LORDS' AMENDMENTS. (Hansard, 17 July 1862)

THE LORD ADVOCATE
, in moving that the Lords' Amendments to this Bill be considered, said, the Bill had come down from the other House under circumstances such as he never remembered as having occurred before. The Bill had been thoroughly considered in the House of Commons in all its stages. It had been sent up to the other House in ample time, it had been discussed there in all its stages, and it was not until the last stage—the third reading—that any important Amendment had been proposed. It was on the third reading that a clause was introduced which had entirely changed the character of the Bill. The Bill as it left that House proposed to continue the Board of Commissioners for two years; but an alteration had been made in the clause, by which all the advantages of the legislation of 1857 were lost for the want of machinery to carry it out. 478 The Bill had come back in the midst of a fire of artillery from out of doors greater than he had ever recollected in regard to any Scotch measure; but he denied that any imputation rested upon him, or that he had been guilty of any breach of faith. He had not been guilty of any breach of arrangement in striking the 22nd clause out of the Bill. It was struck out after full discussion, and its omission certainly did not escape the attention of the great majority of the Scotch Members. There was no understanding that he should put in a clause repealing the provision of 1857, but quite the reverse. He felt that he had no other alternative than to move now that the Lords' Amendment on this subject should not be agreed to. The Amendment had been proposed at a time when it was generally supposed that the Bill would pass with but trifling Amendments; and under that impression many Scotch Members had left town. The Amendment made in the other House had been made without any notice, and the country had had no opportunity of considering it.

§ MR. BLACKBURN
said, that any one who was acquainted with the learned Lord Advocate must acquit him of any intention to mislead or deceive, or any breach of trust on any side. The effect of the Lords' Amendment was that the Board should continue in existence as long as the Act should continue. He therefore proposed, as a mode of settling this matter, an Amendment upon the Amendment of the Lords, to the effect that the Board should continue till Parliament should otherwise determine.

THE LORD ADVOCATE
said, he should willingly have accepted such an Amendment in Committee; but he had doubts about accepting it now that so many of the Scotch Members were away. What he objected to was that the Bill as it came from the Lords destroyed the machinery by which the Act could be worked.

§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSON
hoped the 479 hon. Member for the Ayr Burghs would not press his Motion. The compromise proposed by the hon. Member for Stirlingshire was a very fair one, and would give general satisfaction in Scotland.