CHESTER, AND HOLYHEAD RAILWAY BILL. (Hansard, 10 June 1844)

The Marquess of Clanricarde
said, that as the report respecting the harbour of Holyhead was not yet before the House, he would postpone the Motion of which he had given notice for a Select Committee on the Bill till the end of the week.

§ Lord Monteagle
strongly enforced the necessity of proceeding at once with this Bill and passing it, without wailing for any report on the subject of Holyhead harbour, which was a question entirely beside the Bill, and the two subjects ought not to be mixed up together. The Bill ought, in justice, to be proceeded with in the same manner as other private Bills.

The Earl of Wicklow
also urged the propriety of proceeding with the measure. It would, in his opinion, be a very great hardship on the promoters of the undertaking to be put to the expense of keeping their witnesses in town day after day, 416 merely to await a Report upon a matter with which they had nothing to do.

The Earl of Dalhousie
observed, that this Bill had no immediate connection with the course the Government might adopt as to the harbour. He must observe, however, that the four distinguished naval officers who had been sent to survey Holyhead and the other harbour, unanimously concurred as to the superiority of the former, and Mr. Walker, the eminent engineer, concurred with them. In answer to the question of the noble Lord, he believed that he could undertake to say that if a continuous line of railway was completed between London and Holyhead, in a satisfactory manner, that the Government would be prepared to come down with a proposition in the other House for the grant of a sum of money for the improvement of Holyhead harbour, so as to make it a good packet harbour.

The Marquess of Clanricarde
wanted to have defined what was meant by a "good packet harbour." He knew that Mr. Walker had proposed to make Holyhead a packet harbour, but not without expending many thousand pounds upon it, and then it would accommodate only two, or at most three vessels, drawing ten feet of water. Such packets might suit the Post office very well, because of their speed; but the House should have respect to passengers and to the public traffic. There ought to be, in fact, packets of a superior build. The only ground upon which Parliament was about to pass this Bill was, that Holyhead was the best point of communication between England and Ireland, which he did not doubt. But there was one respect in which the Bill was without a precedent, and that was a most important point, which the Committee should be directed to inquire into. It appeared that in this line there was a break of about eight miles, and there was a Clause which staled, that with the leave of an individual, Mr. Dawkins Pennant, a way might be opened from Bangor to the Menai Straits. The present plan was to bring the line to the foot of the Menai bridge, across which it was not to go. Should the Bill pass then in its present form, what guarantee, or what probability would there be, that the company would ever go to the great expense of making a bridge across the Menai Straits? That was a matter their Lordships should attend to at once, and insert 417 a Clause to decide it; because the company were not likely to erect a new bridge when the only power the House could hold over them—competition—was withdrawn. It was not a question of rival harbours, it was a question as to securing the most expeditious and convenient line of railway. A new bridge over the Menai Straits would be no impediment to navigation, and it would be idle for the company to set up such an excuse. There was the same objection at the time the present suspension bridge was projected. He did not wish this Bill to be stopped, but he wanted to see a new bridge carried over the Menai Straits in connection with the railroad.

The Earl of Dalhousie
said, that after the fullest inquiry and examination, the Government was of opinion that Holyhead would be the most preferable harbour for the departure of the mails to Ireland. He had stated on a former occasion, and he would again state, that the Government were fully alive to the desirableness of facilitating the rapidity of communication between this country and Ireland, but the Government declined making any pledge as to the sum of money until a line of railway had been secured which would be most advantageous to the two countries. Upon the securing of such a line, the Government would be prepared to recommend to Parliament to grant such a sum as should make a good harbour, but it was impossible for him then to stale what that sum should be. He would repeat that the Government required that, there should be secured for the public the best line of communication, and they would then recommend the grant of such a sum as should make a good harbour, and saying this he had stated all that he could state.

Lord Brougham
deprecated the House taking any course or interfering by any vote with the Standing Orders on Private Bills, or deviating from that system which had become the uniform practice of the House. If their Lordships once interfered in that way, and gave instructions to the Select Committees upon such Bills, he did not know how soon the system, which had been so long tried, which had met with the sanction of the Houses, which had worked so advantageously for all parties now about seven years, would be brought to an end. One instruction of the House to Select Committees after another might be given, if the Standing 418 Orders on the subject were departed from, until the whole system fell to pieces, and the old practice, which had met with universal condemnation, again prevailed, of Peers being canvassed for their votes, and political feelings being pressed into the consideration of such questions, instead of the merits of the measures only being considered and acted upon. At present their Lordships' proceedings were judicial, and, as he had just said, the system worked well; he, therefore, ventured to express a hope that it would not in the present nor in the future instance, be departed from, for if it were, it would prevent its being adopted by the other House of Parliament in their proceedings with Private Bills.

§ The Marquess of Lansdowne
said, he had no interest whatever one way or the other as regarded the Bill now under consideration, but he concurred with his noble and learned Friend who had preceded him, in considering that it would be highly inexpedient to depart from the practice which had been some time in operation, by giving instructions to Select Committees on Bills of that description. He (Lord Lansdowne) begged to suggest to his noble Friend, the noble Marquess who had opened this question, that as the explanation of the noble Earl opposite (Lord Dalhousie) was perfectly satisfactory, at least it was so to him (Lord Lansdowne), that his noble Friend would not persist in his Motion.

§ The Duke of Wellington
said, if he understood it rightly, this was to be a railroad to Holyhead. It must be carried across the Menai Straits. He understood from a perusal of the Papers, that there had been a positive objection made to allowing it to be carried across the existing bridge. It must therefore, be carried across some other bridge. There must be some mode of passing the Menai Straits, and he thought it must be obvious to their Lordships that if some mode were not provided in that Bill, there was an end to the proposition. It didn't go to Holyhead—it was no longer a measure for carrying into execution the intention stated in the preamble, and therefore their Lordships of course, would not pass the Bill.

The Marquess of Clanricarde
said, it had been proposed to carry the railroad over the present Menai-bridge, but that had been refused; it was then proposed 419 to carry the railroad to the foot of the bridge, and then to cross the straits by coaches to another station at Anglesea, where passengers would be re-shipped on to the railway. The railway went to the foot of the bridge, and no further, by the present Bill. He thought they should make it go to some other point.