This The House then unanimously calling I confidence of the entire House. is a proposition which cannot be too often repeated and too deeply felt. If our debates from period to period come *(2.41.) MR. A. W. PEEL (Warwick to be of more and more interest, and and Leamington): Mr. Palgrave, I am there be more and more difficulty in very keenly and deeply sensible of the maintaining the line of absolute and honour and favour which have been unswerving rectitude, it is more and conferred upon me by the hon. Baronet more important that that sense of the Member for the Blackpool Division honour and impartiality should be raised to the very highest point of (Sir Matthew White Ridley), and by which the human mind is capable. the right hon. Gentleman the Member The Speaker of the House of Commons for Midlothian (Mr. W. E. Gladstone), must stand not only beyond complaint, in respectively moving and seconding but beyond the faintest breath of my nomination to the Chair of this suspicion. For that breath of suspicion House. I very deeply appreciate, falling upon his reputation it is too moreover, the honour which the House possible might not require to be embodied in a complaint, so subtle would appears to do me by ratifying the be its agency and so fatally and surely remarks that have been made. it might underwork his influence. Sir, cannot appropriate those expressions these are the demands which I have to myself, but I am none the less endeavoured to state without diminu- grateful to those gentlemen for having tion or extenuation, and which I have presented me in so favourable a light. so stated in the strongest terms, because I cannot also forget, Sir, that I am I am able confidently to add that the whole of those demands have been indebted to the right hon. Gentleman satisfied in yourself, Mr. Peel. I opposite (Mr. W. E. Gladstone) for believe I have deviated unconsciously having first presented me to this House in making by a single word a reference in the year 1884. I cannot forget that to my right hon. Friend. He will, twice during the year 1886 the right however, understand how I was led hon. Gentleman once made what is into that error. But, addressing the House, I repeat that, in my opinion, it called the congratulatory speech to me is impossible to deny that on all these after I had assumed the Chair, and on points which I have named, and some the second occasion, in August, 1886, of which undoubtedly involve questions seconded my nomination to that office. of the utmost difficulty, and questions I do not propose to say much on the involving much more than an ordinary present occasion. I cannot bring besense and an ordinary standard of honour and integrity on all these fore the new Members of this House — points, essential points, on which the who constitute a large proportion of it dignity and authority of the office-I cannot produce before them any depend, even more than upon the formal vote of the House of Commons, we have looked to the late Speaker for satisfaction, and we have obtained that satisfaction entire and unqualified. I, therefore, Sir, with most lively pleasure on my own part, and, I believe, on the part of all those who have had on this side of the House an opportunity of forming judgment for themselves, take upon me to second the Motion that has been made "That the Right Honourable Arthur Wellesley Peel do take the Chair as Speaker of the House of Commons." qualifications for the Chair; and to the House at large I cannot say anything that is novel or interesting, the less so, perhaps, because this is the fourth occasion on which it has been my honour to be placed in the position which I now occupy. I hope the House will pardon me making what I confess is almost a strictly personal observation. If it be the pleasure of the House again to elect me to that Chair, it will be the fourth occasion on which I have been called upon to fulfil the duty. a and importance in the eyes of this The House then again unanimously calling Mr. PEEL to the Chair; he was taken out of his place by the said Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY, and the said Mr. W. E. GLADSTONE, and conducted to the Chair. For a Member of this House to be called four times to that Chair is an unusual circumstance. It is certainly not unprecedented, for Mr. Speaker Denison and Mr. Speaker Shaw Lefevre both were called four times to fill the Chair; and going back to an earlier period, one Member of this House, Mr. Speaker Onslow, was certainly elected five times to fill the duties of the Chair. I hope, as I said, the House will pardon this personal consideration. It is not, however, a question how often a Member of this House is called to that Chair; it is a question how he fulfils the duties when he is placed there. It may be a small thing to say, but I hope it may count for something, that if I am placed there it will be my endeavour to discharge, to the best of my abilities, the duties, the ever increasing duties increasing in their onerousness and responsibility-which attach to the occupant of that Chair. If I fill the Chair again I shall be attached to the House by a lengthening chain of obligation for having elected me so often, but I shall look for any success that may be achieved, not to myself or to any personal efforts of my own; I shall look to the support of every man in this House. Without that support a Speaker can do nothing; with that support there is little that he cannot do. I shall ask then the support of every hon. Member, old and new, on (2.49). THE FIRST LORD OF THE whatever side of the House he sits, to TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR, whatever Party he may belong. That Manchester, E.): In accordance with support I ask for in endeavouring to uphold the traditions which, in the the immemorial custom of this House, course of centuries, have grown around it now falls to me to offer you the conthe history of this House. That gratulations of the House upon your support I ask for in applying those election to the Chair. Under any rules which from time to time the circumstances, Mr. Speaker, it would House has been pleased to make for seem to me that to have that honour the enforcement of order, and for what is saying the same thing the freedom conferred upon you must be a subject of debate. Lastly, Sir, I shall look to of congratulation. But that it should the House at large for this purpose be conferred for the fourth time gives it a especially. The Speaker, without significance which only those acquainted the support, as I have said, of the with the course of our Debates can House can do nothing; but when he fully appreciate or understand. It is, sits in that Chair with the support of hon. Members, he will be able to do perhaps, inevitable, human nature something to sustain the character of being what it is, that we look with the House-a character which I hope somewhat different eyes upon the rights has lost nothing of its true meaning of the majority and the privileges of under the Table, was now laid upon the And then the Mace, which before lay Table. Then a Message was delivered by the Yeoman | bers, that Privy Councillors and those Usher of the Black Rod: "MR. SPEAKER, "The Lords, authorised by virtue of Her Majesty's Commission, desire the immediate attendance of this honourable House in the House of Peers." Accordingly, Mr. SPEAKER-ELECT, with the House, went up to the House of Peers, when he was presented to the said Lords Commissioners for the Royal Approbation. Then THE LORD CHANCELLOR, one of the said Lords Commissioners, signified Her Majesty's Approbation of Mr. Speaker-Elect. The House being returned : MR. SPEAKER (standing in his usual place) I have to acquaint the House that, in the House of Peers, Her Majesty, through Her Royal Commissioners, has been pleased to approve of the choice that you have made of me as your Speaker, and that I have, in your name and on your behalf, laid claim by humble Petition to Her Majesty to all your ancient Rights and Privileges-freedom of speech in debate, freedom from arrest of your persons and servants, and freedom of access at all times when opportunity offers to Her Majesty, and that the most favourable construction may be placed on all your proceedings. All these privileges, Her Majesty, through Her Commissioners, has approved and confirmed in as ample a manner as any of Her Royal Predecessors. who have been in the Ministry should. in the first place take the Oath at the Table. It has been thought convenient to follow a precedent in this, which seemed to meet with the approval of the House, that not more than five Members at a time should present themselves at the Table to take the Oath, and if hon. Members will kindly not present themselves when they see five Members at the Table, I think it will conduce to the regularity of our proceeding and the despatch of the duty of taking the Oath. Mr. SPEAKER then took and subscribed the Oath first alone; and after him several other Members took and subscribed the Oath; and several other Members made and subscribed the Affirmation required by Law. House adjourned at a quarter after Four o'clock. Resolved, That this House, at its It is my duty once more to thank rising this day, do adjourn till Monday the House for the honour done to me in placing me here, and I have now to ask hon. Members to follow me in taking the Oath at the Table. It may be for the convenience of the House if I state what has already been stated in printed papers circulated among Mem next, at One of the clock. House adjourned at half after Two o'clock till Monday next, at One of the clock. An Asterisk (*) at the commencement of a Speech indicates revision by the Member. HOUSE OF LORDS, Monday, 8th August, 1892. The House met at Two of the clock. Then Five of the LORDS COMMISSIONERS-namely, The LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord Halsbury); The Duke of PORTLAND (Master of the Horse); The Earl of COVENTRY (Master of the Buckhounds); The UNDER SECRETARY of STATE for WAR (Earl Brownlow); The SECRETARY OF STATE for the COLONIES (Lord Knutsford) being in their Robes, and seated on a Form placed between the Throne and the Woolsack, commanded the Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod to let the COMMONS know "The Lords Commissioners desire their immediate Attendance in this House, to hear the Commission read." Who being at the Bar, with their Speaker: The Commission was read by the Clerk:-Then THE THE QUEEN'S SPEECH. LORD CHANCELLOR delivered HER MAJESTY'S SPEECH to both Houses of Parliament, as follows:"My Lords, and Gentlemen, "We have to inform you by the command of Her Majesty that the present Parliament has been assembled in obedience to the terms of Her Majesty's Proclamation of the 28th June 1892, by which the late Parliament was dissolved. "Previous to that Dissolution the business of the Session was completed; and it is therefore not necessary that Parliament should now continue in session at an unusual period of the year for the transaction of financial or legislative business. "It is Her Majesty's hope that when you meet again at the customary season you will again direct your attention to measures of social and domestic improvement, and that you will continue to advance in the path of useful and beneficent legislation, which VOL. VII. [FOURTH SERIES.] has been so judiciously followed in previous Sessions. Then the Commons withdrew. REPRESENTATIVE PEERS FOR SCOT LAND. THE LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the House that the Clerk of the Parliaments had received (by post) from the Lord Clerk Register of Scotland, Minutes of the meeting held on the 14th of July last of the Peers of Scotland for the election of their representatives to sit and vote in the ensuing Parliament of the United Kingdom; and also, Return by the Lord Clerk Register of Scotland concerning Titles of Peerages called at the said meeting, in right of which respectively no vote had been received and counted for fifty years last past as at the date of the said meeting: Ordered that the said Minutes of Election, &c. be printed. [No. 1.] Several Lords-Took the Oath. SAT FIRST. The Duke of Somerset, after the death of his brother. SELECT VESTRIES. Bill, pro formâ, read 1a. THE QUEEN'S SPEECH. MAJESTY'S MOST GRACIOUS SPEECH. *THE EARL OF DENBIGH (who wore the uniform of an officer of the Royal Artillery): My Lords, in rising to move that an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty to thank her for her Gracious Speech from the Throne, I hope I may remind your Lordships that the duty of moving and seconding this Address is, I believe, almost invariably entrusted to two of the more junior Members of your Lordships' House who cannot claim to have any, or at all events but little, experience in the matter of addressing this august assembly; and consequently, my Lords, your indulgence is always D asked for, and is always as readily conceded. But, my Lords, I feel that to-day I have perhaps a somewhat extra claim upon your generous consideration, because on ordinary occasions the Mover and Seconder of the Address to Her Majesty are able to apply their remarks to the future policy of the Government as foreshadowed in Her Majesty's Gracious Speech; but unfortunately on this occasion, as your Lordships will have perceived, I am afraid that course is open neither to me nor to the noble Earl who follows me. And perhaps I may ask your Lordships' permission to depart therefore from the usual precedent which has generally been followed, and, instead of applying myself entirely to prospective issues, to cast more retrospective glances at what has been done in the past history of the Government. My Lords, looking back at the last Session of Parliament I think that we who sit on this side of the House and support the Government of the noble Marquess may lay just claim to the fact that there has been a steady continuance of that policy of wise and beneficent legislation which has distinguished this Government during the last six years of its holding office. Perhaps, my Lords, one of the most important Acts which was passed during the last Session of Parliament at all events, an Act which may be described as striking out an almost entirely new line of legislation was that important Act for the purpose of facilitating the creation of small agricultural holdings. My Lords, we cannot claim for this Act, as can be claimed for many other important Parliamentary Acts, that there will at once be seen far-reaching and important changes throughout the country as a consequence of the Act. We may rather say that its results, which we hope will be effectual, cannot be other than very gradual; and it is quite possible that to mere casual observers its effects will not be very patent for some time to come; but still,at the same time, we regard it as an honest and conscientious experiment in the direction of endeavouring to solve a difficulty and of supplying a want which is very considerably felt by a large section of Her Majesty's subjects. I am afraid, my Lords, that the success of this measure may be said to be somewhat in danger, both from the action of its opponents and the action of its too zealous friends. I am afraid there are in the country, at least if we may judge from their speeches, some who would not perhaps be sorry to see it fail in order that they might be able to have a stone to fling at its authors. But there are its more zealous friends who persuade themselves that there will be an immediate considerable reduction, and a very palpable reduction, in the number of those who forsake the rural districts and crowd into our manufacturing centres. I am very much afraid that those zealous friends are doomed to a certain amount of disappointment. We hope that there will be a good many who will stay in the country and devote themselves to agricultural pursuits as a consequence of this Act of Parliament; but, still, I am afraid that the natural increase of the population of the country will so far outstrip any number of small holdings which could be artificially created by this or any other Act, that the number of those who are prevented from going into the towns will be as it were but a drop in the ocean. It has been complained, my Lords, that no principle of compulsion was embodied in this Act, and that question was very fully argued both in your Lordships' House and in another place; but I am certain that your Lordships will be strongly of opinion that it is wiser to walk before we attempt to run; and surely it is better to prove the success or even the failure of these artificially created small holdings before introducing any system of compulsion which, if it is not a sham, must inevitably do a great deal to unsettle the agricultural interest and to cause a considerable amount of insecurity of tenure in the minds of the occupiers of large farms at the present moment. My Lords, there are many other Acts of Parliament which I will not weary your Lordships by detailing at the present moment, as I have no doubt the noble Earl who follows me will apply himself to some of them; but apart from those, and apart from actual Acts of Parliament which have been dealt with by this House, I think, my Lords, |