§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ LORD O'HAGAN,in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, that its object was to provide for the custody and preservation of the records of the Disestablished Church in Ireland. Before the disestablishment—the registries of baptisms, marriages, and burials, and other Church documents were in the care and under the control of the Church officers; but since that time they had been under the care of several persons, and many were kept in unfit and unsafe buildings. The Bill therefore provided that those records should be placed in the custody of the Master of the Rolls in 972 Ireland, and should be removed as soon as practicable to the Irish Record Office. In order to obviate any inconvenience that might arise from this transfer the Bill provided that a certified copy of every record should be sent to the officer who, but for the passing of this Bill would have had the custody of the original; which transcripts would be received in evidence without further proof. He might acid that the Church Body had passed a resolution in favour of this disposition of the Church records.
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Monday next.