§ MR. MONCKTON MILNESsaid, he believed that an erroneous impression prevailed in some quarters that the Marriage Law Amendment Bill, of which he moved the second reading on Wednesday last, was lost in consequence of the adoption of the Amendment proposed by the hon. Member for Northamptonshire, North (Mr. Hunt), he would, therefore, beg to ask Mr. Speaker, in what way he could proceed with that measure so as to act with the greatest respect to the decision at which the House had arrived, and without availing himself of any technical advantage which the forms of the House might be thought to give him?
§ MR. SPEAKEROn the order for the second reading of the Marriage Law Amendment Bill the House declined to read the Bill a second time, and passed a Resolution to the effect that any measure having for its object the placing of the Law of Marriage, in regard to the prohibited degrees, on a different footing in different parts of the United Kingdom would be highly inconvenient. That Resolution docs not dispose of the Marriage Law Amendment Bill, and it is competent to the hon. Gentleman to ask the House to name another day for the second reading of the Bill. I am not quite sure whether the hon. Member's question did not go further, and whether he did not ask me what course he could pursue, observing due respect for the decision of the House. If that question was addressed to me, I should say that the most direct way of making his Bill conformable to the opinion of the House as expressed in the Resolution of Wednesday, would be to withdraw the Bill and to re-introduce it in such an amended shape as might make it in harmony with that expressed opinion.