§ Order of the day for Second Reading read.
§ LORD REDESDALE, in moving the second reading of this Bill, said its object was to meet a grievance under which railway companies suffered with reference to the Transfer of Railway Tickets, one which had pressed more particularly on the Brighton Railway. The public enjoyed great advantages through the instrumentality of these return tickets, which to accommodate the public, were issued at a cheap rate, but which, owing to their being fraudulently transferred in the way they were, resulted in a loss to the company. The Brighton Company, in one of their own private Bills this Session, desired a clause should be inserted to correct this evil, but he (Lord Redesdale) objected to conferring on one railway the privileges another did not possess; but having considered the subject, he now proposed the present Bill, which would meet the case in connection with railways gene- 912 rally. At present the only remedy the companies have against parties committing this fraud is by civil action; the Bill renders it punishable by fine and imprisonment, in the same manner as other violations of the by-laws.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a; agreed to.
§ Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the whole House on Thursday next.
§ House adjourned at Seven o'clock, till To-morrow, half-past Ten o'clock,