SEVERN NAVIGATION. (Hansard, 11 March 1841)

§ Mr. Estcourt

wished to call the attention of the House to the report presented yesterday by the committee of selection. It would be remembered that the day before yesterday it had been moved and carried that it be an instruction to the committee of selection to consider whether the rule usually adopted in ordinary cases of private bills, of referring such bills to a select committee chosen from names in the Speaker's list of Gentlemen connected with the particular counties to which such bill referred, together with certain other gentlemen connected with such localities, should be adopted in the case of the Severn Navigation Bill, or whether in the committee on that bill it would be better entirely to omit all those whose names appeared in the Speaker's list, to have it composed of gentlemen entirely unconnected with the localities to which the bill related. The committee in consequence of that instruction had met yesterday, and had agreed to a report, to which he now wished to direct the attention of the House. The report stated, The committee of selection having, in obedience to the direction of the House, taken into consideration their Order of the 9th inst. "That it be an instruction to the Committee of Selection, if they see fit, to refer the Severn Navigation Bill to a select committee," beg to report the difficulties they have experienced in endeavouring to carry into effect what they understand to be the intention of the House. That the above instruction appears necessarily to imply the exercise of a discretion, on 111 their part as to the propriety of referring the bill to a select committee, or allowing it to proceed in the course prescribed by the standing orders; a discretion which it is obvious could not be satisfactorily used without a full knowledge of all the circumstances of the case. Your committee having been appointed, not for the purpose of enquiry, but for the discharge of simple duties specified in the standing orders, are not invested by the House with the power of sending for persons, papers, and records. Having therefore no means of calling for evidence, and no documents having been referred to them on the subject of the Severn Navigation Bill, your committee would submit to the House, that they are not in a position to form a judgment on the question referred to them. Your committee wish further respectfully to submit to the House, that, even were they invested with the necessary powers for conducting an enquiry, they cannot but entertain great doubt whether it would be expedient to charge them with such a duty, inasmuch as they fear that previous enquiry into the circumstances of a bill, involving the necessity of hearing the parties, and coming to a decision between them, might have a tendency to diminish the confidence reposed in their impartial selection of the Members to serve on the committee on the Bill. He quite concurred with the committee, and could not but think that it was impossible for them to exercise any discretion respecting the matter of the instruction. It was a great object that persons should be selected who were perfectly unbiassed and uninstigated by any partiality. He had lost no time in stating to the House these preliminaries to the motion he had to submit, which was, that the order of the 9th of March should be discharged.