§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ MR. BIGGAR,in moving that the Bill be now read a second time, said, hon. Members were well aware that the custom which prevailed respecting political prisoners was, that they should be put in to prison and treated just in the same manner as the prisoners of all descriptions. He and his hon. Friends held that that was a principle which should not be agreed to, and they thought there should be some amelioration in the condition of such prisoners. He was not exactly responsible for the Bill, but the responsible Gentleman was the hon. Member for Mayo (Mr. O'Connor Power), who took a great interest in the subject. What he (Mr. Biggar) would like to see was that the Government should agree to the second reading, and then on the Motion for going into Committee the hon. Member for Mayo might have an opportunity of defending the principle of the Bill, and of pointing out the manner in which the Bill should be carried out.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time."—(Mr. Biggar.)
§ Mr. J. LOWTHERsaid, there was one thing which the hon. Gentleman had not alluded to, and it was that the Bill had not yet been printed. Under the circumstances, he could not consent to the second reading.
§ SIR JOSEPH M'KENNA,although he sympathized with the objects of the Bill, hoped that, under the circumstances, it would be withdrawn for the present. It was hardly fair to ask the House to pass 736 the second reading when it had not been able to read the Bill at all.
It being a quarter of an hour before Six of the clock, the Debate stood adjourned till To-morrow.