COMPANIES (CONSOLIDATION) BILL. (Hansard, 29 July 1908)

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, I will ask leave to say one or two words on this. This Bill was referred to a Joint Committee of both Houses, and we then agreed to certain Amendments in order that the Bill should lay down exactly what we think the law should be. These Amendments have been already accepted by your Lordships, but when the Bill was before the Committee a noble Lord, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, suggested with reference to certain points that arise that we should also have a schedule of the Amendments that we propose, Amendments merely relating to the small matter of tidying up or making more convenient the operation, of the law. I could not say that there is absolutely no change in the law, but there is no change in any important particular, and the Committee unanimously agreed to recommend certain Amendments strictly, of the character I have referred to. These are the Amendments which I propose to introduce at this stage in this House, as it was thought by the Committee that this was the most convenient way of dealing with the matter. If this matter goes to the House of Commons, as I hope it will do, they will be faced with 1428 the choice either of having the Bill consolidated with all its imperfections or of having it tidied up so to speak. I move that we take these Amendments as a whole.