§ MR. LAMBERTI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he will propose to make permanent such temporary law, as the Ballot Act, 1872, and other Acts which are renewed annually, but have become part of the settled legal enactments of the realm.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI quite agree that the Expiring Laws Continuance 430 Bill is rather an anomalous measure, and contains Acts which are practically now part of the permanent statutory system of the realm; but I am very unwilling to touch that Bill without giving a great deal of time to its thorough revision, because, of course, if the Bill be amended at all, it naturally is open to the discussion of the whole House, and it would be a very long affair. For that reason the Government have been very careful that the renewal of the Rating Act should not be carried out by means of that kind, as of course it might have been, but that it should be a separate measure.