Lords Sitting of 25 May 1824

JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES—STANDING ORDERS.
The Earl of Lauderdalerose to move that the House be summoned for the purpose of taking into consideration the Standing Orders, with the view of proposing an addition to their number. The object of the standing orders he intended to move would be, to provide against mischief which was now going on with respect to Joint-Stock Companies: at least in so far as to take care that the companies of that kind should not be incorporated, without an assurance of their possession of a suitable capital. This was particularly necessary with regard to all such associations. Those which had for their object the making of canals, aqueducts, roads, or bridges, must always have a certain amount of capital in operation to enable them to carry on their works; but that was not the case with corporations for charitable, for gas-making, and for other purposes; because, with respect to them, it was possible that no part of the subscriptions of the individuals belonging to the company might be paid. He intended to move the addition of two resolutions to the standing orders—one relating to bills for incorporating companies by act of parliament, the other to cases in which companies already incorporated by royal charter applied for an extension of their privileges. By the first resolution he would propose, that every bill enabling persons to make any turnpike-road, aqueduct, tunnel, canal, or bridge; every bill for lighting, paving, watching, or cleansing any city or town, giving to the persons therein mentioned the right of suing or being sued; and every bill for any other purpose conveying to any number of persons such rights, should, after being read a first time, be referred to a committee, and should not be read a second time until that committee report it to be proved, that fourth-fifths of the capital of the said company is paid up and deposited in the

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Bank of England, or invested in Exchequer bills or other securities. The object of the second resolution would be, to order that no bill brought in for granting further privileges to a company already incorporated by royal charter, should be read a second time, until it be proved, on reference to a committee, that the debts are paid, and that the individual proprietors have so far paid up their subscriptions, that four-fifths of the capital is deposited, and in the possession of those who have the management of the company under the royal charter.
Their lordships were ordered to be summoned to-morrow, to consider of the said resolutions.