The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-05 00:00:00

obtaining a deposit of so small an amount. But the
Hon. Gentleman said that the effect of the restriction
was to arrest the progress of railroads in this country,
and to send capital abroad to be invested in rail-
way speculations in foreign countries. Now he (Mr. L.)
thought he found a complete answer to that statement,
upon examining the notices of private Bills, upon which
he found in this Session already 58 notices of plans
for new railways. He thought therefore there need be
no apprehension that parties who had projects calcu-
lated to be beneficial to themselves and the public would
find any difficulty in making the deposit required by the
present regulation.—(Hear, hear.) And he should
feel very sorry if the House should alter the determi-
nation to which it came after so much deliberation.
Mr. WARBURTON was so far from thinking the
existing regulation requiring the deposit of 10 per cent.
at all excessive, he was convinced that in all bona fide
schemes no difficulty could be found in conforming to it.
Until that was enacted, men of straw came before the
public with ephemeral and good for nothing speculations,
by which people were induced to invest their savings in
projects that could never be attended with the least ad-
vantage to them or to the public. The Hon. Gentleman
then read an extract from the Committee of the House,
appointed in 1837, to the effect that the only means of
checking delusive schemes was to require that all parties
petitioning for a Bill should be required to make a de-
posit. But that Committee had no intention to specify
a particular amount of deposit, and he thought that
the subsequent Committee very properly fixed the sum
at its present amount. With respect to the Hon. Mem-
ber's (Mr. H.'s) statement that the effect of the regula-
tion was to reduce the number of railway speculations,
the Hon. Gonda-Dan had himself given the answer
when he said that the state of the money market in the
last three years had operated to the discouragement of
those schemes.—(Hear.) Yet, no less than sixty-eight
Bills had passed since the enactment of the present
Standing Order, and 55,000,0001. of capital had been
invested in carrying them into effect.—(Hear, hear.)
He (Mr. W.) had had the best opportunities of
inquiring into the merits of the case, and he was satisfied
that the existing regulation was the best that could be
devised.—( Hear.)
Mr. BROTHERTON had been a member of the
Committee of which his Hon. Friend, the Member for
Bridport4was the chairman ; and, knowing the number
of bubble schemes which were brought forward, he
thought the present rule ought not to be relaxed.
He wished to state a fact which he thought of consi-
derable importance. The Liverpool and Manchester
Reilway Company, a year or two ago, obtained an
Act for a railway to pass through the borough which
he had the honour to represent, and they had con-
trived to introduce a clause leaving it optional to
them whether they should complete the railway or
not. The consequences were, that parties who had
received notice that the railway would pass through
their property were completely tied up from disposing
of their land in any way—(Cries of " Hear, hear")—
and the Company had the sole power of determining
whether the property should he required at any
time for the purpose of the railways.—(Hear, hear.)
He did think that Parliament should take every precau-
tion for having their works vigilantly and vigorously car-
ried into effect.
Mr. O'CONNELL wished to say a few words on
the subject. It seemed to him that the regulation, as
it stood at present, was, like many others, highly
favourable to the rich, and to great capitalists, and
that it went to increase the influence of those who were
already possessed of enormous wealth, while it acted
injuriously as regarded the smaller capitalist. It had
that effect in the country from which he came, where
there was but little capital. They felt severely in that
country the pressure of the present regulation, and he
therefore believed it to be his duty to protest against it.
All railways were now a monopoly, and he thought it
would be better, in that instance, to relax the rule, as
proposed by the Hon. Member.
Lord HO WICK said that the Hon. and Learned
Member who had just sat down, instead of considering
the regulation as it now existed as favourable to large
capitalists, ought in his opinion to consider it as likely to
operate in an exactly opposite way.—( Hear, hear.)
Before the regulation had been introduced a great in-
justice was frequently done to parties having small pro-
perties in counties through which it was proposed rail-
ways should pass. Schemes for the commencement of rail-
ways were brought forward, and which, as they were never
carried into effect had no other result than to put resi-
dent landlords to the expense of needless litigation.
He thought it was the interest of small proprietors that
a check should he put upon those who entered into decep-
tive schemes, by insisting rigidly on the rule as it now ex-
isted. He was persuaded that all gentlemen connected
with landed property would do well to pause before
they countenanced the resolution of the Hon. Member.
He was not hostile to that particular line of railway,
in favour of which it was supposed the Honour-
able Member had made his motion. He was so
far from that that he could assure the Honourable
Member, that no one could be more anxious than he
was to see a line of railway carried through that county
which he himself had the honour to represent. But
lie felt that whenever a good line could be made
out, the regulation they were now discussing
would not offer the slightest difficulty in the way of
its being carried into effect. On those grounds he
would undoubtedly give his opposition to the motion
of the Hon. Member.--(Hear, hear.)
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL thought that they
onght to modify the order as it now existed. In
his opinion the deposit of 10 per cent. would be
sufficient. He did not think that a large per tentage
should be required before a Bill was brought into Par-
liament. That was the hardship of which he com-
plained, and of which those who were favourable to
the line of railway, referred to by the Noble Lord,
must bitterly complain. The modification which he
(the Attorney-General) wished for, was that they
should require a deposit of 10 per cent. not
before the Bill was introduced into the House, but be-
fore the works were begun. That was the principle which
had been acted on in the case of the Edinburgh and
Glasgow Railway, and which had been attended with com-
plete success. It would, he thought, be quite sufficient
that they should have a certificate from a public func-
tionary before a spade was put in the ground. In that
case they would be sure to have a bona fide under-
taking that would sufficiently protect the landed in-
terest, and which would not at the same time discourage
those useful works.
Mr. FRESHFIELD could not see the benefit of
changing the present law. If the undertakings were
of a bona fide and reasonable character, there was no
fear but capital would be employed on them in this

country rather than abroad. The Attorney-General said
that a 10 per tentage paid before a spade was put in the
ground would offer sufficient protection to the public.
He (llr. Freshfield) was persuaded, on the contrary,
that such regulation would tend to encourage improper
speculation. It could only tend to encourage dealing
in shares, to the injury of the public.

Mr. W. 0. STANLEY expressed his approval o
,he motion.

Mr. HODGSON HINDS, in reply said, that
almost all who had addressed the House were
against rescinding the Standing Order. The Noble
Lord had said that he considered the Standing Order
as most beneficial to the landed interest. Now, he
(Mr. Hodgson Hinde) considered, that if there
was one Standing Order more injurious to the
Landed Interest than another it was this very
order requiring a deposit of 10 per cent., for many
railroad schemes, after having been brought to a certain
degree of maturity, were not brought under the con-
sideration of Parliament on account of the inability
of the parties to make the deposit required ; but these
schemes were not on that account abandoned ; they were
merely postponed to another session, and thus these
schemes were kept hanging over the heads of the land-
owners on the proposed line from year to year, in conse-
quence of this standing order, without the decisionlof Par-
liament. The Right Hon. Gentleman had said that there
were fifty.eight notices for Railway Bills this Session ;
now it was not by the number of notices given that they
could judge of the effects of the Standing Order, but by
the number of Bills brought in, and he would venture to
assert that not more than half-a-dozen Bills would be
brought in of all the fifty-eight notices. He felt the
sense of the House was against him, but he was desirous
of recording his vote, because that, at another time, when
the number of railway labourers thrown out of employ.
ment would be considerable, the House would be glad to
rescind this Order.

Strangers were then ordered to withdraw, and the
House divided, when there appeared—

For the motion
Against it

Majority against the motion... -129
Mr. KELLY presented a petition from the late
collector of taxes for the county of Somerset, com-
plaining that the Government, in granting him com-
pensation had acted against a law and custom, and
praying the House to take his case into consideration
by referring. it to a Committee.

Mr. 13R-OTHERTON presented a petition from
Dover, praying for a total repeal of the Corn-laws.
Mr. O'CONNELL presented a petition from the
Plasterers of Dublin, praying for the repeal of the
Union.