§ SECOND READING.
§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord HALSBURY)My Lords, this is a Bill which there has been some little difficulty in arranging, by reason of there having been two amending Acts proposed: one in 1890 and the other in 1891; but the matter is now in a condition in which I think we can consolidate the law on the subject, which your Lordships will probably think is a subject on which the laity of both sexes should be able to see at once, by a Consolidating Act, what the law is. The Bill must go to the Standing Committee, because in a Consolidating Act it is necessary to choose what enactments are to be embodied from the various Statutes that have been from time to time, not always happily, passed. In this Consolidating Act we shall be able, I think, at all events to give a statement of the law in harmony with itself, and which will signify the same thing throughout in a small Code; and I ask your Lordships to give the Bill a Second Reading.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a."—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Monday next.