The Express.
London, England, 1866-03-16 00:00:00

i

Emma
THE

speech
House

its private legislation, an instrument in the bands
of the Stook Exchange ; and the statement was re-
ceived with cheers. It is remarkable that so vigorous
a description of • misdirection given to its powers
should so highly please a legislative assembly.
Not less curious is it that this undoubted abuse of
the functions of a legislative body should be used
to support the argument that it was in the best
possible state of efficiency. If, indeed, a striking
illustration were needed to contrast the working
powers of Parliament before and after the Reform
Act, the private bill system might well be se-
lected. Before 1832 it was a scandal—offers
to members for the purchase of their votes
were circulated through the post as freely as
tradesmen's advertisements. After that date,
partiality and intrigue were purged away, and legis-
lation was rescued from undue bias. But though
Mr. Lowfs statement was wholly beside the mark
be aimed at, it was too accurate, too important in
its bearing, to be cant aside entirely. Proof of its
accuracy there is no occasion to offer ; but the
mode in which the most penniless scheme can clothe
itself with the monied aspect that Parliament
requires of it may be explained, especially as
there is some novelty in the style in which
these borrowed plumes are assumed. Parliament
has by precept always maintained the sensible
and common-place theory that before railway com.
panies apply to it for power to take possession of
property, the money requisite for that purpose shall
be obtained. In reality, however, the cart goes before
the horse—the sanction to the expenditure is made
the basis upon which the capital is raised. The
Legislature endeavours also to give practical effect to
this theory by prescribing that the deposit of a por-
tion of this presumed capital shall accompany the
application for the bill ; and it is ordained by statute
and regulation that this deposit should be taken by
the directors from the then actually existing funds
of their undertaking. But as, in the infancy of the
project, money is the last thing it is likely to have
in possession, this deposit is always borrowed. At
first this was done openly. The lenders] appeared
in that character before Parliament, and the bill
was pledged as a security for the loan. Parliament,
however, could not tolerate so palpable an evasion
of its rules, and they were applied with increased
stringency.

The only result is that these rules are still
evaded, but not quite so openly. The deposit is lent
as heretofore ; the capital is not one whit lees a fio-
tion than it was formerly, and the lenders still retain
their hold over the deposit, and over the bill itself,
by clothing themselves with the illusory garb of di-
rectors. But they are directors solely for the purpose
of seeing that the advance is repaid. This is hardly
a parliamentary or satisfactory idea of a director. He
is supposed to have staked his money as a pledge
of the reality, if not of the ultimate success of
the scheme. Parliament had, last session, the
visionary nature of these directorships almost
ludicrously enforced upon it. Three directors
who had made the government deposit for
their railway were examined by the Committee on
the Bill. One denied that he held that post at all •
he almost angrily affirmed that he bad
never beard of the railway before. Another
did recognise in some degree that he was thus con-
nected with the project. But he informed the com-
mittee that he held no shares in it ; that as soon as
the bill was passed his nominal directorship would
cease ; and that it was only within the last few
hours that the solicitor for the bill had reminded
him of the responsibility he had thus assumed. All
that the other of the three gentlemen who were
concerned in the deposit could tell the committee
about the transaction was, that he had not fur-
nished the money—a large sum of stock—and that
he did not know whence it was derived.
A formal compliance with the conditions of
this deposit was, however, secured. The
committee consequently felt constrained topes& the
bill ; but in a special report they expressed their
not unnatural dissatisfaction at being thus made
accomplices to so transparent an evasion of the
rules of Parliament. The real point of union of
these most unattached directors with the scheme was
not directly disclosed. It was not the less obvious.
They were, in fact, the trustees for the lenders of
the borrowed deposit—existing capital of the
railway there was none. The multiplicity of
similar transactions had effaced all recollection of
the name of the undertaking for which they had
made the advance, and over which, to parry the re-
quirementa of the Legislature, they were thus nomi-
nally appointed directors. But, as we have stated,
the trick was, and must be effective.
This, then, is the approved means by which the
most stringently worded orders of Parliament are
constantly evaded. And if they were re-enacted
yet more stringently they would still be evaded.
Evasion is a necessity as long as the passage of a
private bill through Parliament is a mere lottery.
It is useless now to appeal for public support of
an undertaking before it has received the sanction
of the royal assent. Up to that point, the cost
of procuring that sanction is utterly incalculable.
This is the opinion of Lord REDESDALS, based on a
twenty years' experience of this branch of legisla-
tion. If proof were needed, the instance be quoted
would suffioe. A wholly unspeculative undertaking,
a railway of the simplest character, of but eighteen
miles in length, was, by unexpected opposition in
Parliament, saddled with a debt of about 80,0001.
in its struggle towards legislative maturity through
the committee rooms.

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I
LONDON, FRIDAY, MARCH 16.
t'
IN the most °dentin passage of his speech
against the Reform Bill Mr. Lows told the House
I 4
of Commons that it had became, in the matter of
i its private legislation, an instrument in the handl