The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-07 00:00:00

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE.

Lord A LTHORP then rose to move the usual sessional
orders. The first business of the House was the reeep_
tion of petitions, which, under the old plan, was very im-
perfect.— (Hear.) He considered also, that, under the old
plan, that subject had interfered much with the legitimate
business of the House. He was speaking to many gentle.
teen who had been in the last House of Commons, who knew
that it had often been endeavoured to be remedied by
different modes, the one which had been most generally followed
was, Members balloting for their turns, a mode which he
considered to be not very consistent with the business of
the House, or its dignity. Under those circumstances
a Member might have in his possession a most important pe.
tition during the whole of the session, without having any op_
portnnity of presenting it. Another mode had been, that of
presenting petitions after the usual business of the House
had been finished ; but the House 'would at once see, that
any petition which required discussion, could not at that time
be presented with any advantage. In consequence of those unsa-
tisfactory modes, at the suggestion of the Hon. Baronet opposite,
a Committee had been appointed—a Committee of the whole
House, before whom petitions were to be presented, and to cease
at a certain hour. This plan had also been found ineffectual.
Ile thought it snore desirable that the petitions should be pre.
sented while the House was regularly sitting with the Speaker
in the Chair. Such had been the custom hitherto, and it was
most desirable that it should continue so. The plan which
he should have the honour to propose, and a statement of
which had been published for the information of Members, was
to that effect. Every gentleman would have an opportunity
of presenting his petitions, and much more conveniently than
under a former system. The proposition was thie,that the Speaker
should take the chair at 12 o'clock, and sit till 3, that at 3
the House should adjourn, in whatever business it was then en-
gaged, and that the debate on the petition, which might then
be under discussion, should be adjourned till the following
morning ; that at 5 the House should again meet, and the busi-
ness on the order book be immediately commenced and pro_
ceeded with,which would give ample time without sitting too late
for the legislative functions of the House. It was very desirable
that thus an interval should be made between the presentation
of petitions and the general business. In the first place, it
secured that the public business should commence at five, and
then it would be extremely advantageous to those gentlemen who
hadattended the presentation of petitions, by affording them
an opportunity of taking some refreshment.—(Hear, hear.)
Under the new arrangement, he would undertake that either,
he himself, or some other of the Ministers, should always be.
present during the time when petitions were presented.
Another part of the plan related to the number of times a,
gentleman should speak on a petition; for gentlemen
to speak four times on any subject, was calculated
very much to delay business, and was wholly unnecessary.
By the present proposed form, a gentleman would have the '
opportunity of speaking upon presenting a petition, and another
of addressing the House upon it, moving that it be printed.
The proposition he had now to make was—" That this House
do meet every day, except Saturday, at 12 o'clock, for the pur.
pose of receiving petitions, and disposing of private business,
and continue to sit till 3 o'clock, unless sooner adjourned."

Sir It. PEEL considered it unnecessary to occupy the House
long on this resolution. Whatever arrangement might be
made, and found to be for the general convenience of
Honourable Members, and which was likely to lead to the
facilitating of public business, could not but receive his support.
At the same time he thought it premature to proceed to make
arrangements on this subject at present. The House was adopt-
ing new arrangement!, composed as it was of nearly 300 new
Members, who could not be supposed to be very conversant with
public business. Until the House had some idea of the pro-
bable number of petitions that were likely to be presented,
and until the new Members had some little experience in
public business, he thought the House could no'i be any way
called upon to adopt those arrangements. He doubted whether
many Members of the present House had even read the re-
port of the Committee of the last session, which was drawn
up by many of the most able and experienced solicitors
of the House, and which was now sought to be en-
tirely overturned by the present plan. He would, therefore,
put it to the new Members themselves to say whether they
really felt competent to dispose of such a question, and were ac-
quainted with public business. The Hon, Baronet was sure
that meeting at 9in the morning was open to great objection.
lf the Noble Lord had proposed that public business should begin
at 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock in the morning—(Hear, hear)—that
would be an entirely different thing ; but he ventured to pre-
dict that the plan proposed by the Noble Lord would have the
effect of postponing public business until six o'clock in the
cycling. It was to be feared that if the Committee were