24 MAY 1873, Page 2

On Thursday night Mr. Stansfeld carried without a division the

second reading of his two Bills,—his Rating Liability and Valuation Bills,—of which we gave some account last week. The discussion on the Bills was extremely vagrant and uninstructive, and the only definite result was, that Mr. Stanzfeld virtually pledged the Government to renew the exemptions, which the Rating Bill in its present form withdraws, of Ragged and Sunday Schools from liability to rating. The whole debate was one not appropriate to the second reading of a Bill, but an agglomeration of the pettiest criticisms. It is disheartening to see Parliament devoting valuable time to such a discussion as this,—a bad anti- cipation of a debate that must come all over again in Committee.