SECOND READING. (Hansard, 10 July 1884)

§ Mr. COCHRAN-PATRICK
said, the object of the Bill which he was about to ask the House to read a second time was to clear up the difficulty which existed in the legal procedure of the two countries with regard to personal estates of domiciled persons. As to the manner of doing this, he was prepared to admit that there might be other means of gaining the same end, although that which he now proposed commended itself most to his judgment.

THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR)
said, there could be no doubt that there was a difference between the laws of the two countries which ought to be reconciled. He need not go into the matter further than to say that it was one that, in his opinion, ought to be made the subject of legislation, which there seemed to be room for not only on this, but on various other matters of jurisdiction as between the two countries. They were all agreed that this subject should be dealt with; and therefore, without affirming that the present Bill went to the root of the whole question, he was prepared to assent to its being read a second time.

§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL (Sir FARRER HERSCHELL)
said, his right hon. Friend spoke entirely from the Scotch point of view. He was not going to differ from him with regard to the second reading of this Bill; but he would remark that the question which it involved was a very difficult one, and that Englishmen had some slight interest in 788 the matter. The Bill did not deal with the property of domiciled Englishmen and Scotsmen in the same way, and it was his opinion that that was a matter which ought to be dealt with on some common basis. The principal object to be kept in view was that the estates of persons, wherever domiciled, should be administered where they could be administered most economically, and the question was as to the best way of carrying that into effect. He was not quite satisfied that the best way was proposed in the Bill. He quite agreed that everything pointed to the desirability of arriving at an agreement on this subject in accordance with the views of both countries; and he had only risen for the purpose of raising the question as to whether the best way of doing that had been found.