§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
§ LORD HERSCHELLMy Lords, this is a Bill which has passed the other House, having for its object to empower railway companies and other public companies, for it is merely an empowering Bill, to make compensation to those who have wrongly been put upon the register of shareholders by means of forged transfers. Cases of very considerable hardship have arisen, in which persons who have purchased railway shares and taken a transfer of them, have been put upon the register, and have received a certificate from the company giving authentic recognition to the transfer, and therefore believing themselves to be, undoubtedly shareholders, but who have afterwards found that, owing to a forgery, some other person was put upon the register, replacing them. The railway companies believe it would be to their interest and to the interest of the public at large that they should be able to make compensation, because it is obvious that anything which clogs the transfer of shares and renders their transfer a less easy matter is, to a certain extent, calculated to diminish their value, and is found to do so. Therefore, 1704 the Railway Companies concur in asking for the powers which this Bill proposes to give them, because at present, however willing they might be to make compensation, and however much to their interest it might be to do so, they cannot legally do it. This Bill is intended to give them that legal power, and I apprehend your Lordships will find no difficulty in giving it a second reading.
§ Bill read 2a (according to order), and committed to a Committee of the Whole House to-morrow.