HL Deb 01 May 1885 vol 297 cc1283-4

LORD DENMAN moved— That this House sits on Mondays at Five o'clock in lieu of a quarter past Four o'clock. He had, he said, sat in the House for 27 years under the old system, and had a preference for the old arrangement under which the House never sat until 5 o'clock, rather than for the three years during which, besides, he had seen the present system tried. In the debate on the Motion of the noble Earl (the Earl of Camperdown) the Leader of the House had said that if the House rose before 5 o'clock, noble Lords would be able to go into the country by the train. He (Lord Denman), before the change, had heard the Motion for the adjournment of the House more often than any other Peer not a Minister, so did not wish the House to rise early. In regard to Mondays, in particular, there were objections to meeting before that hour; but the Law Lords, who on other week-days had, in consequence of the Motion of the noble Earl (the Earl of Camperdown), sat earlier in the morning, since the change had agreed not to sit till half-an-hour later on Mondays. His own position was this. He had two places in the Midlands, and, whichever of them he happened to be at, he had to sleep five miles from home overnight in order to get to town in time; and he did not like to arrive only to find that the House had adjourned, which often happened.

Moved, "That this House sits on Mondays at Five o'clock, in lieu of a quarter past Four o'clock."—(The Lord Denman.)

THE EARL OF CAMPERDOWN

said, he thought that before anything further was said they ought to have some further reasons laid before them for the change. He hoped there were not many of their Lordships in a similar predicament to that of the noble Lord.

THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY

The reasons will be found in the Railway Time Tables.

On Question? resolved in the negative.