§ LORD STANLEY of ALDERLEYmoved that Viscount Halifax, the Earl of Bessborough, and Lord Taunton be added to the Select Committee appointed to consider Alterations in Standing Order No. 184, proposing that a subscription contract shall be entered into in certain cases by the Promoters of Second Class Bills.
§ LORD REDESDALEfelt that he had reason to complain of this proposition. He did not know whether the noble Lords who had been appointed to serve on the Committee approved or disapproved of the alteration in the Standing Orders which he had proposed; but because a certain number of them on the Government side of the House had expressed themselves dissatisfied with the present Standing Orders they were assumed to be bound to support his alterations. It was a strong measure to take to add those names; but notwithstanding he (Lord Redesdale) would place himself in the hands of their Lordships, and would still be willing to serve on the Committee.
§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYsaid, that the noble Lord the Chairman of Committees had not, as was the usual practice, held any consultation upon the subject with those on the opposite side of the House who felt an interest in the matter, and he was justified in believing that the noble Lord's Committee was not an impartial one, inasmuch as the names of those noble Lords on the Government side of the House, the Viscount Halifax, the Lord Ponsonby, and the Lord Taunton, added to the Committee who supported an alteration in the Standing Order had been placed on the list. He might add that the opinions of the three noble Lords whose names he proposed were not known to him, though one of them had said, on being asked to serve on the Committee, "I confess I am in favour of some such alteration as that proposed by Lord Redesdale."
§ Motion agreed to.
§ House adjourned at a quarter past Seven o'clock, till To-morrow, half past Ten o'clock.