§ SIR COLMAN O'LOGHLENcalled the attention of the House to the conflict between the Standing Orders of that House and the Standing Orders of the House of Lords as to the clause to be inserted in Railway Bills regulating the disposal of the deposit, and asked the Chairman of the Standing Orders Committee, What course he proposed to adopt to meet this state of circumstances? The conflict in question arose in consequence of an alteration made by the House of Lords in the Standing Orders on the last day or two of the previous Session, whereby the deposits lodged by railway companies were prohibited from being withdrawn until half the capital was subscribed, and a certain portion of the proposed line had been actually constructed. Now, as this alteration was opposed to the Standing Orders of the House of Commons, he was anxious to know what was to be done under the circumstances.
§ COLONEL WILSON PATTEN,Chairman of the Standing Orders Committee, said, the hon. Baronet opposite had called his attention to this subject in the last week of the last Session; but as almost all the Members who usually took part in Private Bills had then left town, he did not consider it prudent to bring this matter then before the House. The Standing Orders of the House of Commons permitted the withdrawal, under certain circumstances, of the deposit made by railway companies; but on the last day or two of the previous Session, at the instance of Lord Redesdale, an Amendment was made in the House of Lords whereby such withdrawal was impossible. This Amendment had occasioned much comment amongst all parties interested in railways. The Committee of Standing Orders were about to take the subject into their consideration, and he would be prepared to take such action in the matter as he would be advised.
§ MR. DODSONsaid, that the Amendments made in the Standing Orders of the House of Lords were of a character to contradict the Standing Orders of the House of Commons, and they were also to 280 a certain extent in contravention of the 9 Vict. c. 20, which regulates deposits. When the Standing Orders of the House of Lords were of such a nature as to direct a certain clause to be inserted in every Railway Bill, it appeared to him to be trenching upon legislation, and it was practically an attempt at legislation by a single House of Parliament. In deciding on the course it should pursue in regard to these Amendments of the Lords, the House should, and no doubt would, be guided solely by the consideration whether those Amendments were just and expedient or not. It was, however, a thing to be regretted that such Amendments should be proposed in the other House of Parliament at a period of the Session when there was no opportunity of communicating directly or indirectly with Members of this House.