§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time."—Mr. Dodds.)
§ MR. C. WILSONsaid, he had given Notice of opposition to this Bill, because it appeared to him not only an unnecessary Bill, but also a highly objectionable Bill. It was brought in by the Hull Docks Company for the purpose of cancelling powers that had been given to the Corporation of Hull to take the Docks upon trust. It was also intended to give power to the Hull Docks Company to enclose the Dock Quays, to build and employ steamers, tugs, and lighters; and it contained further powers of a most important character. The Corporation of Hull had petitioned against the Bill. The merchants, shipowners, lighter-owners, and others, had also petitioned against it. He knew that in dividing the House against the second reading of the Bill an objection would be raised that he was taking a somewhat unusual course; but his objections to the Bill were of the strongest possible character. The Bill proposed, as he said, to enable the Dock Company to fence off and enclose the Dock Quays situate in the very heart of the densely populated town, and it would deprive the public of their rights of way over the same. He objected to the Bill not 1720 only from a commercial, but from a sanitary point of view. But he was told by his friends that these and other matters were points which ought to be left for the decision of a Committee upstairs, who would take into consideration all the allegations contained in the Petitions which had been lodged against the Bill. Therefore, under the circumstances, and acting by the advice of his friends, he did not think that, at the present stage of the Bill, he should be warranted in carrying his opposition to it to a division. He would content himself with having stated some of the objections to the Bill without moving that the Bill be rejected.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ Bill read a second time, and committed.