[BILL 48.] CONSIDERATION. (Hansard, 21 March 1879)

§ MR. ONSLOW
said, he would like to point out what he considered to be a great defect in this Bill. Clause 6 of the Bill said that Any person who shall be the owner, or lessee, or in possession or occupation of any open or enclosed land or space for which a licence for horse-racing is required under this Act, and upon which any horse-race shall be held, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. It was absurd, in his opinion, to say that the owner, or any person in possession or occupation, should be treated in this way.

§ MR. SPEAKER
The Question before the House is that the Bill shall be considered, and the hon. Member is out of Order in discussing at this stage a clause in the Bill. I understand the hon. Member to be objecting to a particular clause.

§ MR. ONSLOW
said, that he objected to a Bill by which it was provided that the owner, or occupier, or person in possession of any land within the limits of the Bill, upon which any horse-racing took place, was guilty of a misdemeanor. That was, even if the horse-racing were without the cognizance of such a person, yet he was made liable to be fined and treated as a misdemeanant. It appeared to him to be rather a curious state of things, that in any place near the 1491 Metropolis the owner of a piece of land upon which a horse-race should take place, without his cognizance, was to be liable to be fined as for a misdemeanor. He would ask the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he would consider this matter?

§ MR. RAMSAY
rose to Order. He did not think that the hon. Gentleman was in Order in discussing a clause of the Bill after the Speaker had ruled that he was not in Order.

§ MR. SPEAKER
I understood the hon. Member to be stating his reason why the Bill should not be now considered; but the discussion of a particular clause is certainly out of Order.

§ MR. ONSLOW
explained that he was stating his reasons why the Bill should not be considered. Supposing a prizefight took place upon a piece of land, the owner of which knew nothing whatever about it, it would be very hard that the owner or lessee of that land should be fined and punished in the matter. In his opinion, the Bill would act very hardly upon the owners of land near the Metropolis, and, at any moment, persons might come upon land, and, without the knowledge of its owner, commit offences against this Bill for which the owner would be liable. He would ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention had been drawn to the provisions of the Bill, and whether he would sanction such a state of things as, unquestionably, it would give rise to?

MR. ASSHETON CROSS
said, that under the ruling of the Speaker, with which he entirely agreed, he could not discuss any particular clause of the Bill. He might say, however, that it seemed to him that the proper course for the hon. Member to take, if he objected to the Bill, was to put down an Amendment at the proper time, and thus raise the question.

§ MR. ANDERSON
said, that he proposed the Bill should be read a third time that evening.

MR. ASSHETON CROSS
said, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had stated that no other Bills were to be taken that day.

§ MR. ANDERSON
said, it was quite understood that what the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer meant was that no other 1492 Government Bills were to be taken. But he would like to ask Mr. Speaker if the statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer bore the meaning which the hon. Gentleman the Home Secretary attached to it?

MR. ASSHETON CROSS
understood his right hon. Friend to be speaking generally, and he appealed to hon. Members present as to whether it was not a general understanding that no other Business should take place that night?

§ MR. ANDERSON
asked if the right hon. Gentleman would have any objection to the third reading being taken at that time?

MR. ASSHETON CROSS
said, he could not assent to that course.

§ MR. SPEAKER
What does the hon. Member propose to do?

§ MR. ANDERSON
To take the third reading now.

§ MR. SPEAKER
On occasions of urgency two stages of a Bill are sometimes taken at the same Sitting; but, except in such cases, it is not usual to take two stages of a Bill at the same time.