§ Order for Committee read.
§ House in Committee.
§ MR. W. EWARTexplained that the ob- 1051 ject of the Bill was to give facilities for the improvement of cottage accommodation in Scotland, which at present was in a very unsatisfactory state. This he proposed to do by extending the provisions of the Montgomery Act. By that Act the owner of entailed property was allowed to charge the estate with a portion of the money expended in improvements to the extent of three-fifths, on the principle of charging futurity with part of the cost of present improvements. That Act, and subsequent legislation in the same direction, did not, however, extend to the building of labourers' cottages, and the object of the Bill before the Committee was to remedy the omission.
§ MR. G. W. HOPEsaid, he had no objection to the Bill, but he wished to have a recital introduced into the preamble setting forth that doubts were entertained that Montgomery's Act extended to labourers' cottages, which doubts should not be allowed to continue. He also proposed to make the Bill declaratory instead of en-active.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Clauses agreed to.
§ House resumed.
§ Bill reported; as amended, to be considered on Friday.