wished to know from the right hon. Secretary the intentions of Ministers respecting the public business, at what time it was intended that the measures, of which notice had been given, and some of which were in progress, should be proceeded with. It was the more important that hon. Members should know at what time the arrangements consequent upon the demise of the Crown, so far as they affected the order of proceeding in that House, should be acted upon, as the Session was then, in point of time, very far advanced.

, in answer to the hon. and learned Gentleman's question, begged to state, that he had reason to believe that it was the intention of his Majesty to make tomorrow a direct communication to Parliament respecting the public business. Till that communication had been made, he thought it better that a more explicit answer to the hon. and learned Gentleman's question should stand over. After it had been made, he should be prepared to give the hon. and learned Gentleman the fullest information on the subject.

assured the right hon. Baronet, that in putting the question he had not the least wish to embarrass the Government. The truth was, that he should long since have put a similar question to Ministers, but that he felt a delicacy, owing to the state of his late Majesty's health, in provoking a discussion of matters which might be contingent on his Majesty's recovery.

thought that a most fitting occasion to offer a few words in explanation of what had fallen from him on Saturday last, respecting the conduct of the Lord High Steward. Since he had made his complaint of that noble person he had inquired into the causes of the delay which had provoked his complaint, and had learned that the Lord Steward Windsor Castle, bound to take into his custody the body of his late Majesty, till it was handed over to the superintendence of the Lord Chamberlain, and that he was not relieved from that custody so as to enable him to attend on the House of Commons earlier than he had attended on Saturday. Had he been aware of this circumstance while waiting in the Long Gallery, he should not have indulged in the remarks which he had felt it his duty to make to the House when he last addressed it. In stating this, however, he begged it to be understood, that he felt then, as he did now, that the House could not be too jealously vigilant of every thing like an intrenchment on its constitutional privileges,—the rather at the commencement of a new reign, and after the manifestations which had been recently made in certain quarters, of a disposition to encroach too much on those privileges. That House could never too closely watch every such manifestation; and could never too earnestly and too often enforce the principle, that it was on its constitutional, that is, free-willed, unbiassed support alone, that the executive could rely for the means of carrying on the government.

felt himself precluded from entering into a discussion of the point mooted by the hon. and learned Gentleman, after what he had stated of his Majesty's intention to-morrow. With respect, however, to what had fallen from the hon. and learned Gentleman on Saturday, in relation to the delay of the Lord Steward's attendance in that House, he might observe, that he was sure the hon. and learned Gentleman's remarks would have been less severe, had he first acquainted himself, as he had admitted he had done since, with the circumstances which led to them. The hon. and learned Gentleman had himself admitted as much; he therefore need not dwell on the matter. It was hardly necessary for him to add, that the Lord Steward neither had, nor could have, the remotest intention to offer an affront to that House, and that his not attending sooner than he did, was owing to anything rather than a want of due respect for the privileges of the House. When facts were referred to, it would be found that the noble person he alluded to had been in immediate attendance upon his late Majesty till after three o'clock in the morning; so that he could not well attend to his duties as Lord Steward in that House before four o'clock on the same day, when he did arrive. The delay, he repeated, was consequent upon his duties as Constable of Windsor Castle, and not at all owing to a want of proper respect for that House.

thought the right hon. Baronet's explanation of the Lord Steward's non-attendance till a comparatively late hour on Saturday perfectly satisfactory. The inconvenience of the present system of taking the oaths before the Lord Steward had long been felt by hon. Members; the more so, as the oaths were wholly unnecessary, so far as that officer was concerned. He had himself, eighteen or nineteen years ago, brought in a bill to do away with the necessity of the Lord Steward's attendance as at present, and thence with the occasions of complaint like that made on Saturday by the hon. and learned member for Knaresborough; which bill had passed through that House, but was thrown out in the other House:—why,"he never could well satisfy himself. Notwithstanding, however, his failure on that occasion, he gave notice that he should again bring forward a similar bill on the earliest opportunity, and thus prevent a recurrence of the inconvenience experienced on Saturday in consequence of the Lord Steward's not attending at an early hour.