The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-21 00:00:00

Mr. LABOUCIIERE, as Chairman of the Corn

mittee, was inclined to agree with the Hon.
Gentleman in this proposition, inasmuch as
he believed that the substantial object for which the
Committee had been appointed had been accomplished.
The simple question was how the land which the
Company were not about using should be appro-
priated. He was obliged to the Hon. Member for
bringing the matter before the House, and
also thought that his views were the best and
soundest that had been taken of the matter.
After a few words from Mr. PARKER and Lord
GRANVILLE SOMERSET, the third reading was post-

poned for a fortnight. .
The third reading of the Ashton and Staleybridge
Railway Bill was likewise postponed for a fortnight.
DUBLIN AND CASHEL RAILWAY.
Mr. HAMILTON presented a petition from the
Grand Jury of Dublin, in favour of the line of Rail-
way between Dublin and Cashel.
Mr. GLADSTONE rose to move that as much of
the Fourth Report of the Select Committee on Rail •
ways as related to the alteration of the 33d standing
order be adopted by the House. The adoption
of this proposition was a matter of great importance
to all parties connected with railway property.
In proposing the repeal of that part of the standing
order which related to deposits, he by no means
wished to cast the slightest imputation on the stand-
ing order itself. When made, it might have been the
best which the House could adopt, and he had no
doubt it was a wise and salutary provision.—(Hear.)
Its operation had been this, that money was ad-
vanced, and so far the House had a guarantee that
the parties connected with the Bill were acting
bona fide. But, with regard to the persons by whom
the money was to be deposited, the Standing Order
was not complied with, for the money was principally
advanced by persons interested in the new
scheme who had the command of capital.
The standing order was passed with a view of dis-
countenancing unsound speculations, but it operated
also to check those speculations which were sound in
themselves, and at a time when trade was depressed,
when it was rather desirable to stimulate undertakings
of this description. So far as regarded those periods
which were not periods of active speculation generally
the reduction of the deposits would produce almost
unmixed good. It might be asked what security had
they except from the deposits ? His answer was,
they did not propose to do away with
the deposits altogether, but to reduce them,
and the great advanthge of deposits was not so much
in their amount as in their being deposits of any
amount. But he thought it would be necessary that the
House should take some measures to make a more
strict examination into Railway Bills than heretofore
—that they should look more narrowly into the
public reasons and objects of such Bill than
they were previously accustomed to do—(Hear)
—because he admitted that if it was probable they

should continue for future years to abide by the same
unregulated proceedings with regard to Railway Bills,
which prevailed to a great extent up to the present
time, the proposition which he now made, although it
might be deserving of adoption on some grounds,
would, on the whole, be liable to grave objections.
He was not now prepared to explain in definite terms
the precise nature of the measure to which he referred,
because its precise nature was now occupying the
anxious attention of the Committee to which that
House had delegated inquiry upon the whole subject
of railways ; but he did say that some measure for
the examination of railway schemes was requisite, and
it was because he believed that proposition to be in-
disputable, that he ventured to put it to the House
that they might proceed so far as to part with a cer-
tain portion of the security which they had hitherto
possessed. The proposition which he now made to the
House would have the effect of assimilating the rule of
the House of Commons to the rule which subsisted in
the House of Lords, and he had been apprised on good
authority that that rule was not adopted by the House
of Lords without mature consideration, which he
thought an additional recommendation for the adop-
tion of his proposition. He therefore begged leave to
move that the standing order No. 33 be rescinded.
There was another matter to which he wished to refer.
It had been suggested that the parties, instead of being
obliged to deposit money, should be allowed to deposit
Exchequer bills or other public securities. It ap-
peared to those parties that they were obliged to
leave money in an unfruitful state when it was thus
deposited. But there was nothing in the Act of
Parliament which should prevent the invest-
ment of those deposits in the public secu-
rities after the deposits had been made.
He did not think it would be expedient that Parlia-
ment should require the money to lie without pro-
ducing interest, because that would be imposing a
pecuniary fine. Such was not the case as the law
stood at that moment, and therefore the Committee
had not made any recommendation.
The Clerk having read the Order at full length,
Mr. HUME said he had listened with great
attention to what had fallen from the Right lion.
Gentleman, but, looking at the evils which the stand-
, ing order was intended to prevent, he had great
i doubts as to the propriety of abrogating it. He was