§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLMay I, Sir, direct your attention to a matter of practice and procedure and a manifest error in our Proceedings? On the first day of this Session, among the ordinary Sessional Orders, there was the Order in reference to Lords Lieutenant at elections. That Order was passed sub silentio without the knowledge of the House. On the first day of last Session I moved the recision of that Order and carried it by a majority of fifty or sixty, with the support of the Prime Minister. That Order, through some fault or error of memory, appears in the Sessional Orders. It was placed there by mere inadvertence. I would suggest to the Government, if they thought it worth while, that the Order should be rescinded, or, if that is not 626 thought worth while, that we should have an undertaking from you that this Order which has been repealed should not appear again in the Standing Orders of the next Session, it having been decided at the beginning of last Session, after a regular Parliamentary Debate on the 6th February last year, it should not reappear. I ask whether a Motion passed in the House of Commons in one Session is not rescinded through inadvertence in the next Session? I ask your advice, Sir, whether it would not be in order for the Government as a matter of course, simply to rescind that Order; or, otherwise, can we have an expression of opinion from you, Sir, that it should not appear in the first day of next Session?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe order was not passed sub silentio, because I read out the terms of it to the House. I take some responsibility upon myself for the inadvertence which occurred, and I think, if I had directed my attention a little more closely to it, I would have remembered that last Session that particular Order was struck out. But for the time being that slipped my memory, and, finding it on the Agenda Paper, I put it as a matter of course. I think probably the most convenient course would be not again to raise the question of this Order, but to let it stand over until next Session. Of course, if anything should arise under it, the House if it so desired need not proceed under the Order.