The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-09 00:00:00

The Business of the House of Lords.

The select committee appointed to inquire into
the expediency of making such arrangements as
shall enable the House to meet at 4 o'clock, instead
of 5 o'clock, for the despatch of business, and to
consider if any and what changes may be desirable
for the better transaction of the business of the
House, report that the committee have met and con-
sidered the subject-matter referred to them, and
have agreed to the following report :-
1. The committee first directed their attention to
the proposal that the House should meet at an earlier
hour than at present. In making any such change
care must be taken that it will not interfere with the
morning sittings, or afford temptation to shorten
the time now given to judicial business. It is also
necessary to pay attention to the convenience of
the Lord Chancellor, who, after having presided
there from half-past 10 to 4 o'clock, has frequently
other official business then brought before him. The
committee having taken these circumstances into
consideration, do not recommend any change in the
present arrangement.
2. The use of proxies next engaged the attention
of the committee, and as the question is one which
has attracted much public notice lately, they con-
sider it desirable that they should communicate to
the house the result of their inquiries into this very
important subject.
3. The privilege which Peers• have enjoyed of
being represented by their proxies in Parliament
when unable to attend in person is so ancient as to
have become a prescriptive right as inherent in their
peerages as that of being summoned to Parliament,
and one, consequently, of which no vote of the
house can alone deprive them. The use of proxies
has, however, been controlled by the house in seve-
ral particulars. A peer cannot hold more than
two. They may not be used in committee, or on
any judicial proceeding. They must be entered be-
fore 3 o'clock on the day on which they may be
called for, and are vacated by any attendance after
entry.

4. Proxies are not used so frequently as many
suppose. From 1830 to the present year, both in-
clusive, they have, as will be seen by returns in the
appendix to this report, been called only 73 times
in 38 years, and with less frequency in the latter
than in the earlier part of that period. For the
first ten years proxies appear to have been used 30

times ; in the second, 22; in the third, 19 ; and in
the last eight years only twice. On eight occasions
only out of those 73 have proxies overruled the votes
of those present.

5. The committee are of opinion that the exer-
cise of the right of voting by proxy by Peers who
have had no opportunity of hearing the debate is
objectionable. It diminishes the attendance of
Peers in the House, and tends to weaken in the
public mind the authority of the decisions at which
the House arrive. 'They therefore recommend that
the practice of using them should be discontinued,
and thata standing order should be agreed toagainst
their being called ; and that, to prevent such order
being lightly suspended, twice the usual length of
notice should be given for the suspension of such

order.
6. The attention of the committee has been drawn
to an increasing practice of asking questions on pri-
vate notice only. The advantages which arise from
the license which the House is able to allow for de-
bate on questions are materially lessened by the ab-
sence of public notice appearing is the minutes.
Those Peers who may be the most qualified to ad-
dress the House on matters so brought before it may
be unprepared to discuss them, or absent on occa-
sions most interesting to them. Sometimes, indeed,
they are questions which do not admit of delay; but
the committee desire to express their decided opi-
nion that notice of question should in all cases be
given in the 'ninnies when there is no such urgency,
and in the event of the House confirming this re-
commendation they trust that it will be supported
by those to whom questions are proposed to be put,
by their declining to reply to any without such
notice is given, except where delay would be inju-
riou,=, or the answer is of a character not likely to
lead to a debate.

7. The committee have considered the system of
appointing Peers to sit on committees on private
business; They are of opinion that it has secured
committees which have generally given satisfaction
to the public. They believe, hower2r, that it has
some disadvantages which might be removed, and
they recommend that the House should order the
Committee of SAection to exercise their discretion
in calling for the service of Peers, although they
may be absent from the House.
8. The att. nition of the committee having been
called to the manner in which the proceedings on
the reception of the reports of bills amended in com-
mittee of the whole house are recorded, they recom-
mend that, instead of the report of such amend-
ments being entered as made formally by the Chair-
man of Committees, the name of the Peer who moves
the reception of the report and takes charge of the
bill in that stage should be substituted, in order that
it may appear in the journals.
And the committee have directed the minutes of
evidence taken before them, together with an ap-
pendix, to be laid before your lordhlips.

Parliamentary Deposits of Railways.

The select committee appointed to join with the

select committee appointed by the House of Lords
to consider the Act 9 and 10 Viet., c. 20, and the
standing orders of both houses in relation to par-
liamentary deposits, and the completion of railways
within a prescribed time, and to report what altera-
tions it is expedient to make therein for the present
and for the ensuing session, have made further pro-
gress in the matters to them referred, and have
agreed to the following second report :
" the committee recommend that the following
standing orders should be adopted by both houses :
"ln every railway bill, whereby the construction
of any new line of railway is authorised, or the time
for completing any line already authorised is ex-

tended, promoted by an existing railway company
which is possessed of a railway already opened for

public traffic, and which has, during the year last
past, paid dividends on its ordinary shire capital,

and which does not propose to raise under the bill a

capital greater than its existing authorised capital,

there shall be inserted a clause to the following
effect, viz.:

" (A). If the company fail within the period
United by this act to complete the railway authorised

to be made by this act, the company shall be liable
to a penalty of fifty pounds a day for every day

after the expiration of the period so limited until the
said railway is completed and opened for public
traffic, or until the sum received in respect of such
penalty shall amount to five per cent. on the esti.

mated cost of the works ; and the said penalty may
be applied for by any landowner or other person
to be compensated in accordance with the provisions

of the next following section of this act, and in the
same manner as the penalty provided in the 3d sec-
tion of the act 17 and 18 Vic., c. 31, known as
"The Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1854," and
every sum of money recovered by way of such
penalty as aforesaid shall be paid under the warrant
or order of such court or judge as is specified in the
said 3d section of the act 17 and 18 Vict. c. 31, to
an account opened or to be opened in the name and
with the privity of the Accountant-General of the
Court of Chancery in England (the Queen's Re-
membrancer of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland,
or the Accountant-General of the Court of Chan-

eery in Ireland—according as the railway is situate
in England, Scotland, or Ireland), in the bank
named in such order, and shall not be paid thereout
except as hereinafter provided ; but no penalty
shall accrue in respect of any time during which it
shall appear, by a certificate to be obtained from the
Board of Trade, that the company was prevented
from completing or opening such line by unforeseen
accident or circumstances beyond their control ;
provided that the want of sufficient funds shall not
be held to be a circumstance beyond their control.

"In every railway bill whereby the construction
of any new line is authorised,or the time for complet-
ing any line already authorised is extended ; if such

bill be promoted by an existing railway company
which is not possessed of a railway already opened
for public traffic, or which has not during the year
last past paid dividends on its ordinary share
capital ; or by an existing railway company when
the capital to be raised under the bill is greater than
the existing authorised capital of the company, or
by persons not already incorporated, there shall be

userted a clause to the following effect, viz. :

" (B.) Whereas, pursuant to the standing orders
of both Houses of Parliament, and to an Act of the
9th and 10th years of her present Majesty, c. 20, a
sum of £ , being 5 per cent. upon the amount
of the estimate in respect of the railway autho-
rised by this Act, has been deposited with
the Court of Chancery in England (or with
the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, or the Court of
Chancery in Ireland, as the case may be), (or Ex-
chequer bills, stocks, or funds to the amount of
, have been deposited or transferred pursuant
to the said act, as the case may be), in respect of the
application to Parliament for this act : be it enacted

that, notwithstanding anything contained in the said
recited act, the said sum of £ (or the said Ex-
chequer bills, or other funds as the case may be) so
deposited (or transferred) as aforesaid, in respect of
the application for this act, shall not be paid or
transferred to or on the application of the person or
persons, or the majority of the persons named in the
warrant or order issued in pursuance of the said act,
or the survivors or survivor of them, unless the said
company shall, previously to the expiration of the
period limited by this act for completion of the rail-
way hereby authorised to be made, either open the
said railway for the public conveyance of passengers,
or prove to the satisfaction of the Lords of Commit-
tee of her Majesty's Privy Council for Trade and
Foreign Plantations that the said company have paid
up one-half of the amount of the capital by this act
authorised to be raised by means of shares, and have
expended for the purposes of this act a sum equal in
amount to such one-half of the said capital ; and if
the said period shall expire before the said company
shall either have opened the said railway for the
public conveyance of passengers, or have given such
proof as aforesaid to the satisfaction of the Lords of
the said committee, the said sum of money (Ex-
chequer bills, stocks, or funds) deposited (or trans-
ferred) as aforesaid, shall be applied in the manner
hereinafter specified ; and the certificate of the Lords
of the said committee that such proof has been given
to their satisfaction as aforesaid, shall be sufficient
evidence of the fact so certified ; and it shall not be
necessary to produce any certificate of this act hav-
ing passed, anything in the said recited act to the
contrary notwithstandin.
" In every railway bill whereby the construction of
any new line of railway is authorised, or the time for
completing any line already authorised is extended,
the following clauses shall be inserted, in the order
in which they are here placed, immediately after
that one of the two last preceding clauses which
shall have been inserted in the bill ; viz.:—
" (C.) The said sum of money (Exchequer bills,
stocks, or funds) deposited (or transferred) as afore-
said (or, every sum of money so recovered by way
of penalty, as aforesaid), shall be applicable, and,
after due notice in the London Gazette (or Edinburgh
or Dublin Gazette, as the case may require), shall be
applied towards compensating any landowners or
other persons whose property may have been inter-
fered with, or otherwise rendered less valuable, by
the commencement, construction, or abandonment
of the said railway, or any portion thereof, or who
may have been subjected to injury or loss in conse-
quence of the compulsory powers of taking pro-
perty conferred upon the company by this act, and
for which injury or loss no compensation or inade-
quate compensation shall have been paid, and shall
be distributed in satisfaction of such compensation
as aforesaid, in such manndr and in such propor-
tions as to the Court of Chancery in England (or
Courtof Exchequer in Scotland, or Court of Chancery
in Ireland, as the case may be) may seem fit; and if
no such compensation shall be payable, or if a por-
tion of the said sum of money (Exchequer bills,
stocks, or funds) (or of the sum or sums of money so
recovered by way of penalty as aforesaid) shall have
been found sufficient to satisfy all just claims in
respect of such compensation, then the said
sum of money (Exchequer bills, stocks, or
funds) (or the said sum or sums of money re-
covered by way of penalty), or such portion thereof
as may not be required as aforesaid, shall be paid
(or transferred) to or on the application of the per-
son or persons or the majority of the persons named
in such warrant or order as aforesaid, or the survi-
vor or survivors of them (or the company from whom
such penalty was recovered) : Provided that until
the said sum of money (Exchequer bills, stocks, or
funds) shall have been repaid to the depositors, or
shall have become otherwise applicable as hereinbe-
fore mentioned, any interest or dividend accruing
thereon shall from time to time, and as often as the
same shall become payable, be paid to or on the
application of the person or persons or the majority
of the persons named in such warrant or order as
aforesaid, or the survivors or survivor of them.
N.B.—lf the clause lettered (A) is inserted in the
bill, the proviso at the end of the clause (lettered
(C) shall be omitted.
" (D.) If the railway authorised by this act shall
not be completed within the period limited by this
act (such period not to exceed five years in the case
of a new line, and three years in the case of the ex-
tension of time for completing any line), then, on

the expiration of such period, the powers by this act
granted to the company for making and completing
the said railway, or otherwise in relation thereto,
shall cease to be exercised, except as to so much
thereof as shall then be completed.
4t In any railway bill to which the preceding pro-
visions are not applicable, the committee on the bill
shall make such other provision as they shall deem
necessary for insuring the completion of the line of
railway."

FIRE AT A BLEACH WORKS IN PREST-

IVICH.

Early on Wednesday morning a destructive fire
occurred on the premises of Messrs. J. and H.
Bleackley, dyers and bleachers, of the Myrtle
Grove Works, Prestwich. The works are situated
in the valley, a little beyond the church on Kersal
Moor, and consist of a number of contigu)us build-
ings, containing the various kinds of machinery em-
ployed in the processes of bleaching, dyeing,
calendering, and making up. A. few minutes after
twelve o'clock yesterday morning, a private watch-
man discovered that a fire had commenced in 3
three-storey building, about 40 yards long by 30
yards wide, which was partially divided from the
dyehouse by a wall. He immediately gave an
alarm by ringing a bell. A number of the work-
people and others quickly arrived, and a messenger
was despatched on horseback to Manchester
for the fire engines. There was a small fire
engine on the premises, and an abundant
supply of water in the reservoirs adjoining ;
but from some cause the engine could not be
got to work, and the rapidity with which the
flames spread in the three storeys rendered the
efforts of the men unavailing. In about three
quarters of an hour from the discovery assistance
arrived—one engine from Manchester, another
from Salford, and a third worked by the Broughton
volunteers. On their reaching the place, how-
ever, there was no hope of saving the contents of
that portion of the building, and it required their
utmost efforts to prevent the fire communicating
with the other parts,some of which did become ignited,
but the fire was quenched. The fire continued to
rage until about three o'clock, but at four was sup-
pressed beyond further danger, although water
was being discharged into the ruins daring
the whole of the forenoon. Of the portion de-
stroyed, the tower storey contained the bowk-
house, and comprised a wash-wheel, two pair of
squeezers, one stiffening mangle, and a large
calender not in use. The remains of these are
covered with the burned floors, roof, and
some of the brickwork of the walls. The
two storeys above contained a pair of drying cylin-
ders, a damping calender, two making-up rooms, la
which were tables, hooking frames, and goods•
Some portion of the goods were saved, but the
other, with the various machines, were either
seriously damaged or consumed.