§ MR. M'LARENasked the Lord Advocate, Whether, having regard to the promise he made to the House on the part of Her Majesty's Government in the Session of 1871, to bring in a Bill during the succeeding Session for the Abolition of all Compulsory Local Rates and Assessments for building and repairing churches and manses in Scotland, and seeing that the pressure of other business prevented this from being done last Session, whether he is now prepared to introduce the promised Bill, and at what date it may be expected to be brought in?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE,in reply, said, the promise he made in 1871 was that he would give his best attention to the whole subject of Rates and Assessments in Scotland, for the purpose of amending and upholding ecclesiastical buildings, and that it was his intention in the course of that Session to introduce a measure upon the subject. But he also stated that with respect to such a measure—and also with respect to some other measures which were not merely in contemplation but were actually prepared—it was not advisable, with a view to their success, to introduce them into Parliament without some reasonable prospect of being able to pass them into 646 law. No such opportunity had as yet occurred; but he was not without hope—a sanguine hope—that he might have such an opportunity during the present Session.