RESOLUTION'. (Hansard, 18 May 1865)

§ EARL STANHOPE

moved the following Resolution:— That in the Case of every Select Committee of this House, other than Select Committees on Private Bills, any Report presented from such Select Committee shall not merely be laid on the table of the House, but shall be printed and circulated; and Notice shall be given on the Minutes of the Day on which it may be intended to take the Report into consideration. The noble Earl said, that the Resolution was intended to remove an irregularity that existed in the proceedings of their Lordships' House, by preventing a Select Committee laying its Report on the table without its being printed and circulated. At present, if a Report was merely laid on the table, it remained utterly unknown to all Peers who had not formed part of the Committee. It could not be more completely unknown to the House generally if instead of being laid upon the table it had been flung into the Thames. The present system was not only anomalous in theory, but mischievous in practice. In proof of this he might allude to what had taken place with reference to the Report of the Select Committee on the granting of a pension to Mr. Edmunds. That Select Committee presented a Report recommending Mr. Edmunds for a pension, It was merely laid on the table, not printed; and, consequently, it remained entirely unknown to all Peers who had not belonged to that Committee. If it had been printed and circulated among their Lordships the matter would have been discussed both in public and in private; it would have probably been taken into consideration, explanations would have been asked, and probably the result would have been dif- 485 ferent from what occurred. As it was it remained on the table unnoticed for a week, and escaped observation until other circumstances brought it to light. Of course, no blame attached to the Committee, who merely followed the precedent before them; but the question was how far the present practice was proper or advantageous. He had taken counsel in this matter with the highest authorities among the officers of the House and with his noble Friend the Chairman of Committees, who agreed that the Resolution he proposed would be an improvement, and would be effectual to prevent the recurrence of such a case as that to which he had alluded. He, therefore, asked their Lordships to adopt it.