§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a."—(The Lord Denman.)
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord HALSBURY)said, he must express his surprise that the noble Lord should have made this Motion, seeing that the noble Lord stated to the House, as recorded in Hansard, on the occasion when another Bill on the same subject was brought on, that he did not intend to proceed further with this Bill this Session, but would present it again next Session. It was, besides, distinctly against the Orders of the House a second time to introduce a Bill dealing with the same subject-matter as one already rejected during the same Session. He had looked into this and the earlier Bill, and he had found that they were undoubtedly of the same subject-matter; therefore, without in the least expressing any view either in favour of or against the subject-matter of the Bill, he asked their Lordships to reject it, not on its merits, but on the ground of the irregularity of introducing it a second time in the same Session.
§ On Question? Resolved in the negative.
§ Ordered that the said Bill be rejected.