§ Mr. Warburtonrose to move "That the evidence taken before the committee on petitions for private bills relative to the Stafford and Rugby Railway Bill, be laid on the Table of the House, and printed." He begged the attention of the House while he stated the facts of the case very shortly. Two years ago a railway was projected to pass from Stone to Rugby, and the ten per cent, deposit required by the standing orders was made. The Session having closed without the bill having passed, the deposit was taken from the Exchequer, and lodged in a bank at Manchester. During 1840 that deposit remained untouched. In the beginning of 1841 a new proposition was made: it was, to make the railway from Stafford to Rugby, a petition for which was now before the House. When this plan was first agitated a meeting was held of the old and new proprietors, an agreement was come to, and a deed prepared and executed. The ten per cent, paid into the bank of Manchester was to be the fund out of which the ten per cent, of the new company was to be subscribed. All the shareholders of the old company who did not think proper to join the new one were to receive back, after the accounts were audited, the ten per cent, they had deposited, deducting the payment of expenses. But all the shareholders of the old companies who became shareholders of the new were liable at a future period to the directors of the old company who had advanced the sum necessary for the current expenses of the undertaking. They were liable personally to pay back their proportion of these expenses, amounting to something more than fifty per cent, on the amount of the deposit. The provisional directors of the old company having made that arrangement, gave the shareholders who joined the new company a draft for the full amount of their shares, and they paid their drafts into the bank of Manchester, on behalf of the new company. Now, although the standing orders said, that a deposit of ten per cent, was to be paid, and that three-fourths of the subscribers should have paid their shares on such deposits, yet they did not lay down any rule that the shareholders should not borrow the money for so doing. Under these circumstances he thought it exceedingly desirable, in order that the House might understand the working of the standing 113 orders, that the evidence taken before the select committee should be printed.
§ Mr. R. Palmer,having been a member of that committee, was anxious to offer a few observations to the House. The only ground on which he thought it unnecessary to print the evidence was, that the hon. Gentleman had stated the facts so fully and clearly that the printing of the evidence would add very little to their information.
§ Mr. Greenesuggested, that the words "minutes and proceedings" be inserted in the original motion.
§ Mr. Laboucheretrusted that his hon. Friend would not ask the House to depart from the usual course adopted in cases of this kind. Unless some very special reasons were assigned for a departure from the usual course, he (Mr. Labouchere) would think it his duty to oppose any attempt at such a proceeding.
§ Mr. Warburtonwould, for the present, withdraw the motion, but said that he should bring it forward at another time in a different form.
§ Motion withdrawn.