SECOND READING. (Hansard, 18 December 1888)

THE EARL OF DUNRAVEN
, in moving that the Bill be now read a second time, said, that the Bill had passed the House of Commons without objection, and had been amended by the Attorney General. It must, therefore, in its present state, meet with the approval of Her Majesty's Government. The object of the Bill was to give to wages in this country the same conditions of justice as they received in other countries in respect to their priority in cases of bankruptcy, liquidation, or the winding up of companies. The Bill proposed, in cases where the landlord distrained for recovery of rent, to give a priority to Local Authorities and to wages up to a certain extent. But the 622 Bill provided, in the event of the distress not being sufficient to meet all the requirements of the case, that the landlord should have the right, which he did not now possess, of priority over the general assets and total estate of the company in liquidation, or of the bankrupt. Therefore the Bill took away no practical right from the landlord, but would do away with much hardship to the wage-earning classes of the country. If their lordships would read the Bill a second time, he should move that the Bill be committed on Thursday next, and move the suspension of the Standing Orders in order to carry it through on the same day.

THE SECRETARY TO THE BOARD OF TRADE (The Earl of ONSLOW)
said, he was not sure that the Bill would have its intended effect if it did not apply to the estates of debtors dying insolvent. Therefore he should move an Amendment to the Bill in the next stage, though he should be unwilling in any way to imperil its passing.

§ THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (Earl CADOGAN)
said, that he believed the Bill was not intended to apply to Ireland, where the law of bankruptcy was different from that of England; but that, as it stood at present, it would so apply. He should, therefore, move an Amendment to exclude Ireland from its operation.