Lords Sitting of 9 May 1901

EARL OF CLANCARTY.
Report made from the Lord Chancellor, that the right of William Frederick, Earl of Clancarty, to vote at the elections of Representative Peers for Ireland has been established to the satisfaction of the Lord Chancellor; read, and ordered to lie on the Table.
EARL OF ARRAN.
Petition of Arthur Jocelyn Charles, Earl of Arran, in the Peerage of Ireland, claiming a right to vote at the elections of Representative Peers for Ireland; read, and referred to the Lord Chancellor to consider and report thereupon to the House.
The Earl of Cottenham sat first in Parliament after the death of his father.
PRIVATE BILL BUSINESS.
  PORTMADOC, BEDDGELERT, AND SOUTH SNOWDON RAILWAY BILL [H.L.]
  The King's consent signified; and Bill reported with Amendments.
  GRAVESEND GAS BILL. BIDEFORD AND CLOVELLY RAILWAY (ABANDONMENT) BILL [H.L.]
  Reported without amendment.
  POULTON-LE-FYLDE GAS BILL [H.L.]
    CHESTER CORPORATION TRAMWAYS BILL [H.L.]
      FAVERSHAM WATER BILL [H.L.]
        WIGAN CORPORATION TRAMWAYS, ETC., BILL [H.L.]
        Reported with Amendments.
  COWES FERRY BILL [H.L.]
  The King's consent signified; and Bill reported with Amendments.
  FINCHLEY AND HENDON TRAMWAYS BILL [H.L.]
  Committed; the Committee to be proposed by the Committee of Selection.
  SOUTHPORT WATER (TRANSFER) BILL [H.L.]
  Reported from the Select Committee with Amendments.
  GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY BILL.
  Read 2a, and committed; the Committee to be proposed by the Committee of Selection.
  SHREWSBURY GAS BILL [H.L.]
    NEW SWINDON GAS BILL [H.L.]
      MILFORD DOCKS BILL [H.L.]
      Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
  CITY AND NORTH-EAST SUBURBAN ELECTRIC RAILWAY BILL [H.L.]
  Standing Order No. 92 considered (according to order) and dispensed with, with respect to a petition of the Trustees of the Wesleyan Hall and Mission House, Bishopsgate Street: Leave given to present the said petition.
  DERWENT VALLEY WATER BOARD BILL.
    NEWRY PORT AND HARBOUR TRUST BILL.
    Brought from the Commons; read 1a; and referred to the Examiners.
  RUGBY WATER AND IMPROVEMENT BILL [H.L.]
    LOWESTOFT CORPORATION BILL [H.L.]
    The order made on Monday last, appointing certain Lords the Select Committee to consider the Bills, discharged.
  PIER AND HARBOUR PROVISIONAL ORDERS (No. 2) BILL [H.L.] (No. 69.)
  A Bill to confirm certain Provisional Orders made by the Board of Trade under the General Pier and Harbour Act, 1861, relating to Babbacombe and Great Yarmouth.

  TRAMWAYS ORDERS CONFIRMATION (No. 4) BILL [H.L.] (No 70.)
  A Bill to confirm certain Provisional Orders made by the Board of Trade under the Tramways Act, 1870, relating to Coatbridge Tramways, Folkestone Corporation Tramways, Glossop Electric Tramways, Hopeman Tramway, Weston-super-Mare Tramways, and West Riding Tramways.
  Were presented by the Earl of Hardwicke (for the Earl of Dudley); read 1a;

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  to be printed; and referred to the Examiners.

  ELECTRIC LIGHTING PROVISIONAL ORDERS (No 6) BILL [H.L.]
    ELECTRIC LIGHTING PROVISIONAL ORDERS (No. 7) BILL [H.L.]
      EDUCATION BOARD PROVISIONAL ORDER CONFIRMATION (ACTON) BILL [H.L.]
      Read 2a (according to order.)
  HAMILTON BURGH PROVISIONAL ORDER CONFIRMATION BILL [H.L.]
    SCOTTISH PROVIDENT INSTITUTION PROVISIONAL ORDER CONFIRMATION BILL [H.L.]
    Read 3a (according to order), and passed, and sent to the Commons.
  RETURNS, REPORTS, ETC.
    FEE FUND OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
    The LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the House that the Clerk of the Parliaments had laid on the Table the Annual Account of the Fee Fund of the House of Lords: The same was ordered to lie on the Table, and to be referred to the Select Committee on the House of Lords Offices.
  CHINA, No. 4. (1901).
  Plans referred to in China, No. 3 (1901): Further correspondence respecting events at Peking.

  TRADE REPORTS (ANNUAL SERIES).
  No. 2,591. Brazil (Pernambuco);
  No. 2,592. Spain (Cadiz and district);
  No. 2,593. Belgium (Ghent).

  EVICTIONS (IRELAND).
  Return of evictions in Ireland, for the quarter ended 31st March, 1901.
  MINES AND QUARRIES (GENERAL REPORT AND STATISTICS FOR 1900) (PART 1, DISTRICT STATISTICS).
  Statistics of the persons employed, output, and accidents at mines and quarries in the United Kingdom, arranged according to the inspection districts.

  BOARD OF EDUCATION.
  General Report on schools for the blind and deaf, for the two years ended 31st
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  August, 1900, by T. King, Esq., Senior Chief Inspector; with Appendices.

  SWISS RIFLE RANGES.
  Report by Major the Honourable T. F. Fremantle, 1st Bucks Volunteer Rifle Corps, and Captain E. C. H. Grant, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, on Swiss Rifle Ranges.
  Presented (by command), and ordered to lie on the Table.

  INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION BOARD (IRELAND).
  Annual Report for the Year 1900.
  SAVINGS BANK (TRUSTEE SAVINGS BANKS).
  Savings Banks (Investment) Regulations, 1901, dated 4th April, 1901.
  SUPERANNUATION.
  Treasury warrant, dated 1st May, 1901, declaring that for the due and efficient discharge of the duties of the office of assistant auditors on the staff of the Local Government Board, professional or other peculiar qualifications not ordinarily to be acquired on the public service are required.

  LIGHT RAILWAYS ACT, 1896.
  Report of the proceedings of the Board of Trade up to the 31st December, 1900; and of the proceedings of the Light Railway Commissioners up to the same date.
  Laid before the House (pursuant to Act), and ordered to lie on the Table.

  UNIVERSITIES OF OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE ACT, 1877.
  Statute made by the Governing Body of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, on 22nd December, 1900, amending sections 6 and 10 of Statute X. and Statute XXIV. of the statutes of the College.
  Laid before the House (pursuant to Act), and to be printed. (No. 68.)

  ARUNDEL PORT.
  Account and Report for 1900–1901; delivered (pursuant to Act), and ordered to lie on the Table.
LUNACY (IRELAND) BILL. [H.L.]

  SECOND READING.
  Order of the day for the Second Reading read.
  THE LORD CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND (Lord ASHBOURNE): My Lords, I have to ask your Lordships to give a Second Reading to this Bill, which proposes to apply to Ireland some useful provisions of the law of this country, which have been in operation in England for some years. The first proposal of the Bill is that the Lord Lieutenant may, in addition to his power of absolute discharge, also discharge any criminal lunatic conditionally—that is to say, on such conditions as to the duration of such discharge and otherwise as the Lord Lieutenant may think fit. In Ireland we have felt the want of this power, which has been in operation in England for many years with great advantage. In Ireland criminal lunatics confined during the pleasure of the Lord Lieutenant can only be released absolutely without any condition whatever, and that sometimes leads to difficulties owing to the risk and danger involved. The second clause proposes to extend to Ireland certain sections relating to the ill treatment or abuse of lunatics which have already been substantially passed into law in England. Then there are certain sections, already in operation in England, making provision as to expenses of criminal and dangerous lunatics. In Ireland at the present time—this used to be the law in England, but it has been amended—the sole jurisdiction with respect to lunatics is vested in the Lord Chancellor; and the fourth clause of this Bill enables the Sovereign, as in England, to give authority to the Judges of the Supreme Court, such as the Master of the Rolls and the Lord Chief Justice, to deal with questions respecting lunatics. These, I think, are the only clauses I need refer to, and I hope your Lordships will give the Bill a Second Reading.
  Bill read 2a (according to order), and committed to a Committee of the Whole House to-morrow.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES BILL [H.L.]

  THIRD READING.
  Order of the Day for the Third Reading read.
  *LORD WINDSOR: My Lords, in moving the Third Reading of this Bill I have a question to ask my noble friend the Secretary for Scotland. In Committee a clause was introduced, at the instance of
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  the Secretary for Scotland, excluding Scotland from the operation of the Bill. I reluctantly assented to that. I say reluctantly, because I had received communications from library authorities and persons interested in libraries in Scotland strongly supporting the Bill. I understood, however, that the noble Lord did not object to some of the provisions of the Bill, and therefore I would ask him if he would favourably consider whether upon a future occasion a Bill, dealing with Scotland, on somewhat similar lines, can be introduced. Of course, I do not for a moment expect him to pledge himself to anything of a definite nature.
  Moved,—"That the Bill be now read 3a."
  *THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Lord BALFOUR of BURLEIGH): My Lords, nothing could have been fairer or more accurate than the account which the noble Lord has given of what passed at the former stage of the Bill. I did carefully consider whether it would be expedient to apply any part of this Bill to Scotland, and I was advised, without hesitation, by those whose business it is to study these questions with more legal skill than I can bring to bear upon them, that to apply this Bill to Scotland would introduce a considerable amount of confusion and doubt as to the Acts of Parliament regulating Scottish public libraries. I think that the majority of those who are interested in libraries in Scotland came also to that conclusion. Certainly more than one of the legal societies in Scotland who have committees to examine Bills of this kind were of opinion that the disadvantages of applying any part of the Bill to Scotland would be greater than the advantages. I do not deny that one or two of the clauses are an advance upon anything we have in Scotland at the present time, and might usefully be applied to Scottish libraries. But the whole of the Acts relating to public libraries in Scotland are in rather a state of confusion, and it would be well worth while to codify and in some respects simplify the law. Under these circumstances I have to express my acknowledgments and thanks to the noble Lord for agreeing with the proposal which I made, and to assure him that I will most carefully consider the desirability of amending the aw in Scotland with regard to

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  public libraries in the direction of certain of the clauses of this Bill. I cannot, of course, undertake to introduce a Bill in the present session, but I will keep it before me as an object to be attained at as early a date as possible.
  On Question, agreed to; Bill read 3a accordingly.
  Amendments (privileged) made; Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.

  QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY.
  LORD BARNARD: My Lords, I beg to ask His Majesty's Government whether it is intended that the Joint Select Committee of this House and the House of Commons to consider the constitution of Queen Anne's Bounty should be re-appointed this session as recommended by the Report of the Select Committee, dated 16th July, 1900. Even if the Government cannot answer the question in the affirmative I hope they will be able to give us some assurance that the subject is not being forgotten and will not be indefinitely postponed. The Committee only held one sitting last session to deal with what was acknowledged to be a question of urgent importance, and I have since ascertained that the recommendation of the Committee has not yet been complied with. There is a great deal of interest taken by the clergy and others connected with the Church in this matter, and, if the Committee is not reappointed this session, I hope some steps will be taken at an early date to satisfy the desires of those who have this matter at heart.
  LORD ASHBOURNE: I do not see anyone on this Bench who is in a position to give a direct answer to the question. Perhaps, therefore, my noble friend will put it on the Paper for Tuesday next.
  House adjourned at a quarter before Five of the clock, till To-morrow, half-past Ten of the clock.