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LORD REDESDALE moved the following Resolution:—
That this House will not read any Bill a Second Time after Tuesday, the 22nd Day 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 real urgency as to render the immediate Consideration of the same necessary.
§ The noble Lord said he felt assured that if their Lordships were to adopt his Resolution, they would find it tend considerably to the efficient transaction of the public business; but, if adopted, it ought to be strictly adhered to except in cases of real urgency.
THE MARQUESS OF CLANRICARDEwhile admitting that it was desirable to avoid as much as possible all hasty and ill-considered legislation, expressed a hope that the Resolution would be interpreted in a liberal spirit, and that it would not be permitted to impede the progress of really important measures which required to be passed without delay.
§ THE EARL OF DERBYsaid, that a distinction ought to be drawn between Bills of importance and Bills of urgency, for Bills might be urgent which were not important, and important though not urgent. The more important they were the more time was required to consider them; and, 246 on the other hand, a measure might be urgent in point of time and yet not permanently important. He hoped the effect of the Resolution would be to prevent important measures being sent up at so late a period of the Session that they could not be fully considered. The object of the Resolution was to prevent important measures being brought up to that House at a period of the Session when many of the Peers had left town, so that they could not receive the consideration that was proper to them.
§ EARL GREYentirely concurred in what the noble Earl had said, and in the distinction which he had taken between "important" and "urgent." That distinction was not attended to last year, and the consequence was their Lordships passed a measure in so imperfect a state that the first thing done by the Government this year was to bring in a Bill utterly subversive of the Bill which had been passed. He trusted there would be a determination on both sides of the House to adhere to the Resolution, though he was afraid it would rest with the independent Members to enforce it. By enforcing it the other House would take care to send up important measures at an early period.
§ EARL GRANVILLE,admitting that the Resolution was justifiable in principle and well calculated to have a salutary effect in both Houses of Parliament, yet hoped that there would be no very stringent application of it; for they could not blind themselves to the fact that arguments might be urged against it, and that an unpleasant feeling might arise in the other House if their Lordships should declare that, come what might, they would "strike work" on a certain day, and refuse to entertain measures the immediate enactment of which might be imperatively demanded by the public interests. Such a course would be unprecedented, and scarcely constitutional. At the same time he fully acknowledged the value of the distinction between "importance" and "urgency," and only protested against too strict and unbending an adherence to the letter of the Resolution. Its spirit he would religiously respect, though reserving to the Government the right of exercising a discretion as to the particular measures that should be regarded as "urgent."
§ THE EARL OF MALMESBURYobserved that, after what had fallen from the noble Earl there seemed but too much reason to apprehend that the Government 247 meant to act this Session in the same manner as last, and to introduce important measures at a very late period. If so, the independent Members would have to take the matter into their own hands.
§ EARL GRANVILLEobjected to any such interpretation of his words. He had protested against too stringent an application of the rule, but had accompanied his protest with a declaration of his intention to act in the spirit of the Resolution.
§ LORD REDESDALEsaid, that the other House felt as much as their Lordships did the necessity of having important measures considered at an early period, inasmuch as that it almost invariably happened that, notwithstanding that they sent down Bills to the House of Commons at a much earlier period than the House of Commons sent up corresponding Bills to them, the House of Commons did not pass them, in consequence of the late period of the Session. He did not think there was the slightest cause for the apprehension of any unpleasant feeling between the House of Commons and that House by adopting the Resolution.
§ Resolution agreed to.