Lords Sitting of 8 June 1875

MINUTES.
PUBLIC BILLS—First Reading—Public Health* (136); Drainage and Improvement of Lands (Ireland) Provisional Order* (138), and referred to the Examiners.
Second Reading—Offences against the Person (158).
Committee—Inns of Court* (89–140).
Committee—Report—Customs and Inland Revenue* (126); Post Office* (116).
Third Reading—Parliament of Canada * (96); Justices (Dublin) * (118); Chimney Sweepers* (71); Bankruptcy (Scotland) Law Amendment* (133), and passed.

OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON BILL.
(The Lord Hampton.)
OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON BILL.

  (NO. 158.) SECOND READING.
  Order of the Day for the Second Beading, read.
  LORD HAMPTON, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, that it had passed through the other House and was founded on the recommendations of a Commission on the Contagious Diseases Acts. The Commission recommended that Clauses 50 and 51 of the Act 24 & 25 Victoria, c. 100, should be amended with the view of affording greater protection to female children. The Commission named 14 as the age up to which "consent" would not apply; but in the House of Commons after a full consideration of the subject, 13 was substituted. Though, as a Member of the Royal Commission, he had concurred in naming 14, and still thought that ought to be the age inserted in the Bill, he was willing to accept the Amendment, and to move the second reading of the Bill.
  Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a."—(The Lord Hampton.)
  LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYthought that the provision at the end of Clause 2 was insufficient, since if this Bill became law a man might commit an offence against it the day before it was passed, an information might be laid against him the day after it passed, and he could not then be tried under either the old or the new law. Such a case occurred on the change of the law on the 20th of July, 1820, when larceny to a certain amount ceased to be a capital offence, and it was held that a person convicted in September for an offence

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  committed six days before the 20th of July could not be punished under either the old or the new law. The word "abuse" also seemed to him to be superfluous, and only led to confusion and doubt, as was shown by a dispute as to the meaning of the word "abuse" among the Barons Pollock, Wilde, Bramwell, and Channell in the Exchequer, in re Thompson, November 26, 1860.
  LORD LYTTELTONsaid, that Amendments would be necessary in the Bill when it got into Committee.
  LORD COLERIDGEpointed out that an amendment in the wording of the 4th clause would certainly be necessary, since by the Common Law of England it was lawful for a woman to marry at the age of 12. He approved the change which the Bill was intended to effect.
  Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Friday next.

  DRAINAGE AND IMPROVEMENT OF LANDS (IRELAND) PROVISIONAL ORDER BILL [H.L.]
  A Bill to confirm a Provisional Order under the Drainage and Improvement of Land (Ireland) Act, 1863, and the Acts amending the same—Was presented by The LORD PRESIDENT; read 1a; and referred to the Examiners. (No. 138).
  House adjourned at half past Five o'clock, to Thursday next, half-past Ten o'clock.