RAILWAY AMALGAMATION. (Hansard, 9 December 1852)

§ MR. HENLEY
moved the appointment of the Members of the Select Committee on Railway and Canal Bills.

§ MR. JAMES MACGREGOR
said, he had no objection to any Gentleman nominated upon the Committee, but he thought that, in addition to those already named, there should be some Members specially identified with the railway interest. If the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade had no objection to this, he would move that certain Gentlemen connected with that interest should be added.

§ MR. SPEAKER
said, that the hon. Gentleman could not then make such a Motion; he must give notice of it.

§ MR. JAMES MACGREGOR
said, he should be sorry to have to give such a notice without the assent of the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade. If, however, he could obtain that assent, he would on Monday next move that the names of Mr. Robert Stephenson, Lord Barrington, and General Anson should be added to the Committee.

§ MR. FREWEN
said, that the Committee, as nominated by the right hon. President of the Board of Trade, only consisted of twelve Members; and if the three names suggested by the hon. Member for Sandwich (Mr. M'Gregor) were added, there would not be more than fifteen Members; the number which the House had fixed as the limit for a Select Committee.

§ MR. HENLEY
said, that if the House and the railway interest wished that the additional names proposed should be placed upon the Committee, he should offer no objection to it. The only reason he did not place on the Committee some Gentlemen connected with the railway interest was, because there were so many directors in that House, that he was afraid to offend by making a selection.

§ MR. HINDLEY
said, he did not at all agree with the hon. Member for Sandwich. He thought that the Committee should be wholly independent of the railway interest. He was quite sure that the Gentlemen named for the Committee would do perfect justice to it; and, if they did not, the railway companies had sufficient influence in that House to protect themselves. If they placed on the Committee General Anson, the chairman of the London and North-Western Company, they would have a demand that the Chairman of the Great Northern should also be on the Committee, and in like manner the chairmen of other railways.

§ MR. GEACH
said, he thought it desirable that when questions connected with a particular interest were to be investigated, that interest should be represented on the Committee, whose deliberations would, he believed, be materially assisted by the presence of Gentlemen more particularly acquainted with railway matters.

§ MR. MUNTZ
begged to remark that if the Committee desired any information from the chairmen of railways, they could be examined as witnesses. If the Members of the House generally did not themselves 1204 understand railway matters, they mu stbe wanting in common sense.

§ SIR HENRY WILLOUGHBY
said, he quite agreed with the hon. Member for Birmingham (Mr. Muntz). He thought that none of these railway magnates should be admitted upon the Committee; they would be more useful in the character of witnesses than of members.