§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
§ EARL STANHOPE, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, that it was a Bill to amend the Publicans' Certificates (Scotland) Act of 1876. It might be in their Lordships' recollection that last year an Act was passed for the purpose of assimilating the law with regard to the granting of licences in Scotland to that of England. During the progress of the Bill through the House, amongst the Amendments adopted on the occasion was one relating to the time the licensing committee should be chosen. It was enacted last year that the first meeting for choosing the licensing committee should be held in August, and subsequently in April; but that would cause some inconvenience, because the statutory quarter sessions of Scotland were held on the first Tuesday in March; therefore the present Bill was to substitute the month of March for the month of April in the former Act. The 2nd clause provided that the Act of last Session should nut come into operation before March, 1878.
§ Motion agreed to: Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.
§ House adjourned at a quarter past Five o'clock, till Monday next Eleven o'clock.