identifiable by me. No doubt it has encountered one of those accidents which sometimes occur. But I will accept the question in the form in which it stands and ask leave to add a supplementary question.

*MR. SPEAKER

If the hon. Member proposes, without appealing to me as to the alteration, to ask, in the form of a supplementary question, the part which was struck out, that is not the proper course to take.

MR. KIMBER

I do not intend to do that. I only wish to ask whether the First Lord of the Treasury is aware that not only is the Royal Assent to Acts of Parliament given in Norman French, but that communications between the two Houses are made in that language until something unusual happens, when the individuals charged with the duty of making them are found unequal to the task.

MR. GIBSON BOWLES

I should like to ask, for the information of the House, whether the Clerks at the Table have authority to alter questions without communicating with the Member concerned?.

MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN

May I ask whether, if the First Lord of the Treasury contemplates any change, he will substitute for Norman French the best language of all—namely, Irish?

*MR. SPEAKER

The practice is that if a question is brought to the table which contains some matter or is put in a form which is not regular, the hon. Member concerned is, if possible, communicated with. Sometimes it is impossible to communicate with the hon. Member, and the change is one which the clerks at the table have every reason to believe he would give his assent to if it were shown to him. In these circumstances they very often take upon themselves to assume that he would rather the correction was made at once than that his question should be postponed in order that it might be submitted to him. But when the correction raises matter of importance they invariably, I think, submit it to him.

MR. GIBSON BOWLES

Would not the regular course, in that case, be to postpone the putting of the question until the Member has been communicated with?

*MR. SPEAKER

I have already dealt with that point.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

In answer to the supplementary question put by my hon. friend behind me, I have to say that it is extremely probable that the amount of Norman French at the command of the officials of the House of Lords may not be equal to every emergency. As regards the question on the Paper, the fact that the Royal Assent is given in Norman French is surely a most interesting relic of antiquity, showing how far back our Parliamentary institutions go; and I feel convinced that, on reflection, my hon. friend himself would be the last person to desire to change it.

MR. KIMBER

May I ask whether the right hon. Gentleman is aware that the use of Norman French was only reintroduced—after years of desuetude —in the worst days of the Stuarts, with other French customs from the Paris Court?

[No answer was returned.]