The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-06 00:00:00

RAILWAY BILLS (IRELAND).

The Select Committee appointed to inquire and report whether any
and which of the Standing Orders which are enforced in the case
of Railway Bills in Great Britain are unnecessary, and ought to
be dispensed with in the case of Railway Bills in Ireland, have
considered the matters to them referred, and agreed to the fol-
lowing Report:—

Your Committee have examined several witngses of considerable
experience as engineers, agents, or solicitors in the preparation and
conduct of Irish Railway Bills, and although some diffbrence of
opinion has been expressed by them as to the operation isitd effect
of the existing standing orders upon Bills for the formation of
railways in Ireland, the general result of their evidence bas been
such as to convince your Committee that where due diligence is
used by the promoters of such Bills, no peculiar obstacles are pre-
sented by the standing orders to their successful passage through
Parliament, of a sufficient magnitude to require a partial relaxa-
tion of those standing orders in favour of Irish Railway Bills. It
is true, that the great extent to which the subdivision of landed
property is carried in Ireland, and the number of derivative inte-
rests in land in that country, render it a task of more than ordinary
care and labour to complete the required plans, and to make out
the book of reference, which, by the standing order, No. 23, are
to be deposited by the promoters of any Railway Bill on or before
the 30th of Novembec. It is also alleged, that the lateness of the
harvest in Ireland inconveniently abridges the time within which
the necessary surveys can be made. On the other hand, it appears
that considerable engineering facilities are afforded to the surveys,
and the preparation of the plans for Irish Railways, by the exist-
ence of the ordnance map of Ireland, which is on a scale of six
inches to a mile. It is also notorious that whatever disadvantage
arises from the lateness of the harvest in Ireland, must be also
experienced in many parts of Scotland, and in some parts of Eng.
• land and Wales.

Your Committee also examined the Chairman of the Standing
Orders Committee, as to the nature of the investigation to which
railway projects are subjected previously to their introduction of
the Bills into the House, and as to the general .principle on which
that investigation is conducted. They are satisfied from his evi-
dence, as well as from that of other witnesses who have been
charged with the conduct of railway Bills, that due allowance is
made for cases of noncompliance with the standing orders, arising
from circumstances of a peculiar nature.
Your Committee are therefore of opinion, that no sufficient
ground exists for an alteration of the standing orders applicable to
Irish Railway Bills, as distinct from those of England and Scotland,.
Most of the suggesticns which they have received are applicable td
all Railway Bills ; and as several of these suggestions appear to
your Committee to deserve consideration in any future revision of
the standing orders, they recommend that, in the event of the ap-
pointment of a Committee similar t that
o which it haseen
the
practice of the House of late years to appoint from time fob ime for
a general revision of the standing orders, the evidence appended to
this report should be referred to that Committee.
May 23, 1845.

RAILWAY IN CANADA.—It affords us much gratifi.
cation to find that the attention of English capitalists
has at length been directed to the developing some of the
numerous resources of our widely extending Canadian
colonies, and that a Company of influential individuals is
now forming for the purpose of joining lakes Huron and
Ontario, by means of a railway, which will traverse some
of the most fertile portions of our western Canadian pos-
sessions. One of the most novel, and at the same time
important features of this national undertaking appears
to be the constructing this railroad solely of wood, pre-
pared by a process rendering it almost as durable as iron,
so that the very
.arboreous obstacles which at present
exist in these provinces, to so great an extent as to render
the intercourse between man and man most difficult, are
made subservient to the means of an easy and rapid
intercommunication. Speculation in vain attempts to
define a limit as to the extent this unbounded material
(in Canada) may be applied for similar purposes, and
that some of our Canadian possessions, existing at the
present moment only in the shape of one vast forest, may,
at no distant period, be as completely intersected with
railroads as the mother country. We have only to add
that the undertaking has our best wishes for its success.
On Tuesday a deputation of the Directors of the
Asturian Mining Company, consisting of the Chairman,
Gideon Colquhoun, Esq., Sir William Young, Bat,
Deputy Chairman, Colonel Stopford, Colonel Fitch, Oa
the Secretary, waited upon his Excellency the. Spanish
Ambassador, to convey through him to the Spanish
Goverment the thanks of the Company for remitting
the entire heavy import duties upon the vchinery re-
quired, for the Company's iron works in t:Wi Asturias ;
and also for the other facilities which the Government
had offered to the Company in carrs ing on its opera-
tions. his Excellency reek iced the deputation with the
utmost courtesy, and poetised to make known without
delay the statements of the Company, which he had no
doubt would be highly satisfactory to the Spanish Go-
vernment.