The Marquis of Buckinghamrose and begged leave to call the attention of the House to the innovations which had been made on that bill since it was last before their lordships, particularly in those clauses by which the presidents of the regimental courts martial are required to be on oath themselves, and to administer oaths to the other members of the court, and to the witness to examined. The noble marquis stated that it was not his intention, on these grounds, to oppose the 2d reading of the bill, but merely to call the attention of their lordships, and of the noble earl who forwarded the public business through this House, to the alteration which he had noticed. He had at the same to regret, in common with the noble and learned lord on the woolsack, the disagreeable situation in which that House often felt itself placed, of either impeding the business of the nation, by interfering in bills to which, by the usage of parliament, any alteration made by them must prove fatal, or of passing bills which were grossly defective and objectionable.
Lord Walsinghamconceived that the observations of the noble marquis were irregular and premature. He knew it was in the contemplation of the noble earl (Camdem ) when he should come to move the 2d reading of the bill, to notice the alterations to which the noble marquis had alluded.
The Earl of Camdenhaving moved the 2d reading of the bill, recapitulated the different alterations which it had been deemed adviseable to make on it.
§ The Duke of Clarencesaid, it could by no means be supposed that it was his wish, at such a period, to object to the present bill. It was his intention, however, when the bill should be proposed to be committed, to call the attention of the house to the alterations which had now for the first time been introduced. He should therefore move that the house be summoned for the day on which the bill was meant to be committed. 18 —The bill was then ordered to be committed to-morrow, and the house to be summoned.