§ MR. RASHLEIGH, referring to a Bill which had been circulated in the country, relating to the subject of Tidal Harbours, and which, he said, contained clauses of a rather unconstitutional character, trenching considerably upon the rights as well as the privileges of the people, begged to ask whether it was to be regarded, according to a common rumour respecting it, as the production of the late Administration, or whether the existing Government intended to proceed with it in its present crude form, or with any new Bill of their own, containing similar obnoxious clauses?
§ MR. WARDunderstood that the Bill originated in the report of a Royal Commission, appointed in consequence of the statements made by the hon. Member for Montrose (Mr. Hume), and the measure was handed down to the present Government in the state in which, as they were told, it had received the sanction of the right hon. Baronet opposite (Sir R. Peel). Under these circumstances, the Government thought it their duty to bring it in, and give the House an opportunity of considering it. It had now been for six months before the country, and means had been taken to give it publicity among the corporations and persons interested in the matter. The opinions of a great many of these had been received, and, with the exception of some of the larger corporations, there was a very general impression that some measure of this kind was very much wanted. At the same time, the Government saw the utter impossibility of carrying the Bill in its present shape, after the strong feeling that had been expressed respecting it; and upon the whole, they had determined not to proceed with it in this shape this Session. But they hoped, as the Commission had laid bare such a mass of abuses, and shown such dangers imminently threatening the harbours of the country, that all parties would agree in the necessity of some measure, and that, with the consent of all, some measure might be framed to correct the great evils which were growing up from the want of a proper controlling and superintending power.