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LORD REDESDALE moved—
That this House will not read any Bill a Second Time after Tuesday, the 24th of July, except Bills of Aid or Supply, or any Bill in relation to which the House shall have resolved, before the Second Reading is moved, that the Circumstances which render Legislation on the subject of the same expedient are either of such recent Occurrence or Urgency as to render the immediate Consideration of the said Bill necessary.
In making this Motion a second time he would shortly state what had taken place in consequence of the Resolution having been passed last year, with a view to show whether it had or had not produced the effect for which it was proposed. Many were of opinion that the regulation had had little or no effect in expediting the public business, while they thought it was recklessly departing from the constitutional course of proceeding by Parliament. Now, he thought he could show their Lordships, that although the rule had not had that full effect which hereafter might be expected from it, yet that it had last year a very considerable effect in expediting business, and that the exceptions made to the observance of the rule had been exercised with just discretion. After the Resolution was passed last year only twenty-two Bills came up from the other House requiring the application of the rule. In the preceding Session, during the same period of time, fifty-one Bills came up from the other House; this, at all events, showed that the Resolution had had some effect. Out of those twenty-two Bills, five, being Bills of aid and supply, did not come within the rule, four were stopped, and
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thirteen, including five relating to the war, were passed.
§ VISCOUNT CANNING, on the part of the Government, expressed his entire concurrence in the Resolution.
§ Resolution agreed to.