The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-26 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS.

REGISTRAR OF DEEDS (MIDDLESEX).
A Copy of the -Appointment of the Registrar or Deputy Re-
gistrar of Deeds for the County of Middlesex ; also the
Amount of Fees received by him during the last Five Years,
and the Hours of his Attendance at the Registry Office.
The following information is respectfully tendered to the
Honourable the House of Commons, in reply to their erder
relative to the constitution of the above Office and its Officers.

There are four Registers of Deeds for Middlesex, originally
appointed by the Statute of the 7th of Queen Anne, chapter
20, which established therMiddlesex Registry, and which
enacts, " That the sworn Clerk to execute inrolment in the
High Court of Chancery, who is appointed to hire! for the
County of Middlesex, the Chief Clerk to inrol Pleas in the
Queen's Bench, the Clerk of the Warrants in the Common
Pleas, and the Qu.?en's Remembrancer, or his Deputy, in the
Court of Exchequer, shall be the Registers, or Masters of the
Office, for the matters and things in the said Act contained ;
who shall and may from time to time nominate and appoint one
or more able and sufficient person or persons to be their De-
puty or Deputies." By the 25th Act of King George 11.,
chapter 4, the Secondary of the Court of King's Bench for
the time being is appointed Register in the room of the Chief
Clerk.

'1 here is no other appointment than the above.
The net amount of Fees received br the four Registers dur-
ing the last five years, commencing from the Ist of January,
1830. and ending the 31st of December, 1834, has been
9,6761. 145., of which sum each has received an equal pro-
portion. _ _ .

There are at preseit two Deputy Registers; and the hours
of attendance at the Register's Office are five each day, viz.,
from ten o'clock in the forillnoon until three oclock in the
afternoon.

Register's Office for Middlesex, JOHN BIGGE,
March 17, 1833. Deputy Registrar.

DIVISIONS OF THE HO USE.

Recrt of the Select Committee appointed to take into consi-
-dration the best Mode of Publishing Correct and Authentic
Lists of the Divisions of the House.

That it appears to the Committee, that the reasons which
caused the rejection, last year, of the various plans suggested
fir taking the Divisions of the House, by a system of tickets
or cards—namely, the difficulty of insuring that members
should be provided before hand with these cards, and of iden-
tifying the individual with the card presented, so as to prevent
the possibility of a vote being given by proxy-=continue
in force.

The Committee, therefore, find themselves compelled to
concur in the opinion expressed by the Committee appointed in
1834, viz.: —That if the House should think proper to build
an additional lobby, there is no plan of_ taking the divisions
which in their judgment would combine so many recommen-
dations as this, or might so easily be carried into effect.
In the event of this suggestion being adopted, the Corn,
roittee propose, _ _

1. That upon every division the House be entirely cleared;
the Ayes and the Noes being sent forth into two separate
lobbies.

2. That four tellers and four clerks he appointed, two of
each to be stationed at the entrance of the respective lobbies.
3. That the doors being simultaneously opened by the
Speaker's order, the names of the Members be taken by the
clerks, on ruled paper, with numbered lines, as they re-enter
the House by the opposite door, the tellers counting, and an-
nouncing the result at the table as at present.
4. That the lists of the division be then brought up to the
table by the tellers, and deposited there for insertion in alpha-
betical order in the votes.

The Committee would not feel itself justified in recommend-
ing the addition of a lobby to the temporary buildings of the
present House, had they not ascertained that the whole cost of
a lobby capable of containing 500 Members, and thus providing
for the utmost probable inequality in the division, together with
a commodious passage, and two small staircases communicating
with the galleries, would not exceed the sum of 1,5001., ac-
cording to an estimate prepared by Sir Robert Smirke, who
also states in his evidence that the building might be completed
within one month.

The Committee hope, therefore, that if it should be the plea-
sure of the House to sanction the principle of publicity in re-
ference to the divisions, it will not be deterred from applying
this principle, during the next two years and a half, by the
outlay required to give it effect in the present instance. The
Committee beg also to state, that even if regarded in the
light or an experiment, this outlay will in their opinion, be
productive of some advantages, as it will enable the Building
Committee to adopt any improvements upon the double lobby
system which experience may suggest, and to avoid any ar-
rangements in the New House from which inconvenience may
be found to arise.

The Committee do not think that, by the adoption of the
p'an which they have recommended, any material loss of time
would be incurred, as the result of their experiments last year
proves that 25 names may be taken down in long hand by a
clerk in one minute, while the average time consumed in
counting 100 members under the present system is four mi-
nutes, taken on a mean of those who go out and those who re-
main in the House.
The Committee, however, are of opinion, that a discre-
tionary power should be retained by the House of suspending
the present regulation altogether when the House is in Com-
mittee, where repeated divisions sometimes take place upon
points of mere detail, unless called for by twi members, which
it would hardly be in cases with regard to which no public
interest was felt.
March, 1835.