On the second reading of the bill, the Lord Advocate introduced the business with his usual display of eloquence, pointing out, in forcible language, the horrors of a sunken rock so situate as the Bell Rock; and concluded, by observing, that, as there could be but one opinion as to the important object of this bill, he hoped, through the exertions of the Light-house Board, to which he had the honour to belong, and of other public functionaries, appointed for similar purposes, on other parts of the coast, the day would come, when every sunken rock and dangerous shoal, of similar importance to navigation, would be distinctly pointed out to the mariner. The only reply made was by Mr Spencer Perceval, who remarked, that he had no intention to oppose the present measure, the importance of which he would not call in question, but he must agree with those who thought that this was not a favourable time for granting loans of public money. The bill was then read a second time. In its progress through the House of Commons, it was detained, from various causes, beyond the regular time. The Lord Advocate had also unfortunately been taken ill; but in his absence, Sir John Sinclair attended to the bill in the Committee, of which he was chairman, and brought up the following Report: _Report of the Committee of the House of Commons._ [Sidenote: Report of the Committee.] [Sidenote: Report brought up by Sir John Sinclair.] “The Committee, to whom was referred the Petition of the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses, and to report the matter to the House, as it shall appear to them, “Proceeded to examine Mr ROBERT STEVENSON, Civil Engineer, who, in his capacity of engineer for the Northern Light-houses, has erected six light-houses in the northern parts of the kingdom; and has made the erection of a light-house on the Cape or Bell Rock, more particularly his study,--especially, since the loss of about 70 sail of vessels, in a storm which happened upon the coast in the month of December 1799, by which numerous ships were driven from their course along the shore, and from their moorings in Yarmouth Roads, and other places of anchorage, southward of the Firth of Forth, and wrecked upon the eastern coast of Scotland, as referred to in the report made to this House, in the month of July 1803; the particulars of which he also confirms: That the Bell Rock is most dangerously situate, lying in a track which is annually navigated by no less than about 700,000 tons of shipping, besides his Majesty’s ships of war, and revenue cutters: That its place is not easily ascertained, even by persons well acquainted with the coast, being covered by the sea about half flood, and the land-marks, by which its position is ascertained, being from 12 to 20 miles distant from the site of danger.