§ MR. BOUVERIEwished to know whether the Police Clauses Bill was a Government measure, as it contained many very harsh and objectionable clauses?
§ SIR G. GREYsaid, that he was glad that his hon. Friend had put the question, as it afforded him the opportunity of explaining to the House the position in which the Bill stood. That Bill was not, in the ordinary understanding of the word, a Government measure. It had not been prepared at the instance, nor was it introduced under the responsibility, of the Government; but it was one of a series of measures recommended by an Officer of that and the other House of Parliament, and by the Gentleman who was employed to prepare the drafts of Government measures; and it had been drawn up in pursuance of an order of the House, founded upon the report of the Committee on Private Business, over which the hon. Member for Montrose had presided last Session. It was one of the Consolidation Bills—the object of which was to include the usual clauses relating to police, inserted in local Bills in one general measure. He had, during the vacation, undertaken to direct that the draft of the Bill should be prepared; and the same course had been taken with it as with all the other Bills of a similar character—it had been referred to a Select Committee up stairs, in which each clause would be separately and fully considered. He had thought that some of the clauses inserted in the present Bill had been new clauses; but he had found out that that was not the case. If, however, they were as objectionable as they had been represented to be, they would receive every attention at the hands of the Com- 734 mittee, and be no doubt properly dealt with.