them of the power of applying the surplus that might be accumulated one year to supplying a deficit of another year. The object of the present Bill was to give the Commissioners power to apply the surplus of 1879-80 to the deficit of 1881, and would give them continuous powers hereafter to apply surpluses in the same way. He would ask them to give the Bill a second reading. Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a."' (The Lord O'Hagan.) On Question? Resolved in the affirma tive. Bill read 2 accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House Tomorrow. In reply to a Question upon the subject, termediate education in Ireland. But that arrangement regarded only the boys of Ireland, and it was not contemplated that the girls should come within the operations of the measure at all. The change, however, was proposed in the House of Commons, and it was unanimously agreed that the Bill should apply to girls as well as boys. As was pointed out at the time, the result of the change was likely to be that the £1,000,000, although it was believed that it would be adequate for the young males, would not be adequate when the addition of the girls was made. It was stated that a difficulty would arise, and the noble and learned Earl (Earl Cairns) pledged the Government that if there should be, as anticipated, a want of additional means for this great national purpose, the question of supplying these means would be considered by the Government. The figures showing the progress of the system were remarkable, LORD O'HAGAN said, that the Treaand might be of interest to their Lord-sury had not been yet applied to, as it ships. In the year 1879-the Bill having was only a power to use money already in passed in 1878-there were 3,671 boys hand; but if there were still a deficit, the and 979 girls under the scheme-a total small amount necessary to defray it would of 4,630. In 1880, there were 4,693 boys come out of the Disestablished Church and 1,477 girls-a total of 6,170; in Surplus. 1881, the boys were 5,714, and the girls, 2,033-a total of 7,747. That showed a marvellous progress and a very satisfactory state of things indeed. But the result was that the Commissioners of Intermediate Education, applying themselves to the changed circumstances which were created by the addition of the girls, found that their means were not sufficient to meet the demands for result fees, exhibitions, and prizes which it was necessary to give for the purpose of carrying on the system, and in the year 1881 there came a deficit. There was consequently at that moment, he (Lord O'Hagan) was sorry to say, a considerable deficit with reference to the existing operations of the system, and it would be necessary for the Government to look carefully into the matter, and to fulfil, in the case of this system of intermediate education, the promise made by their Predecessors. But in the meantime, in the year 1879-80, there was a considerable surplus-a surplus of some £8,000 or £10,000; in 1881 that surplus became a deficit. The Act of Parliament provided that the Commissioners could accumulate the surplus from year to year and capitalize it; but it deprived Lord O'Hagan COUNTY COURTS (IRELAND) BILL. (The Lord O'Hagan.) (No. 105.) SECOND READING. Order of the Day for the Second Reading read. LORD O'HAGAN, in moving that the Bill be now read a second time, said, that it would, if passed, facilitate and improve the means of obtaining appeals from the County Courts in Ireland. There were certain difficulties existing under the present law. Certain cases disposed of by the County Courts were not appealable; and the object of the Bill was to give an appeal in every case, except those which came within the late Acts of Parliament dealing with the equitable jurisdiction of the County Courts. The second object of this legislation was to give an opportunity of appealing, which at present could only be done whilst the County Court was sitting, after the sittings of the Court had terminated. If that were not done, there would be in many cases a defeat of justice. The Bill also provided that certain jurisdiction should be given to County Courts in Ireland which they did not at present possess one of which was to allow executors to administer, within certain limits, the assets in the County Courts; and also to give County Courts jurisdiction in cases where there had been mistake or fraud, and where the County Courts had not, up to the present, been able to take action under the existing law. He believed, in both these cases, it was considered a matter of great hardship that people having to deal only with small cases should be compelled to go to the Courts of Chancery, and incur enormous expense, where the matter at issue was often of a trifling amount. He would conclude by moving the second reading. SOMERSHAM RECTORY BILL. (NO. 116.) SECOND READING. Order of the Day for the Second Reading read. THE EARL OF POWIS, in moving that the Bill be now read 2*, said, its object was to provide that four-sevenths of the income of the rectory should be enjoyed by the Regius Professor of Divinity at be allotted to the clergyman who was in Cambridge, while three-sevenths should charge of the parish, subject to the obligation to maintain two curates. Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a." Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2."(The Earl of Powis.) -(The Lord O'Hagan.) THE EARL OF MILLTOWN said, he did not wish to oppose the Bill. It, however, gave an absolutely unlimited right of appeal; and it was not, in his opinion, always of advantage to a poor person that there should be a right of appeal in his case. Such a power might often have the effect of defeating the ends of justice, and he thought a person making an appeal should have to show good grounds for doing so. There should, moreover, be no right of appeal in actions of debt under a certain amount, otherwise it might be possible for a rich man to crush a poor man by insisting on his right of appeal. Then the appeal was to a Judge of Assize; and, unfortunately-or fortunately as some think-in Ireland the Assizes only took place twice a-year, and a considerable amount of time might thus elapse before an appeal could possibly be heard. There was a Winter Assize, and he would suggest that appeals should be heard before the Judges who went on those Assizes. He saw that the Bill made it unnecessary that an affidavit should be made by the appellant that the appeal was not made for the purpose of delay. That would be a bad provision, and he trusted the noble and learned Lord (Lord O'Hagan) would see the desirability of taking it out of the Bill. On Question? Resolved in the affirmative. Bill read 2 accordingly. House adjourned at Six o'clock, till To-morrow, a quarter past Ten o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS, Monday, 19th June, 1882. MINUTES.]-NEW MEMBER SWORN-Robert SELECT COMMITTEE Report-Artizans' and La- PRIVATE BILLS (by Order)—Considered as amended PUBLIC BILLS-Ordered-First Reading—High- Committee-Prevention of Crime (Ireland) [157] On Question? Resolved in the affirma- Committee-Report-Copyright (Musical Com tive. Bill read 2' accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House To positions) [161]. Third Reading-Local Government (Ireland) Provisional Orders (No. 5) [160]; Local ment Provisional Order (No. 11) * [186], and PRIVATE BUSINESS. BLACKBURN IMPROVEMENT BILL (by Order). CONSIDERATION, AS AMENDED. MR. HOPWOOD, resuming, said, he had been explaining to the House the position of this matter. On the 13th March it was ordered by the House "That the Committee of Selection do appoint a Committee, not exceeding Seven in number, to whom shall be referred all private Bills pro Order for Consideration, as amended, moted by Municipal and other local Authorities, read. Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill, as amended, be now considered."-(Sir Charles Forster.) MR. HOPWOOD, in moving, as an Amendment by which it is proposed to create powers re- pugnant to, the general Law; and that it he an "That it is inexpedient to proceed with the consideration of the Improvement Bills, or any of them, included in the reference to the Com-Bills were referred to a Committee of mittee on Sanitary and Police Clauses of March 13th, 1882, unless such portions thereof as create local sanitary or police law, exceptional to the Law of the Realm, be omitted therefrom," said, he was quite sensible that his Amendment was somewhat ill-timed, considering the present block of the Business of the House; but he hoped that indulgence would be extended to him while he pointed out that this was a continuation of what he considered to be a useful protest in regard to legislation in this direction which he had made a few weeks ago. It would be in the recollection of the House that certain Bills which were connected with sanitary arrangements and police matters had been referred to a Select Committee; and the whole of those Bills now stood on the Paper for further consideration. He had objected to them when they were originally before the House, on the ground that a large number of provisions were contained in them which would, if they were passed, effect an alteration in the general law of the land; and that it was inexpedient to sanction such provisions in Private Bills. ROYAL ASSENT. hon. Members specially selected for the purpose; and, so far as he (Mr. Hopwood) was concerned, he would join in bearing his testimony to the able manner in which the Committee had discharged their duties, and had complied with the general directions of the Instruction they had received from the House. Nevertheless, he had still to call attention to some matters, although not in a sense of hostility, in these Private Bills which had not been reported upon by the Committee, in the hope that in future precautions would be taken to prevent the inconvenient course adopted in the present case from becoming a precedent. The House knew what the general mode was of introducing Improvement Bills of this sort. The Bill itself usually had in view some special wants of the town in connection with which it was introduced, such as gas, or water, or possibly highways, There might be some special demand which called for legislation, and for legislation which might be properly ap plied locally. But when the Bill was brought in due form before the Corporation, some member of the Corporation, who had some "fad" upon some other general subject-perhaps of health Message to attend the Lords Commis- availed himself of the opportunity of sioners ; The House went ;-and being returned: Mr. SPEAKER reported the Royal Assent to several Bills. BLACKBURN IMPROVEMENT BILL. Question again proposed, "That the Bill, as amended, be now considered." converting the measure into an Omnibus other matters on which he thought legisBill, so as to include in it a number of lation might be fairly and effectively introduced. The Corporation thereupon set to work to see how this was to be done. It was provided by the Legisla ture under Leeman's Act that due notice should be given to the town affected, that a meeting should be called to discuss the proposal, and that nothing whatever | when a town wanted an Improvement should be done without proper information having been conveyed to the people of the town who were interested in the project. But the way in which that provision of that Statute was carried out was to insert a sort of advertisement in the newspapers, intimating that a Bill was about to be promoted in Parliament, containing provisions respecting gas and water, and for other purposes." Then, under the "other purposes," most important clauses were introduced, often infringing the personal liberty of the subject, and placing every sanitary and police regulation under the exclusive control of a certain class of persons who were, as a general rule, able to introduce such measures as "unopposed." He was sensible that the subject was one to which he could not induce the House to devote all the attention it deserved; but he, nevertheless, felt himself bound to call attention to the matter, and to show the evils which the existing system engendered. As he had already stated, a Select Committee had sat upon these various Bills, and it would probably interest the House to show the nature of the provisions which the Committee had considered it right to cut down. He would refer for an example to the Dundee Police Bill. That Bill contained clauses of this sort-that every person who committed, or attempted to commit, falsehood, fraud, or otherwise, in the course of an investigation before the magistrates, should be liable to imprisonment for 60 days; and that a pawnbroker or broker should, under certain circumstances, be punishable as the receiver of stolen goods. Then there were provisions in regard to disorderly houses, and powers enabling medical men to inspect and examine every house and premises, and every person residing in such house or premises, in order to ascertain if anyone was suffering from any infectious or dangerous disease. There were powers also to issue and enforce regulations in regard to the prevention of disease. A number of these powers were struck out by the Committee before whom the Bill was sent; but not only the Dundee Police Bill, but the Newcastle-on-Tyne Improvement Bill, and various others, contained a number of similar extravagant provisions. He could not say that such provisions were actually applied for by the Corporations interested, because he understood that Act, it was the practice to send up general He that which had been pointed out by him had | about a month or six weeks previously, been left untouched, and that altera- a case came before him which clearly tions of the general law ought not to be established that small-pox had been made in the shape of Private Statutes. transmitted by that means. The case The Committee, in their Report, stated was that of a young lady engaged in the distribution of tracts from house to house. She caught the disease, and subsequently died; and the witness thought it was quite possible that the work she was engaged in-of distributing tracts in the district-contributed towards the spread of the disease. This was the evidence of a gentleman who was to be charged with the administration of one of these Private Acts which sought to add to his power; and this was the way in which he was prepared to deal with these most important questions. A Mem ber of the Committee asked the witness on what theory he submitted that the young lady had caught the infection from the tracts, and not from contact with any individual she might visited; and the answer was, that she might have done so, but she might also have taken it from the tracts; and he thought the distribution of tracts, under the circumstances, ought not to be allowed. The same Member of the Committee asked him if he had known, in the course of his experience, a case in which an infectious disease had been taken from a monthly magazine. The witness said he could not quite recollect a case in which such a thing had occurred. The question was repeated-"Did you ever know of "Anomalies and irregularities have undoubtedly received the sanction without the full knowledge of Parliament; and it appears to the Committee that such provisions, whether punishable or otherwise, should not, as is too often the case, by the mere fact of being unopposed, escape the publicity which their importance demands." They then proceeded to say that they had examined the clauses of the Bills submitted to them, and had struck out a large number of clauses proposing to give powers which might be already obtained by means of bye-laws under general Acts. Their defence for sanctioning the two particular sets of clauses they had inserted was, in the first place, in regard to the sanitary regulations, that they were asked for mostly by the medical officers of the Corporations interested. Now, the medical officer of a corporate body might be one of the ablest of men, or he might be, as was too often the case, a practitioner subordinate to many others in the same town, quite inexperienced and unskilled, and yet it was proposed to give him these exceptional and extraordinary powers at his own request. He would give the House one quotation from the evidence to illustrate what he meant. It was the case of Bolton, and a medical officer was called before the Committee in support of a clause conferring exceptional powers in regard to infectious diseases. The clause provided that if any person had resided in a house, or any part of a house, in which there had been within six weeks previously a person suffering from an infectious disease, which house had not been disinfected to the satisfaction of the Corporation, &c., and no person residing in such house, or part of such house, should receive books, &c., on loan from any such house, any person offending being liable to a penalty of 40s. The witness was a Bolton practitioner, who was called in support of the Bolton Bill; and his evidence was to the effect that it was desirable to legislate to prevent the transmission of disease by means of books, letters, pamphlets, and so on. Being asked to give an instance in which a disease had been so transmitted, the witness stated that, Mr. Hopwood a case where a disease or disorder was taken from a magazine?" and the answer was-"I do not know of one." Yet, in the very district to which this evidence applied — namely, Bolton, it had transpired, within the last few days, that a medical gentleman had sent a patient whom he was attending to a small-pox hospital; and yet the patient turned out to be suffering only from measles. These were the men who clamoured for these violent and stringent Acts-persons with peculiar "fads," at whose instance respectable people were to be conveyed from their residences to hospitals for the treatment of infectious diseases, often in a state in which they were totally unfit to be removed. MR. SCLATER-BOOTH said, he rose to Order. The hon. and learned Gentleman (Mr. Hopwood) was illustrating his case by quoting a series of clauses which had been disallowed by the Committee, and which were not, therefore, |