§ SECOND READING.
§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time."—(Sir Charles Forster.)
310THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (Mr. COURTNEY) (Cornwall, Bodmin)Perhaps the House will allow me to make one or two observations in regard to this Bill. It is a Bill for the construction of a road, to start opposite the Horse Guards from the site of what was Lord Carrington's house, and passing down by the Offices of the Board of Trade towards the Thames Embankment. The Bill contains power to the promoters to enter into agreements with the Office of Woods and Forests, and the Office of Works. Those agreements are not specified, and as they might involve certain charges on the Public Revenue I might have considered it my duty to make a special Report to the House on the matter; but the promoters of the Bill have pledged themselves to strike out altogether the powers of agreement contained in the Bill, so that the Bill will go before the Committee without them. It will then be in the form of the Westminster Improvement Bill of last Session to which I called the attention of the House, as a Bill which might involve a charge had not its promoters promised to strike out the powers of agreement in it. The House consented, on my representation, to allow the Bill to proceed with the clauses struck out. I accept the statement of the promoters in regard to the present measure, and, therefore, I do not intend to oppose the further progress of the Bill.
Motion agreed to.
Bill read a second time, and committed.