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

solutions of each House should be similar, he had made thet
same alterations which had been made in the resolutions of thee
eeher 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 Coro-
mons, and concluded by moving their adoption.
Lord MONTEAGLE thought that the sessional orders
should not be altered upon any essential princ7ple 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 the 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 ether parties. Their duty %Nis to see that those
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 cies good as far
as they went, but something further was required. Another
thing he complained of was, that, under the present sptem,
railroad Bill that was unopposed passed almost as a mailer of
course, and nothing could be more absurd than this ; fo'v it
very often happened that a line of great public utility wes
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 defersiedt.
The object sought by the Government had been frustrated
their intention was to release shareholders from difficulties les
which they were placed ; the resolutions of the House shouldi
not have been postponed till the present time. By this un-
necessary delay a director who had, say 1,000 shares, and who,
had reeerved 500 of them, would be enabled to issue out in
mall parts eLese 500 shares which they had reserved, and 500,
independent shareholders, who might wish the Bill to be sus-
pended, would he out-voted by the 500 shares of the directors.
It gave the power of making what was called ire Election Com-
mittees the creation of occasional votes. There never was a
greater mistake made than by the introduction of such a mea-
rem 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 be 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 come plan by which to save
expense to the projectors. They should recohlect
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 top to those great-.
rtblic works of which the country appeared to be in want, and
the pfl!seiple of which they had already adopted— of those great
works of which the country was in need. If these works were
to be stopped, why not stop them at once? The rieble Lord.
had said, that they must go back to the House of Cemmontr,,
but if they were to go back they should recollect that an enor-
mous expense would be incurred, and he did not see any
reason why it should not be saved to the projectors and the
country. He remembered that in the last three years a great
effort had been made to give effect to railway enterprise int
Ireland, and he knew that within the last two years this hark
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 deeply re-
gretted at the decision to which the Board over which he presided
had arrived. Still more did he regret the decision of the
Committee, for if they considered and obtained their vieee of
the case, from the want of means to aceomplish the projects
which had been laid before Parliament, he conceived that the
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
;luring the early part of the last session of Parliament, and if
the speech of the First Lord of the Treasury had not been
made with regard to railways, he felt assured that the recom-
mendations of the Board, over which the Noble Lcrd pre-
sided, would have had their full effect with Parliament and
the country. But after the speech of Sir R. Peel, the several
railway companies thought it better to take the chances of the
chapter of accidents rather than submit to the decisions of the
Board of Trade. It was upon this that the chief objections
were founded to doing away with the Irish Bills lee,cere the
third reading. He could not say that he knew anything of
the lines, but this he must assert, that unless a rides were
added to the Bill, he thought they would be unjustly death` by;
He said that under the circumstances of the case the Dill
would be anything but justice without the rider attaches:-
Suppose the House of Commons were to say, you shall go ea
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 the Bill,
would entail exceeding expense, and he thought the Govern-
ment 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 ASHBURTON 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
as they made a provision for the exigencies of the ease at the
present moment. It was certainly true.that the promoters of
all the plans never considered the consequences that were
likely to arise from them, except in so far as they affected their
own interests. They had no relation whatever to the exi-
gencies or means of the country, still less did they care for the
classification of the Government ; and certainly it would seen
with this impression they could not by any means become par-
ties to the resolutions which the Nuble Lord had read. With
respect to Scotland and Ireland, he thought that the Govern-
ment had come to a wise judgment, and that it had appeared is
the course of the discussion that nothing had been more foreign
in the compilation of the Act thao the want of foresight. It
should be recollected that at the coOmeneement of the last
session the Board of Trade had decleed that, under the
circumstances, certain classes should be recommended
as objectionable, that others should be delayed, and
that others again should be recommended for ap-
proval ; but to this the Committee had turned s
deaf ear, and a new classification had been adopted. There
were, first, those lines which had obtained a certain standing
in Parliament during last year. There were, secondly, these
which were proposed by the existing companies. Thirdly.
those which were promoted with a view to the coast defences of
the country ; and, lastly, those which proposed to shorten the
distances between places on the existing lines. With regard to
souse of those lines it was stated, as in regard to the Great
Western and the approaches to Exeter, that they went thirty
miles round. There was no doubt but that it was highly de-
sirable to shorten these distances to the public, whenever that
sheet could be accomplished with safety and economy.
The Earl of Si ICKLOW hoped that an alteration would be
made in the resolutions, requiring the meeting to be held be-
fore the committee on the Bill, instead of before the third
reading. Parties would then be saved the great expense of
bringing up witnesses and obtaining evidence.
Lord REDESDALE said that many alterations might be
made in Committee, which would alter the character of the )3111
altogether, and therefore it was essential that the meetings
should be held after the Committees had disposed of the Bas-
ile would just say, that in his opinion railway companies oughtt
to be allowed to borrow money ; they ought to call up all their'
shares.

The Earl of RADNOR objected to the resolutions alto-
gether. He did not see why parties who in a gambling spirit
had got themselves into difficulties, were to be relieved by Par-
liamentary interference. Parliament was stultifying itself by
such a resolution as this. They had rules, and to those rules
they ought rigidly to adhere. He looked upon these resolu-
tions as holding out an encouragemeht for a revival of the
system which they had just passed through. He believed the
resolutions were altogether unnecessary.
Earl FITZ WILLIAM did not object to the resolutions, brat
he must say that the state of things which had called them fortis
was a rather disgraceful feature in the conduct of the Govern-
ment. They were by this side-wind going to get rid of the
difficulty in which they found themselves, which might have
been prevented had proper steps been taken at the proper
period. He approved of the resolutions, because they were it
loophole by which the present difficulty could be
avoided. But after all, they were trust* to the
chapter of accidents, for they had no security that the good
lines would be adopted and the bad ones rejected. He thought
that a board for the control of these matters should be ap-
pointed ; and he only regretted that more confidence had not
been placed in the Railway Department of the Board of Trade
when it was in existence ; but he trusted the Government
would remodel it, giving it an efficient staff of engineers to
work with. _

The Earl of DALHOUSIE replied, he did not believe
that such a traffic in scrip would take place as to influence the
meetings that were to be called. He had consulted those who
were practically acquainted with the subject, and their opinion
was that nothing of the sort could take place. As to another
objection, that of scrip being surreptitiously issued by pro-
visional committees, it must be recollected that no scrip could
be available at the proposed meetings that had not been issued
prior to the 31st of March last. With respect to the Bills
which had reached the third reading being allowed to pass the
House, it must be borne in mind that a resolution precisely
similartothe and
dh ethneorewfoprreopaonseydphiaildwpkaiseshedptahsseei othtehreHtheuird
se
of Parliament,
reading in the House of Lords would be subjected to the reso-
lutions of the other House of Parliament.
The resolutions were then agreed to, and the House ad-
journed.

HOUSE OF COMMOIVS, April 27.
THE MARQUIS OF WATERFORD'S PROPERTY--
IO N Ot
the
Ta
dEj
oNu Ar
riNe
dTdSe
*
bate being read,
On the orderEoNCl
dayf-tlhe. for r
Major BERESFORD rose and said, that having been
temporarily ahst.nt from the House, he took the present oppor-
tunity of referring to a transaction that happened the other
night, when ;Illusion was made to the Marquis of Waterford's
property. Before, however, entering into that matter, he
must protest against the doctrine, (though no landlord had
more honestly discharged the duty than the Noble Marquis)
that every individual should be made subject to Parliamentary
inquiry and comment on mere prima facia evidence based
on newspaper reports.---( Loud cries of " Hear, hear.")
In such cases as these it was necessary that the personal
friends and relations of the parties accused should come for-
ward in order to protect them against these accusations.
Having presumed so much he wished to state that he had no
complaint to make against the Hon Member for Kilkenny
for bringing this case forward. The Hon. Member bad
found a statement fnrnished with the most circumstantial rela-
tions, and considering that the report was correct, had made
use of it in the course of argument. The only remark he bad
to make was that he was a little astonished that the Hon-
ourable Member should be so ready to give credence to
a report furnished from that source from which (if his memory
served him rightly), not a long time since some reports bad
issued with regard to his Learned and Hon. father. Thg
Hon. Member for Kilkenny was the individual, who in a
public address, declared the statement to be false'
and who published a letter declaring that the
source from which the information was obtained was re
incorrect one. Under these cirumstances, he wished that the
Hon. Gentleman would have had some degree of caution in
making his statements affecting the property of other people.
With the permission of the House, he would read the state-
ment. The Hon. Meafrier here read from a newspaper an
article, stating that a village en the estate of Lord wateadr'
•ford, containing 150 familier, or 277 persons,
been rased to the ground, and the families turned out destitute.
Now he would state the exact truth of the case. It seenne;
that about thirty or forty years ago there were a number,.
small tenements let to a number of persons; these oceupPng
tenants permitted a great number of cabins to be built d
the property ; a great number of these persons came from it
distance, and were not reared upon the property as
nt
was stated. When the lease expired, the agent w'epv
to Kilmactomas, and offered to each of them a sum of n1";',
for pulling down their own wretched houses ; the offer pas
thankfully accepted, and with their own hands theY P
d after
down the cabins; the agent then went away, on -