THE EARL OF ROSEBERY: Does the noble Duke suggest that if the dissolution had not been taken in October the Government would have been defeated? February instead of in October, the result wishes to lay down the principle that no might conceivably have been the defeat changes are ever to be made, that if of the present Government, and the access the country has given an expression to power of another; and the new Govern- of its confidence in a certain ment would have had to meet Parliament Administration it follows from that immediately, without having any time that no changes whatever are to be whatever to consider the measures which made in the personnel of that Administrathey ought to bring forward. Therefore, tion. I cannot accept my noble friend as from the constitutional point of view, it an entirely competent critic on the was much more convenient that the reconstruction of the Government. I dissolution should take place in October. think when my noble friend has reconstructed the Opposition he may be a better judge as to the reconstruction of the Government. My noble friend referred to the question of financial relations of members of the Government with companies. That is a question of some difficulty, and also, no doubt, of very great importance, but it is one which none of us anticipated would have been raised without notice. I may say that it is a matter which requires very great consideration, and that it was considered by the present Government and by the late Government. It is perfectly true that we arrived at a different decision from the late Government. It is a question that is surrounded by difficulties. In my own case—and I am, perhaps, one of the principal offenders-I may say I should have found it almost as difficult a measure to surrender my connection with certain companies of which I am a director as I should have found it to abandon any part in the management of my estates generally. It would have been a question of some difficulty to me whether, if such a rule had been made, it would have been possible for me to have accepted the office which I have the honour to hold. I do not say that the country would have been a great loser if I had taken that course. I only mention it to show that this is a question surrounded with very considerable difficulties. As to the reference made by my noble friend to a recent appointment of an Under-Secretary in this House, I am authorised by my noble friend to say that, before accepting that office, he made arrangements by which his connection with the firm will terminate at the end of this year. I know, as I have said, the subject is a very difficult one, and I did not anticipate that I should have been called upon to address your lordships' House. I have referred to some of the subjects brought forward by my noble friend, but I do not think it necessary to detain your Lordships further. THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE: It is impossible to say what Government would have been returned. It is quite conceivable in either case that a change of Government might have been brought about. There is another reason why, the Government having resolved not to ask Parliament to go through another Session, the election should take place in October rather than in January. No one conceives that a prolongation of the period which precedes a general election affords any great benefit to the country. It is probably not to the advantage of the public that the contests should be prolonged. When the time comes that a dissolution should take place it is convenient, I apprehend, to every one concerned, and I think to the advantage of the country as a whole, that the electoral period should be as short as possible, and that the country should be able to give its decision without unnecessary delay and without raising all those personal and party questions which certainly are not of any very great advantage. I think, therefore, if the first point is granted, we were justified in taking the verdict as soon as possible. My Lords, I am not going to follow my noble friend into his criticism of the speeches made during the election. The noble Earl opposite (the Earl of Kimberley) has stated that if any such criticisms are to be made, it is fit that they should be made in the presence of those against whom they are directed, and who are in a position to answer them. My noble friend then entered upon some criticisms as to the composition of the Government. I scarcely think that the changes which have taken place amount to what he calls "the reconstruction" of the Government. I do not know whether my noble friend VOL. LXXXVIII. [FOURTH SERIES.] E THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE: As it is desirable to be absolutely accurate in the matter, I ought to add to the statement I made just now. What I was authorised to say by my noble friend the Under-Secretary for India was that at the end of the year he would cease to be an active partner of the firm. On Question, agreed to; Address ordered to be presented to Her Majesty by the Lords with White Staves. SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA. LORD TWEEDMOUTH: My Lords, taken place. I admit that they must in the noble Duke challenged the statement certain cases have been necessary, but I of the noble Earl below the gangway that do think that we ought to have been the dissolution was unprecedented. I informed as to the principle laid down by think I shall be able to show that the the Government under which these very noble Earl was justified in that statement. grave incidents have occurred. I think There have been only two instances since we were entitled to an assurance that only the Reform Act of 1832 of elections in under the most grave necessity have such October, and in each of those cases a operations been undertaken. special hastening of the register has taken place in order that the election might be held on the new, and not the old register. That, I think, also disposes of the noble Marquess's argument that October is a specially suitable month for a general election. October is nearly as late a period as elections can take place on the old register, and in Scotland it is the last month. In order to be able to vote in October, 1900, it would be necessary for the elector to have held the property in respect of which he was going to vote as far back as July, 1898. That seems to me a very unsatisfactory condition of affairs. The noble Marquess said that it HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF is part of the policy of Parliament that an elector should long have been connected with his locality in order that he may know the wishes of the locality, and therefore be able to give his vote with knowledge. If the noble Marquess will apply his own rule to the out-voters throughout the country, then that great body would lose their votes altogether, because they had not that local habitation which would entitle them to claim to know the wishes of the locality. The noble Duke said, practically, that it was out of consideration for us that the election was fixed in October, in order to save a Liberal Government, if it came into power, the danger of having to consider matters with which it was little acquainted. It does seem to me that it would have been a more proper course to have postponed the General Election until after the war had been concluded and terms of settlement proposed. The speech of the noble Marquess will be received with great regret, not only among Liberals, but among many conThe Earl of MORLEY appointed, nemine nected with the party of which he is the dissentiente, to take the Chair in all Comhead, when they find that the noble Mar-mittees of this House for this Session. quess was not prepared to make some statement as to the conditions which might be imposed upon the two Republics which have now been annexed. There will also be no little disappointment at the absence of a statement as to the circumstances under which farm burnings have House that he had (after the close of the The LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the letter from Her Royal and Imperial last Session of Parliament) received a Highness, Marie, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg taining an Answer to the Message of and Gotha, Duchess of Edinburgh, conCondolence of this House of the 2nd of August last. The said letter was read as follows, viz. : : by the House of Lords expressing sympathy "I deeply appreciate the resolution passed with me in the irreparable loss I have sustained by the death of my beloved husband, and I hasten to return my most sincere and heartfelt thanks." Ordered, that the said letter be entered on the Journals. COMMITTEES. Committee for Privileges appointed. Stoppages in the Streets, Order to prevent, renewed. Appeal Committee appointed. PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS (RECESS). [ The LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the House that the following papers having been commanded to be presented to this House by Her Majesty had been so presented on the following dates by delivery to the Clerk of the Parliaments, pursuant to Order of the House of the 17th February, 1896, namely INDIA. (Statistical Abstract.) Statistical Abstract relating to British India from 1889-90 to 1898-99. Thirty-fourth Number. (10th August.) (Trade.) Review of the Trade of India in 1899-1900. (12th September.) (Sanitary Measures.) Report on Sanitary Measures in India in 1898-99. (1st November.) LUNACY (SCOTLAND) ACT. Forty-second Annual Report of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland. (11th August.) TRADE REPORTS. Annual Series; Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade and FinanceNo. 2504. Switzerland (Swiss Trade in Textiles, 1898) No. 2505. Russia (Riga). No. 2506. United States (San Francisco). No. 2507. Portugal (Trade of Northern Portugal). No. 2508. Portugal (District of Inhambane). No. 2509. Egypt (Port Said and Suez). No. 2510. United States (Oregon, etc.) (15th August.) No. 2511. Corea. No. 2512. China (Canton). No. 2513. France (Madagascar). No. 2514. Dutch and French Guiana. (18th August.) No. 2515. Belgium (Trade, Finances, etc., for the year 1899). (21st August.) No. 2516. Germany (Dantzig, Konisberg, and Memel). No. 2517. Portugal (Madeira). August.) 1899). No. 2530. Denmark (Trade of Iceland for the years 1897-99). No. 2531. Abyssinia (Adis Abbaba and No. 2532. Germany (Würtemberg). No. 2534. Russia (Agriculture in the No. 2535. Russia (Consular District of St. Petersburg). No. 2536. Africa (East Africa Protectorate). No. 2537. Dominica Republic. (10th November.) No. 2538. Uruguay (Trade for 1899 and part of 1900). (22nd November.) No. 2539. Mexico (Trade of Vera Cruz for the years 1898-99 and part of 1900). (28th November.) MISCELLANEOUS SERIES. Reports on Subjects of General and Commercial Interest : No. 535. Germany (German East Africa). (18th August.) No. 536. German (Extension of German Subsidised Mail Steamers to South Africa). No. 537. United States (Cattle Trade in Kansas). (30th August.) No. 538. Spain (Mining Interest in the Province of Galicia). and Cattle Breeding in Kagoshima and Acetylene Gas). No. 541. United States (Mining and No. 542. British Trade with Switzer (25th land for the year 1899. (22nd November.) No. 2520. Trade of Zanzibar for 1899. (29th August.) No. 2521. Áustria-Hungary (Fiume). AFRICA. No. 7. (1900)-Report by the Mombasa-Victoria (Uganda) Railway Com mittee on the Progress of the Works, | between France and Mauritius; signed at 1899-1900. [With a Map and Section.] Paris, 16th May, 1900. [Ratifications (15th August.) exchanged at Paris, 27th July, 1900.] (2nd November.) No. 8. (1900)-Maps illustrative of the Preliminary Report by Her Majesty's Special Commissioner on the Protectorate of Uganda. [See Africa, No. 6, 1900.] (2nd November.) IRISH LAND COMMISSION. Judicial Rents: Return for January, 1900. (17th August.) Proceedings: Return for March, 1900. Proceedings Return for April, 1900. (1st September.) Judicial Rents: Return for February, 1900. (10th September.) Proceedings: Return for May, 1900. (18th September.) Proceedings: Return for June, 1900. (24th September.) Proceedings: Return for July, 1900. Proceedings: Return for August, 1900. (7th November.) Judicial Rents: Return for March, 1900. (17th November.) SOUTH AFRICA. Correspondence relating to recent political situation in South South Africa. (22nd August.) TREATY SERIES. No. 17. (1900). Convention between the United Kingdom and the United States of America relative to the disposal of real and personal property; signed at Washington, 2nd March, 1899. [Ratifications exchanged at Washington, 28th July, 1900.] No. 18. (1900). Convention between the United Kingdom and France for the establishment of a Parcel Post Service between France and the British Colonies of Ceylon, Hong Kong, and the Straits Settlements; signed at Paris, 4th April, 1900. [Ratifications exchanged at Paris, 27th July, 1900]. (25th August.) No. 19. (1900). Convention between. the United Kingdom and the Republic of Costa Rica for the reciprocal protection. of trade marks, etc.; signed at Guatemala, 5th March, 1898. [Ratifications exchanged at London, 29th September, 1900.] No. 20. (1900). Additional Convention, supplementary to the Convention of 7th September, 1888, respecting the exchange of parcels by parcel post Blackbeck, Haverthwaite, Lancashire, on the 26th May, 1900. (29th August.) (Fire at Fuze Works at Camborne.) Report to the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Major A. CooperKey, Her Majesty's Inspector of Explosives, on the circumstances attending a fire at the fuze works of Messrs. Wm. Bennett, Sons, and Company, at Camborne, on the 2nd July, 1900. (September 6.) (Explosion of Picric Acid at Huddersfield.)-Report to the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Captain J. H. Thomson, Her Majesty's Chief POST OFFICE. Agreement, dated 21st July, 1900, between Great Britain and Roumania, for a reduction in telegraph rates. (6th September.) PRISONS (ENGLAND AND WALES). Report of the Commissioners of Prisons and the Directors of Convict Prisons, with appendices, for the year ended 31st March, 1900. (11th September.) STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. Reports on the Federated Malay States Inspector of Explosives, on the circum- for 1899. (12th September.) stances attending an explosion of picric acid at the factory of Messrs. Read, Holliday and Sons, Limited, at Huddersfield, on 30th May, 1900. (September 11.) LOCAL TAXATION (ROYAL Minutes of Evidence. Volume V. (Explosions at Eley's Ammunition Fac- Ireland. (14th September.) tory at Edmonton).-Report to the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Major A. Cooper-Key, Her Majesty's Inspector of Explosives, on the circumstances attending two explosions which occurred at the ammunition factory of Messrs. Eley Brothers, Limited, at Edmonton, on the 24th July, 1900. (November 10). (Explosion at Eley's Factory at Gray's Inn Road.)-Report to the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Captain J. H. Thomson, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Explosives, on the circumstances attending the explosion of percussion caps which occurred at the factory of Messrs. Eley Brothers, Limited, at Gray's Inn Road, London, on 10th September, 1900. (10th November.) MINES AND QUARRIES. Part II.-Labour. (31st August.) METROPOLITAN POLICE COURT DISTRICT. Report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department to inquire into the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan police magistrates and county justices respectively in the Metropolitan Police Court District. (5th September.) COMMERCIAL, No. 4 (1900). Reports from Her Majesty's representatives abroad on trade marks' laws and regulations. (22nd September.) No. 5 (1900)-Summary of information received from Her Majesty's Consuls upon the docks and cargo arrangements in the chief ports of France and Northern Europe. (2nd November.) WELSH SETTLEMENT AT CHUBUT. Reports on the Welsh Settlement at Chubut in the Argentine Republic. (24th September.) LIGHT RAILWAYS ACT, 1896. Orders made by the Light Railway Commissioners, and modified and confirmed by the Board of Trade authorising the construction of- I. A light railway in the counties of Devon and Cornwall from Bere Alston Station to Calstock, and a working of a portion of the East Cornwall Mineral Railway as a light railway. II. A light railway in the North Riding of the county of York from Sinnington to Rosedale. III. A light railway in the county of Carnarvon from Snowdon Station to Beddgelert. IV. Light railways in the borough of Barnsley and the urban districts of Worsborough aud Monk Bretton in the West Riding of the county of York. |