The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-01 00:00:00

THE MANCHESTER AND BIR-
MINGHAM EXT2NSION RAILWAY COM-
PANY.

(From the Manchester-and Saford Adcertivr.)
At length the Manchester and Birmingham Extension
lil,vny Bill has passed through the Committee on peti-
t:ries for Private Bills; and the extent and character of
.the opposition which it has had to encounter therein, con,
firms u.=., in the opinion exrcssed .a few weeks ago, as to
the Tl'.esity for a change in the System in regard to Pri-
vate Mils.
The Bill went into Committee on Friday the 22d Febru-
ary, and the inquiry terminated on Tuesday last, the Corn.
mAtee having actually sat 22 days. The allegations of
non-coropliince with the standing orders of Parliament
arnountL‘d to upwards of 400, of which number not one-
fourth have been substantiated.* The rest have been
either abandoned by the petitioners, cr been decided by
the Committee in favour of the promoters of the Bill.
As to the general character of the allegations, we are
even now unabld to give our readers an intelligible ac-
count of them, so extremely technical are they, so totally
irrespective of the merits and importance of the musure
itself. The imprestion produced on our own mind, however,
by a perusal of the notes of the proceedings, is decidedly
favourable to the e.lse. It appears to have been got up
with groat care and ability, and it is surpri,ing that where
such a number of minute detailS have had to b: attended
to, so few really important omtisions should have been de-
tected. Indeed,, we hesitate not to say that bad all the
allegations brought forward, with one exception, been
substantiated, the character of the 1341 and its promoters
would have been as little compromised as on the first day
of the inquiry ; and yet we doubt if the joint expenrs of
this merely technical preliminary inquiry will be short
of 10,000/. _ _

The exception to which wo allude i the following :
—The standing orlers of Parliament require, iu the case
of a Railway Company, that before the Parliamentary
deed can be executed by the shareholders, in ether words,
before the Company can be in a condition to go before
Parliament for their Bill, three fourths of their shares
.shall be taken up, and a sum of 10 percent. upon the amount
of the shares be deposited. The fact was, that with re-
spect to the shares, mere than three-fourths had been
taken up• before the application was made to Parliament.
With respect to the subscrip:ion, a deposit of 5 per cent.

was paid in the first instance, r.nd a M'ack scrip Wi:s issued

to the perties prying tl;.e same. Subsequently another 5
per cent. deposit was called for, and on payment thereof a
red scrip to that amount was issued in excherge for the
other. It happened, however, that. in some instances the
original holders of the black scrip had sold their shares
before the second call was made; and when the purchasers
tendered the second deposit of .5 per cent., they were re-
quired (in fulfilment of the standing orderin reference to
the execution of the Parliamentary deed by original share-
. holders) to pay the whole 10 per cent., making 15 per
cent, actually paid upon their respective shares, and 5 per
cent. (the amount of the black scrip) was thereupon re-
turned to them. The allegation (keeping out of sight
this formal proceeding, taken, be. it observed, with spacial
and exclusive reference to the standing order)—the al-
legation seas, in substance, that whereas 10 • per cent.
upon the shares was required to be, and alleged to have
b •en paid up on three•-fourths of the shares, less than thrac-
fourths of the shares had been subscribed for, and upon
many of these only 5 per cent. had been paid as a deposit
at the time of the execution of the Parliamentary deed by
the parties so executing it. In support of their objection
the petitioners called a witness, who completely negatived
the allegation which he had been called upon to support.
fie proved that he bad purchased some of the black scrip,
and that when the second call of 5 per cent. was made he
paid the whole deposit of 10 per cent. (making 15 per
cent. paid on his shares in all), and he then received back
from the bankers, as on behalf of the original holder, five

per cent. on the black serip, now given up. The s, licitor
to the C,lnpany, Mr. Wheeler, then briefly explaiced th
occasion of this formality, as already stated, and the Com-
mittee at once reported the standing order to have been
complied with. There were many other allegations upon
this subject, which were of course abandoned. Thus, the

case of the petitioners completely broke down in one of
its most formidable 'points ; and thus the ins;oultions so
unscrupulously dealt out in the Railway Times, about
"something very like fraud" being practised, vanish into
thin air.

It must be obvious, from what we have now and on a
former occasion stated, that a revision of the standing or-
ders is loudly called fur, with a view both to the cost, and
the more speedy passage of Private Bills through the forms
of Parliament. It is certainly not right—it is hardly
decent—that, as in the present case, parties should be
allowed, in the prosecution of an opposition prompted
solely by considerations of private advantage, to prefer
allegations in reference, not only to their own property,
but the property of others who are eventing parties to the
very undertaking in respect to which they arc so pre-
ferred. Neither is it proper that such parties should be
allowed to press objections which, even if substantiated,
cannot in the slightest degree affect either public or pri-
vate interests, and which can therefore have no other ob-
ject but to harass the parties against whom they are di-'
rected. For all useful purposes the Parliamentary Com-
mittee itself can at all times institute a sufficiently rigid
examination as to points of mere technical observance ;
and we are also disposed to think that where a number of
allegations are brought together with the sole object of in-
volving opponents in expense, their negation or abrupt
abandonment should be visited with the expenses attendant
upon the production of evidence to rebut them.
There are other points of a less important character, a
revision of which is called for. We believe that the
Members of Parliament best acquainted with the working
of Committees on Private Bills are impressed with the
necessity of a change in the system; and we trust that the
whole matter will therefore undergo a speedy and attentive
consideration.

Since the above was written, the formal close of the in-
quiry has been commuicated to us. The Chairman (Mr.
Aglionby), after stating that the Committee were in expec-
tation that they should be able to report to the 11cusc on
Friday, the 12th of April, remarked at some length upon
the impracticable nature of the present standing orders, and
the serious amount of expense to which they subjected par-
ties applying for Bills. Indeed, so difficult was a compli-
ance therewith, on account of their intricacy and uncer-
tointy, that it was almost impossible, he added, for any par-
deg, however careful they might be, to come before Par-
ibment with an assurance that they had fulfilled the re-
quirements of the standing orders. The Chairman con-
-4 hided by expressing a hope that either a revision of the
whole code would be effected, pr that some explicit decla-
ration as to the construction to be put upon certain of the
orders would be made.

We have in the above remarks confined ourolves (41'04
to the forms of Parliament; next week o:•e may probably
have something to say on the merits of the BJI.

The whole number of allegations was 4541. The number sus
ained, 47. There are duplicated objections, making the total

really 44.
" In aver)* large majority of eases, the non.compliances are re.
ported :,y the Committee, with special circumstances, in explana.

ion of such non-compliance.

In only two or three cares, and those of very slight importance,
have any allegations been sustained affecting the property of the
petitioners.

MARYLEBONE VEsTRY.

At a meeting of the Vestry on Saturday, on the re-
port of the committee appointed to consider the right
of the rector to 'occupy three pews in the parish church,
one for himself and family, another for his curates, and
the third for his servants, and recommending the sides-
men of the parish to take forcible possession of the let-
ter, coming on fur confirmation,
Lord KENYON rose to oppose the adoption.

The RECTOR (Dr. Spry) was prepared to conciliate
the feelings of the par!shioners upon this end other
matters, and he hoped the Vestry would not persist in a
course fraught with such disreputable consequences to
themselves as the takinc, forcible possession of the
rector's pew. He should' move the non-confirmation of
the minute.

Mr. JACKSON seconded the motion, but in doing so
expresied that he should feel that he was not bound in
the vote he should give upon the question.
Mr. SODEN could not see, when a rate of 2(.1. in the
pound was obliged to be imposed on the parishioners for
Church•rates, why the Rector should hold a pew for
his servants, in addition to the others occupied by him-
self and curates.

Mr. WILSON was happy to hear that there was some
disposition, on the part of the Rector, to come to an
amicable arrangement with regard to this and other
questions ; undr those circumstances, he would sug-
gest the propriety of postponing the confirmation until
a conference had been bad with Dr. Spry. If, how-
ever, there was no chance of such an arrangement, he
would support the confirmation.
Considerable discussion arose, and ultimately it was
unanimously resolved—That the confirmation should be
adjourned for a week."

On Saturday a Coroner's Inquest• was held be-
fore Mr. Baker, at the Prince of Wales, Barnes-street,
St. Luke's, on the body of John Chiles, a waiter, whose
death was supposed to have been caused by a blow which
he had received from the landlord ( Philpott) of the tap at-
tached to the Castle and Falcon Tavern, AlderTzte-
street. It appeared that on the 6th inst. the deceased and
several others were in the tap, when some matteis arose
with which the landlord was not pleased, whereupon he
struck one of the company, took up several of the pots and
glasses frorWthe tables, and walked out of the room. Pre-
sently, however; he returned and turned over one of the ta-
bles, with the pots which remained upon it. The deceased,
upon this, put out the gas, which gave so much rffince to
the landlord that he followed him out and struck him with
a quart pot a violent blow on the kit ear. A large quan-
tity of blood quickly flowed. Eventually the deceased
was conveyed to St. Bartholomew's Ilospital ; erysipelas
ensued, which produced the fatal result. The Jury re-
turned a verdict of Manslaughter, and the Coroner com-
mitted the prisoner for trial at the Central Criminal
Court.

ROBBERY AT THE SWAN HOTEL, WELLS.
—Wednesday mornin,', it was discovered that Mr. J. Tay-
lor, of Bath, and Mr. Miller, of Shepton Mallet, who were
staying at the above hotel, had been robbed, the former of
a gold watch, and the Litter of a gold watch and chain and
several sovereigns, which must have been taken from their
bedrooms before they_ were up. Suspicion soon fell upon
a genteel young man who had Leen staying at the inn since
Sunday, and who went out about si lotelock in the morn-
' ing, leaving a bill of upwards of 21. undischarged, stating
he should return to breakfast, but he did not. He was
shortly after traced on the Glastonbury road, and a con-
stable of Taunton took a horse and gig and proceeded
thither. Upon arriving at an inn there, he found that a
persbc answering the description of the supposed thief had
breakfasted, ordered a post-chaise to Taunton, and bad
also tAen a Mackintosh with him belonging to a gentleman
wl`n WriS staying at the iiin, He was pursued and oven
i:.1;;;,, all the is t property v.,as found in
session

113 JO