The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-20 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS, Jane 18.

The Sep:AKER took the Choir at Twelve o'clock.
Mr. SHARMAN CRAW FORD gave notice that in Com-
mittee on the Poor-law Bill, he would move an amendment
on the fit st clause to limit the duration of the Commission to
ene year, and that he would also move an antendMent to give
the Commissioner§ power o order relief to be administered to
the pour in Ireland, upon the terms of the out-door labour test.
RAILWAYS BILL.
The Order of the Dav was then read fur the House going
into Committee on the hallways Bill..
Mr. HARDY wished to inquire whether, when her Majesty
had travelled from Slough to London, on the Great Western
Railway, proper care was taken to prevent her Majesty's car-
risa.e Lem corning into coldsion with the engine.
Mr. RUSSELL said, there were two carriages between
her Majesty's carriage and the engine, and there was not the
least risk 01 a collision.
Mr. I I ODGSON 'LINDE then moved the insertion of the
following clause :—" And whereas, by various Acts relating
to Railways, it is provided that the Companies shall cause to
be painted on boards, and to be affixed, and continued and re-
newed as often as the same 01311 be obliterated or def teed, to or
upon every tollhouse or building at which any rates or tolls
'hall be collected or received, in some conspicuous place, in
large and legible characters", an account or list of the several
rates and tolls which the said Companies shall from time to
time direct and appoint to be taken; and whereas it is for the
public convenience that the said list of rates and tolls should be -
'Tinted and affixed within every station-house, or other place
where such rates and tolls shall be payable: Be it enacted,
tt-at it moy be lawful for any Railway C ,rneany to affix such
printed list of rates and tolls in a conspicuous situation within
every station-house or other building where such rates or tolls
are collected, instead of affixing snch boards, painted as afore-
said ; and that such Company -shall be held to have complied
-with the provision of the said Acts as effectually as if the said
table at rates and tolls had been painted on boards and affixed
to such toll-hum or build:ng; and that such rates or tolls
shall be payable, and may be demanded and taken during the
time in which such printed lists are affixed as aforesaid, in the
same manner as they are authorised to be demanded and
taken during the time thst such boards shall remain so affixed."
Dr. BOWRING said the question was the greater or less
convenience of the public, and as it appeared to him that the
existi g practice would afford the greatest security against im-
po-ito n he should opi ose the insertion of this clause.
lJ r, WALLACE opposed the clause.
Mr. GLADSTONE opposed the clause. The object of
the B 11, as might he gathered from the preamble, was to make
provi. ian for the public safety, and he thought that was the
olejeet which they should keep in view. Whatever might be
tile abstract merits of the clause, he could not think that that
was the proper time for discussing it, and he hoped the Hon.
Gentleman would not persevere. The clause was foreign to
t he purpose s of' the Bill.
Mr. DARBY thought the safety of the public was the most
important object, and the clause appeared to him likely to dis-
tratt attention from it.
After a brief conversation between Lord R. Gaosvestom
and Lotd SEYMOUR,
the Committee divided, when there appeared—
For the clause
Against it
Majority against the clause...
Mr. IL PALMER moved the following clause :—" And Le
it enacted, that whenever it shall appear to the Lords of the
said Committee, that the line of any railway is carried so nearly
parallel to, or at so short a distance from, any turnpike or
public carriage or bridle road, as seriously to endanger the
public safety, it shall be lawful for the Lords of the said Com-
mittee to call on the Directors of any such railway to erect and
maintain a sufficient fence bet ween the line of railway and any
such turnpike, eartiege, or bridle road, as the nature of the
case may require."
Mr. GLADSTONE was not opposed to the clause, but he
hoped his Honout able Friend would not press it on the
Committee, because the object of it was &ready pru-
vided for in the particular Railroad Acts. The power given
to two Justices by these particular Acts was sufficient. In
these cases, too, the Board of Trade had been accustomed to
act by suggesting necessary precautions, and in all cases those
suggestions were attended to by the Railway Companies.
After a few words from Mr. HINDLEY,
Mr. C. RUSSELL confirmed the statement of the Right
lion. Gentleman as to the readiness of the Railway Companies
to comply with the suggestions of the Board of Trade. Be
thought the danger, too, from this -cause, had been much ex-
agge, meted.
A desultory discussion followed, which was interrupted by a
MESSAGE FROM THE LORDS,
Bringing up certain Bills.
RAILWAYS BILL—RESUMED.
The House again resolved itself into a Committee of the
'whole 11,spe, when
Mr. PALMER withdrew his clause. . . . . •

—.-
Ir. CRAVEN BERKELEY was understood to withdraw
the clause of which he had given notice, making it incumbent
upon all Companies applying to Parliament for any new Act,
or amendment of their original Act, to make provision fur
maintaining the poor, and those applt ing for parochial relief,
caused by the intreduction of labourers into the different parishes
through which the railway passes, in the same manner as has
heretofore been the case in Canal Acts.
Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN rose to move the insertion of
a clause to prevent the locking of the door of any carriage
c intaiiiing passengers, on the side nearest those stations at
which such carriages stop. If the Right Hon. Gentleman
would say that he coul.l command every Company to cease
locking their carriage doors at any time he pleased, without
the insertion of this or a similar clause, he should consent to
withdraw his motion; but unless that caiuld be ac-
complished, he thought it to be his duty, for the protection
and safety of the immense mass of people who travelled by
raiway, to press this motion to a division. He need not refer
to particular cases in proof of the necessity for such a clause ;
the recent Paris case must live in the recollection of them all;
but even without that example of the destructive consequences,
he thought it must be evident to every one that it was a most
daugerGus thing, and a thing unattended with any good (muse-
quoice, to lock the doors of the carriages. He thought the
satety ut the public was concerned, and that this matter re-
quired the particular attention of the House.
Mr. RUSSELL was understood to say that in the Paris
case, which had created so much consternation in the minds of
the public, the whole of the carriages were second-class car-
riages, where the whole top and sides were open ; and the per-
sous inside, it they had contemplated danger, might have got
i,ot with as much chance of safety by those openings, as by the
doors if they had been unlocked. He held in his hand
a paper containing a list of the accidents which had
recurred on • the Great Western Railway, and these
ran "jumping out of carriage whilst train in motion," " at-
tempting to get into carriage whilst train in motion," &e.,
whilst, not one accident had yet occurred on that railway whilst
the doors were locked which would not have occurred if the
doors had been unleeked. He contended that it was far safer
to lock the doors than to leave them open.
The clause was read a first time ; and on the question, that
it be read a second time, •
_ _

• Mr. GLADSTONE thought the practice of unlocking one
door having been adopted, ought not to be resumed. t The
question was not whether the matter of the clause was ob-
jection dale or not, but whether there should be any
regulative enactment on the subject or not. It had
Iren thought advisable by a Committee, which had re-
ported on the stfsject, that compulsory powers should not be
given to the Board of Trade. That would be throwing upon a
Government office responsibilities which should devolve upon the
Directors of Companiesalene. He would remind the House that
t he Inspector of the Board of Trade bad recommended the practice
of locking the doors ; and this fact showed, at least, that the sub-
ject was one ef much difficulty. Under those circumstances,
he did not think it advisable that the House should now pass
any law which would prevent any further consideration of the
matter.