Professor Sir Charles Oman: 39. asked the First Commissioner of Works whether there is any intention of commemorating, by a small brass plate or otherwise, His Majesty's Address in Westminster Hall to the two Houses of Parliament on the occasion of His Silver Jubilee?
Professor Sir Charles Oman: 70. asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that the monument, erected in 1923 by the Spanish Government in honour of Wellington's Army, on the Castle Hill of St. Sebastian, has been recently much injured and mutilated and whether he will make representations to the present Spanish Government urging that it shall be repaired and guarded for the future?
Professor Sir Charles Oman: Would it surprise my right hon. Friend to know that witnesses who have been there quite recently say that it is not being repaired?
Professor Sir Charles Oman: If the Committee is discussing the possible length of an emergency in India, may I point out that the great India Mutiny commenced in the summer of 1857 and lasted to 1858. The last remnants of the mutineers were captured in 1859, and their leader was executed in September, 1859, two years after the emergency began.
Professor Sir Charles Oman: I must confess that I was rather surprised by the wording of this Clause. It begins: Where it is proposed that the Governor of a Province should. Proposed by whom? Proposed by himself? Proposed by one of his Ministers? Proposed by any body of Ministers? Proposed by the vote of the Provincial Assembly, or how? Surely, there never was a more ridiculous piece of absolutely bad drafting than the...
Professor Sir Charles Oman: It seems to me that in this matter there is no serious danger of injustice being done to anyone. Berar was not conquered from the Mahrattas by the Nizam's sword but by our sword. If the inhabitants do not desire to be put under this Mohammedan Prince I cannot for the life of me see why they should be.
Professor Sir Charles Oman: I want to point out that this term with a small "p" and a small "m" has no meaning at all, for prime minster in England is a vague and meaningless term which was applied, for example, to the Duke of Buckingham under Charles I. when the pamphleteers were abusing him. It was applied also to Lord Shaftesbury under Charles II. But it had no technical meaning. It was sometimes applied as an...
Professor Sir Charles Oman: I beg to move, in page 7, line 17, to leave out Subsection (2). I hope that the right hon. Gentleman in charge of the Bill may be able to see his way to accept this very harmless proposal, and in that event it will not be necessary for any person who is chosen to be a minister to secure for himself a place in one of the Houses of the Legislature. A person who is in every way qualified to be a...
Professor Sir Charles Oman: The idea of federation is a 19th century and a 20th century delusion which has been founded upon an insufficient number of instances. We have heard a great deal about Canada, South Africa, Australia and so forth, but we have not heard about the numerous rolls of confederacies and federations all down history which did not come off and have ceased, and were incompatible and came to an evil...
Professor Sir Charles Oman: I will not talk then about the Hanseatic League or the ancient leagues of Greece, in deference to your Ruling, but merely say that you really cannot federate the unfederatable. All the cases quoted as justification for federation should be remembered with the fact that they were concerned with different branches of European people, like the French and the English in Canada and the English and...
Professor Sir Charles Oman: If it is the federating of Princes you want, you shall have them. The most notable of such federations was the Holy Roman Empire.
Professor Sir Charles Oman: May I quote then Switzerland? There is the case of the Abbots of St. Gall and the Counts of Neuchatel who were Princes federated among the urban and rural cantons of that Federacy. I do not think what has happened to those rulers makes a happy prospect for any Maharaja to contemplate. The old princely States are now mere cantons—the Princes have vanished. The main thing I wanted to bring...
Professor Sir Charles Oman: It was New South Wales.
Professor Sir Charles Oman: Would it be permissible for a Sovereign who has been requested by His Majesty's Government to reside outside his own territories for a time to accede on behalf of himself and his successors and, secondly, is it possible for a regency acting for a minor, who may be 20 years ahead of coming of age, to accede in his name and, if so, will the power of acceding on behalf of these two classes of...
Professor Sir Charles Oman: I would ask those who sympathise with the Noble Lord the Member for Aldershot (Viscount Wolmer) to vote with him on this Amendment for the simple reason that, although I think that it has many doubtful points in it, it is 4,000 times letter than the deplorable scheme of Federation which the right hon. Gentleman in charge of the Bill has brought forward. I do not know whether the right hon....
Professor Sir Charles Oman: 38. asked the First Commissioner of Works whether he will take measures to secure that the persistent hammering on the scaffolds outside the windows of the Library of this House should be as far as possible restricted during the hours after mid-day, when the Library is in continual use by Members?
Professor Sir Charles Oman: 69. asked the Minister of Transport whether he can state a date after which the speed limit for built-up areas will become general and be enforced; and whether he is taking any measures to deal with municipalities, or other authorities, which have taken as yet no effective measures for the protection of the pedestrian in accordance with his recently published scheme?
Professor Sir Charles Oman: Will measures be taken to deal with the Oxford local council which, three months after the introduction of the scheme, have taken no effective measures for the introduction of schemes of the kind which have been so useful in London in their most congested streets?
Professor Sir Charles Oman: This Amendment, I think, raises the whole question of restrictions to be placed on the motoring fraternity. Would it not be possible to make still further restrictions, as the hon. Member for Bodmin (Mr. Isaac Foot) said—
Professor Sir Charles Oman: I must apologise to the Committee, but the greater part of the speeches which have been made were not about signs.