§ Mr. Laboucherewished to put a question to the right hon. Gentleman opposite relative to the present state of the railway business before that House. It was matter of notoriety that the amount of railway business now before the House was quite unprecedented, and the delay which had occurred in going through it was, he believed, unexampled in any former Session. During the course of this Session there had been presented to the House no fewer than 240 railway Bills, 119 of which had received the approbation of the Board of Trade. Not many of those Bills had yet passed their third reading in that House; and these facts showed with what an immense mass of railway legislation they had to struggle. He found that in 1820, and also in 1831, under circumstances of a far less aggravated description, the House passed Resolutions enabling Committees in the ensuing Session of Parliament to receive the minutes of evidence taken before former Committees, as well as proof of the Standing Orders having been complied with. This course was adopted in order to save parties the expense and trouble of going a second time over the same ground. But they had now to deal with a case of a much more aggravated nature than at those periods; and he would suggest whether it might not at present be necessary to go even further than the House had done formerly. Many most important Railway Bills, upon which parties had expended immense sums of money, in proving their case before Committees, might 855 pass through their last stages in that House at so late a period of the Session, that it would be absolutely impossible for the other House to take them into consideration. He thought it was now time to consider whether means should not be taken to prevent the injury and inconvenience which such a circumstance must occasion. It appeared to him that any advice upon this most important and urgent subject ought to come alone from the Government; but at the same time he took upon himself to assure the right hon. Gentleman opposite that there existed throughout the country a very strong feeling, that whatever the Government intended to do ought to be announced without delay, and that the proceedings to be adopted ought not to be left to mere conjecture, for this amongst many other obvious reasons — that the effect of such delay must be to place one set of parties at great disadvantage, and to give to others opportunities of promoting their own individual interests, which would be alike injurious to their rivals and to the public. He wished, then, to know from the Government, whether they were prepared to recommend any specific plan or measure; and, if they were not upon the present occasion ready to answer that question, he hoped they would at all events let the House know, within no distant period, what course they intended to pursue?
§ Sir G. Clerkreplied, that the subject was one of great importance; it had not escaped the attention of Her Majesty's Government, and they certainly felt a very strong anxiety to grapple with the difficulties which presented themselves on the subject of railway legislation. But it was not unimportant for him to remind the House, that to allow Bills to be taken up in the next Session at that precise point in the proceedings where they might have been dropped in the present, would be a course wholly without a precedent. A step of that kind was taken in the year 1820, when the demise of the Crown rendered the close of the Session unavoidable. In 1831 and in 1841 the Sessions of Parliament were suddenly terminated, and in consequence of that, Bills were allowed to go on from Session to Session; but such events constituted no precedents applicable to the present case. He was quite aware that at the present moment there was an extraordinary mass of Railway Bills before Parliament, and with all the delay 856 that could possibly be granted, he feared that it would be impossible to get through them all during the present Session; but as to the precise course that ought to be taken for the purpose of meeting that difficulty, he was not then prepared to offer any opinion, and he could not pretend to make any suggestion on the subject till a later period of the Session. In fact, he feared that his doing so must lead to much confusion; and upon the whole he thought it best to allow parties to go on as they were now proceeding, doubting not that Parliament would grant them reasonable indulgence when the necessity for it arose. In a month or six weeks hence cases might probably arise in which it would be desirable for Parliament to take measures which it was not necessary for them to determine upon.
Lord J. Russelladmitted that the course to which the right hon. Gentleman referred was without a precedent; at the same time, he hoped that Her Majesty's Government would not postpone for a month or six weeks making some announcement on the subject. He differed altogether from the right hon. Gentleman in thinking that any announcement of the views of the Government would be attended with the ill effects which he seemed to apprehend. If any of those Bills could be brought to maturity and passed, well and good; but suppose any parties calculated that there was not time for certain of those Bills to go through the two Houses of Parliament, if parties opposed to them were to use their best endeavours to create delay, nothing could be easier for them than to defeat those Bills, for every one knew how easily counsel could create delay when they were so instructed; but the case would be wholly different if the rights of the promoters of those Bills were reserved till the ensuing Session. Though he agreed with the right hon. Baronet that the question was one which demanded much deliberation, yet it was to be hoped that the Government would make up their minds on the subject, and announce their determination with as little delay as circumstances permitted.
§ Lord G. Somersetsaid, that if any arrangement on the subject were made too soon, it would rather cause delay than promote expedition.
§ Viscount Howickthought it most important that the intentions of the Government should be speedily resolved upon, 857 and made known forthwith. Parliament was in this difficulty—they did not know whether they were to go on or not. They all knew what counsel could effect in the way of delay, and for his part he saw no advantage in permitting delay to be practised.
§ Subject at an end.