§ Lord John Russellsaid, that having given notice of his intention to proceed with the Administration of Justice Bill, he had ventured to hope that as that bill had been very much discussed in the other House of Parliament, as it had been a long time before a select committee, and as it met with very general concurrence, at this period of the Session no objection would 1156 be made to proceeding with it. The right hon. and learned Gentleman opposite had, however, given notice of a motion on the subject with regard to the whole question of the administration of justice in the House of Lords, and before the Privy Council, and had likewise stated, that at this period of the Session the bill ought not to be persevered in. He thought that this notice of the right hon. Gentleman took away from the bill that very general and unanimous support which he had hoped to receive, and which formed the only justification for carrying forward a bill of such great importance at a time when there was a thin attendance, and when many Members most competent to give an opinion on the subject were absent. He had therefore, in this state of things, to inform the House, that it was not his intention to proceed with the bill in the present Session, but he would propose a similar bill early in the next Session. He begged to move that the order of the day for the second reading of the bill be read for the purpose of being discharged.
§ Sir E. Sugdensaid, he had never denied the necessity of some measure like the present, but he thought it ought to be accompanied with improvements in courts, either connected with the equity courts or being courts of appeal from them. In the next Session he should have no objection to the introduction of the bill then on the table of the House, with the view of making it the foundation of a measure really beneficial to the administration of justice.
§ Order of the Day read and discharged.