§ Orders of the Day for the House to be put into a Committee (on Re-commitment) on the JUDGMENT DEBTORS BILL (NO. 76), BANKRUPTCY BILL (NO. 75), and BANKRUPTCY ACTS REPEAL BILL (NO. 74), read.
THE LORD CHANCELLOR, after presenting two petitions—one from the Chamber of Commerce of Bristol, and the other from the Associated Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom, praying that their Lordships would pass these Bills, and disapproving certain Amendments of which Notice had been given in regard to them—said: My Lords, the state of the Session and of Public Business has compelled me to consider, with much anxiety, the course I should recommend your Lordships to adopt in regard to these Bills. The subject to which the Bills relate is one of transcendent importance; it is one also on which legislation, as appears to me, is urgently required. The measures which are on the Paper extend to something like 600 clauses; and if there appeared a reasonable prospect of their being considered by both Houses of Parliament, your Lordships, I am sure, would not grudge either the time or trouble which it would be necessary to bestow on the Bills. But I have been compelled to ask myself, whether I could state to your Lordships that there appears a reasonable prospect of these measures being considered by the other House of Parliament; and I am afraid I should be misleading your Lordships if I said that, having regard to the state of Public Business, it appeared at all probable that this could be the case. Under these circumstances, I think I 6 should be making a demand on your Lordships' time which would be entirely unjustifiable, if I were to ask you to go into Committee on these Bills with a view to consider the great number of clauses they contain. I am therefore compelled with great regret, but still with the conviction that no other course is open to me, to ask your Lordships now to discharge the Order for going into Committee on all these Bills.
§ Orders discharged,