§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
THE LORD CHANCELLOR,in moving that the Bill be now read a second time, said, that the measure had been introduced, like the preceding Bill, to remedy any injustice in the operation of the existing law. As the law now stood, if a man left an estate to Brown for life with remainder to the first son of John Smith who attained the age of 21 years, and if Brown died before any son of John Smith attained that age, the contingent remainder would be void. The Real Property Commissioners reported on that state of things in 1833, and strongly recommended that the law should be altered. Since then an attempt had been made to revise the law, and put it in a more satisfactory shape, but that attempt had not been successful. The object of the Bill before their Lordships, which was a very short one, was to limit the operation of the law. The necessity for this had been forcibly illustrated by a recent case in the Courts of Law, which showed that the present doctrine of law had worked serious injustice in the devolution of family property.
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Monday next.