LORD CAMPBELLbegged to put a question to Her Majesty's Government upon a very important subject. For many years he had much lamented that there were no means by which Her Majesty's subjects could get access to the papers which were ordered by their Lordships' House to be printed. In the other House of Parliament great benefit had arisen 782 from the facility which was given to the public to obtain papers on almost every subject, and, although their Lordships sent copies of papers ordered by the House, of great public importance, to a few favoured establishments, such as public libraries, private individuals could obtain no access to them at all. Serious inconvenience had sometimes arisen with respect to Bills, inasmuch as those Bills often affected the interests of large classes, and the public had no means of obtaining a knowledge of them until it was too late to take any steps. Their Lordships must themselves have been often put to great inconvenience by numerous applications for copies of Bills which were not attainable except through them, and he had recently had many such applications with respect to a Bill of great importance which he had laid upon the table. He had received many such requests already in reference to a Bill of which he had given notice already the other night, having reference to unauthorised negotiations by British subjects with Foreign Powers. In this case he was able to comply; but even then, after he or any of their Lordships had done thus much, there would probably be many interested in their papers who would never have thought of making such application. He had at various periods brought the subject before the attention of successive Governments; but there had always been a strong prejudice in that House against publishing their public papers. That course, however, had been adopted by the other House, and great care and caution had been exercised in the selection of those papers, so that no person could have reason to complain that the national interest was injured by the publication of the papers authorised to be printed by that House, and he was sure that still greater care and caution would be used in selecting the papers ordered by the House of Lords. He thought that the best mode that could be adopted would be to allow copies of all such papers as it was desirable to have published, to be supplied to the public at such a cost as would just cover the printing, &c. The question he wished to put was, whether the Government had any measure to propose on the subject, and, if so, at what period of the Session it would be brought before the House?
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, he so thoroughly agreed in what had fallen from the noble and learned Lord that he had intended bringing the matter under the consideration of the House; and the only 783 reason why he had postponed doing so was because he did not know when the noble and learned Lord would be in his place. He proposed to bring the matter under the consideration of the House very soon after the Easter holidays.
§ THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGHI hope when the noble Earl the President of the Council takes into his consideration the subject of affording the public a more convenient access to your Lordships' papers, that he will also take into his consideration the necessity of providing for a very careful selection, so that those documents which are not of public interest shall not be printed, and thus diminish the enormous quantity which is already printed. I have no hesitation in saying, that the increase of late years in the expense of printing for this House is most monstrous; I will even add, most scandalous; and at this time, when we have the utmost necessity for all the money we can save, I trust that Her Majesty's Government and this House will oppose the printing of all matters not of real importance or interest to the country.
§ EARL GRANVILLEperfectly agreed with the noble Earl in the remarks he had made. Of course, the Government felt the greatest disinclination to refuse information asked for by the House, even when they thought that information not to be of the most valuable kind; but certainly it was the duty of the Government not to increase the expense by printing useless matter. Some arrangements, he thought, might be made by which the information conveyed in one paper should not be reproduced in another form, as was frequently the case at present, thereby increasing the expense of printing.
THE LORD CHANCELLORthought the suggestion of the noble Earl was an excellent one. The reproduction alluded to was almost a necessary consequence of the great amount of papers that were ordered. There was such a mass of matter printed that no Peer or Member of Parliament read or pretended to read it. Seeing that it was a thing which no human strength could accomplish, the papers were naturally thrown aside and disregarded. He believed if only the fiftieth part of the matter which was at present printed were laid before, them in a clear and well-digested form, very much more information would be conveyed to their minds than at present, and noble Lords would have some chance a making themselves acquainted with it.
§ House adjourned till To-morrow.