The Express.
London, England, 1865-06-30 00:00:00

PAILTARY $X11:11 ES.

(From the Doily Noss.)
IT eSOISIS to be generally admitted that upon the
whole the parliamentary system of Referees has been
sexism The time of members has been saved,
led that is in itself a cogent reason why members
Amid be disposed to think rather of remedying the
&testa of the new method than of abolishing it. The
yricoiple of the new practice is simple enough. It
;waists in separating questions of fact from gust-
Ow of policy. The Referees determine quaintest
if locos sten:Li—who are to be beard, who are not
ee be beard, in favour or in opposition to a parti-
velar scheme—questions of engineering, and quea-
lions as to the sufficiency of the estimates. The t
system, indeed, is admitted to be inconsistent
with general principles • question ought
Dot to be broken up into parts and sub-
:sifted to various tribunals. But practical
experience appears to have shown that this ays-
ymi, although indefensible in theory, is convenient
`pretties. Assuming, therefore, that it will be
continued, the Report of the Committee which ie-
instigated the subject has suggested certain im-
provements ; but there are some suggestions made,
by some of the witnesses which appear to have
immely attracted the attention they deserve.
It is to be observed that before a Bill gets.
Wore the Committee which is to report in favour
rs against the proposed 'scheme, it must pees
through the bands of the Referees. The present
session must, no doubt, be taken as excep-
tional, because the Referees sat for the
Stet time, and were obliged to elaborate
a new code of practice. This difficulty
will not exist in future. But there
wore other causes of delay of • more par-
assent nature, which must recur in future
seeeksa. "The expense and delay to which you
" have referred," says Mr. DODSON' " arose in
" this way : we were very anxious not to stop
"Ike work of Committees, but to go on with the
"Bills, so as to feed the Committees with Bills
"upon which we had reported, and for which
"the parties were waiting." The remedy which
Mr. Doreos suggests is that there shall be three
Courts of Ratereas—one taking the locus standi
eras, and the other two devoting themselves to quer
tiocia of engineering and estimate—and he says, " If
~" you began work early in the session I do not
apprehend that there would be any greater diffi-
-14 ashy as regards delays to Bills than must ne-
" osesarily happen before Committees in all cases."
Mr. McLain*, the counsel to the Srtates, says,
that "the Referees felt =hurried to keep up with the
" business that they were led to put down more
" cases on their notice-paper than they could get
"through ; and the consequence was that parties
" were in waiting expecting their cases to come
" on." It seems strange that no remedy for this
state of things should be found. There is, of
course, no reason why the Referees should not
begin to sit at the earliest period of the session.
But it has been suggested that the Referees might
begin their sittings even before the meeting of
Parliament. la there any serious objection to
this! Mr. G. B. Gazoonr, a Parliamentary
agent, who was examined by the Select Com-
mittee, says with great truth I think • great
" deal of the expense incurred in private bush-
" nem is in consequence of having it con-
"pressed into so very short • period.
" You now have thirteen or fourteen courts all
:"sitting within • period of six weeks, and we
" work while that is going on under very high
," pressure ; if you work under a high pressure
4' you must be paid and pay for it ; and I think
"if you could spread the work over a larger
"period, you would save a very considerable pox-
'4/ tion of the expense which is now incurred."
Without adopting the suggestion of Mr. Gaznour
to its full extent, there seems no reason why the
Referees should not begin to sit six weeks or two
months before Parliament meets. During this
period they would exercise precisely the
same jurisdiction which they now exer-
t= during the sitting of Parliament.
Their jurisdiction would be neither enlarged nor
d'oinished. During this period they might report
upon a sufficient number of Bills, which, at the
opening of the session, would be in a state fit to be
submitted to the Committees to which they might
be referred. For this purpose pro=bly • single
Court of Referees would be sufficient to overtake all
the business. The result would be that the delay
alluded to by Mr. Donsois and Mr. RICKARDS
would be effectually got rid of. A second and not
Ism important result would be, that the experienced
members among the Referees, instead of being
obliged to confine their attention to questions of
lotus standi, engineering, and estimates, would be
• able to devote themselves to other branches of the
private business of Parliament.
If the number of members required to sit as
Referees were very considerable, the Rouse of
Commons would no doubt protect themselves,
against having additional work thrown upon them,
by rejecting any proposal practically to prolong
the session. But as only three or four members
would be required, it is scarcely probable that any
such objection would be taken. Nor is it probable
that the proposal would meet with much opposition
from any of the parliamentary agents or counsel,
except those who are jealous of any interference
with their vacation privilege, although it is pro-
bable that, if these powerful odes were opposed
to change, it would be necessary to frame some
rule for the purpose of compelling agents to
bring their cases before the Referees at • cony
nient period. Nor is it probable that any consti-
tutional objection would be made to the Referees
holding their courts before the opening of the
• cession. Their powers might be conferred by Act
of Parliament. The only effect of the new system
would be, that an investigation which at present
takes place in March would then take place in
January, or perhaps in December. In old times the
Common Law Judges could not transact certain
business except during term time. Those periods
were found to be too short. The legal business of
the country was so much increased that Parliament
was obliged to confer power upon the Judges to
transact their business after term. A similar
result has taken place in Parliament. It has been
found impossible to overtake all the privets:6l
business during the session. And the ques-
tion now is—what is the best plan for
meeting the difficulty ? It may be assumed
that the system of Referees is to be tried. This
system assumes a division of jurisdiction. The
Referees are required to prepare, as it were, the
business for the Committees. Unless the Referees
meet before Parliament the Committees cannot
transact the private business. And it moths
difficult to suggest any reasonable objection why
this should not be done. At all events, it is
worth while to try the experiment.

HARM FurrivAi.—Requeeie have been wade
to the Shooters of the 0,11401 P4ace sod the wc°-
*Mee d the Bowed Hasmtesie Society to sive so additional
pestansasse. The isipsesibility, however, of retaking
lower the swims of the pea:mess pate this out of the
'Maim. sad the festival most owls& this day with the
strains of the National Lathan:, which will be played im-
mediately after the orotoeio, /nod in 147YPt•
Elootrroa, FOR DUMAN'S OF TM hens?, 67,
ILL.ltooarrorrizze, Coviorousz-eouLas-- The Rata= Oi
PIRRRdi Mined dories the week was 107.