§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
§ LORD FITZGERALD, in moving that the Bill be now read a second time, said that this Bill was intended to remedy an omission of the Act of last Session. By an Act of 1860 it was provided that where the lease prohibited assignment without the lessor's assent, no assignment should be valid unless sanctioned by the lessor's consent in writing, or by his being a party to the assignment, or endorsing his consent on the instrument. It frequently happened that the assignment was made with the verbal consent of the lessor or established by his subsequent acquiescence and dealings. Such assignees were excluded from the operation of the Act of last Session, unless the lessees had obtained the written consent of the lessor, or a memorandum sanctioning the assignment had been engrossed on the lease. The Bill proposed that whenever the lessor, by the receipt of rent or in any other way, had virtually recognized the assignment, the assignee might come into Court and claim the benefit of the Act. As the Act stood, the same result might be brought about indirectly by the lessee's claiming the benefit which his assignee would enjoy, and the Bill, therefore, provided that what might be now done circuitously should be done in a more straightforward manner.
Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a."—(The Lord Fitzgerald.)
§ THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (Earl CADOGAN)said, that the Government would offer no opposition to the second reading of the Bill, which would remedy a defect that undoubtedly existed in the Land Act of last year.
Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Friday next.