§ As amended, considered.
§ On the Question that Clause 81 stand part of the Bill,
MR. JAMES LOWTHERI think this is the clause to which very great exception is taken. I have no objection to offer to the omission of the clause, but I think that this clause proposes to alter the general law, and we have a right to ask why a clause like this, which was opposed by the Local Government Board, should have been put in by any Committee of this House in the face of the Local Government Board's Report, presented in pursuance of its duties in regard to motions of this kind. I think a protest ought to be entered against the promoters of Private Bills introducing a change in the general law which has had the effect during the last two sessions of multiplying to such a degree the time taken up in this House on so-called Private Bill business, that we find continual inroads made on the General Statute Law, and I think it is high time the House entered an emphatic protest. I can only express my extreme surprise that any Committee of this House should have allowed such a clause in the Bill notwithstanding the Report of the Local Government Board, who had pointed out the great objections to the clause.
§ The clause was omitted and the other Amendments of the promoters agreed to.
§ Bill ordered to be read the third time.