§ Order for Consideration read.
§ MR. KNIGHTsaid, he believed this Bill to be "a job." It had been introduced into the House of Lords at a late period of the Session, and hurried through its stages in that House at unseasonable hours. For instance, it passed through Committee at Two o'clock in the morning. It had not been printed as amended, and it was impossible to tell how it then stood. The professed object of the Bill was to provide for improved education of attorneys and solicitors. There was no fault to find with the first clause which professed to improve the education of solicitors by enabling persons who had taken a degree at a University to be admitted to practise as attorneys two years earlier than those 1380 who had not taken a degree. But under the profession of a desire to improve the education of solicitors there were concealed three or four most questionable propositions. For instance, the Bill proposed that the Law Society should hereafter issue to solicitors their certificates, which at present were issued by the Government authorities at Somerset House. Again, for the last century the Law List had been published by the authority of Somerset House, but the Bill would transfer the publication to a Committee of Solicitors. These were provisions of an important character, which demanded a full, fair, and free discussion. Had the Bill been confined to educational provision it could have met with no opposition, and might have been introduced at a much earlier period.
§ Notice taken, that Forty Members were not present; House counted; and Forty Members not being present,
§ The House was adjourned at half-past Seven o'clock.