§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
§ LORD O'HAGAN, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, it was to enable the Chairmen of Counties in Ireland to take small partnership accounts, and also to enable them to deal with cases in which questions of title might arise during the hearing of them. At present they had no jurisdiction in such matters; and the result was that poor persons who could not bear the expense of an appeal to a Superior Court of Law or Equity suffered a denial of justice, and sometimes took the law into their own hands and avenged themselves by violence against those for whose wrong-doing they could obtain no legitimate redress. The Bill was only a small instalment of a larger measure which must soon enlarge the powers of the County Courts of Ireland, and give them the equitable jurisdiction which those of 1341 England had long been allowed to exercise with great advantage to the public.
§ Motion agreed to: Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Tuesday next.