§ Order for Second Reading read.
10§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time."
§ MR. COURTNEY (Cornwall, Bodmin)I wish to remind the House that under a Standing Order it is provided that the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means shall make a Report in regard to the Second Reading of any Bill under which it is intended to alter or confirm a contract with a Public Department. This Bill contains no reference to any such contract, but, as originally presented, it did contain a clause confirming a contract between the Secretary for War and the London and Southwestern Railway Company to pay £1,000 towards certain roads at Aldershot. If that clause were in the Bill now it might come under the Standing Order, but the Lords struck it out, and the agreement with it. Therefore, as it is not in the Bill now, it is not in my power to call attention to it. The agreement to pay, £1,000 towards the expense of these roads was in the Estimates last year, and the money has been paid. The only object of the present clause now in the Bill is to bind the Railway Company in respect of the Secretary for War, and to bind the War Department in respect of the Railway Company.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Bill read a second time, and committed.