The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-22 00:00:00

OF TRADE.

Mr. T. DUNCOMBE rose to move, according tO
notice, a resolution to rescind the eleventh section of
standing order, No. 87, which requires Committees on
railway Bills to make a special report of the
reasons which induce the Committees to adopt
or reject the recommendation of the Board of
Trade. In asking the House to concur with
him in rescinding the standing order, he would
state his conviction that the time had come when
the House should understand more particularly what
was the relation in which the Committees of the
House were placed with the Board of Trade
by that order. (Hear, hear.) The questions
involved in the numerous Bills upon which the Board of
Trade had to decide affected property to the amount of
one hundred millions sterling, and four thousand miles
of railway.—(Hear, hear.) By the decision of the
Committee of the Board of Trade the fortune or
the ruin of thousands would be determined.—(Hear.)
He thought, therefore, that the time had arrived when
the House ar,d the country should know whether the
Committees of the House of Commons should be merely
the puppets of the Board of Trade. It was time it should
be known whether those Committees were to be responsible
to the House and the public, or to a subordinate branch
of a subordinate department of the Government.—
(Hear, hear.) He did not very well know how
the railway department of the Board of Trade
was to get through its business.— (Hear, hear.)
By this arrangement they would have 23 speeches of
counsel fur the petitioning parties ; 23 speeches more for
the opposing parties, and 23 speeches more in reply,
and in addition there would be a third party—the
Railway Department of the Board of Trade—represented
by the Hon. Baronet opposite (Sir G. Clerk) who would
have to state the reasons why a particular line was
chosen. The other day the Speaker called the attention
of the House to a clause in the Midland Railway Exten-
sion Bill, by which power was given to the Company. to
make branches, and to take lands without giving notice
to the owners. He had been given to understand that
the Board of Trade had been made cognisant of this
clause, and yet they never drew the attention of Par-
liament to it at all. He contended, then, that in that
case the Board had neglected its duty. He also con-
tended that the Board had acted the part of partisans, .
and their reports were totally unworthy of consi-
deration by the Committees on the railway 8i115...
Unless it was to put the Committee of this House in
subordination to the railway department, there was no
necessity for passing that resolution at the time it was
passed. He did not see the justice of the power
th
that was vested in the railway department of
the Board of Trade to Gazette their inten
tions to report favourably or unfavourably of any
Bill,' from which very bad consequences
The. H to
on. Member then proceeded
read list
the
of
arose.
names of lines reported against by Committees,
and the expenses incurred each day e
by the respec-
tive parties in each Bill, and contended that it
was not fair or just to have such expenses entailed un•
less the report were favourable to the line.
He further
remarked that it was impossible
opposite could attend 0
the that the Noble Lord
business of the
had b
Board of Trade, and therefore it h
ecome a matter
of necessity to employ subordinates, to whom is
greater part of the b • usmess was left. The Noble
Lord had entered into some explanation upon
this subject by mentioning
a coalition that it was
intended should take place between that and an-
other department by which greater facilities for the
dispatch of busi • ness would be offered, but no such
coalition appeared to have been heard of at the Boar!
of Trade. lie then called attention to the reports on the
London and York and the Newcastle and Berwick lines,
and said that a main trunk line had been divided
between three different companies on one of their lines,
but the noise kept up by the conversation going on be-
tween Hon. Members on the benches en both sides ren•
dered the Hen. Gentleman almost inaudible in the gallery.
Now if the Board of Trade were to lay down one prin-
ciple of guidance one day and another principle another
day, it would be impossible to place any degree of con*
Hence in their reports. They decided in favour
of the London and York, with a view 10
the interests of the agriculturists—of the farmers
on the line ; and they proposed to send the
general public, who wished to go direct to York, roiled
by Cambridge. And why ? That they might briT g
the traffic on to the Eastern Counties 'ilia.
He believed that unless the House was determined to
assert its own dignity, that nothing would result fro*
the establishment of that Board.
Sir G. CLERK could not admit that the reports of
the Board of Trade upon the railway qu.estion.
submitted to them had given dissatisfaction to
the country. He believed, on the contrary, that they
had given satiZactien to all the country except those
persons who ma
hare an illegal interest in the Bills against
which the Board reported.—(Hear, hear. For his pat.