§ [SECOND READING.]
§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill now be read a second time."
MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)objected to the Bill passing its Second Reading without a word of explanation. Half the Bills that passed through their First Reading were presented at the Table without a word from their introducers, and he certainly thought when it came to the Second Reading some explanation should be given by the Member in charge of the Bill as to the reasons why it should be allowed to pass.
§ *MR. HUGH LAW (Donegal, W.)said that, if the House would give the Bill its Second Reading, he proposed to ask that it might be referred to the Standing Committee on Trade, where it would, of course, be examined in detail. The object of the Bill was to protect a sober husband against a drunken wife and a sober wife against a drunken husband.
SIR FREDERICK BANBUEY (Camberwell, Peckham)said if the husband was a confirmed drunkard this Bill prevented him from selling his wife's sewing machine, and if the wife was a confirmed drunkard it prevented her from selling her husband's tools.