§ LORD REDESDALEasked whether it was the intention of the Railway Commissioners to oppose the introduction into any private Bill of any provisions for altering the gauge of any railway authorised to be constructed by any Act which had passed prior to the passing of the Gauge Act in 1846; whether they proposed to bring in a Bill in the present Session to alter and amend the Gauge Act; and whether any report had been prepared by them upon the subject, or whether they intended to recommend that the consideration of the same should be postponed to the next Session of Parliament?
§ EARL GRANVILLEreplied, that clauses for the alteration of the gauge had been introduced into two or three Bills in the House of Commons, which it was the intention of the Railway Commissioners to oppose; that it was not the intention of the Commissioners to introduce any Bill this Session for the alteration of the Gauge Act; but that the question of a mixed 796 gauge was under consideration, and that its decision would depend upon the result of an experiment which was about to be tried on one of the lines.