§ [SECOND READING].
§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
THE LORD CHANCELLOR (The Earl of HALSBUKY)My Lords, this is the same Bill as the one which passed your Lordships' House last session, but which failed to make progress in the other House. It is of a purely technical 629 character. The object of the Bill is to give a wider interpretation to a section in the Act of 1882 and to give bankers that protection which I think the authors of the Act intended to give them. It has been decided by your Lordships' House—and no one doubts that the decision was perfectly right—that a banker who carries a bill of exchange to a customer's account before the date on which the bill becomes due is, in fact, lending to the customer, and therefore is not protected by the Act of 1882. This was clearly not the intention of the authors, and this Bill is intended to give bankers protection in such cases.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a".—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Bill read 2aand committed to a Committee of the Whole House to-morrow.