OPPOSED PRIVATE BILLS—COMMITTEE OF SELECTION. (Hansard, 17 February 1870)

§ LORD LYVEDEN
said, that last year it was understood that the Committee of Selection should act upon the rule that absence from the House should not exempt any Peer from attendance on Private Business. He should like to know how that Committee had exercised its discretion, and whether they had compelled the absentees to attend upon Private Bill Committees. If they had not, it was a very great hardship upon those who did attend. Private Bill Committees formed perhaps the most irksome business which any public man could undertake, taking up six of the best hours of the day, from 11 in the morning until 5, which was much longer than the time occupied each day by the Committees of the House of Commons. Moreover, the mode of selecting the Private Bill Committees was most undignified and unseemly; for in the middle of the most important debates one or two noble Lords were to be seen walking about with pencil and paper in hand, beseeching other noble Lords to sit upon certain Committees; and he had observed that from such solicitations they generally turned away with dislike, not to use a stronger term. Such a proceeding cast ridicule on the House, and he hoped it would be put an end to. He would sug- 412 gest that Private Committees should consist of three instead of five Members—the number in the House of Commons being four. He also wished to know whether it was proposed to revive this Session the appointment of Joint Committees of both Houses—a plan which would greatly facilitate business and exceedingly diminish the expense. Then he considered that if Committees were to be chosen for party considerations the Committee of Selection itself was not impartially selected, for though two Peers were taken from one side and two from the other, still the Chairman of Committees who presided was an eminent partizan of one side of the House—though they all acknowledged his aptitude for business and personal integrity.

§ LORD REDESDALE
said, he thought the noble Lord's last remark was a proof how little he had suffered from attendance on Committees, for he actually imagined that he (Lord Redesdale) was himself Chairman of all these Committees.[Lord LYVEDEN: You are Chairman of the Committee that appoints the others.] During all the years he had served on that Committee he had never known a dispute in it in regard to any appointment on party grounds. It was surely desirable that Committees should be taken from both sides, oven where nothing of a political character could arise, and that care should be taken that the Bills connected with various boroughs in the kingdom should be impartially considered. Last Session the Private Business was light, and no difficulty was found in obtaining Peers who were in town and were willing to serve. He rather thought the noble Lord himself was asked, but declined, urging the no doubt really good excuse that Ins health would not enable him to attend them. He entirely denied that the manner in which the Committees were appointed excited ridicule. The Committees of their Lordships' House had secured greater confidence and approval on the part of the public than those in the other House, and he thought it undesirable to make any change in a system which experience had proved to work well.

§ EARL GRANVILLE
said, he agreed with much that the noble Chairman of Committees had said, especially as to the propriety of selection from both sides of the House. He agreed, however, 413 with the noble Lord (Lord Lyveden) that the large number of Peers who did not attend the debates should be called upon to serve on Private Bill Committees.