§ LORD PORTMAN, in moving the second reading of this Bill, said that the societies to which it applied were 20,000 in number, and it affected nearly 3,000,000 of persons who were members of registered societies, and nearly a million and a half more who were members of unregistered societies, making in all 4,500,000 of the 9,000,000 which constituted the male population of this country. The capital embarked in friendly societies amounted to about 6,000,000. It was obvious, therefore, that the subject to which the Bill related was of very great importance, and he trusted that, before they went into Committee, their Lordships would direct their attention to the provisions of the Bill. It had been found that it was not desirable to tie the societies down to any fixed tables, because the circumstances that affected them were very various, and depended so much upon locality and other causes, that it would be most unwise for Parliament to give anything like a guarantee that this or that set of tables was the safer, thereby inducing them to rely on the authority of Parliament rather than their own care and vigilance. The House of Commons, after three Special Committees of Inquiry, had 2227 agreed to the present Bill, which it was anticipated would work well and satisfactorily. In Committee he should draw their Lordships' attention to two or three of the clauses. He would now move the second reading of the Bill.
§ LORD MONTEAGLEsaid, that those who were parties to the passing of the previous Act with which the present Bill proposed to deal would remember certain circumstances which at the time excited a painful impression among the public. He alluded to cases of the murder of children, calculated to create a criminal interest leading to the perpetration of that unnatural and atrocious act. After due deliberation, some clauses were framed and passed by Parliament for the purpose of preventing that horrible crime, and he believed that they had had the intended effect; but he noticed that those clauses were omitted in the present Bill, and he trusted that when the Bill went into Committee the noble Lord would explain the reason of their omission.
LORD RAVENS WORTHobserved, that the 39th clause, by which building societies found themselves subject to a new fiscal burden in the shape of stamps from which they had been previously exempt, had created great dissatisfaction. He was given to understand that it was not in the power of their Lordships to amend that clause, as it was one affecting the privileges of the House of Commons, and, if the clause was allowed to pass in its present shape, he wished it to be understood that it was only on account of the reason he had just mentioned.
LORD CAMPBELLobserved, that the clause in question being a money clause could not be altered by their Lordships without interfering with the privileges of the other House. The removal of the exemption was in the nature of a supply granted by the House of Commons to the Crown, and by interfering with it they would interfere with the undoubted privileges of that branch of the Legislature.
§ Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the whole House on Tuesday next.