§ LORD HOTHAMrose to put a question to the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade, of which he had given notice. The granting of charters, with limited liability, was a subject of great importance to large numbers of persons who had embarked their capital in steam navigation, and risked their fortunes in enterprises of various descriptions. The question had been frequently under the consideration of the House, and the subject, he believed, had occupied much of the attention of the President of the Board of Trade. He entertained a strong opinion against the propriety of granting these charters. He did not wish to make any complaint against the right hon. Gentleman for granting the charter to the Australian Direct Steam Navigation Company; but he wished to know if he had any objection to lay on the table of the House such information as would enable the public, and those interested in the question, to judge on what ground he had proceeded in granting that charter?
§ MR. CARDWELLwas glad to find, from the observations of the noble Lord, 653 that very great vigilance had been directed to the subject of granting charters of limited liability, and he had great satisfaction in giving the noble Lord an answer with respect to the grant of the charter in question. At an early period of the Session he stated, in answer to the hon. Member for North Lancashire, that an inquiry into the whole subject of limited liability would be instituted by the Government, and that in the meantime a guarded course would be pursued. He was quite ready to back that assurance by laying on the table any returns which he could produce on the subject. The charter was granted in conformity with precedent, and it could not have been refused without overruling the uniform system which had been acted upon in the case of the Royal Mail Company, the Pacific Steam Company, the Peninsular and Oriental Company, the Indian and Australian Mail Company, the General Screw Company, the South American Company, and several other companies. He trusted that before long the system would be placed on a better footing.
§ MR. CAIRNSsaid, that the subject of limited liability was one in which the trading interests of this country took a deep interest, and which required the exercise of the greatest vigilance on the part of the Government. He did not think that the precedents of the Board of Trade would be a sufficiently safe guide in the granting of charters with limited liability, as that body had granted charters to carry out the most trivial and useless objects.