The Press.
London, England, 1856-02-09 00:00:00

YOUTHFUL OFFENDERS IN IRELAND.

The second reading of the Youthful Offenders
(Ireland) Bill was opposed by Mr. V. Scuux, who
complained that no sufficient provision had been
made in the measure against the danger of Catholic
children being sent to I'rotestant reformatories.

Mr. KENNEDY having spoken,
The SECRETARY for IRELAND briefly defended the
bill, which was then read a second time.

Leave was tben given to Sir W. Clay to bring in a
bill for the abolition of Church rates, and to Mr.
adlam for a bill relating to medical reform.
The house adjourned at half past ninevo'clock.

CAMBRIDGE ELECTION.
CLOSE OF THE SECOND DAY'S POLL.

Walpole 631
Denman

• Majority for Walpole 315

THE NEW JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES
BILL.
TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."

Sir,—lf lam not much mistaken, there appears
to be a very curious omission in the proposed
bill for regulating joint-stock companies. Carried
away by the laudable desire to limit the liability of
shareholders in such undertakings, the draftsman
has forgotten to enact where that limit shall be
placed.

The proposed bill, after making certain requisi-
tions for the formation of companies with limited
liability, informs us in its fourteenth section that
after registration the subscribers shall be a body
corporate, with such pecuniary liability on the part
of the shareholders as is thereinafter mentioned.
But the extent of this liability is in no place after-
wards mentioned in the bill, except in the event of a
limited company being wound up. In this event
alone the proposed act limits the liability of the
shareholders to the amount of calls that are unpaid
on the shares held by him. But there is in the pre-
sent act no clause similar to the one contained in
the Limited Liability Act of last year, now to be re-
pealed, which enacted that no member of a company
with limited liability should be liable for any debt or
engagement of the company for a greater sum than
should be equal to the portion of his shares not yet
paid up. The proposed act apparently fails even to
enact that the shareholders in a company registered
as limited should enjoy, except during the process of
winding up, the advantages of what is vaguely termed
" limited liability," a term which is used frequently in
the bill without a definition being given to it, which
is, in truth, the great omission in the proposed act.
For I submit that, whatever may at present be the
popular acceptation of the term, it does not in itself
contain any virtue legally to define what shall be the
length and breadth of the restriction imposed. I
hazard these remarks in case you should think them
pertinent, as I do not think our legislators are so
perfect in their work that they need be above taking
a hint from you.—Your obedient servant,
February 8, 1858.

Sus.

The EARL or LISTOWEL died on Monday last, in his
fifty-sixth year, from paralysis, at Morrison's Hotel,
Dublin. His lordship was the eldest son of Richard,
Viscount Ennismore, M.P. for the county of Cork,
whose father, Mr. William Hare, having represented
Cork and Athy in the Irish House of Commons
from 1790 to 1800, was raised to the peerage at the
time of the Union, and promoted to the earldom in
1822. The peer lately deceased succeeded to the
title in 1837, on the decease of his grandfather, and
was elected M.P. for the lately disfranchised borough
of St. Albans in February, 1841, and again at the
general election in that year, and continued to repre-
sent it in the Liberal interest until the dissolution in
1847. Since that time his lordship bad taken
little or no.part in politics, but held the office of
a lord•in-waiting to the Queen. He is succeeded in
his title and estates by his eldest son, William,
Viscount Ennismore, who became lieutenant and
captain in the Scots Fusilier Guards in 1854, and
was severely wounded at the battle of the Alma. His
lordship is an aide-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland, and, it may be remembered, contested
the county of Cork with Mr. Rickard Deasy, Q.C.,
the Roman Catholic candidate, in March last, but
without success. He was born in 1833, and is un-
married.

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