The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-15 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
HOUSE OF LORDS.—THURSDAT, JULY 14.
The Loan Cumetai.tua took his seat at 6 o'clock.
PUBLIC BUSINESS.
PETITIONS PRESENTED.
SCOTCH BANILIII;PTCT Law.—By the Duke of AROYLL,
from the Clianabsr of Commerce of Leith, in favour of an
alteration of the Scotch Bankruptcy Law.
AHUZSTMENT ter W• 01.4 TO/ Dints—By Lord CAMP-
BELL, from the Merchants' Company of Edinburgh; sad
Lord K INNAI RD, from a public meeting in Edinbargh ;
against the noadition of the arrestmeut of wages for debt in
Beotland.—By Lord BROUGHAM, from the workmen of
Mews. Graham and Misers. PiPlarlane, of Glaagow, in
favour of the abtiuiw of arrisstment of wages for debt. The
noble and learned lord again stated that it was not his in-
tention to press this bill on during the present acision; but
he get it referred to a commission on the subject of the assi-
milation of the mercantile law of the United Kingdom.
15015.—8 y Lord STANLEY of ALDERLEY, from a
place not beard, against the tea on salt in India.
COMIIMATION UV WORIIMIN.4 BILL.—By Lord KIN-
MAI RD. from seri ral places, and the Bari of SHAFTES-
BURY, from Bath and Manchester, in favour of this bill.
Pt: nun Hocass.—By the Earl of SHAFTESBURY,
from Bottom and Leeds, in favour of closing public-houses
eta Sundays.
0101FIlliANCI Of Tin Lotto's DAT.—By the Earl of
SHAFTESBU RY, from chemists, bakers, and butchers of
it. Mary, Southwark, praying for a better observance of
do Lord's Day.
boric-rime or Nuotrittas.—By the Earl of SHAF-
TESBURY, from four churches in Aberdeen, praying for
the inspection of nunneries.
DIGEST OF THE CRIMINAL LAW.
Lord ST. LEON ARDS said it would be in the recollec-
tion of their lordships that a commission had been sitting
for the purpose of preparing a digest of the criminal law.
The subject had he. a referred to a select committee early in
the feMIOn, bettor. which it had been most fully discussed,
and the result had Nitta tho preparation of a bill which he
had then before him. The committee proposal that tbe
bill should be printed and circulated amonpl
judges, who should be invited to give an opinion up= %et
It now stood, and next session their lordships w be
totter able to proceed with it. (Hear, hear.)
, The LORI) ItANCELLOR entirely approved of the
1 smarm about to I,v adopted by his noble and learned friend,
who had spoken most truly when he said that as much ac-
ts scion had been devoted to this measure as had ever been
tin 'en to any sulject. Nothing presented so much difficulty
L he definition of those great case* in which, if their defi-
cit, is failed just at the moment when a man was charged
with murder, or soy heinous offence, they might be in-
',Nei, in an it:extricable difficulty. The learned gentlemen
who d prepared the hill hal made material alterations
hmi wet *overneuts in it, and he had felt it his duty to ask
soma to proceed with the further preparation of other men-
I within the last week they had seat him a bill,
OEM, aa,
re k .to a nice form, oa the subject of larceny and m-
ain= a,. t • store. (Hear, hear.) He intended to lay it
um. •in order to get it piloted and circulated for the
wwiaiaa eft he judges.
citk 'FBELL concurred in the course proposed to
b.,17rt0, IOHAM looked now to the completion of this
root work 1 'or the tint time he had a confident (wrote-
his that wo mid have a good, sound, well-digested erode
caiminal law. lie hoped the learned judges would give
oak Gumlike ta the subject as early so possible. (Hear.)
SOUTH HAS FERN RAILWAY (CANTERBURY
AND 1 YHITSTABLE, ) BILL.
The Earl of YEA (CLAM moved the third reading of this
bill, which he stato I was to enable the company to do that
Molly which they k ut been in the habit of doing a long
time, to the a/haml •of the public—to rtes steam boats
et
ketw.oo Dam sad• leis and Folkston* and Bon/ogee.
Lord MONTEAU . said there bad been ten petitions
presented again* the bill, two of which represented 32
cleans-best *mama. one interested in 100,000 tons of
skipping, sad having a a spital four millions. Amongst
eilie petitioners were the B ritish and Foreirs Steam Naviga-
tion Company, the Liverpoi. I and Havre Company, the Levant
Company, the Clyde Com ay, and others. Their opposition
mated on the ground that lb • bill would give a inoaepoly to
the Consolidated Railway a ad Steamboat Company, end
Nall sios them a gnat 'lnnis', over their rivals in
trade—companies not enjoying limited liability. The qwes-
Ilan wee not •• new one; it haa ,°°°• entertained. and 4.-
el against, by the Railway "nninnfrf in 1847, in
tbe ease of the Eastern Countis ..oref- In 1848 the
Board of Trade and the Railwa L ma" 8.100,, report
em this subject in with le, a. • railwsys; and it was
opposed to this exteasion of limited I lability to steamboat
empasios. Under the late governors.% tan application was
made by a employ, call. d the British an d North of Europe
Steamboat Company, for limited liabilit I but it was re-
tailed by the Board of Trade. Even in the =SO of the,
great mlertakiag, the Liverpool and North American Com-
posiy, a similar refusal had been made. A 11 the mediae
was against the giving of limited liability; 1'1.91 it would be
tie height of injustice, to give it to one pa' 'titillate com-
pany sad refs,. it M others. As a cm mission was
now sitting to wrider the question of ,vartnenhip
generally, Malebo( that of limited lial laity, no
sack grant as that indebted in this bill ought to b. made
until the conindeekie bad reported. He win still mon op-
poeed to granting die privilege to a railway. mearey, con-
sidering the spud of mesiopoly by which those empaaiss
wore Mutated ; sad he the case before the Mem it wevild
be moat un,tiMt bemuse the comma, we. admilly in pee-
swim of the ken bow of Fulkstme. They bed got the
railway and lbs harbour, and now they wanted possession
et the eteSWlHeee. In he ease of the Brighton Railway,
doer lismids* bed struck out the clams empowering the
• gay *Wm* owners of steam-boats. The late Duke
af~blsSYfgten bed taken great interest in this question on
pita' grounds only ; and in 1848 he had opposed the es-
Maslen of the powers now asked to the railway company.
It was a maxim in courts of justice that persons coming to
ask be privileges ought to do so with clean bends; and yet
diem parties admitted that they had for years been illegally
apply ag die funds of the railway to the keeping up of
deamboata, in direct contravention of the principles laid
dewy by the Board of Trade. There were two coin-
✓nominally, but they consisted of nearly
mila@ individuals. At
_present an invidual shareholder
In the railway company had a remedy against the three-
eon for the misapplication of the funds; and were their
lordships prepared to take away that right ? There was no
pretence for saying that this power was necessary for the
esinvenience of the public; the channel service was already
well performed. Ile did not seek to throw out the bill,
bat would move as an amsadment the omission of the
dames referred to.
Their lordship divided,
ler the !kiss reading 34
Ageism it