The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-28 00:00:00

CHARITABLE TRUSTS BILL.

The Earl of ELDON presented a petition from Marlborough
College, praying tobe exempted from the operations of this Bill.
RAILWAYS.

The Earl of DALHOUSIE then rose to propose the new
sessional orders of which he had given notice with respect to
railways. Since he had given notice, similar resolutions had
been adopted by the other House of Parliament, in which cer-
tain alterations had been made; and as it was desirable the re-
solutions of each House should be similar, he had made the
same alterations which had been made in the resolutions of the
other House in the resolutions which he had now to propose.
The Noble Lord then proceeded to state the nature of a num-
ber of alterations to the resolutions, which have already been
published, namely, when they came before the House of Com-
mons, and concluded by moving their adoption.
Lord MONTEAGLE thought that the sessional orders
should not be altered upon any essential principle without pre-
vious notice. He thought it was not right that their Lordships
should be taken by surprise upon the Noble Lord's proposition.
The meetings where tl,e parties would consider their interests
was the proper place to consider the question. He was op-
posed to relaxing the rule in favour of some Bills, and enforc-
ing it in others. The steps they had taken were neither wise
nor manly, as they were throwing responsibility from them-
selves to other parties. Their duty was to see that thole
railway Bills which ought to pass were adopted, and to reject
those which were unworthy of being passed. This was the
course they ought to have taken at an earlier period. He
certainly thought the proposed resolutions would do good as far
as they went, but something further was required. Another
thing he complained of was, that, under the present system, a
railroad Bill that was unopposed passed almost as a matter of
course, and nothing could ce more absurd than this ; for it
very often happene that a line of great public utility was
sacrificed for a line of secondary consideration. This would
always be the case until some one was appointed to represent
the Executive Government in those Committees, or until the
Legislature took upon themselves more general power, and
considered these matters in an impartial light. It would be
improper for him to speak now of the best remedy for this
evil, but he was sure that every Noble Lord who had listened
with the least attention must be convinced that their present
system was deficient, and could not possibly be defended.
The object sought by the Government had been frustrated;
their intention was to release shareholders from difficulties in
which they were placed ; the resolutions of the House should
not have been postponed till the present time. By this un-
necessary delay a director who had, say 1.000 shares, and who
had reserved 500 of them, would be enabled to issue out in
small parts those 500 shares which they had reserved, and 500
independent shareholders, who might wish the Bill to be sus-
pended, would be out-voted by the 500 shares of the directors.
It gave the power of making what was called in Election Com-
mittees the creation of occasional votes. There never was a
greater mistake made than by the introduction of such a mea-
sure as the present. He perfectly agreed with the Noble
Lord in the object which he had in view, but still he thought
that that object ought to he accomplished by some other means
than those which he had proposed, and that if they intended
to stop those projects before they came to their third read-
ing, they ought to have some plan by which to save
expense to the projectors. They should recollect
the expenses and the vexations to which those several pro-
jectors had been subjected. If his Lordship and the Govern-
ment had taken this view of the case, they should also recollect
that they were, at the same time, putting a stop to those great
public works of which the country appeared to be in want, and
the principle of which they had already adopted—of those great
works of which the country was in need. If these works were
to be stoppe I, why not stop them at once? The Noble Lord
had said, that they must go back to the House of Commons,
but if they were to go back they should recollect that an enor-
rmeoasuosnewshpeyniste 00.
should u 1 d
nhoet ibnec usrarvetd,
d,
andto the h e
p rdoi jde citioorts saened any
country. He remembered that in the last three years a great
effort had been made to give effect to railway enterprise in
Ireland, and he knew that within the last two years this had
been successfully carried out ; but he deeply regretted that
the Act had not been so constructed as to avoid the Irish lines.
No one was more impressed than himself with the great in-
dustry, diligence, and and great merit of the Noble Lord at the
head of the Board of Trade—(Cheers)---and with the exer-
tions which he had made in order to bring these matters into
something like a manageable condition. But he d-eply re-
gretted at the decision to which the Board over whichhe presided
had arrived. Still more did he regret the decision of the
Committee, for if they considered and obtained their view of
the case, from the want of means to accomplish the projects
ald pwsceptoaeewuyreni theee::ho;
companies
aefp regard
thelnaßyri
edup
accidentssat
Ftrtaothif
rtrooserauterat
thought
Lstlhehhwotreearitydsthlspaiebos
netefitsehtsut
eehfbrEellf
to
lisTraetati rsrattseohloknaßf
eruers
it
.neuPsht
knew
irheplaenyesrleei
which had been laid before Parliament, he conceived that the
1 Irish lines might have been left out, and that the view which
had been taken was erroneous on that point.
The Duke of RICHMOND felt that great credit was due
to the Noble Lord at the head of the Board of Trade, for the
manner in which he had conducted the business of his office
tmtr, duringhhahaee,
Bills
a decisionsntr anythinghbci
rider
et
a several
eoor vfer
t:es
hbhrai
of
the
mendations of the Board, over which the Noble Lord re.
sided, would have had their full effect with Parliament and
thirdwt eer were
line,
ifnocu i, d
reading.ed
but to doingthHise
he
eo
mustl
could
is• a
noty
assert,
sws,
eai with ht
Board of Trade. It was upon this that the chief objections
,tlittbha
added to the Bill, he thought they would be unjustly dealt by.
He said that under the
circumstances of the case the Bill
would be anything but justice without the rider attached.
Suppose the House of Commons were to say, you shall go on
with your Bill, because we believe that
there are valid grounds
for its passing; but it should be recollected that the mere in-
troduction of the clause which was of moment to theßil
would entail exceeding expense, and he thought the Govern'
rnent ought to have made a provision for that purpose in the
Act. If he understood the thing right, the purchase of the
land was to be laid open for five years, which was a greater'
advantage than the companies desired. He thought it would
have been better to have made a temporary arrangement.
Lord ASH BURT ON gave great credit to the Noble Lord
for his exertions and industry in his official duties, and he
thought that the resolutions which had been propounded were
at this moment exceedingly important, and entitled to the sup-
port of the House and her Majesty's Government, inasmuch
for the exigencies of the
as they made a provision . ease at the
It was certainly true that the promoters of
present moment.
considered the consequences that were
all the plans never . f
likely to arise ' from them, except in so ar as they affected their
had no relation whatever to the exi-
genciesown interests. They
less did they
care for the
no of the country, still
or means
Government • and certainly it would seem
with classification of the Gover ,
ilheiciwiaalhalaltdtei nineto'rteaebnoedmein..r
could not by any means become par-
tieswith this impression they
Noble Lord had read. With
to the resolutions which the
t that the o
It ern- G v
Ireland, he thought
respect to Scotlagd and