Sitting of 10 August 1853

MINUTES.
PUBLIC BILLS.—1° Burgh Boundaries (Scotland).
2° Consolidated Fund (£10,634,087 2s. 4d.); Militia Pay; Improvement of Towns (Ireland). Reported.—Evidence Amendment.
3° Customs; Customs Acts Consolidation; Loan Societies; Stock in Trade Exemption; Registrar of Meetings; Public Works Acts Amendment, (Ireland); Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; Militia Ballots Suspension, and Militia Law Amendment; Commons Inclosure (No. 3); Smoke Nuisance Abatement (Metropolis); Betting Houses.

LAW OF PARTNERSHIP.
MR. WARNERsaid, he wished to ask the right hon. President of the Board of Trade whether it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to bring in a Bill early next Session to amend the present law of partnership, with a view to facilitate the formation of companies or partnerships with limited liability, without the necessity of a charter or Act of incorporation; and, if this was not their intention, whether the Government intended to lay down any, or what, principle for their future guidance in giving or refusing charters with limited liability?
MR. CARDWELL, in reply, said, that as the law at present stood, incorporated joint-stock companies had not limited liabilities. There was power in special cases for the Queen in Council to grant charters with limited liability. The practice with respect to these charters was this: They were sent to the Committee of Privy Council for Trade. Those consisting of financial questions—for instance, colonial and banking charters—were disposed of under the responsibility of the Treasury. Charters, neither commercial nor financial, were under the responsibility of the Home Office, and the ordinary charters were disposed of under the Committee of Privy Council for Trade. With respect to those charters, the rule had been to grant them only in cases where the enterprise, from its magnitude, demanded a very large capital, and where the benefit to the nation from the undertaking was evident. That rule was not of easy application, and the course of precedent had not been uniform. The pre-

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sent Government had only granted charters in two classes of cases—one the Australian Voyage, and the other the Submarine Telegraph. He found that charters had been obtained by the following companies:—Royal Mail Pacific Steam, Peninsular and Oriental, Indian and Australian, General Screw, Eastern Steam, South American General, African Royal Mail, and Liverpool and Australian. Two Committees had been appointed to inquire into the subject, and recommended the issue of a Commission. That Commission was now proceeding with its inquiry. He understood that the Lord Chancellor would be able to lay the Report before Parliament early in the next Session; and it would be manifestly improper to make any declaration in anticipation of that Commission. With regard to the course to be pursued by the Board of Trade in the interval, all he could say was, that it would keep the question in the most advantageous position for the House to deal with, and every question would be dealt with in conformity with established precedent.

CUSTOMS BILL.
Order for Third Reading read.
MR. WILSONsaid, that in moving the Third Reading of this Bill, he could not omit the expression of his deep obligations to the Gentlemen whose unremitting and most able co-operation had enabled him to prepare this very important measure. The Commissioners of Customs, and their very able solicitor, had been indefatigable in the application of their labour and their knowledge to this most difficult and most complicated subject, the complication of which might at once be understood from the fact that the Customs Acts, originally no fewer than 1,500 in number, and since reduced to 300, were now reduced within the compass of this one measure, which was framed with so much perspicuity as to be at once intelligible to any person consulting it. He had also derived most valuable aid from the merchants of London and Liverpool. That measure was at once the accomplishment of the great work commenced by Mr. Huskisson, and the completion of the commercial reforms begun by Sir Robert Peel. The amendment which the measure effected in the system of prosecution under the Customs laws would of itself constitute a most valuable reform. The assistance rendered by Sir Thomas Fremantle in the completion of the Bill was beyond all praise. With respect to any improvements of the Cus-
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toms laws, it was satisfactory to state, that instead of serving the parties with a long legal process, nearly the whole of which was irrelevant to the charge, four or five lines would for the future be quite sufficient to define the offence; and, beyond this simplification, many of the cases might be decided by the County Courts.
MR. G. A. HAMILTONsaid, he fully concurred in the praise which the hon. Gentleman had so deservedly accorded to those gentlemen by whom he had been assisted in this great measure, and he felt bound to express the gratitude which he conceived due to the hon. Member himself for the indefatigable assiduty with which he had applied the energies of his able mind to the work. He felt that the hon. Gentleman had, in this measure, conferred a most important benefit on the commercial interests of the country.
Bill read 3°, and passed.

TRANSPORTATION BILL.
On the Report of the Bill being brought up,
MR. WALPOLEsaid, he wished to take that opportunity, as the third reading of this Bill was appointed for to-morrow, to refer to two Amendments which had occurred to him to be absolutely essential for the proper working of the measure. In the first place, he thought that they should retain the power, at any rate, of sentencing convicts for ten years, and transporting them, if the Crown thought fit. His reasons for that were these: As he understood the proposition of the Government, it was founded on the expectation that Western Australia would take 700 or 800 convicts a year. The returns showed, however, as he had stated on a former occasion, that the average number of convicts sentenced to transportation for periods exceeding ten years did not amount to that number. The hands of the Crown, therefore, would be unnecessarily tied when it might be advisable to carry on transportation. Again, if they passed a Bill allowing only those convicts to be sent to Western Australia who were now willing and anxious to go there, or those who were under sentence of fourteen years and upwards, it might induce the colonists to believe that the worst kind of convicts, and not the best, were sent there, and would be no longer willing to receive even that limited number. For these reasons he was anxious that the Government should consider the propriety of abolishing transportation only for seven years' sentences, and not for sentences be-

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yond that period, leaving the rest in the discretion of the Crown, but intimating the desire of the Crown to act upon the intentions of the Government, and not to carry out those sentences as a general rule. Another amendment which he thought of still greater importance was this: To provide means that when convicts in this country obtained a conditional pardon, they should not abuse the mercy of the Crown by committing again offences of a similar nature without being liable to a much more severe punishment. Unless that were done, he feared they would find that the worst kind of delinquents would be constantly sent back upon this country. Unless there was some check or power on the part of the Crown during the time of conditional pardon, it would undoubtedly operate very much to the detriment of the measure, and would prevent that deterring effect operating upon the minds of the convicts, which, combined with the hope that they might obtain a remission of their punishment, would do more to reform their character, and to render them useful members of society, than any other measure that could be devised. These were the two points which, after much consideration, he wished once more to press upon Her Majesty's Ministers. He would not take the sense of the House upon them, because he felt that it was a matter the responsibility of which entirely rested with the Government; but he considered that he should not have done his duty, entertaining the strong opinion which he did upon those two points, if he had not pointed them out to the House and to the Government before sanctioning this otherwise excellent and beneficial measure.
VISCOUNT PALMERSTONsaid, that the suggestions which had just been thrown out should receive the consideration due to the importance of the subject, and the respect to which anything that came from the right hon. Gentleman was so pre-eminently entitled.
Further consideration of the Bill postponed to Friday.

ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE.
VISCOUNT PALMERSTONmoved that the House, at its rising, should adjourn till ten o'clock to-morrow. It was desirable that the House should meet, with the view of carrying on certain Bills another stage, and he should hope that those hon. Gentlemen who might not be over-fatigued by the labours of the morning, would not
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object to meet at Ten o'clock at night for that purpose.
Motion agreed to.
The House adjourned at a quarter before Three o'clock, till Ten o'clock To-morrow night.