LORDS' AMENDMENTS CONSIDERED. (Hansard, 7 July 1859)

§ SIR HENRY WILLOUGHBY
said, he would beg leave to call the attention of the House to the Amendments which had come down from the other House, and which wore most important. This was treated as an unopposed private Bill, and yet it involved by guarantee a charge on the funds of the country to the extent of some £36,000a year. What constitutional checks were there upon the passing of such a Bill? It never went through the usual stages, and had not undergone the consideration of a Committee of the Whole House, as public Bills did. He wished to ask whether such a Bill as this, involving an expenditure of the public money, ought not to have been submitted to a Committee of the Whole House?

§ MR. SPEAKER
said, that in so far as the guarantee of money was concerned it had passed through a Committee of the Whole House, and as the Bill was unopposed the proceedings had been in conformity with usage.

§ MR. MASSEY
said, the fact was that the Bill related to a commercial speculation in which the public wore at the same time largely interested. Being unopposed, it went through the usual revision in Committee by the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee according to the Standing Orders, and the contingent charged on the revenue was introduced into the Bill with the sanction of the Treasury, and under an arrangement made by the Treasury with the Company. He (Mr. Massey) was not then in office. The right hon. Gentleman the First Commissioner of Works then filled the office of Chairman of Committees, and must have been satisfied that the public interest had been duly protected. The Bill was not one in which a private com- 791 pany were solely interested; but one which proposed to establish a public work of the greatest interest and importance. It was the duty of the Government to see that the work was properly performed; and they made arrangements to protect the public interests, at the same time guaranteeing to the Company a contingent dividend. It was arranged that Government messages should have the priority, and the Treasury thought that in consideration of this there should he a guarantee. As he had said before, he did not hold office at the time the Bill passed this House; but he had no doubt had he done so he should have come to the conclusion arrived at by his predecessor, the present right hon. First Commissioner of the Board of Works.

MR. BOUVERIE
remarked, that Bills, when unopposed, were never investigated so closely as those which brought antagonism into Committees. In the present case the Treasury had made arrangements which the Bill proposed to carry out. Such arrangements were sometimes mischievous, and be supposed that it was with a conviction that such was the case that the Chancellor of the Exchequer meant presently to move an inquiry. He ought perhaps to add that it was in the power of the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, if he thought proper, to refer the Bill to the Committee, and in such cases it would be treated as an opposed Bill.

§ SIR JAMES GRAHAM
said, be knew not what hon. Member had charge of the Bill, or had moved the consideration of the Lords' Amendments; but, in the absence of the Member who had charge of it, he thought the House was much indebted to the hon. Baronet (Sir Henry Willoughby) for calling attention to the subject. The hon. Baronet had stated that an important Amendment requiring some consideration had come down from the Lords, and was now proposed to be inserted in the Bill. In the absence of the Member who had charge of the Bill, or until some other hon. Member made himself responsible for it he (Sir James Graham) thought it desirable to postpone the consideration of the Lords' Amendments until some further attention could be given to the matter. He should, therefore, move that the consideration of them be postponed till Monday, and that they be printed in the meantime.