§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time."—(Viscount Curzon.)
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir CHARLES RUSSELL, Hackney, S.)I do not think the Bill is one which ought to be read a second time without some explanation of its provisions being advanced by the hon. Member in whose name it stands. If there are to be further exemptions they must be, much more widely extended than they are in the Bill. There are large classes of subjects of the Crown now liable to serve as jurors who have as strong a claim to exemption as those persons proposed to be exempted by the hon. Member. Under the circumstances, I beg to move that the Debate be now adjourned.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Debate be now adjourned."—? (Sir Charles Russell.)
VISCOUNT CURZONappealed to the hon. Gentleman to allow this Bill to proceed. The measure had supporters in every quarter of the House, and if passed it would be the first recognition by Parliament of the services performed by firemen in the cause of saving life and property. He was confident that no one whose name was on the back of the Bill would wish it to pass in an unfair or improper way; but as he thought it was the general wish of the House that the matter should come before Parliament in the form in which he presented it he hoped the Government would allow the Bill to pass that stage.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Debate adjourned till To-morrow.