§ THE MARQUESS OK LONDONDERRYI wish to ask the noble Marquess (Lord Salisbury) a question of which I have given him private notice. It is, what course he proposes to adopt with regard to the Aliens Bill, which passed its Second Reading in your Lordships' House a few weeks ago? I ask the question because considerable anxiety has been evinced with regard to the future of the Bill in the seaport towns of England near which I reside. Consequently, I hope to hear from the noble Marquess that he is not going to allow the measure to drop.
§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYThe measure is still on your Lordships' Order Paper, and I have still the same strong conviction which I had when I submitted it to the House as to the importance of the provisions proposed. But the same night on which it was adopted in this House by a large majority the Leader of the House of Commons was asked whether he would give time for its discussion in the other House. There is no doubt that the Government is entirely master of the time of the House of Commons, and that they have not only the power of rejecting a Bill which has been discussed, but they have the power to refuse the time to have it discussed at all. The Leader of the House of Commons stated in emphatic language—in very unusually forcible language—that he would not find time for the discussion of this Bill. I hope against hope that in that view he may not persevere, and that 890 he may see reason to give an opportunity for the discussion of a Bill which undoubtedly has excited a great deal of sympathy out-of-doors. But until I see some chance of its being discussed in the House of Commons it seems to me idle to go further with it in this House. Your Lordships have already been pleased to express by a large majority your approval of the principle of the Bill. As soon as I see any chance of its being discussed—I do not say passed—in the House of Commons I shall ask your Lordships to consider the details of it.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord HERSCHELL)I should not have interposed in the little comedy between the two noble Marquesses, but I should like to say a few words on the point whether a Bill is to be discussed in the other House or not. That will depend on what would be the form and the character of the Bill when it left this House. It seems to be a somewhat unreasonable proceeding to consider in this House whether a Bill is going to be discussed in the other House at a time when it is quite uncertain what its form will be. The noble Marquess says the Bill was carried by a large majority; but the majority relatively to the number of supporters of the noble Marquess in this House was by no means large—quite the contrary; and the noble Duke who voted for the Second Reading of the Bill expressed himself as not being supposed to support one-half of it. The noble Duke thought it was a pity that the Bill was not divided into two parts, and expressed dissent from that part by which the noble Marquess sets the greater store. Under those circumstances, it would be quite premature to consider what would be done with the Bill in the other House—at all events, till we know what it will be as it leaves this House.