§ Order of the Day for the Second Beading, read.
§ VISCOUNT MIDLETON, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, that the object of the measure was to amend the law as to the contracts of infants, and as to the ratification made by persons of full age of the contracts entered into by them during infancy, and as to necessaries supplied to infants. Their Lordships were aware of the very objectionable circulars sent to young officers of the Army and the Navy, a largo proportion of whom were under age, holding out temptations in the shape of loans and of goods on credit. Or, take the case where the parents of a young man at the University refused to pay for things supplied, on the ground that they were such things as no tradesman ought to supply to youths under age, the creditor brought an action in local or other Courts, where a jury of his own class had to decide the question whether the goods were "necessaries" or not, and they seldom had any difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that they were necessaries. He would mention two or three cases in illustration of his meaning. An Oxford jury held that champagne and wild ducks were necessaries for an undergraduate; another jury of the same place found that studs of emeralds set in diamonds came within the same category; and a third jury found that expensive prints—proofs before letters—were necessary furniture for the rooms of an undergraduate of moderate expectations. The first clause of this Bill provided that contracts by infants for 1226 the repayment of money lent or for goods supplied, except for necessaries, should be absolutely void; the second, that no action should be brought on ratification of an infant's contract made after attaining full age; and the third, which was the most important, that in respect of goods supplied to or work and labour done for an infant the question whether the goods supplied or the work and labour were necessaries or not should be for the Court or Judge, and not for the jury. If their Lordships passed the Bill he was happy to say one of the Law Officers had consented to take charge of it in the other House.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a"—(The Viscount Midleton.)
THE LORD CHANCELLORsaid, he did not propose to offer any objection to the second reading of the Bill. On the contrary, he thought the object of the Bill of his noble Friend was likely to be beneficial; but, at the same time, he would suggest to the noble Viscount to bring the measure under the notice of the Common Law Judges, as the persons of the greatest experience in these matters, for the purpose of ascertaining whether they would approve its provisions.
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Tuesday next.