§ MR. DODSONasked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether he will 1854 make a statement of the steps which Her Majesty's Government propose to take to give effect to the Resolution of the House of March 22nd in favour of the reform of Private Legislation?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEsaid, he could assure the right hon. Gentleman that this subject was under consideration and would not be allowed to drop. He would remind him that the share of responsibility which he had undertaken was mainly to ascertain whether the system of Provisional Orders could be improved and extended. He was engaged in carrying on that inquiry by all means in his power; but it was an inquiry which could not be confined to the Board of Trade, and for that purpose he was in communication with other Departments of the Government, but he was not in a position to tell the right hon. Gentleman positively when he could give him information upon the subject. He might add that there were Resolutions before the House proposed by the hon. Member for the West Riding (Mr. E. S. Powell), which were of an interesting character, and that there was also the question how far the inquiry which had been conducted for so many weeks by the Railway Committee upstairs, which was now coming to a close, might have a bearing on the subject.