The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-14 00:00:00

RAILWAY AUDIT ACCOUNTS BILL.

Lord MONTF.:AGLE, in moving the Committee on
the Railway Audit Account Bill. said he proposed intr o
dueing aomc amendments into the Bill. One of these
was that persons seeking for an audit should deposit a
,uin of 2001. with the Commissioners, out of which sum
the expences of the audit should be defrayed if the Com
missioners shduld be of opinion that such application
for an audit was frivolous, but if not the expences
were to be defrayed by the company, and the
deposit returned to the applicants. He also
proposed to introduce clauses imposing penalties on the
officers of the company who should wilfully withhold any
information from the creditors which they might require.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE moved that in the
absence of the Earl of Shaftesbury, the chair should be
taken by the Earl of Devon.
The motion was agreed to, and their Lordships re-
solved themsulvos into Committee, the Earl of Devon in
the chair. _ _ _ •

After a short conversation, in which Lord Ashburton,
the Earl of Fitzvvilliam, and Lord Redesdalc, took part,
Lord BEAUMONT suggested that it would be
advisable that the report of the auditors should be made
public, inasmuch as if the knowledge of it wore confined
to the shareholders, they would, if it were unfavourable,
not make the report public, but get rid of their shares as
speedily as possible. The public had an interest in the
subject, and for their protection they ought to have an
opportunity of obtaining access to these reports.
Lord MONTEAGLE said the report of the auditors
isould be made iu duplicate, and report to be laid before
the shareholders, and the other to be transmitted to the
r,il way commissioners. The latter was a public
(It cement, and there would be no objection
to having it printed and laid before Parliament.
lle should like to see a general audit instituted every
3 ear of the accounts of all companies, in order to guard
against falsifications of accounts, and the declaration of
dividends out of capital, instead of out of profits, as was
too frequently the case at present. He was convinced
the same system of independent audit of railway
accounts was necessary for the protection of the share-
holders and of the public.
The amendments proposed were agreed to; the Bill
passed through Committee, and the House resumed.
PASSENGERS' BILL.

Earl GREY rose to move the second reading of the
Passengers' Bill, and was

(LEFT SPEAKING.)

ROUSE OF COMMONS.
The SPEAKER took the Chair at Four o'clock.
RAILWAYS COMMITTEE REPORT
Mr. STRUTT moved the further consideration' of the
report of the Railways Committee.
Lord 1-1. VANE was of opinion that the Committees
of the House would have considerable difficulty in car-
rying out the recommendations of the report.
After a few words in reply from Mr. W. PATTEN and
Mr. STRUTT, the report was agreed to.
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH ROME.
Petitions against, the Bill for establishing diplomatic
relations! with the Court of Rome wero presented by
Sir 11. Verney, and by Mr. Tollemache from the diocese
of Chester.
ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL.
The • Earl of ARUNDEL and SURREY presented
petitions from Melton Mowbrey, and other places,
in favour of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill.
PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.
Petitions, praying for the abolition of the punishment
of death, were presented by Mr. Heald, from Stockport,
by Mr. Mtv:gregor, from, the city of London, signed by
upwards of 1,000 persons, and from the City of West-
minster; by Mr. Fagan from Maidstone and Ports-
mouth; by Colonel Thompson from the city„.of London,