§ (The Lord Chancellor.)
§ (NO. 200.) SECOND READING.
§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
THE LORD CHANCELLOR, in moving that the Bill be now read the 226 second time, said, it had been passed in the other House for the purpose of meeting an evil which had been seriously felt in one or two recent cases where a prisoner had been committed for trial immediately after the Summer Assizes, and in consequence of no Winter Assizes being held in the county his trial had not come on till the following March. In one case, which attracted public attention very recently, a prisoner was acquitted after having been in gaol for six or seven months. The rule was that a Winter Assize should not be held for a county unless a certain number of prisoners—six, he believed—were awaiting trial. The object of the present Bill was simply to enable an Order in Council to be made, which for the purpose of Winter Assizes would unite certain adjacent counties. In conclusion, he moved the second reading of the Bill.
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Thursday next.