Lords Sitting of 12 September 1887

MINUTES.
PUBLIC BILLS—First Reading—Bankruptcy (Discharge and Closure) * (261); Expiring Laws Continuance * (263); Local Government Boundaries* (259); Prison (Officers' Superannuation) (Scotland) * (264); Superannuation Acts Amendment* (262); Technical Schools (Scotland)* (260).
Second Reading—Committee negatived—Merchant Shipping (Miscellaneous) * (257).

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE (No. 2) BILL.

  PERSONAL COMPLAINT.
  LORD DENMANsaid, he had to complain that a Bill he had introduced for conferring the franchise on women had been excluded from the Notice Paper for that day as requested on the 9th instant, at the instance of the Clerk; and he thought it was extraordinary that the Clerk should have opposed the privileges of a Peer of 32 years' experience. When the days for an Address to the Crown against the abolition of the Chief Justiceship of the Common Pleas and office of Chief Baron of the Exchequer had expired, he (Lord Denman) wished to bring it forward again on the 29th day; but Sir William Rose told the noble Earl (Earl Granville) that he could not do so. However, he (Lord Denman) found that there was no precedent against it, so, at the last day, it was repeated, but adjourned, by Lord Campbell on the Auchterarder case. He had also been told by the present Chief Clerk that he could not bring forward a Notice as to the opening of museums on Sunday; but on an application to the noble and learned Lord (Lord Herschell) it was allowed. On the 11th of August last Mr. Woodall withdrew his Women's Suffrage Bill; therefore, on the 12th of August, he (Lord Denman) asked the Chief Clerk to put it on the Paper issued on a Tuesday for the next Tuesday, hoping to ask the House on the Monday if it might remain on the list for the next day, which application was refused, so that three weeks had been lost. The Women's Suffrage (No. 2) Bill was now on the list of Bills in progress; and he wished to know if a Clerk of less experience than Sir William Rose could exclude it?
  THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Viscount CROSS)said, it would

  261
  have been well if the noble Lord had placed a Notice on the Paper, so that they might have been prepared to entertain the noble Lord's complaint. His noble and learned Friend (the Lord Chancellor) appeared to have taken an interest in the matter; but he (Viscount Cross) was not aware of the views of the noble and learned Lord.
  LORD DENMANsaid, he had mentioned to the noble and learned Lord (the Lord Chancellor) that the second Bill he had introduced was entirely different from the first, and all the precedents showed that he was entitled to have the Bill placed on the Paper for a second reading.
  House adjourned at a quarter before Twelve o'clock, till To-morrow, a quarter past Four o'clock.