But what I particularly wish to impress upon your lordships is this:—that, to whatever occurrences they might owe their origin, the arguments and mode of reasoning contained in them have little reference to Any Particular Crisis; but turn chiefly, if not entirely, on those fixed and unalterable tenets of Popery, which then bound, and still continues to bind, all Papists in obedience to the holy see.
upon securities, yet, that in the event of Any Particular Crisis arising, a power was to be reserved by the Bill enabling the Bank of England, with the consent of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Master of the Mint, to extend their issue upon securities beyond that amount.
Two years only have passed over since the Government of which the noble Lord was a member introduced this Bill, not to meet the exigencies of Any Particular Crisis, but to effect a permanent settlement of the commercial exigencies of the country: and it was thought by the noble Lord, and by the eminent individual who originated the measure, and also by the Houses of Parliament, in which the measure was scarcely opposed at all—in this House certainly it was very little opposed—to be a just measure for the permanent settlement of the question.
While I say that, I also fully grant that it is equally poor statesmanship not to try and find out what there is defensible, rational, and logical at the bottom of the feeling which at Any Particular Crisis has been excited in the country.
and, that being so, is it wise, is it necessary, to draft your amending Act in connection with the Navy in such a way as must necessarily make it more difficult for the Indian Legislature in the future to come to our assistance voluntarily in Any Particular Crisis?
I would like, although I am sorry to see he is no longer in his place, to say a special word of congratulation to the hon. Member for North Camberwell (Mr. Manning), with whom I had, as he so kindly recalled, a close association during the period when he was acting as Civil Defence Controller for the borough of Camberwell; and, in referring to him, I should like to congratulate him upon not having been misled by three, or, it may be, four, experienced hon. Members of the House who preceded him and who fell into the heresy of supposing a rearrangement of Government Departments has always to be effected to meet Any Particular Crisis that arises.
If the Minister wants the men to meet Any Particular Crisis, the House and the British people will give him authority, as they have given Ministers authority in the past.
They provided no opportunity for a full and considered review of the law on terrorism, and this Bill, although not enacted in response to Any Particular Crisis, does not provide such a review either.