Sitting of 29 December 1868

Preamble
The House met at One of the clock.

NEW MEMBERS SWORN.
Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, for Greenwich; Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, for Oxford City; Right Hon,

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Austen Henry Layard, for Southwark; Right Hon. Robert Lowe, for London University; Right Hon. Hugh Culling Eardley Childers, for Pontefract; Right Hon. William Edward Forster, for Bradford; Lord John Hay, for Ripon; Hon. John Cranch Walker Vivian, for Truro; Right Hon. George Joachim Goschen, for London City; James Stansfeld the younger, esquire, for Halifax.
The Right Hon. John Bright, Member for Birmingham, Being one of the People called Quakers, made the Affirmation required by Law.
Several other Members took and subscribed the Oath.

NEW WRITS.
On Motion, that a new Writ be issued for Louth in the room of the Right Hon. Chichester Samuel Parkinson Fortescue, Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,
VISCOUNT BURYsaid, that with regard to the Writ which had just been moved for, he thought it was quite right that some Member of this House should take notice of the rather exceptional circumstances under which the House had assembled. The fact of their having met in the middle of the Christmas holy-days sufficiently proved the inconvenience to which he was about to call attention. Indeed, the inconvenience to Members was so great that he believed the Secretary to the Treasury was astonished that the House had been got together at all; and he shuddered to think of the inconvenience which would have arisen if the Government had been unable to make a House, and if they had been obliged to adjourn from time to time until some fortuitous occurrence of events should have brought a sufficient number of Members together. The only reasons which led to the holding of an Autumn Session had disappeared before the assembling of Parliament on the 10th of December. It was necessary, however, that the ceremony should be gone through in order that the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Greenwich (Mr. Gladstone) might go to consult his constituents. It was not sufficient that the right hon. Gentleman had, during the previous election, delivered speeches which, in his opinion, would become the Reform book of the future and the Vade Mecum of Irish Church
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repealers. Nor was it sufficient that the right hon. Gentleman had been designated to his present high Office by the people at large, and that he had been called to it by august decision of his Sovereign, but it was necessary that he should go again to Greenwich, as if the right hon. Gentleman's constituents had not already heard sufficient of his policy and intentions. As long as this custom had any real and useful effect the House looked on with indifference, but when, in order to carry on the provisions of a statute passed in the reign of Queen Anne, the convenience of the House was affected so closely, it was worthy of consideration whether the custom was not unsuited to the requirements, and contrary to the opinions of the present day. The cost of a Session to the nation was very considerable, and in addition to this there was the inconvenience to hon. Members of which he had spoken. Undoubtedly it was right, when the Act of Queen Anne was passed, and when the power of the Crown was on the increase, that every avenue should be jealously guarded, but nobody would venture to say that the power of the Crown was now on the increase and ought to be diminished. On the contrary, some might concur with Hallam, that it was somewhat overshadowed by the growing power of the House of Commons. This being so, it was not unreasonable that the House should in future refrain from acting upon the statute. If some Members of a new Ministry ought to go back to the constituencies, all ought; but only seven out of the fifteen Members of the present Cabinet and eight out of sixteen subordinate Members of the Government were, in the present case, under the necessity of doing so. The noble Lord, having briefly alluded to the circumstances under which the compromise of 1707 was effected, said that with regard to the observations made on a previous day concerning the Writ issued for the City of London, he was of opinion that no Writ ought to issue when there was a petition claiming the seat to which the Writ referred. In conclusion, he thought he should venture to put on the Paper a Notice of his intention to bring forward a Bill to repeal the objectionable section of the Act of Queen Anne.
Motion agreed to; Writ ordered.
For Clare, v. Sir Column Michael O'Loghlen, baronet, Judge Advocate General; for Kerry, >v. Viscount Castlerosse, Vice Chamberlain of the Household; for Kildare, v. Right Hon. Otho Augustus FitzGerald, Comptroller of the Household; for Westmeath, >v. Algernon William Fulke Greville, esquire, Groom in Waiting; for Mallow, v. Right Hon. Edward Sullivan, Attorney General for Ireland; for Wigtown District of Burghs, v. George Young, esquire, Solicitor General for Scotland; for Clackmannan and Kinross, v. William Patrick Adam, esquire, Commissioner of the Treasury; for Hawick District of Burghs, v. George Otto Trevelyan, esquire, Commissioner of the Admiralty; for Derbyshire (Southern Division), v. Sir Thomas Gresley, baronet, deceased.
House adjourned at a quarter before Two o'clock till Tuesday, 16th February next.