§ MR. STANFORDbegged to ask the right hon. Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the scale of charges made by the Electric Telegraph Company, for the transmission of information in criminal cases, where their aid is necessary to secure the ends of public justice, has occupied his attention; and whether there is any intention on the part of the Government to ask for Parliamentary powers to secure a "maximum" rate of charge in such cases as is secured to the public for railway travelling?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, he presumed the question had arisen out of an important case that had taken place the other day in one of the police offices, where an objection was taken to the excessive charge of a railway company for sending a communication by electric telegraph. That telegraph did not belong to the Electric Telegraph Company; and he was informed by one of the parties connected with that company, that the charge which was objected to, exceeded very greatly indeed the amount that was charged by the Electric Telegraph Company. There was no necessity for making any change in the law on this subject; and if the hon. Gentleman referred to the Act relating to Electric Telegraph Companies, the 7th and 8th. Vict., cap. 85, he would find that by one of its provisions power was given to the Board of Trade, by which they could direct that the rate of charge, if not agreed on between the Government and the Electric Telegraph Company, where the line belonged to them, or the railway company, where the telegraph belonged to them, should be settled by arbitration. If any person made a complaint that appeared to be well founded, against the amount that was charged, he had no doubt the Board of Trade would exercise the powers vested in them.