§ [SECOND READING.]
§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD LOREBURN)My Lords, I have hardly anything to say in commending this Bill on Second Reading to your Lordships' attention, but as I hope we may have more Bills of this kind, perhaps you will excuse me for two or three minutes in briefly explaining what it is. There have been for many, many years complaints about the inextricable confusion of the Statutes relating to licensing, which has 461 been a source of trouble to the oldest practitioners at the Bar, and attempts have been made by the Government to put matters right. In this instance the Bill was brought in by a private Member for the purpose of consolidating the law relating to licensing. It was supported both by those who represent the temperance reformers and by those who represent the licensed trade. The Bill passed its Second Reading in the House of Commons and was then referred to a Joint Committee of both Houses. The Joint Committee did me the honour of electing me as their Chairman, and we bad some five or six afternoons on this Bill. We have put it into shape and suggested certain Amendments, only one of which is a change in the law. I am glad to say that all the recommendations we put forward passed through the House of Commons and were accepted. I am also happy to say that there was not a solitary difference of opinion on any one of the questions before that Committee. The only change which has been made in the law is this, that whereas before it was doubtful whether a licence being granted to a house which at any previous time had a licence was to be treated as a renewal or not, we propose that it should be treated as a renewal if the house has been licensed within a twelvemonth. I hope that your Lordships will give your consent to this Bill, and that its success may encourage other private Members to do the same good work which has been done by a private Member on this occasion —namely, to put the tangle of our Statutes into something like ordinary shape, and thereby enable people to understand what the law is.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read (The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Bill read 2ª, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House To-morrow.