The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-15 00:00:00

~.

11
interested in endeavouring to such an
evil —(Hear, hear.) Obe great atiae-netlif,this evil was
that it was hardly possible to corima stsnrcs in that
House because they would elasheuitb= privileges of
the other House. He could not esugge4.se!remedy in
their Lordships House, bur he sincerely trusted that the
House of Commons would relax their prieile?ges, and that
the matter would be taken into - consideration by the
Committee
who were appointed otahe subject of the pri-
vileges of the other House. Although he thought it de•
airable that these restraints should be removed from their
Lordships' original measures, he did not wish to see mea-
sures generally originated in their Lordships' House, for he
considered their duty was "'rather to control the hasty
legislation of the other, the popular branch of the Legis•
lature; and he had observed that Bills originated in their
Lordships' House were not often very favourably re-
ceived in the other House of Parliament. Now, to pre-
vent the drought in the beginning and the deluge at the
end of the session, it would be necessary to propose a
measure which should receive the sanction of Parliament.
He might mention, in passing, that there was no induce.
ment to the younger Members of their Lordships' House
to attend, because their Lordships had so little business
to do; and they, therefore, were not so well skilled in mat-
ters of legislation as they otherwise would be,—(gear.)
The remedy which he proposed was, to grant to that
House, and the other House of Parliament, by an Act
the power, if they should so think fit, upon the receipt
of any Bill passed by the other House of Parliament,
and previous to the reference of that Bill to a Committee,
to adjourn the consideration of the measure from a period
of the session at which it could not be deliberately taken
into consideration to an early day to be named in the
next session of Parliament, and that the House
should be at liberty to proceed with the 8i.1.1 as if it had
been then sent from the other House of Parliament.—
(Hear, hear.) Such a measure, 'Lie thought, would se-
cure employment at the commencement of the session,
and at its close their Lordships would not have the
painful alternative cast upon them of passing measures
without due consideration, or rejecting them for want
of time to consider them properly,—( Hear, hear.) And
with regard to such measures, so postponed, he thought
it would be desirable that their Lordships should have
the power to refer them to some competent legal ad
viser to ascertain the bearing that one clause might have
on another—(Hear, hear)—and who should present to
their Lordships, at the commencement of the session, a
legal report upon every
"Hill.—(hear, hear.) By such
means he believed their legislation would be diminished
in amount and imprejeed in quality.—(Hear, hear.) He
had endeavoured to suggest to his own mind the objec-
tions which m;.fght be urged against such a measure, and
it would be said, no doubt, that it was an innovation. He
was not alarmed, however, at the term " innovation;"
and n-
uoubt, to a certain technical extent, it would be
11n. infraction of the prerogative of the Crown, as the
'crown had the power of stopping a measure by proro-
gation; but be could not believe that any Governm. nt
would advise the Crown to prorocue Parliament fur the
purpose of defeating a measure which had already passed
the House of Commons. Such a case certainly might
arise; but the prerogative would not necessarily be inter-
fered with, as the Crown would still have the power, by
a short prorogation, of putting a stop to the Bill after it
had passed this House. He was only anxious to give
their Lordships the power, on receiving an
dea importantrto n
Bill late in the session, of postponing its consideration
till early in the next session. He had endeavouredstto
ascertain whether the privileges of the House o Com-
mons would stand in the way of the course proposed.
taxes,
As he did nut mean it to apply to Bills for levying
it could not be objected to on that ground. Thanking
their Lordships for their attention, he would lay on the
table the Bill he had prepared, and, if their Lordship.'
thought fit to give it a first reading, he would let it stand
over till after Easter, convinced that it would apply a
remedy to a great practical evil.—(Hear.)
The Marquis of LANSDOW NE was understood to
say that he could not accede to the first reeling of the
Bill without thanking the Noble Lord for the attention
he had given to a subject, the evil of which had been
felt by so many Noble Lords session after session, and
which in many cases had completely impeded important
measures. The first reading of this Bill had his most
entire concurrence.—(Hear.)
Lord BROUGHAM also thanked the Noble Lord
(Stanley) for the introduction of this Bill. The subject
be thought had escaped the Noble Lord—how far an
Act of Parliament was required for the purpose. Sup-
pose a Bill came up from the other House in July; this
House had a right to drop it, and in the beginning of
the next session take up the very same Bill and pass it
through all its stages. The only difference from the
plan proposed was, that the Bill must again be sent to
the other House, which, however, had the power of
passing it immediately. It should be remembered that
the three readings and the Committee on a Bill were
not required by any Act of Parliament; each House
might pass a Bill at one sitting if they thought fit to
suspend their standing orders. There was nothing
either in Acts of Parliament or common law to prevent
this. Bills might be passed at once or in a lump, as
bad been done by the former National Assembly of
France, which once passed thirty or forty most im-
portant measures in a single night. But for the sake
of avoiding rash and blundering legislation, some
further alteration in the mode of conducting the business
of the Houses, was absolutely necessary. He thought
the greatest possible improvement would be the estab-
lishment of a board of learned and practical men, to re-
vise the drafts of all Bills, watch their progress through
the Houses, note the alterations made, compare the Bills
with former Acta and with themselves to see that the
same words were not used in different senses, so that the
Acts might not contradict themselves and each other. At
present, the Learned Judges were called on to put a
construction on obscure passages, to reconcile contradic-
tions, and to elicit meaning out of absurdity—a task
which might well move compassion for these learned
personages, and sympathy for the unendurable labours
they underwent in listening to subtle and ingenious
eiforts perversely applied to the words of the law.—
( [ear, hear.) Thus was the public time squandered by
~ee hour and the day, and there was a great chance of
erroneous decisions taking place. Such being the case,
a legislator could net apply himself to a more honour-
able and important task than that of improving the
construction of our Acts of Parliament. He was
compelled to observe that there was not now the same
veneration entertained for this House of Parliament—
he would not say for the other—which existed twenty
of thirty years age. This was ascribable, in some de.
gree, to the total incapacity under which this House was
placed during the first two or three months of the ses-
sion, to apply itself to any useful purpose of legislation.
The evil was assuredly grievous, inasmuch as this
House could not be said to have any agency in law
making ; for, when the crowd of Bills came up at the
end of the session, the House had only the option of
either passing them as they stood or throwing them out
altogether.

L(Srd REDESDALE would not object to the first
reading of the Bill, but thought it involved so serious an
alteration of the law that it demanded very mature con-
sideration. A measure might be passed by one House
and suspended in the other for consideration next ses-
sion, when it was passed without opposition, and became
the law of the land—whatever might be the altered
opinion towards it in the House in which it had origi-
nated. This waa sufficient to show that the subject was
one which demanded very grave consideration.
The Duke of RICHMOND saw no difficulty in car-
rying out the principle of the Bill, which he thought
very desirable. He believed the Noble Lord who bad
last spoken was needlessly alarmed as to the effect of
the Bill.
The Bill was then read a first time.
The House adjourned at Seven o'Clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, April 14.
--..............__
CROWN AND GOVERNNIENT SECURITY BILL.
Edition of
(Continued from our Afternoon
yesterday ) Mr. OSBORNE said, as there
amongst the Learned Members of the a great difference
constituted the offence of treason, he wanted Hue as to what
the people were to ascertain how to act when to
know how
the
disagreed? The Act was a retrogreosive on doctors
really was too bad for the Government to coin®
It
the House of Commons in the nineteenth century, ° down
to
every country in the world was making rapid progress
when
to ask for powers to render " open and advised ogpress'
in.'" a felony.—(Hear. hear.) Let the s-eak.
n Government bear in mind that a similar Bill to the
one now before the House caused a split in
the strong Government of 1792.—( Hear, hear.)
The Hon. Gentleman had made some allusion to a state-
ment he supposed he had made with respect to the Duke
of Wellington. If that Noble Duke was a member of
the Cabinet, he should speak of it with respect. He
had called the Government "an old woman —it was an
" old woman's " Cabinet in his opinion ; but it was for
the House to judge whether the old woman was the
Secretary of State for the Home Department, or the
President of the Board of-Trade, or any other member
of the Government.—(Laughter.)
Sir DE L.:EVANS supported the motion for goines
into Committee on the Bill; at the same time, he wished
to know from the legal authorities in the House whether
or not the law as it stood was sufficient to enable
now
the Governmentol,3etct4 to put down seditious speaking. He
spetatirigl?the introduction of the new principle of
obi,,ction
to to the legislature of the country. He had no
vernment it ,nee extraordinary powers to the Go
vv reAessed f,f si,fßeT *o'vn tbat they were not already
shnwrr, he hol".1,11)""s, Unless such necesity
ndreent in cora ! - feel it his dan
only f,,, a ~c,,rood r0itt„.1,.,,,i duty to move
after the c . • •oti, i 4, ng the severe punishment
uusslon of ' e"mmitte • •
d within a month
Mr. SUAR A As_the. first.
opposition to the . Bili- --MV °lt b
cordially approved
of were a i..,
t. said, that if the
it had been productivs.tba()tf c'PPocitT(U) 1 One' he
heh most
much as several rnitig .•
n-; "cn,ide'r 1,1.--- teought
Bill had been obtained-atit" - 6i the' a ,;,Pl3cl, inas-
good proposition, enr,,id •
Ie thought it4:,-,V,Y, of the
existed upon the sutijecterg the great cliff (..
.'"'o a very
in the House shouldlte oftreason that l"ren" Which
a I th laws"
order to define clearly sentwhat °P
stairs to a c,„l"rs
and until they had decidedltu treason and sedinationtt" i
ther progress of the Bill sholindnbethe question the wanf
Sir W. CLAY thought that theri!ltarded. fur_
placed in the same category, and •
in as it now stood
punishment upon crimes of a very inflicted the SUM)
and criminality .—(Hear, hear.) yTdiheftr'erent character
difference between words spoken and , was a, great
the heat of debate and an article excited in
prepared by a person, and afterwarddebberately
s: printed
the
and circulated, for the purpose of
exc
people to provide themselves with arms, and
rally into the details of the mode of using procuringandentering
them. Both reason and experience
showed
that, the
tc,
wiser course for a Government to adopt be
enient towards political offences. There was nOts to
a
al in Europe where such language as had recently been
aPi-
y teed in this country would have been telerated f
aoment, and what was the result? all those other oor a
fad fallen, while England alone remained calm and
erene amid. the storm. He called upon his Noble