§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ MR. SERJEANT SIMON,in moving that the Bill be now read a second time, said, it had been prepared with great care by Mr. Saunders, Recorder of Bath, and had received the approval of the hon. and learned Gentleman the Attorney General. The object of the measure was to give the Judge discretion to allow the jury to separate for necessary purposes in cases of felony when the trial was so long that it required to be postponed over several days, and to legalize the postponement of trials for the production of additional evidence. It also proposed to amend the Common Law by rendering it compulsory that a prisoner against whom a verdict was returned should be taken before a justice of the peace. The hon. and learned Gentleman concluded by moving the second reading.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time."—(Mr. Serjeant Simon.)
THE ATTORNEY GENERALsaid, that the Bill contained many valuable amendments of the criminal law, which would be very useful until the law could be codified. He would therefore consent to the second reading; but while doing so, would not pledge himself to the whole of its details. He hoped that ample time would be given before the Committee was taken, because it was possible the provisions affecting Coroners might be superseded or transferred to a Bill relating to Coroners which the Government proposed to introduce; and, 1960 until that Bill was settled, it would be convenient to the Government that this Bill should not be considered in Committee.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Bill read a second time, and committed for Monday 16th April.