LORD CAMPBELLmoved that the Commons' Amendments to this Bill be agreed to. The Bill originally provided that the compensation granted by juries should go to the next of kin; but the other House had made an Amendment by which the compensation was to be apportioned among the members of the family. He regarded this Bill as the most important measure that had come before their Lordships since the Corn Bill. Its effect would be that, if railway companies, from a spirit of false economy, carried on their undertakings without proper stock, or appointed persons destitute of competent skill to work their lines, juries would be able to give such an amount of compensation to the families of those who lost their lives in consequence as would read such companies a proper lesson. It had been stated in the other House, when it was known that he had had charge of the Bill, "that it was carelessly drawn," and that "it must have been framed by an amateur legislator." Persons who made such statements could not be aware that the Bill had been the subject of much careful consideration, and that it had received the Amendments and been approved of by the present Lord Chancellor, the late Lord Chancellor, and Lord Denman. Taken in consideration with the Deodands' Abolition Bill, which had received the Royal Assent, the present measure effected a most important amendment in the law of England.
§ Commons' Amendments considered and agreed to.