The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-13 00:00:00

PRIVATE BUSINESS OF PAIILIA-

MENT.

IRELAND.-JOINT STOCK COMPANIES.

A discovery of considerable importance to the-sister
country has recently been made. Our readers are
aware that the House of commons passed several
stringent, or rather prohibitory, Standing Orders at the
end of last Session, as to 'any future Bills for pubic
works by Joint Stock Companies, or otherwise, that
might be brought before them. Such Bills were
divided into three classes, having special regulations
attached to each. The second class comprehended
" Bills for making, varying, extending, or enlarging,
any public works, such as bridges, turnpike roads,
cuts, canals, reservoirs, aqueducts, waterworks, navi-
gation, tunnels, archways, railways, piers, ports, har-
bours, ferries and docks." For these Bills certain
additional notices were required, but the Standing
Order which constituted the chief difficulty, and which
has had the effect of stopping all newly contemplated
local improvements is the following :

" That all subscription contracts shall contain the
christian and surnames, description and place of abode
of every subscriber, his signature to the amount of his
subscription ; and the name of the party witnessing
such signature, and the date of the same respectively ;
and that it be proved to the satisfaction of the Com-
mittee on petitions, that a sum equal to one-tenth part
of the amount subscribed be paid up, and depo-
sited in the Bank of England, or in any Bank
in Scotland, incorporated by Act of Parliament,
or by Royal Charter, if the Bill relate to Scotland, or
invested in some Government security, in the names of
the Clerks of the House of Commons for the time •
being, and of any two persons named by the promoters
of the Bill, the said sum or securities so to remain
until the Bill has either passed or been rsjected by this
House, or been withdrawn by the parties ; and when
the said Bill shall have passed this House, or been
rejected by this House, or been withdrawn by the
parties, the Clerk of this House and the said Trustees
shall pay over or transfer such sum of money or secu-
rities to some person or persons named, for the pur-
pose of receiving the same, by the parties making the
deposit or investment at the time of their making such
deposit or investment."

This standing order, by specially naming the
Bank of England and Bank of Scotland, and
not mentioning the Bank of Ireland, led to doubts
whether Bills - affecting Ireland would be bound
by it; and a solicitor of eminence, Mr. CHARLES
PEA RSON, took the opinions of two of the most cele-
brated Counsel upon it. The Parliamentary experience,
as well as the greet Parliamentary practice of one of
those gentlemen, Mr. M. D. HILL, particularly qua-
lified him to give such opinion, and that opi-
nion, as well as the opinion of the other gentleman,
was decidedly in favour of the doubt expressed, viz.,
that Ireland was not included in the Standing Order,
and that, consequently, it was not necessary to
deposit ten per cent as to any Bills for making Rail-
ways in that country. In consequence of this deci-
sion we shall give the lists of Members eligible to serve
in Committee for the four provinces of Ireland on
Monday.
While we shall be very glad of several public works
in Ireland formerly projected, but recently suspended
in consequence of the above order, can be proceeded
with, we are very sorry that all other public works to
be effected by joint-stock companies in England and
Scotland will remain arrested by it. No doubt many
evasions of former Standing Orders, and not a little
roguery, were proved to have existed in some Compa-
nies which went through the ordeal of Mr. WAR-
BURTON'S Subscription List Committee last Session;
but bad as these were, there was no occasion to prevent
them for the future by stopping important local im-
provements altogether. The evils that were proved
were fictitious signatures, pauper signatures, &c., to se-
veral Subscription lists ; but these evils had one common
origin, viz., the buying and selling of shares while
such Bills were vet in embryo. Individuals who
wished to speculate without incurring responsibility
induced other persons of no property to sign the sub-
scription lists for them, and when by the turn of the
market shares no longer commanded a premium, and
it was found impossible to get the proportion of amount
subscribed which was required by the Standing Orders,
Directors and officers of Companies seeing their
projects in jeopardy, induced other individuals
who had no interest in the undertakings to subscribe
their names to make up the deficiencies. Such
were the evils discovered with reference to five or
six railways, but it must be clear that those evils might
have been prevented for the future by prohibiting all
transfers of shares until each particular project had re-
ceived the sanction of the Legislature, and become
law. A Bill enacting that all transfers of shares,
before Acts had been obtained, were illegal and void-
able would have prevented persons speculating or rather
gambling in them, fur the chances of immediate or
speedy profit, and this would simply and effectually
have prevented the continuance of fraudulent or ficti-
tious signatures.
This ninth standing order of the House of Com-
mons, passed under feelings of indignation at the eva-
sions that had been attempted, and without time for
deliberation, is both unwise and unjust. Railways,
and the other public works enumerated, whatever they
might be to the individuals speculating in them, were
to the nation important and beneficial undertakings.
They employed labour and facilitated internal commu-
nication. If it had not been for them the provi-
sions of the New Poor •law would not have been
carried into effect so quietly as they were. They
prevented an agrarian rebellion. Those great works,
Southwark and Waterloo Bridges have been
very unproductive to the shareholders, but who
will deny their very great usefulness to the pub-
lic ? If men of capital like to engage in such
undertakings, es they have " a right to do what they
like with their own," we think it exceedingly unwise
in the Legislature to stop them. This order operates
as a bar to all improvement. Suppose a railroad is
estimated to cost a million of money, who will consent
to invest 100,0001. of that amount without interest
(a dead loss to begin with), in addition to all the pro-
fessional expenses of engineers, solicitors, agents, &c.,
amounting perhaps to 50,000/. more ? The regula-
tion is most unwise—nay, more—it is most ro!just.
It should be remembered that many of the great trunk
railways were entered into, and subscribed for, by in-
dividuals, on the faith of certain branches being after-
wards made to them, which would greatly increase their
returns. This has been over and over again proved be-
fore Committees of tile House of Commons, yet knowing
this fact, the House permits large sums to be expended in
making the trunks, and then passes an order which has
the effect of stopping their branches, thereby convert-
ing those great works that had been undertaken under
the sanction of Parliament, into sources of individual
loss instead of the gain that might fairly have been
calculated upon. MoNTESQUIEu says that it is better
for a country that ninety-nine guilty men escape than
that one innocent man suffer. The House of Com-
mons reverses this maxim, by making ninety-nine inno-
cent suffer in order that one or two guilty may not es-
cape. 'However, since this mischievous order was
passed there his been time for reflection, and as ano-
ther Committee has been appointed to enquire into the
private business of the House, it is to be hoped that it
will very soon cease to exist, and that irregularities
and evasions will be prevented by a less injurious mode
than that of stopping public improvements altogether.

PERCY'S RELIQuEs.—The accidental possession,
by Edward Jorden, Esq., of Priors Lee (ancestor of Mr.
Slaney, the Member for Shrewsbury), of an apparently worth-
less collection of old ballads, and his gift of it to an ingenious
and aspiring young clergyman (Percy), of ancient lineage
but humble condition, led to a publication, which, more than
most others, influenced the public mind to a love of our early
poetry, and ercn'ually placed its author upon the.episcopak
bench. —Burke's Commoners, Part 10.

The Address of the French Chamber of Deputies,
drawn up by a Professor of Literature, with the co-operation
of two academicians, contains twelve paragraphs and twenty-
six examples of bad French. The Deputies, in their Address,
arc said to express hostility to am Carlos, but their real hos-
tility is directed against their native tongue. The Journal de
• Paris accuses them of a design to make themselves indepen-
dent of the Crown. He ought rather to have reproved theta
`for their attempt to make themselves independent of the rules.
of syntax.— Charivars.