§ SIR JAMES GRAHAMthen rose and said, he had to present a petition which he considered of very great importance. It was from the Incorporated Law Society of Solicitors and Proctors throughout the United Kingdom, and it was against the further progress of the Registration of Assurances Bill. It set forth that they had been charged with having an interest in this Bill adverse to the landed proprietors. They disclaimed having any such interest, because, although the Bill would diminish the number of transfers of land, yet the cost of each transfer would be considerably greater than heretofore. They then set forth that this Bill, as it had come down from the House of Lords, would render it necessary to have all deeds in duplicate, and that it would lead to a disclosure of family arrangements and settlements, which they considered unsafe; that the experience of the registration in Middlesex afforded a very doubtful example; that the Bill would be adverse to the sale and purchase of small properties in laud; that it involved a principle entirely at variance with the stream of modern legislation on real property; that the machinery provided by the Bill was inadequate; and under all these circumstances, considering the advanced period of the Session, they requested that the Bill should be postponed, or at all events that there should be some inquiry before a Select Committee into its merits. He wished to ask the noble Lord at the head of the Government whether he in- 563 tended to proceed with the Second Reading of the Bill that evening; and, if such were his intention, whether he proposed to press the Bill through to its final consummation this Session?
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLsaid, that it was not his intention to move the Second Reading of the Bill that evening. It was a Bill of such importance, that it was desirable to have its nature and objects clearly stated to the House on the Motion for the Second Reading; and he had therefore asked his right hon. Friend the Master of the Rolls, to move the Second Reading. He proposed that it should be taken on Monday, the 21st inst., and it certainly was his hope, considering the very great importance of the subject, after it had been considered by a Commission for a very long time—after it had been before the House of Lords, and had obtained the general consent of those Members of that House who were learned in the law—it certainly was the intention of the Government to press that Bill this Session. It might be convenient that he should state the arrangement of public business for next week. They would have a Committee of Supply that night, and he should take Supply again on Monday, after the third reading of Bills not likely to lead to discussion, and again on Thursday next. If they were enabled to get through Committee of Supply on Thursday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer would move on Friday the Third Reading of the Customs Bill, on which occasion the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Stamford (Mr. Herries) would, according to his notice, make a statement to the House by way of amendment to the Bill. He (Lord J. Russell) did not propose, however, that they should move the Third Reading of the Customs Bill until they had got through Committee of Supply, and it would only be in case they got through it on Thursday that he would proceed with the Customs Bill on Friday.