The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-08 00:00:00

COMMITTEES ON RAILWAY BILLS.

Lord REIiESDALE then moved the resolution of which he
had given notice, " That the Select Committee appointed
by their Lordships to name the Select Committee for the cowl-
derat ion of opposed private Bills should notiname any such Corns
mittee on any opposed railway 13111 alter Alo ulav , the 20th July
There would be great difficulty in obtaining proper and efficient
committees after that period, to sit upon Bdls and give them
due attention. Their Lordships were also aware that acme o:
the most important Bills were those that came up at the latest
period, and that was the case with those that were most op-
pos.:tel. It was desirable to secure good committees, and a fair
and proper time for the consideration of Bills before them, and
he thought every person must be fully aware that the time that
was allowed by this resolution for the ;till consideration of
those Bills was such as ought to be allowed in such matters as
railway lygislature. He had, therefore, selected the 21th July
as the day beyond which no committee should be named for
sitting on railway Bills. Their Lordships were aware that a
Committee named on that day, might very properly it be-
yond the end of the month, and on some occasions in the
other House they had listed for a longer period. He, therefore,
did net wish to name a later day. He had consulted that with
Noble Lords, who were best acquainted with the arrangement
a that House, and they entirely concurred with him on the
desirableness of selecting the day he had named. He, there-
fore, begged to move that no Select Committee for the con-
sideration of opposed private Bills should be fixed after the
20th July.
The Earl of WICKLOW said that the motion appeared
to Jai a very unjust one towards the public. 'I here
never had been a session in which a greater number of railway
Bills had been brought before the House; and, notwithstanding
teat, a proposition was brought forward at an early period of
the session which, to a great extent, delayed the progress of
those Bills. He perfectly approved of those measures; hut if
this resolution was passed the promoters of several railway
Bills would be subjected to great expense and inconvenience.
No doubt many Noble Lords would think it convenient to lease
town before the end of the session. But they had duties to
perform, and very important du ies, in attending to railway
Bills. It was very true that great injury had been done to the
public by over-speculating in railways, but it was also very true
that they benefited by such undertakings. How was it possi-
ble to fix a time after which no Bills were to be taken in tom
mittee, when the session would, in all probability, last till
August, judging from the great amount of business which was
to come before their Lordships. To pass suck a resolution
would toe to do a great injury to the public, who would most un-
doubtedly be benefitted by many of the Bids which would be
rejected, because refused a hearing. He swas, indeed, sur-
prised to find the Noble Lord proposing such a motion, and he
expected to have heard some good reasons stated for taking
such a course.

Lord REDESDALE said that he did not make such a
motion for the purpose of saving the labour of their Lordships,
but to serve the parties interested in railway Bills, who would,
by the course he proposed, know the latest time when they
could come before a Committee. This session many Bills had
commenced in the House of Lords, and that expedited their
progress very much, and he saw no injury whatever by the
adoption of this motion. The resolution was th. n put and
pased.