§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLWould you allow me, Mr. Speaker, to put a question to you in reference to the practice and procedure of this House. I desire to know whether the Motion for the censure of the Home Secretary, which has been on the Paper of the House for the whole month is in order, and if it be not in order, whether, in the exercise of your power, as Speaker—there are various precedents—you will direct it to be removed? I submit the Motion is not in order, and that it is incapable of dis- 1147 cussion in the House of Commons for the following reasons: The substance of the Motion is that this House do censure the right hon. Gentleman for words pronounced in this House in reference to the judges in their judicial capacity. The House is alone the judge of words pronounced in it, and it is alone the judge of order in reference to those words. If exception be taken to the use of words, or if words of a disorderly character be used, they may be instantly visited with censure by the intervention of the Chair, or of some Member of the House who calls the attention of the Chair to them. I have looked into the precedents, and such a Motion as this was never at any time placed upon the Notice Paper of the House, and could not be discussed for this simple reason. First, it refers to language spoken in this House but not reprehended at the time, and as such it conveys censure, if any censure was incurred by the Home Secretary, upon the Chairman of Committees or whoever was in the Chair at the time. In the next place, these specific Motions in reference to personal character and conduct must be specifically framed. This is a Motion of a most general nature. If it came up for discussion, it would violate all the orders of this House, because no Speaker could, in a discussion of this kind, prevent a general criticism of the conduct of judges in their collective capacity, which is not allowed. I submit that this is a Motion which should not be on the Paper of the House, that it is irrelevant and vague, and contradicts the primary Motion of the order of debate in this House, and, above all, it interferes with that freedom of speech which we all so much value.
§ Mr. SPEAKERThis Motion was probably put down by the hon. Member for York in a moment of indignation about some language used here. I shall be very glad to use any influence I may have to persuade the hon. Member to take it off the Paper. I understand that he does not suggest that the Government should afford him a day for the discussion of it, and that being so I think it might disappear. At the same time I must point out that merely because it happens to be a vote of censure upon a distinguished official, that is no reason why it should not appear on the Paper. If the hon. Member will look at the next notice on the Paper he will find that it is a vote of censure upon the Lord Chancellor himself. I have a very distinct recollection that I suffered under this 1148 grievance for the space of about two months in 1902, as one hon. and distinguished Member put a Motion down censuring my conduct, and never took any opportunity of bringing it forward, but I did not complain.