LORD BROUGHAM,who had given notice to move certain Resolutions connected with Private Bills and the Business of the House, said: I have now, my Lords, to administer a small homoeopathic dose to your Lordships, by merely presenting my Resolutions, instead of waiting till a later period of the night, when the dose would not be at all homoeopathic, and when I should be obliged to enter on the subject at large. On a former occasion I gave a notice; but, as it stands after all the Orders of the Day, I am precluded from bringing forward the important subject to which it relates at a time when it would have been most convenient for me to do so. I have been labouring all day in this House with several of your Lordships, and am very much disposed to be relieved from further attendance; and therefore, I shall at present only propose these Resolutions, which I shall not debate, which I shall not open in any way. I only humbly recommend them to the attention of your Lordships, particularly to my noble Friend the late Speaker of the House of Commons, and I will venture to say a better Speaker of that House there never was, either in our time or in the times before us, I particularly recommend these Resolutions to his best attention. They are framed with the design of preventing that House, of which he was the head and the organ for so many years, becoming, according to its etymological derivation, a mere Parliamentary, a mere colloquial assembly, a mere place of talk—a place of much talk—and, I was going to say, little work; but it would be a compliment to 263 say little work—a place of mere talk, and no work at all. I do not say such is the present state of that House—Heaven forbid! But these Resolutions have a tendency to prevent that great mischief to the community, which would be the obstruction of all legislation and of all good government—if that should ever come to pass. I hope in Heaven it never may happen! These Resolutions were the result of an humble endeavour on my part to prevent so great a calamity, and to render, if possible, the other branch of the Legislature, as well as your Lordships' House, a place of work. The bulk of the Resolutions I moved in 1847, having obtained the co-operation in reducing them into a shape to be acted upon of an illustrious friend of mine—now unhappily no more, whose loss we feel every day—nay, every hour of every day, whether in connection with our home concerns or our foreign relations, whether we be in the enjoyment of the blessings of peace or encountering the disasters of war—I now, my Lords, make another attempt in the same direction, in the earnest hope that it may be attended with the same success. The noble and learned Lord concluded by laying the Resolutions on the table.
§ Debate arising thereupon, the further Debate adjourned sine die; the said Resolutions to be printed.