As regards the passage quoted by Mr. Jackson from the _Edinburgh
Review_, the reviewer would probably allow that he had overlooked the
new standing order of 1845; and Mr. Jackson will perceive that the
recognition of the presence of strangers does not legalise the
publication of speeches. The supposed difficulty in the way of
legalising publication is, that the House of Commons would then make
itself morally responsible for the publication of any libellous matter
in speeches. I do not see the force of this difficulty. But the
expediency of the existing rule is not a proper subject for discussion
in your columns.
CH.
Whatever the present practice of the House of Commons with respect to
strangers may be, it does not seem probable that it will soon undergo
alteration. In the session of 1849 a Select Committee, composed of
fifteen members, and including the leading men of all parties, was
appointed "to consider the present practice of this House in respect of
the exclusion of strangers." The following is the Report of the
Committee _in extenso_ (_Parl. Pap._, No. 498. Sess. 1849):
"That the existing usage of excluding strangers during a
division, and upon the notice by an individual Member that
strangers are present, has prevailed from a very early period of
parliamentary history; that the instances in which the power of
an individual Member to exclude has been exercised have been
very rare: and that it is the unanimous opinion of your
committee, that there is no sufficient ground for making any
alteration in the existing practice with regard to the admission
or exclusion of strangers.
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