§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, that its object was to extend the jurisdiction of the Courts of the West African Settlements to certain offences committed out of Her Majesty's dominions. At present the inhabitants of the districts adjoining our settlements of Sierra Leone, Gambia, the Gold Coast, and Lagos, were not under the jurisdiction of any civilized Government; yet as crimes were frequently perpetrated in those barbarous territories against British subjects and persons residing in our settlements, and there were no means of making the offenders amenable to law, it was desirable to provide for the trial and punishment of such crimes and outrages. The Bill therefore extended the jurisdiction of our Courts to 20 miles beyond the boundaries of our settle- 477 ments; and authorized the apprehension of any offender within our settlements who may have committed a criminal act in the limits outside.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of Whole House To-morrow.