OATHS BILL.—QUESTION. (Hansard, 17 June 1858)

LORD DENMAN
rose to inquire of Her Majesty's Government if the Report of Reasons for the Lords insisting on their Amendments to the Oaths Bill might be proceeded with forthwith, in order that the Commons might elect whether to return the Bill to that House, with a demand for a free Conference. There were two Bills before the House, one introduced by Lord Lucan, and the other by Lord Lyndhurst, and he thought some decided opinion should be expressed—one Bill be determined on, 2219 and sent down, with Reasons why the Amendments were insisted upon.

§ THE EARL OF HARDWICKE
said, the question was one the settlement of which the Government thought lay rather with that House than with themselves. He should only add that, so far as the Government were concerned, they were desirous that the Bill, which had already been the subject of a Conference, should go down to the other House of Parliament with the Reasons which their Lordships had assigned for insisting upon their Amendments.

§ LORD REDESDALE
contended that the proper course would be for the offer of compromise to come from the other House. The Commons were prepared to pass the Bill altogether, and it was they who should concede. For his own part he thought that neither the Bills introduced by Lord Lucan or by Lord Lyndhurst ought to be entertained.

§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY
considered it expedient that their Lordships should have the opportunity of expressing their opinion. He did not think it would be expedient to send the Bill down to the House of Commons without expressing the Reasons why their Lordships insisted on the Amendments they proposed.

§ THE EARL OF MALMESBURY
said, he thought the best course would be to say at once they could not agree to the Commons' Amendments. The Bill ought to be sent down to the Commons, and could be returned with an Amendment in the sense of either Lord Lucan's or Lord Lyndhurst's Bill, and it would then be open to their Lordships to accept that Amendment by way of compromise.

§ EARL GRANVILLE
contended it would be more convenient that the various propositions before their Lordships should be considered before the Bill was returned to the House of Commons. He did not see either the advantage or the dignity of referring back this question to the House of Commons, and leaving it to take the initiative in the matter.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR
said, their Lordships intended to persist in their Amendments, and carried them by a very considerable majority. He apprehended that the Straightforward and proper course then to have adopted would have been to have sent the Bill back to the House of Commons with their Lordships' Reasons for insisting on their Amendment Unfortunately some difficulty was interposed, and some suggestion made that possibly by re- 2220 taining the Bill in their Lordships' House an opening might be made for a compromise. He thought if a compromise were desired it should not proceed from their Lordships, but from those who wished it. He retained his own opinions firmly and conscientiously; he regretted that he had heard nothing whatever to induce him to think a compromise of the question desirable. Entertaining those sentiments, he was, at the same time, extremely desirous that their Lordships should meet the question as fairly and as properly as possible. It appeared to him that the proper course would be to send the Bill down as he had suggested; and then, if any noble Lord chose to bring forward any question by which this long-agitated matter could be renewed, it would be competent to him to do so.

§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY
said, that a compromise of the question had been already offered by two of their Lordships to bring in Bills to meet the difficulty which presented itself, and after that step had been taken, it was ungracious to ask the Commons to initiate a compromise. He did not think the other House could, consistently with its own dignity, depart from the course which it had already taken. It would be trifling with the whole question to say they would not proceed with the two Bills which had been introduced, but would send back the first Bill to the House of Commons with their Reasons for disagreeing to it. He therefore trusted their Lordships would not depart from the resolution they had come to to proceed with the consideration of the two Bills.

VISCOUNT DUNGANNON
thought the proposal made by the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack was the best. He maintained that any proposition for a compromise ought to come from the other House of Parliament.