§ Bills read 2a (according to Order.)
THE DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDON, in moving the suspension of Standing Orders, Nos. XXXVII. and XXXVIII., in order that they might be forthwith passed through their remaining stages, said, the Government were not responsible for the fact that the first reading of this Bill and the Mutiny Bill had not been moved in their Lordships' House till Friday night last. He did not wish to characterize what bad occurred in the other House of Parliament with reference to those Bills—it would be neither expedient nor convenient for their Lordships to discuss that subject—but he wished to exonerate the Government by stating that though both Bills had been delayed for a long period in their passage through' the other House, neither of them contained anything essentially different from that which was to be found in the Mutiny Acts of former years.
Motion agreed to. Standing Orders, Nos. XXXVII. and XXXVIII., considered (according to Order), and dispensed with: Bills read 3a, and passed.