HL Deb 16 March 1860 vol 157 cc717-8
THE DUKE OF ARGYLL

, on moving the adjournment of the House, said, that he wished to give an explanation of something which was supposed to have fallen from him on a previous evening. He had received a communication from an hon. Gentleman who represented a very large commercial constituency in the other House of Parliament, from which it appeared that certain words that fell from him last night were supposed to be to this effect—that those hon. Members who generally belong to the Conservative party, and who are opposed to the present Government, but who gave their support to the financial scheme of the Government on the late occasion, were influenced not so much by their opinions as by the extreme pressure put on them individually by their constituents. That was not the meaning he intended to convey. He should deeply regret if any words that fell from him should be supposed to convey that meaning. All he meant to say was, that the votes of these hon. Members were not given wholly irrespective of the opinions and the interests of the great industrial and commercial communities which they represented in Parliament, and that he might fairly claim on behalf of the Government their votes as indicative of the opinions of the great commercial centres in this country as to the financial scheme of the Government; but he did not mean to imply that against their own opinions they bad been forced by the pressure of their constituents to vote for a measure which individually they disapproved of. So far from feeling that the value of these votes was depreciated by the explanation that had been given him by the hon. Gentleman, the Government attached much more value to them, regarding them as an independent support received from hon. Members who were generally opposed to them.

House adjourned at Seven o'clock, to Monday next, Eleven o'clock,