LONDON (CITY) TRAFFIC REGULATION BILL [Lords]—SELECT COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 22 June 1863)

§ SIR JOHN SHELLEY
moved— That in the case of the London (City) Traffic Regulation Bill Standing Order 185 be suspended, and that the said Bill be committed to a Select Committee of Fifteen Members, of whom Ten shall be nominated by the House and Five by the Committee of Selection. The hon. Member said that the Corporation at present enjoyed substantially the same powers which were found sufficient for the regulation of traffic at the West End, and he believed that great inconvenience would result from assenting to the Bill in its premature shape. Except by passing under that absurdity, Temple Bar, it was impossible now to know when a man entered and when he left the City limits. A waggon laden with scaffold poles would be at liberty to pass down 1248 three-fourths of Chancery Lane; but when it touched the City bounds, it would be stopped—it could not be turned round without breaking all the windows; so there it would have to remain till such hour as the Lord Mayor and Corporation thought fit to let it proceed. He maintained that the Bill affected the public traffic of the metropolis quite as much as it did the private traffic of the City, and ought therefore to be referred to a tribunal before which the interests of the metropolis generally could be represented. He hoped his Motion would meet with no opposition; but in case there should be any hon. Member who was a stickler for Standing Orders, he begged to state that there was a direct precedent for his Motion in the year 1839, when Sir Robert Peel, at the instance of Mr. Hawes, then Member for Lambeth, consented to refer the City Police Bill, after it had been read a second time, to a Committee of fifteen.

§ MR. ALDERMAN SALOMONS
seconded the Motion, and hoped that there would be ample discussion before the Bill passed into law.

§ MR. CRAWFORD
said, that the Corporation wished to leave this matter entirely in the hands of the House. They had no desire to enter into a course of legislation on this subject, and would be perfectly satisfied if they were permitted the free exercise of the powers they already possessed. As the evil which the Bill was intended to remedy was increasing every day, he trusted that the result of sending the Bill upstairs would not be to postpone it until next Session.

§ COLONEL WILSON PATTEN
did not think that his hon. Friend (Sir John Shelley) had shown any cause for taking this Bill out of the category of private Bills. He did not think that any reasons had been stated why the regular rule of the House should be deviated from. It was very inconvenient for a Committee, constituted of fifteen, to deal with any question; five was a much better number.

§ SIR JOHN SHELLEY
would object to a Committee of five.

§ SIR GEORGE GREY
said, that the Bill affected the traffic of the whole of the metropolis; and as it was a measure of a special character, a departure from the usual practice would be desirable. He should therefore vote for the Motion.