§ Order for Committee read.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair."—(Mr. Evelyn Ashley.)
§ MR. WARTONsaid, he wished to call attention to the character of this Bill and the mode of its introduction. If it were a Government Bill, it was not introduced by the right Department; it should have come from the Local Government Board; but, instead of that, it was brought on by the hon. Member for the Isle of Wight (Mr. Evelyn Ashley), who represented the Board of Trade; and the Bill was an ingenious attempt to confer an exceptional benefit on the Isle of Wight by exempting it from the operation of a clause in a former Act, although the Isle of Wight had not disturnpiked its roads, which was the condition precedent to gaining the benefit of that clause. He did not scruple to say that he never knew of a measure of that character being attempted to be passed at that period of the Session; and he felt it to be his duty, in the interests of justice, to oppose it. He should, therefore, move that the House resolve itself into Committee on that Bill upon that day three months.
§
Amendment proposed,
To leave out from the word "That" to the end of the Question, in order to add the words "this House will, upon this day three months, resolve itself into the said Committee,"—(Mr. Warton,)
—instead thereof.
§ Question proposed, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the Question."
§ MR. EVELYN ASHLEYsaid, he trusted that he could show that the hon. and learned Member, however much he might have desired to be fair in reference to this Bill, had been very much the reverse. The Isle of Wight had its own Highway Commissioners, and had had them ever since 1813. In 1878 an Act of Parliament was passed relating to highways, by which, through an oversight, certain burdens were imposed upon the Isle of Wight, although that place was expressly excluded from par- 806 ticipating in the benefits which the measure conferred upon the other parts of the Kingdom. In these circumstances, the present measure had been brought in for the purpose of relieving the Island from those burdens.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Main Question, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair," put, and agreed to.
§ Bill considered in Committee, and reported, without Amendment.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read the third time."—(Mr. Evelyn Ashley.)
§ MR. WARTONobjected to the Motion, and pointed out that the last stage of a Bill could only be taken, in the circumstances, with the consent of the House.
§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORsupported the objection, and asked the Speaker whether the third reading of a Bill could be taken without Notice when any hon. Member objected to that course being pursued?
§ MR. SPEAKERThere is no rule in the case. On the contrary, at this period of the Session the additional stage of a Bill is very frequently taken.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Bill read the third time, and passed.