The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-25 00:00:00

The Select Committee appointed to consider whether any
and what improvement can be adopted in the mode of con-
ducting private business, and who were empowered to ref ort
their observations thereupon to the House, together with the
minutes of the evidence taken before them, have agreod to
the following report:—
" Your Committee, in considering the subject committed
to them, thought it advisable to ascertain from competent per-
sons their opinion as to the effect of the changes which have
of late been introduced into the conduct of private business,
as well as to inquire into the defects which may still exist, and
to obtain suggestions for its improvement.
" They refer to the evidence given upon all these points,
which they recommend to the attentive consideration of the
House.
" With respect to- the alterations adopted in 1836 in the
procedings on private Bills before the second reading, they
have great pleasure in stating, that it appears from all the
evidence adduced, confirmed by the opinion of Members of
your Committee, who are themselves acquainted with this
branch of business, that these changes have operated benefi.
cially, and that up to this stage of the proceedings no com-
plaint is made, and no alteration is to be suggested.
" The system of breviates of private Bills adopted at the
beginning of the Session appears also to have worked ex-
tremely well, and to have given satisfaction ; and your Corn_
mitten bear testimony to the able manner in which the gentle-
man selected by the Speaker for this business has discharged
the duties confided to him.
" Your CoMmittee are therefore of opinion, that the arrange..
ment made for the preparation of breviates should be con-
tinued during the next Session, and also that the officer ap.
pointed to prepare them should be instructed, in his examina-
tion of the Bills, to remark specifically in each breviate, upon
any provisions which may affect the public interest, in order
that the attention of the Government and the House may be
pointedly called to any such provision.
" Your Committee are unwilling at present to pronounce au
opinion upon the policy of making the arrangement for the
preparation of the breviates permanent; because it appears to
them desirable to have the advantage of some additional ex-
perience before a final decision be formed, and because they
think it well worthy of consideration whether there might not
be some general principles established, in respect to the phrase-
ology and enactments of private Bills (according to the se-
veral subjects which they may embrace), which would, among
other benefits, tend greatly to reduce the labour of preparing a
breviate for each individual Bill. If a specific arrangement
according to certain general principles were required, all that
House would have to seek fur Kould be distinct information as
to cases of proposed exception.
" Even if the duties connected with the examination of pri-
vate Bills, however, were materially reduced in consequence
of the establishment of some such general rules as those above
suggested, or from other causes, there might be other duties
united with the examination of private Bills, which would oc-
cupy, with great advantage to the public, the time and atten-
tion of an officer of professional acquirements, and which would
justify a permanent appointment for their discharge.
" For instance, it has been proposed by the Committee which
sat in the present Session, on the question of the jurisdiction
of the House in respect to controverted elec'ions, that the
whole proceedings, with regard to the examination of sureties
and recogn;zances, should be traniftrred from the. parties who
at present conduit it to an cfficer specially appointed for the
purpose by the Speaker.
" It has also frequently been suggested that the phraseololy
of public Bills might advantageously be revised by some com-
petent authority, for the purpose of insuring, as far as possible,
uniformity in •the expressions made of, and curtailing whatever
may be superfluous.
" Supposing, then, that the House should, in the conrse of
next session, determine upon the ad ption of the a! srgges-
lions, or either of them, the same party who might be in-
trusted with the examination of private Bills and the prepara-
tion of breviates, might also undertake the additional duties
which would thus have to be performed, and the House would
probably deem it advisable to sanction some permanent ar-
rangement, by virtue of which the authority of the officer ap-
pointed would be clearly defined, and a fixed and liberal salary
appropriated to the office.
" The duties connected with the breviates will terminate
with the present session ; nor would they be renewed (even
should the suggestion of your Committee as to the further
continuance of the experiment be adopted) until the com-
mencement of the following session. Your Committee, how-
ever, suggest that the interval of the recess might be em-
ployed with great advantage in inquiring into the state of
legislation in respect to the private business of the country,
and preparing the materials for the future consideration of die
House.

" With a view to that object, they recommend the employ-
ment by the Government of some competent professional per-
sons, who shall classify the private business, and prepare drafts
of general Bills to be submitted to the Legislature at the
commencement of the next session, as the form of general
enactments under each head.

" With regard to the last branch of inquiry entrusted to
your Committee, namely, what improvement can be suggested
in the managemeneof private business by Committees, they
must beg to refer to the minutes of evidence, and to the ap-
pendix. It will there appear that the constitution of the pre-
sent List Committees upon the Bill, and their mode of con-
ducting business, is universally complained of. The same
witnesses, however, arc far from agreeing as to the remedy ;
the plan adopted this year by the House of Lords has been
recommended by many of them, and resolutions embodying
the principle in practice, and carrying out the details of the
plan, were submitted to your Committee, and will be found in
the appendix. In consequence, however, of a difference of
opinion among the Members of your Committee, it did not
appear expedient to recommend the adoption of such a plan to
the House, or to depart from the opinion entertained upon this
subject by the Committee which sat last year upon public and
private business.
" Other modifications of the present system, not involving
a departure from the principle of local representation in Com-
mittees, but uniting that with the attendance of Members un-
connected with the interests under discussion, were likewise
considered ; but, upon the whole, your Committee are not
prepared at present to recommend the adoption of any change
in this respect. The subject, however, is one of so much im-
portance, and the constitution of Committees on private Bills,
and their mode of transacting business according to the pre-
sent system, is avowedly so far from being satisfactory, that
they deem the further consideration of it well worthy of tho
attention of the House at the earliest period of the next ses-
sion.—August 4, 1838."

The question of the charter of the Bank of Ireland
is apparently destined to be a subject of much discussion in the
monetary circles both of Dublin and London during the period
which intervenes until Parliament again meets. The pretexts
under which a renewal of this disgraceful monopoly of so im-
portant a portion of the banking business of Ireland is evidently
meditated, form daily the subject of animadversicn amongst
the parties in this city who are connected with the Irish private
and Joint-stock Banks. Thus, in the recent Parliamentary
debate on the subject, when it was shown that the Bank of
Ireland receives annually an excess of interest, to the amount
of at least 25,000/. per annum, as the difference between the
interest at 4 per cent. which is paid on the 2} millions ad-
vanced to the Government, and the true rate of about 24 or 3
per cent., at which it is quite certain that the money
could be borrowed elsewhere, it was answered by the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer that the Bank of Ireland makes
up for this extraordinary allowance of interest by the
gratuitous management of the Irish National Debt.
This reasoning is, however, asserted by the Irish politicians to
be extremely hollow when the amount of the Irish debt and
the value of the management of it are fairly taken into view ;
for the national debt of Ireland is about 18 millions, and the
expenses of managing the payments upon that amount, if
reckoned upon the system of remuneration to the Bank of
England for the management of a debt of 760 millions, would
be somewhat less than a sum of 6,000/. per ear. But uit
is perfectly well known that the payment to the Bank of Rug
land is still more than double the amount at which the business
could be transacted without the intervention of that institution,
it is reasoned that in strict economy the management of tho
Irish debt is not worth now more than a sum of about 2,000/.
or 3,000/. per year, and consequently Mr. Spring Rice ad-
vances the cause of the monopolists in only a very insigni-
ficant degree by urging the services of the Bank of Ireland
as an equivalent for a loss to the country of at least 25,000/.
a-y ear. —Morning Paper.

REMARKABLE EFFORT of NATURE.---Mr.
Piing, the celebrated cribbage player, who is now residing at
Broadstairs, affords a very remarkable instance of what nature
can accompliA. This gentleman, who had been dumb from
his birth (?), whilst walking with Mr. G.- Almond, of Old
Bond street, on Bridgeman Cliff', Cork, suddenly saw a child
dashed to pieces almost at his feet, it having fallen from the
cliff, upon which Mr. Piing suddenly received speech, ex-
claiming " Oh, Heavens !" and has ever since retained his
poAers of language. He is at present sojourning at Broad-
stairs, where he may frequently ba heard, conversing with a
true Milesian accent.—Maidstone Journal.

CHURCH-RATES IN CllELSEA.—Yesterilay a Spe-
cial Petty Sessions for the extensive parish of St. Luke, Chel-
sea, was held in the vestry-room of the new church, before Mr.
W. B. France and Captain Bague, two of the local Magis.
trates, when upwards of 1,300 summonses against defaulters
on the Church-rates of -this parish came on for adjudication.
The question of Church-rates has for a long time excited
winch angry feeling in Chelsea, arising principally from Cap-
tain Acklam, a county Magistrate, having objected to certain
items in the accounts of the Church trustees, viz., such as the
sal ,rics of the organist, organ-blower, &c. &e., which ques-
tion was ultimately brought by appeal before the bench at the
Middlesex Quarter Sessions, when the Magistrates decided
that their power to interfere only extended to the accounts of
chutehwardens, and not to those of trustees. About that pe-
riod proceedings were instituted against the defaulters,
whipscenes of a disorderly and riotous character occurred in
the parish, which were at the time brought under judicial no-
tice. Subsequently a writ of UltiMitillltlS has been obtained
from the Couit of Queen's Bench, to compel the justices to
hear the appeal, in which stage the matter at present rests.
From the proceedings of yesterday it would, however, appear
t
die principal ilOition of whou
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tended that, as :he never occupied the shurch, he had no
right to pay ; and one person only °bleated on the ground of
the iilerlity of the rats,