§ * LORD KNUTSFORDIn moving the Second Reading of this Bill, I may explain that by the Passengers Act of 1855, the Governor of a colony or British Consul was authorized to defray the expenses of any passenger of a disabled or abandoned passenger ship who had been picked up at sea, and by the later Act of 1863 those powers were extended to cases of passengers of passenger ships who found themselves through no neglect or fault of their own in some colony or foreign port. But certain restrictions were imposed by those Acts. They only applied to passenger ships carrying a certain number of passengers and also proceeding on certain specified voyages. It has been found inconvenient that those restrictions should be left in force. They have given rise to 111 certain anomalous cases, and therefore it is proposed, with the assent of the Board of Trade, that those restrictions should be removed. The Bill is a short Bill for that purpose, and I have to ask your Lordships to give it a Second Reading.
§ Read 2a (according to order), and committed to the Standing Committee for General Bills.