Lords Sitting of 16 April 1874

MINUTES.
PUBLIC BILLS—First Reading—Gas Orders Confirmation* (25); Local Government Provisional Orders* (26).
Second Reading—Middlesex Sessions (22)

SIR GARNET J. WOLSELEY.

  MESSAGE FROM THE QUEEN.
  Message from the QUEEN delivered by the Lord President, and read by the Lord Chancellor, as follows:—
  "Her Majesty, taking into consideration the eminent services of Major-General Sir Garnet J. Wolseley, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., in planning and conducting the recent Expedition into Ashantee, and being desirous in recognition of such services to confer some signal mark of Her favour upon him, recommends to the House of Lords to concur in enabling Her Majesty to grant Sir Garnet J. Wolseley the sum of Twenty-five thousand pounds."
  Ordered that the said Message be taken into consideration To-morrow.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS BILL—(No. 22.)
(The Earl Beauchamp)
MIDDLESEX SESSIONS BILL—(No. 22.)

  SECOND READING.
  Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
  EARL BEAUCHAMP, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, the object of this measure was to make a

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  better arrangement for salaries and remuneration of the Assistant Judge of the Court of Sessions for Middlesex, his Deputy, and the Chairman of the Second Court. The importance of this Court was, as their Lordships would readily conceive, very considerable. The number of cases tried in the Courts of Quarter Sessions in the counties and boroughs of England and Wales was last year 8,796, and of these no fewer than 1,763 were tried at the Middlesex Sessions, of which sessions there were 24 in each year; so that the duties of the Judge were very onerous. The arrangement as to the salary of the Assistant Judge made on the appointment of the late Sir William Bodkin was that he should receive a salary of £1,200 per annum from the Consolidated Fund, in addition to which the Act 22 & 23 Vic, c. 4, empowered the Justices of the County of Middlesex to pay a further sum of £300 per annum out of the county rates. This arrangement, however, was confined to the Judge then appointed and did not apply to his successors, and had consequently determined on the resignation of Sir William Bodkin. The object of the Bill now before their Lordships was to put the salary of the Assistant Judge on a definite footing, so that it would not be subject to periodical revision. Under the Bill the Assistant Judge would receive a salary of £1,500 per annum, one moiety of which would be paid out of the Consolidated Fund and the other out of the county rates of the County of Middlesex. The Bill also contained a clause regulating the payments to be made to the Deputy Assistant Judge, and to the Chairman of the Second Court whenever an additional Court should be found necessary. Each of these learned Gentlemen would receive five guineas a day for every day on which he should sit the payments to be made out of moneys to be provided by Parliament.
  Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.
  Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Thursday next.

  GAS ORDERS CONFIRMATION BILL. [H.L.]
  A Bill for confirming certain Provisional Orders made by the Board of Trade under The Gas and Waterworks Facilities Act, 1870, Amendment Act, 1873, relating to Burnley,
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  Cork, Glasgow, Paisley, Weymouth, Wrexham, and Southport—Was presented by The Lord DUNMORE; read 1a. (No. 25.)
  House adjourned at a quarter past Five o'clock, till To-morrow, Half past Ten o'clock.