SECOND READING. (Hansard, 18 February 1862)

§ MR. J. BROWN
said, lie rose to move that the Bill be read a second time that I day six months. He would beg to re-mind the House that on no less than four previous occasions had the Great Northern Railway Company been defeated in their attempts to obtain Parliamentary sanction for making the line contemplated by the Bill. The question, therefore, that the House had to consider was, whether they would allow a company such as the Great Northern, gigantic in its resources, strong in its Parliamentary influence, and overwhelming in the number of its adherents, to introduce Session after Session into Parliament Bills that were substantially the same in their character and object. More over, the line proposed did not satisfy the requirements of the district. He hoped the House would on the present occasion mark its sense of the course pursued by the Great Northern Company in the matter by rejecting the Bill.

MR. PACKE
expressed a hope that the House would read the Bill a second time.

§ VISCOUNT GALWAY
said, he considered that as their decision had been given once, it ought to be final. He therefore supported the Amendment.

§ MR. ROEBUCK
observed, that he did not think the House was the best tribunal to try a matter of the kind before them. He recollected that when a direct line was proposed from London to Portsmouth the country was up in arms, and of course the Bill was thrown out, and the country gentlemen were left to mourn over their victory. The House would do well to send the matter to a Committee.

§ MR. MONCKTON MILNES
agreed that a Committee was the proper tribunal. but then it should be made a condition that the losing party should pay the costs. It was because he and his friends had al ready been heavily mulcted, owing to the unjust constitution of that tribunal, that they appealed to the House to settle the matter at once.

§ MR. MASSEY
said, he should have been inclined to vote for the second reading of the Bill if its merits had not already been investigated before a Select Commit tee. Since then three attempts bad been made to re-open that decision, but unsuccessfully, and that was a fact to which due weight should be attached. No very im- 434 portant public interests were involved in the case, the object being merely to construct nine or ten miles of railway to relieve a very large and increasing traffic upon the Great Northern line. He was satisfied that the case had been sufficiently heard, and he should vote for the Amendment of his hon. Friend.