§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ EARL STANHOPE, in moving that the Bill be now read a second time, said, that the effect of it was to extend the provisions of a former Act of Parliament—namely, an Act 48 Geo. III c. 75. That Act enabled churchwardens or overseers to order the interment of bodies cast on shore from the sea to be buried, and the cost to be borne by the rates of the particular parish in which the bodies were found. The Bill extended this power by inserting the words "cast on shore from any tidal or navigable waters." Such an extension was really required, as the House would remember that lamentable difficulties arose in the case of the wreck of the Princess Alice, various parishes refusing to pay the cost of interment. The Bill had passed the House of Commons, with the approval of the Government and of both sides of the House, and he 359 hoped it would be accepted by their Lordships.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a."—(The Earl Stanhope.)
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Thursday next.