§ MR. HUME, in moving for leave to bring in a Bill to amend an Act to establish a taxation of costs on Private Bills in the House of Commons, said that the Committee on Private Bills as soon as they met this Session, had considered it their duty to follow the example set by the Committee of the previous Session; and the result of their inquiry appeared in a report which was laid before the House on the 29th of March. In that report they recommended that no time should be lost in 749 the introduction of a Bill to afford that protection which the Committee considered persons bringing Bills into the House had a right to expect. Every other court in this country had the power of checking, controlling, and regulating the expense of its proceedings; and the Bill which he had been requested to propose was for the purpose of giving to the Speaker of the House the same power as the Lord Chancellor possessed in the Court of Chancery, by which a scale of fees was framed, and an officer appointed to tax the bills of all those who chose to submit to such taxation. There was, however, one question of considerable difficulty, namely, whether all bills of costs should be necessarily taxed, or whether the taxation should be voluntary on the part of those who had to pay the bills. A difference of opinion upon that point certainly existed; but the Committee had recommended as a general rule that the former course should be adopted, and that all bills should be taxed before any persons were called on to pay any part of the expenses. If there were any doubt upon this subject in the mind of any person who had at all attended to proceedings before Parliament, he would mention one or two cases that came before the Committee to show the importance of such a Bill as that which he proposed. In the appendix of the report of last Session, was the examination of a resident local judge in Liverpool on the subject, and that gentleman stated that not less than sixty-two local Bills existed in that borough; and on the Committee asking for an account of the expenses incurred for legislation before that House since the passing of the Reform Bill, he gave the following:—
Liverpool Corporation, for local Acts, 1836 to 1844, 24,125l.; Liverpool Sewerage Commission, 1842 to 1843, 3,920l.; Liverpool and Harrington Waterworks Company, 1822 to 1843, 3,618; Liverpool Docks, 1838, to the 31st of November, 1846, 31,242l.; Liverpool New Gas and Coke Company, 1823 to 1845, 7,698l.; Liverpool Gaslight Company, 58 George III., c. 66, and 4 Victoria, c. 28, and opposition, 5,885l.; Bootle Waterworks, Liverpool, 3,164l.; Toxteth-park Local Act, 1842 to 1846, 2,679l. Total, Liverpool, 82,331l.If all those bills had been submitted to taxation, before the authorities were warranted in paying them, he had no hesitation in saying that there would have been a very considerable reduction in that amount. In future, therefore, if the House should sanction the Bill which he proposed, 750 that remedy would be available. He found, also, that the trustees of the river Clyde—a most important trust, certainly—had, since 1836, spent, in applications to that House and in law expenses, 56,847l.—as large a sum as was actually laid out in the improvement of the river, the Parliamentary expenses alone being 20,468l. At the end of the report the Committee thought it right to state an example of how much could be charged for doing very little business, and he would now mention it. The Coal Term Act of Newcastle expired the Session before last; a Bill was brought in to continue it; it consisted of only two clauses, a third being introduced in Committee. He understood from the hon. Member for Sunderland, who was on the Committee, that not more than an hour was occupied before them; but the attorney's bill was 1,985l. He would state also, with reference to one railway, the London and York, that the preliminary expenses of the Bill amounted to no less a sum than 432,620l. The preliminary expenses of passing the Bill for the Direct Northern Railway was 123,414l.; the expenses of the London and York Extension was 309,206l.; making in the whole, 432,620l. Only that morning he had received from Bury an account of the expense of a Bill that passed that House last Session. It was a sanitary Bill; but the charge to the corporation was 3,676l. He ventured to hope that the House would agree with him when he said that there ought to exist those checks which by the Bill it was proposed should be given.
§ Leave given.