§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord HERSCHELL)My Lords, this Bill was introduced to your Lordships' House on a previous occasion. It is a very simple one. There was a recent decision of the Courts which has rather taken the public by surprise, to the effect that although a company might have been apparently incorporated with due regularity, yet if it were afterwards shown that any mistake had been made, the company did not 1682 come under the Companies Acts, and the ordinary proceedings in relation to it could not be taken. The object of this Bill is to provide that a certificate of incorporation shall be conclusive that the company is duly and properly incorporated, I have submitted this Bill to the learned Judges who decided the case to which I have alluded, and they consider that the proposed change in the law is advisable. I therefore 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 Thursday next.