§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR,in moving the Second Reading of the Lands Clauses (Taxation of Costs) Bill, said its object was to assimilate the payment of fees on taxation of costs in certain inquiries under Statute to the mode of payment established in other cases. At present certain fees were paid, not by stamps but in cash, and the Master who taxed the Bill was entitled to keep these cash payments, and they did not go, like fees paid in stamps, into the Exchequer. The Bill was brought forward at the suggestion of the Master, who now had the benefit of the present system. It was a public-spirited act on his part, because the effect of the measure would be a small but certain pecuniary loss to himself. He believed all the Masters approved of the change.
§ Bill read 2a.