§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ THE EARL OF WEMYSSMy Lords, I had hoped to-day to move the Second Reading of what really is the Government's Militia Ballot Bill, which stands in my name; but this morning I was asked, on behalf of Members of your Lordships' House who take great interest in this and similar questions, to put it off, and I have agreed to postpone it for a week. I hope this adjournment will not be inconvenient to your Lordships, but I do not think I can do other than postpone it under the circumstances. But I can give your Lordships this assurance, that if I am alive on this day week I shall move the Second Reading of the Bill, because I fully recognise the importance of the question, and, if the noble Marquess will allow me to say so, the fatuous futility of his emergency measures.
§ Second Reading, by leave of the House, put off to Monday next.