Forms of educational experience to be represented on the committee; Recommendations or nominations (if any).

regulate motor-cars to-night. As most of your Lordships know, some Amendments have been made; and I think it would be convenient to the House if I were to say that, if possible, we propose

JUDICIAL STATISTICS (IRELAND), 1902. to take the consideration of those AmendPart I. Criminal Statistics.

ments as the first business to-morrow. Presented (by Command), and ordered if it is inconvenient to the House. will not press that arrangement, however,

to lie upon the Table

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. Report by the Board of Trade on their proceedings and business under the Weights and Measures Acts.

GAS COMPANIES (METROPOLIS). Accounts of the Metropolitan Gas Companies, for the year 1902. PAWNBROKERS RETURNS (IRELAND). Returns from the City Marshal of Dublin, for the year 1902.

Laid before the House (pursuant to Act,) and ordered to lie upon the Table.

SUPERANNUATION.

Return of the total number of law clerks serving in the several divisions of the High Court, giving the number, ages, salaries, and length of service of such clerks as are over the age of 60. Laid before the House (pursuant to Order of the 23rd of July last), and to be printed. (No 211).

LONDON EDUCATION BILL.

I

BURGH POLICE (SCOTLAND) BILL. [SECOND READING.] Order of the day for the Second Reading read.

LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH : My Lords, in asking the House to read a Bill of this size a second time at this period of the session, I feel that a few words of explanation are necessary from me. The Bill itself affects nothing but the administration of burghs in Scotland. 1892. That statute is a very lengthy It is a Bill to amend the Act passed in one, and during the lapse of time which has occurred since it was passed a great and a considerable number of Amendnumber of defects have been found in it, ments are really necessary to make it work. The fact has been painfully brought to my notice many and many a time during the years that I have administered the Scottish Office, and several attempts have been made on the part of the Convention of Royal and Parliamentary Burghs to amend that Act. A Bill to amend it was introduced in

Returned from the Commons, with 1901, and again last year, but in both Amendments agreed to.

MOTOR-CARS BILL [H.L.]). THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Lord BALFOUR of BURLEIGH): I think it probable that the House of Commons will finish the consideration of the Bill to

those cases there were so many points of friction and difficulty that it was found through another place. After all, this impossible to get time to pass the Bill Bill is one which involves no principle, because burghs must be regulated, and they require regulation in many matters

which are applicable to country districts. It is essentially a Bill containing a mass of detail. Further, those details are oftentimes important, not only to the burghs themselves, but to the country districts immediately around.

A proposal, therefore, was made to my Office, or rather to me on behalf of the Office, that those who advised me in such matters as this should consult the officials of the Convention of Royal and Parliamentary Burghs, and see whether we could not produce to Parliament an agreed measure, and this Bill as introduced by Mr. Asher in another place was the result of many conferences which took place in the autumn of last year. A good many points were left over for discussion in Parliament, and although no time has been taken up of the House of Commons as a whole, a great many negotiations have taken place, and the Bill ultimately passed through Grand Committee in the other House in the form in which it is presented to your Lordships. Many Amendments were proposed on behalf of Government Departments, County Councils, and private interests, and a settlement of every outstanding question has actually now taken place. This Bill might have reached this House a week or two ago, but there is a mysterious process which goes on in the other House of blocking Bills, not perhaps always on their merits, but on account of a variety of considerations.

I think I can safely ask your Lordships to pass this Bill. I can assure you that the Lord Advocate has watched it in all its stages and has been privy to all the negotiations to which I have referred. It has been through the Grand Committee on Law, and I believe with some drafting Amendments on one or two points, which I shall have to bring to the notice of the House to-morrow, it may be assumed to be an absolutely agreed measure-indeed, the Amendments are also agreed. the contents of the Bill I think I need only say that the first part of it is pure amendment, in minor details, of the Burgh Police Act, 1892, and is compulsory on all burghs. The second part of the Bill is an adoptive part, which a burgh may accept or not; but if it wants the reforms contained in the clauses dealing with the width of streets, buildings, squares, sky-signs, advertisement sites, the supply of milk, and so forth, it will be a great con

venience that there should be a set of model clauses which the burgh can adopt. We hope to do in this Bill, for Scottish Burghs, what was recommended by the Select Committee of the House of Commons, to whom were referred all private Bills promoted by municipal and local authorities. They suggested that their labours would be materially lessened, and better co-ordination of local legislation would be secured, if model clauses were agreed upon in the way proposed in this Bill. That is an extremely wise and sensible recommendation, and I am glad to be able to say that so far as Scotland is concerned we are by this Bill making a step to carry it out for the first time. I hope in these circumstances that, late as it is, your Lordships will allow the Bill to proceed.

Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a." (Lord Balfour of Burleigh.)

THE EARL OF CAMPERDOWN: This is an instance of what happens at this This is a Bill of period of the session.

over one hundred clauses.

It has not

what

been circulated, and there is, of course, no
possible means of considering it. I should
like to ask my noble friend
day he proposes to take the Committee
stage.

LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH: I propose to take the Committee stage tomorrow. I do not wish to repeat what I said before the noble Lord came into the House, but I think I did give rather a full, and, I hope, a satisfactory, explana

tion of the circumstances under which the Bill has been introduced.

or two

The con

THE EARL OF CAMPERDOWN: I must apologise to the noble Lord for not If the Bill is On having been in the House. the to be taken in Committee to-morrow, best thing I can do is to confer with my noble friend privately on one points. Consideration of the Bill is, of course, out of the question. gested state of your Lordships' Paper furnishes a further illustration of what Lord Newton said earlier in the session, that in the month of August this House is forced to pass Bills without having the opportunity of knowing what is contained in them. At the same time, I do not say

Order of the Day for the Third Reading, read.

Moved, that the Bill be now read 3a.(The Duke of Devonshire.)

THE EARL OF BELMORE: My Lords, I rise to make a suggestion with regard to the position of the lessees under Trinity College. I would suggest to the noble

Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a." Duke the desirability of the Government -(Lord Balfour of Burleigh.)

On Question, Bill read 2a (according to order), and committed to a Committee of the Whole House to-morrow.

RAILWAYS (ELECTRIC POWER) BILL, SOUTH AFRICAN LOAN AND WAR CONTRIBUTION BILL,

MILITARY WORKS BILL, PUBLIC WORKS LOANS BILL, BURGH POLICE (SCOTLAND) BILL, TOWN COUNCILS (SCOTLAND) BILL. Read 2 (according to order), and committed to a Committee of the Whole House to-morrow.

MARRIAGES LEGALISATION BILL.

[SECOND READING.]

considering seriously the question of appointing a small Commission during the autumn, to go into the case of these lessees, which need not take more than a few weeks, with a view to seeing whether something cannot be done to meet it.

LORD CASTLETOWN: I would remind the noble Earl that on a former occasion, when this Question was under discussion, the noble Duke in charge of the Bill stated that the Irish Government had under contemplation the appointment of a small Commission to consider the whole subject.

THE EARL OF DUNRAVEN : My Lords, I am sorry the Government have not seen their way to remove two blots from the Bill which, in my opinion, may affect injuriously its usefulness as a final Act for the settlement of this question.

Order of the Day for the Second I allude to the fact that the amount of Reading read.

The Earl of Camperdown.

legal expenses which will fall upon in

this more than I can say. I should be very sorry to pose as a prophet of evil, and I hope that facts will prove that my fears are unfounded; but of this I am certain, that if His Majesty's Government had allowed the Bill to be amended in such a way as to have defined the amount of legal expenses to be defrayed by the Land Commission, and to ensure that the landowner received the whole of the bonus, the success of the Bill would have been assured.

dividuals is still left uncertain in the Bill, and to the method of the distribution of the grant-in-aid. It is impossible for any owner who desires to sell, to ascertain what legal expenses will fall upon him, and how much of those expenses will be defrayed by the Land Commission. I should not have thought it beyond the power of His Majesty's Government to have laid down in the schedule a definite scale of expenses, or in some other way to have intimated accurately, or even approximately, what portion of the legal expenses it is intended shall be defrayed by the Land Commission, and what pro- *THE EARL OF WEMYSS: My Lords, I portion will fall upon the individual owner. have abstained from taking any part in His Majesty's Government have not the discussions on this Bill, as I did not thought fit to enter into any real ex- wish to figure as the proverbial fly in a planation of this subject. I think that pot of what is considered to be healing the consequences will be that owners will ointment. I did not wish to strike a hold back from selling. A man desiring jarring note in regard to this question, to sell, will naturally hesitate to do so where general harmony is supposed to until he is perfectly assured as to what his prevail, but Lord Hampden, in a speech financial position will be afterwards, and which he made, I think, on the Second I fear owners will hang back to see what Reading, denounced the Bill so strongly happens to their neighbours and to find that I feel myself free to speak exactly my out by practical experience how much of feelings with regard to it. He called it a these legal expenses will fall on their own corrupting Bill, and also, I think, a misshoulders. If I am at all correct in what I chievous and monstrous measure. It is fear, all I can say is that His Majesty's no doubt a Bill to induce the landlords of Government have nobody but themselves Ireland to give up their property. They to blame for it. As to the distribution have accepted this offer-I will not call it of the grant-in aid, I had the honour of a bribe-and who can blame them for it? moving an Amendment to the effect It is not this Bill that is in fault, but the that it should be distributed initially at legislation which has led to this Bill-the the rate of 15 per cent. instead of 12 per legislation which began in 1870, when cent., and I pointed out-and, I think, principles were introduced into our legissuccessfully pointed out that it is lation that had never been heard of before, absolutely necessary that the initial rate when the Government turned their back should be 15 per cent. if we are to be upon themselves and did the very thing certain that the whole of the bonus which they exist not to do. What does will be received. It was suggested that Government exist for but to maintain my Amendment involved an infringe contracts inviolate and to protect proment and breach of the privileges of the perty? The legislation of 1870 broke all House of Commons, but my Amend- contracts, and robbed the landlords inment could not possibly have added one has resulted in further legislation of the stead of protecting their property. It farthing to the sum already appro- same kind; and this legislation has expriated, namely, £12,000,000. As the House of Commons appropriated a tended beyond Ireland and taken root in definite, specific sum of £12,000,000, and the crofts in the West of Scotland and in as my Amendment could not add one Wales through the Agricultural Holdevery farm in England, Scotland, and farthing to that sum, I submit that the ings Act. Indeed, if you look at the reason why it was suggested that my list of measures in another place, you will Amendment involved a breach of privilege

was that His Majesty's Government had find that these principles are attempted no other or better reason to give against to be applied to everything. There is As a matter of fact, His Majesty's interference of the State everywhere, Government have given no reason, except taking the property of one class and an absolutely non possumus one. I regret giving it to another.