-expression, of all the self-governing Colonies of the Crown. It is done in defiance of the opinion, as far as it has or can be expressed, of the great mass of the people of this country. There is not an hon. Member opposite who will not agree that if a proposal of this kind had been made to the House of Commons twelve or even six months ago it would have been rejected by a practically unanimous vote and repudiated, scouted, and laughed out of existence. *MR. LYTTELTON: What I stated was that I intended to instruct the What is the Lieutenant-Governor not to consent to transfer of contracts without the consent of the labourer. Abraham, William (Cork, N.E.) Ambrose, Robert Brown, George M.(Edinburgh) Buxton, Sydney Charles Cremer, William Randal Crombie, John William Crooks, William Cullinan, J. Dalziel, James Henry Davies, Alfred (Carmarthen) AYES. | Delany, William Ellice, Capt E.C(SAndrw'sBghs Ferguson, R. C. Munro (Leith) Goddard, Daniel Ford Grant, Corrie Hardie, J. K. (Merthyr Tydvil) Law, Hugh Alex. (Donegal, W. Levy, Maurice Lloyd-George, David Lough, Thomas M'Arthur, Charles (Liverpool) Norton, Capt. Cecil William Power, Patrick Joseph Redmond, John E. (Waterford) Roberts, John Bryn (Eifion) Rose, Charles Day Samuel, Herbert L. (Cleveland) Sinclair, John (Forfarshire) Spencer, Rt. Hn.C.R(Northants Walton, Jn. Lawson (Leeds, S.) TELLERS FOR THE AYES-Mr. Herbert Gladstone and Mr. William M'Arthur. Agg-Gardner, James Tynte Balfour, Rt. Hn. G. W. (Leeds) NOES. Crossley, Rt. Hon. Sir Savile Finch, Rt. Hon. George H. Hall, Edward Marshall Halsey, Rt. Hon. Thomas F. Hamilton, RtHnLordG(Midd'x Hope, J.F(Sheffield, Brightside Keswick, William Lucas, Reginald J. (Portsmouth M'Calmont, Colonel James Manners, Lord Cecil Peel, Hn. Wm. Robert Wellesley Platt-Higgins, Frederick Pretyman, Ernest George Pym, C. Guy Reid, James (Greenock) Remnant, James Farquharson Richards, Henry Charles Ridley, Hn. M.W.(Stalybridge) Ritchie, Rt. Hn.Chas. Thomson Roberts, Samuel (Sheffield) Robertson, Herbert (Hackney) Rothschild, Hn. Lionel Walter Round, Rt. Hon James Royds, Clement Molyneux Rutherford, W. W. (Liverpool) Sackville, Col. S. G. Stopford Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander Sandys, Lt. Col. Thos. Myles Sassoon, Sir Edward Albert Saunderson, Rt. Hn.Col. Edw.J. Scott, Sir S. (Marylebone, W.) Seton-Karr, Sir Henry Sharpe, William Edward T. Sinclair, Louis (Romford) Skewes-Cox, Thomas Smith, Abel H.(Hertford, East) Smith, H.C(North'mb. Tynside Smith, James Parker (Lanarks. Smith, Hon. W, F. D. (Strand) Spear, John Ward' Stanley, Hn. Arthur (Ormskirk Stanley, Rt. Hon. Lord (Lancs. Stewart, Sir Mark J. M‘Taggart WILD BIRDS PROTECTION ACTS Considered in Committee, and reported, without Amendment; to be read the third time this day. INQUIRY INTO CHARITIES (COUNTY BOROUGH OF BOLTON). Return ordered, "comprising (1) the Reports made to the Charity Commissioners, in the result of an inquiry held in the county borough of Bolton into endowments, subject to the provisions of the Charitable Trusts Acts, 1853 to 1894, and appropriated in whole or in part for the benefit of that county borough, or of any part thereof, together with the Reports on those endowments of the Commissioners for inquiring concerning Charities, 1818 to 1837; (2) a Digest showing whether any, and, if any, what such endowments are recorded in the books of the Charity Commissioners in the county borough; and (3) an Index, alphabetically arranged, of names and places mentioned in the Reports."—(Mr. Stock, James Henry Tufnell, Lieut.-Col. Edward HOUSE OF COMMONS (KITCHEN AND Ordered, That a Select Committee be appointed to control the arrangements for the Kitchen and Refreshment Rooms in the Department of the Serjeant-atArms attending this House. Ordered, That the Committee do consist of seventeen Members. The Committee was accordingly nominated of Mr. James Bailey, Mr. Broadhurst, Mr. Cremer, Mr. Dalziel, Sir Horatio Davies, Sir Thomas Firbank, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Jacoby, Colonel Lockwood, Mr. Lonsdale, Dr. MacDonnel, Mr. Malcolm, Mr. George Ormsby-Gore, Mr. Pierpoint, Mr. Power, Mr. William Redmond, and Sir Harry Samuel. Ordered, That the Committee have power to send for persons, papers, and records. Ordered, That Three be the quorum. (Sir A. Acland-Hood.) Adjourned at fourteen minutes after Twelve o'clock. An Asterisk (*) at the commencement of a Speech indicates revision by the Member. HOUSE OF LORDS. Tuesday, 23rd February, 1904. PRIVATE BILL BUSINESS. Clyde Valley Electrical Power [H.L.]. And also the Certificate that the Standing Orders applicable to the following Bill have not been complied with:-Marylebone Chapels (St. James, Westmoreland Street) (Petition for Bill). The same were ordered to lie on the Table. Preston and Lytham Tramways and Tramroad Bill [H.L.]. Presented, and read 1a. Chamber of Commerce; Liverpool Chamber of Commerce; Wolverhampton Chamber of Commerce; London Association for the Protection of Trade; and Town and County Councils, Merchants, Members of Chambers of Commerce, Schoolmasters, Teachers, Ministers of Religion, Shop keepers and Retailers, Manufacturers, Engineers, Trades Unions, Members of Trades Unions and Workmen, and others. Read, and ordered to lie on the Table. RETURNS, REPORTS, ETC. INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION (IRELAND). Rule made by the Intermediate Educa Young and Bell's Patents Bill [H.L.]. tion Board of Ireland in substitution for Read 2a, and committed. Rule 28 of 1st May, 1903. Middlesborough, Stockton-on-Tees, and Thorley Tramways Bill; London United Tramways (Railways) Bill. The order of Thursday last referring the Examiners' Certificates of non-compliance with the Standing Orders to the Standing Orders Committee on Thursday next, discharged. Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1899. Report from the Committee of Selection, That the following Lords be proposed to the House as the panel of Lords to act as Commissioners under the Act, viz.:-L. Herries, L. Muncaster; agreed to; and the said Lords appointed accordingly. Kilmarnock Corporation Order Confirmation Bill. Brought from the Commons; read 1; to be printed; and (pursuant to the Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1899) deemed to have been read 2a [The Lord Kintore (E. Kintore)], and reported from the Committee. (No. 14.) WEIGHTS AND MEASURES (METRIC [SECOND READING.] Order of the Day for the Second Reading read. *LORD BELHAVEN AND STENTON: My Lords, in rising to move the Second Reading of this Bill I feel considerable diffidence owing to its large and universal scope, affecting every person within the left it to His Majesty's Government to United Kingdom. I would gladly have have initiated legislation on a subject which a very great number of people regard as one of vital importance to the welfare of the country; but, from answers which have from time to time been given by Ministers to deputations which have advocated this measure, it is clear that, however much they sympathised with the object and believed in its utility, they did not consider, at the time those answers were given, that public opinion was sufficiently ripe for the compulsory introduction of the metric system. It will be my object to-day, Z I among other aims, to show how very | new subject, in many cases the examiners strongly public opinion has now come have not asked any questions in that round in its desire for this measure. section of arithmetic. Therefore school will not go further back in the history teachers are very much disheartened of the movement than the year 1895, when they find that inspectors seem to when a Select Committee of the House of look upon it in a half-hearted way and Commons sat for a considerable time they get no credit for the time they and took exhaustive evidenee on the devote to the teaching of it. If this whole subject. In July of that year the Bill passes it will be the means of infusCommittee published their Report, and ing a great deal more energy into this I have caused that Report to be printed particular subject. But while the first with the Bill in order that your Lord- and third recommendations of the Select ships might have an opportunity of Committee have been acted upon, the studying it at your leisure. I will therefore second-the most important of all-which only read the three recommendations proposed that after two years the metric contained in that Reportsystem should become compulsory by Act of Parliament, has not been noticed, notwithstanding that over eight years had elapsed since the recommendation was made. It is to meet that recommendation that the Bill now before your Lordships has been introduced. After the Report of the Select Committee had been made the advocates of the metric system continued their campaign. In November, 1895, a deputation from the Chambers of Commerce throughout the Kingdom, supported by the Decimal Association, waited upon Mr. Balfour. In reply, Mr. Balfour expressed himself in favour of the metric system, and concluded with the following (a) That the metrical system of weights and measures be at once legalised for all purposes. (b) That after a lapse of two years the metrical system be rendered compulsory by Act of Parliament. (c) That the metrical system of weights and measures be taught in all public elementary schools as a necessary and integral part of arithmetic, and that decimals be introduced at an earlier period of the school curriculum than is the case at present. Of these three recommendations the first was complied with by the passing of the permissive Act of 1897. By this Act the use in trade of a weight or measure of the metric system was made lawful, and a person using or having in his possession such a weight or measure was not by reason thereof liable to a fine. The Act further provided that the Board of Trade standards should include metric standards, and it was made lawful for the Queen, by Order in Council, to make a table of metrical equivalents. Such tables have been published by the Board of Trade. This Act was a great relief to those manufacturers who were making goods for export to countries where the metric system was in force, but there appears to have been a serious omission in that Act, in that inspectors of weights and measures were not given power to verify and stamp the metric weights and measures so used. The third recommendation-I pass for the moment over the second-of the Select Committee has also been complied. with. The metric system has been taught in the elementary schools under the Educational Code of 1900, but it is to be regretted that though the teachers give much time and trouble to teaching this words "The compulsory change to which we all look forward could not, with safety or advantage, be undertaken by the Government till public opinion is more prepared for it than at present. The public opinion with which we have got to deal, and which we are bound to consider, is not the public opinion of the great manufacturers alone, but the public opinion of every man and woman you meet in the street. While I look forward to the time, and no distant time, when they will adopt the change without difficulty and without repugnance, I should like to see to the present to show that the change can private enterprise do more than it has done up be adopted without inconvenience, and that it carries with it all the benefits which I,. in common with you, firmly believe to be attached to the metric system, and which it is hopelessly impossible to associate with the arbitrary, perverse, and utterly irrational system under which we have all had the misfortune to be brought up." In March, 1899, a deputation from the Decimal Association waited on the President of the Board of Trade, and Mr. Ritchie replied much in the same terms. He recognised that the proposed change would be an advantageous one |