§ In answer to Lord REDESDALE,
LORD BROUGHAMsaid, he was very much disinclined to withdraw the Charitable Trusts Bill, which stood for the second reading this evening; but he felt that the Session was too advanced, and the details were likely to cause so much discussion, that he feared he had no alternative. In postponing the measure, therefore, he begged to say he yielded to the pressure of circumstances which he could not resist. The subject was one of immense importance; and he contended that, instead of being introduced into the other House at a late period of the Session, the Bill ought to have been laid before their Lordships in the first instance, and at the earliest possible period, so as to have ensured that degree of attention from Parliament which the subject demanded. He hoped that next Session due and ample time would be afforded for the consideration of the subject, so that next year numerous small charities, which were now indifferently regulated, might be placed under a better system, which would ensure the fulfilment of their purposes.
LORD STANLEYconcurred in the regret expressed by his noble and learned Friend that the measure had not been brought forward at an early period in the Session. He did not himself approve of all the provisions in the Bill; but there was a pressing necessity for improvement in the management of small charities. The same thing happened to the measure last year, and it would happen again, unless some alteration was made, either to carry the business suspended in one Session to the next, or to provide for the introduction of measures at an earlier period.
§ LORD LANGDALEmade some observations, but his Lordship was quite inaudible.
§ After a short conversation, in which Lords WHARNCLIFFE and BROUGHAM joined,
§ Order of the Day for the second reading read and discharged.