§ Report of Amendments considered (according to order).
THE EARL OF KIMBEELEY,in moving that the Report of Amendments be received and agreed to, said, that although the noble Marquess (the Marquess of Salisbury) was not present, he (the Earl of Kimberley) believed he was anxious that the consideration of the present stage should be taken at once, for the arrangement which had been come to would be one for the public convenience in regard to the Bill coining into operation, and it would have the effect of preventing some delay to its progress, and the consequent amount of inconvenience, which would be very considerable, arising from it. He therefore hoped the Motion would meet with the concurrence of the House. The circumstances of the case were such that he ventured to hope that all minor matters in regard to the names of divisions would not be pressed by his noble Friends, as they were not of vital importance. Of the Amendments he had to propose, the most important was one to enable a Dissolution of Parliament to take place after the 7th of November next. That was intended to have been dealt with by a separate Bill, which had been prepared by the Government; but it had been suggested to him (Lord Salisbury) that it would be a great convenience to insert the necessary provisions in the present Bill There were 1523 also other provisions intended to meet the case of some boroughs which had been disfranchised, and which were situate in two counties. There was a precedent in the proceedings of 1868 for what he now proposed to do. The clauses were to meet technical difficulties, and some of the Amendments which he would propose would be verbal only, and such as he had no doubt their Lordships would find no difficulty in agreeing to.
§ Moved, "That the Report of Amendments be received and agreed to."—(The Earl of Kimberley.)
§ VISCOUNT CRANBROOKsaid, that in the absence of his noble Friend (the Marquess of Salisbury) he had been requested by his noble Friend to state that he entirely agreed with the course proposed to be taken by the noble Earl; while as to Amendments of a minor character, he (Viscount Cranbrook) hoped that their Lordships would act on the proposition of the noble Earl (the Earl of Kimberley), and agree to the Report being received, in order to carry the Bill to a successful issue.
§ Motion agreed to.
§
On the Motion of The Earl of KIMBERLEY, the following Amendments made:—Title, page 1, leave out ("relative thereto"); Clause 17, page 8, line 1, after ("arising out of") insert ("successive occupation or"); line 12, insert at end of clause—
("and where the area of the constituency of which such place before such change formed part becomes, after such change, part of two or more constituencies, each of such two or more constituencies shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to have included the whole of the said area")
§
Clause 19, page 9, line 21, leave out ("of counties"); lines 22 and 23, leave out—
("make such order as may be necessary") and insert ("by order alter or vary such polling districts and the polling places for such districts in such manner as appears to him necessary or desirable");
§ Clause 23, page 11, line 18, leave out from ("districts") to ("and") in line 19; and in page 12, line 44, after ("county") insert ("at large").
§ Page 14, after Clause 28, insert the following clauses:—