§ VISCOUNT MORPETHsaid, he observed that the second reading of the Smoke Prohibition Bill stood for to-day, but he hoped the hon. Member who had charge of it would not proceed with it this Session. If the hon. Member felt disposed to give way for the present Session, although he (Lord Morpeth) would give no pledge that he would introduce a measure next Session, yet he would promise to give the subject his best attention, to see whether it would be practicable to carry out the suggestions of scientific and practical men, with a view to legislation on this subject.
§ MR. MACKINNONshould feel gratification in acceding to the wish of the noble Lord, but he felt some difficulty in so doing. From every part of the country, especially from Leeds and Manchester, he was receiving the most pressing letters to carry forward his Bill. He felt himself in a difficult position; for if he gave up the Bill, he should make himself liable to the censures to which he had been exposed in some of the leading journals of the day. It was only this week he had been held up to reproach for having given up his Cemetery Bill. Still, after the application made to him by the noble Lord—after, he might almost say, the pledge he had given him that the matter should be taken into consideration—he had no alternative but to accede to the noble Lord's wishes. Indeed, he should injure his own cause by any other course; for if he went to a division he should be beaten. He trusted that the able daily papers he had adverted to (particularly The Times), who might be disposed to think he had not done his duty in not pressing forward this Bill, would take into their consideration that an individual not connected with Her Majesty's Government had no chance of carrying a Bill like the present this Session. He trusted that when his conduct was next noticed by that journal—and it was an honour to be noticed by it, except in a disgraceful manner—the gentlemen by whom it was conducted would remember, that a Member unsupported by the Government, had it not in his power to carry the Bill through the House. The best way, perhaps, of carrying the subject, was by mooting it continually, so that the pressure might come from without upon any Government that might be in office. Unless year by year he had pushed forward the Cemetery Bill and the Smoke Prohibition Bill, there would not have been the most distant chance of carrying these legislative measures. But having done so for several years, the public feeling would now, he trusted, carry them into effect. He now, with great satisfaction, placed in the hands of the noble Lord a pet child of his own, which he trusted would be comforted and nourished by him.
§ Bill to be read a second time that day month.