§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time."—(Mr. Richard Power.)
§ SIR WILFRID LAWSONsaid, he should like to know what this Bill was about.
§ MR. RICHARD POWERsaid, that the Bill was simply to give a close time for hares in the same way that there was a close time for partridges, snipe, and other animals. It was a very short Bill, and he was really surprised that the hon. Baronet the Member for Carlisle should offer any objection to it. It was not a Bill directed against poor people, but it was a Bill for the people, and it was asked for by the tenant farmers of Ireland. The Bill would benefit every- 507 one—it would benefit the landlord, the tenant, and the hares immensely. The spring was the time when these animals were so wantonly destroyed, and during which it was proposed to protect them. Looking at the names on the back of the Bill, he was the more surprised that there should be any objection to it—some were Liberals, some Conservatives, and one was a Home Ruler; and the owner of the first name on the Bill entertained political opinions which no one entertained except himself.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ Bill read a second time, and committed for To-morrow.