§ MR. MENZIES (Perthshire, E.)asked the Secretary for Scotland, Whether his 879 attention has been called to the recent prosecution of Messrs. Crichton, Burrelton, Perthshire, for contravention of a by-law regarding locomotives which had been approved by the Home Secretary in 1880, whereby Messrs. Crichton had been fined for using waggons in Forfarshire which it is legal and unobjectionable to use in Perthshire; if he will consider the question whether the power to pass a by-law for merely regulating the use of locomotives on roads includes the power to affect the construction of locomotives and waggons, which is carefully and minutely specified in a separate section of "The Locomotives Amendment Act (Scotland), 1878," as regards locomotives, and in various statutes as regards waggons; and, whether he will in future endeavour to aim at introducing greater uniformity into the bylaws made by road trustees when granting or withholding his approval to such by-laws?
§ THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)With reference to the first part of the Question, I understand that the conviction was obtained in Forfarshire on account of a breach of bye-laws affecting locomotives in that county. There are no bye-laws in Perthshire, which accounts for the circumstance that no objection was taken to the action of Messrs. Crichton and Burrelton in that county. With regard to the second part of the Question, the hon. Member asks me to consider a purely legal question affecting the validity of bye-laws approved by the Secretary of State, and which can be questioned in a Court of Law. I do not think any public advantage would be gained by my expressing an abstract opinion on the point. As regards the third part of the Question, I have, as I said the other day, every desire to promote, as far as possible, uniformity between the bye-laws adopted in the various counties.