Sitting of 22 March 1855

Preamble
The House met, and Forty Members not being present at Four o'clock, Mr. SPEAKER adjourned the House till To-morrow.

THE PATRIOTIC FUND—THE CANADIAN INDIANS.
THE EARL OF ALBEMARLEsaid, he wished to put a question to the noble Earl the President of the Council, of which he had given him a very short notice. It was simply to ask whether Her Majesty's Ministers had received any communication from the Governor General of Canada relative to the contribution of certain tribes of native Indians in Canada towards the Patriotic Fund? Although great evils attended the war, thus much good was obtained, that it had created a generous sympathy among all classes of Her Majesty's subjects in the most remote parts of Her Majesty's widely-extended dominions; and of that no evidence could be greater than the fund to which he alluded—a fund which, under the heavy pressure of the public burdens, had yet risen to upwards of a million of money. The largeness of the sum proved how universal was the sympathy; but it was to the small fractions of it they must look for the intensity of that feeling. He would mention a case in our own country. In the London Reformatory for Adult Criminals the poor inmates wished to contribute something towards the fund. Having no money, they abstained totally from food for twenty-four hours, on a day when meat was allowed, and applied the proceeds to the purpose. It was in a kindred spirit that these poor Red Indians, from their wig-wams in the Far West, had contributed the enormous sum, to them, of 100 l. He understood the meeting at which the contribution was made took place on the 4th of the month. He also understood that notice of it had been sent to the Governor General; and, as it was probable some intimation would reach the Home Secretary, he had ventured to put the question to his noble Friend. It was not a matter of much importance, or requiring the particular notice of their Lordships; but he was sure he needed no excuse for mentioning an admirable trait in the character of their fellow-subjects inhabiting the prairies of a distant continent.
EARL GRANVILLEsaid, he had not been able to obtain any sufficient information as to the facts mentioned by his noble Friend, but he would certainly endeavour to ascertain the circumstances which were so highly creditable to the inhabitants of the Far West.

THE LAW OF PARTNERSHIP—TEXTILE FABRICS—MANUFACTURE OF PAPER.
THE EARL OF DERBYsaid, that as he perceived there was other business before the House to-morrow, he would now put the question of which he had given notice to the President of the Board of Trade with regard to the intentions of the Government as to introducing any measure this Session for the amendment of the Law of Partnership, especially as to the question of limited liability. He wished to call the attention of their Lordships to the reason for which he put the question. He did not propose to enter into a discussion of the question on its merits, of the existing law of partnership, or of limited liability, or whether or not there could be any advantages to be derived from an alteration of the law; but his attention had been called to the subject by a particular case. Their Lordships were aware that at this time—especially if hostilities continued—that there was a prospect of a great deficiency of the arrivals of hemp and flax, and independently of the war there was now, and was likely to be, a deficiency of materials for the manufacture of paper. That was a growing evil, and the complaints appeared to be every day increasing. That being so, two propositions had been brought forward, by which it was proposed to meet these deficiencies. There was a Bill now before the other House of Parliament for incorporating a company for the manufacture of paper from flax straw, of which he (the Earl of Derby) knew nothing more than what he had seen in the public papers. But the undertaking to which he wished to call the attention of the noble Lord (Lord Stanley of Alderley) was of a different nature, and more extensive in its proposed operations. It was a proposal not only for the manufacture of paper, but of textile fabrics, employing as a substitute for hemp the fibres of various plants indigenous to the West Indies. It had been undertaken by a Mr. Sharpe, a brother of the well-known steam machine maker at Manchester, who had entered into arrangements for the making of paper and textile fabrics of various kinds from the fibres of plants found in the West Indies, such as the plantain, the aloe, and others, which grow in vast abundance, and which were utterly valueless at the present moment. He had now before him samples of the fibres and some small specimens of the textile fabrics, and the paper manu-
944
factured from them, which he should be very happy to show their Lordships. [The noble Earl here handed some specimens across the table to the Marquess of Lansdowne, which were afterwards examined with interest by other Peers. They consisted of the following articles: A specimen of the fibre of the plantain (Musa Paradisiaca), and a specimen of a textile fabric, of silky appearance, manufactured from the fibre; a specimen of the fibre of the Hibiscus Esculentus (Okhro); a specimen from the seed pod of the Cryptostegia Grandiflora, suitable for indiarubber withe. The body of the plant yields gum caoutchouc, and the bark of the branches a fine fibre. Also, two specimens of paper made from the plantain fibre; one specimen rough and unbleached, to show the great strength and tenacity of the fibre, and another spemen of very good quality, bleached and carried through all the operations for the best paper.] There were in the hands of the noble Marquess two descriptions of paper, one unbleached and the other a finer sort, which was as good as any which could be made from any other material; and he was told that paper could be supplied, made from this material, much cheaper than paper of a corresponding quality made from rags. An immense abundance of this material could be produced, which was a very material element in the question. He wished only to mention that on one estate in Demerara no less than 160,000 plantain trees were cut down every year, the trees going to waste, as they were cut down only for the purpose of getting at the fruit, and this wasted material contained 250 tons of fibre, capable of being manufactured into paper such as the noble Marquess had in his hand. All those products of the West Indies were capable of being converted either into textile fabrics, or rope of more or less tenacity, or paper. For this manufacture a patent had been already taken out in this country, and applications had been made to the Legislatures of Jamaica and British Guiana on the subject, and had been received in so friendly a spirit in the two colonies that the invention had been the subject of particular notice in the speeches of the Governors in opening the Legislatures; and Committees of both Houses in the two colonies having been appointed to examine into the matter and reported, enactments were passed facilitating the export of the material; and, moreover, the fees and costs of introducing the Bills had been ordered to be paid at

945
the public expense. That being so, if you could promote a manufacture which would demand from the West Indies material to an inexhaustible amount, to meet the demand for the manufacture of textile fabrics, and paper superior to that produced from rags, and if those articles could be produced in colonies which were in a condition of distress, and thus be the means of raising an entirely new species of industry in those colonies, he thought it was a question of no ordinary importance, and demanded the attention of the Government at home in the same way that it demanded that of the Government of those colonies themselves. That was the particular case which had brought the consideration of this question of the law of partnership before him. It appeared that the gentlemen who had taken up this invention having laid out a sum of money, and purchased estates in the West Indies for growing the raw material, had applied to the Queen in Council, in July last, for a charter; and, having been referred to the Board of Trade, was directed to take certain steps to bring their petition before the Board of Trade. They did so in August last; but it was not until October that they were informed by Mr. Cardwell that the Government had determined not to grant any charter for any undertaking, as in the present Session an alteration would be made in the law affecting partnership. A great deal, no doubt, might be said in condemnation of the indiscriminate adoption of the principle of limited liability, and he (the Earl of Derby) would not say whether that was right or wrong; but he was sure that a great deal might be said against the principle of the law of England as it at present existed in reference to limited liability in every case, and much more might be said against the power possessed by the Government to decide in what cases exceptions should be made to the law of limited liability. In cases of the kind he had mentioned, and there might be many others, it was impossible to carry out enterprises to the extent to which they might be carried by private capital only, if every one engaged in them was liable to the full amount of his property, whatever it might be. Whether the law of limited liability was right or not, the state of things was much worse when, the existing law having been condemned, and a new one was about to be introduced, the power of deciding what cases should be exceptional was refused to
946
be exercised, and the existing law rigidly carried out. The President of the Board of Trade said that principle had been adopted by the Board for a year and a half. He (the Earl of Derby) thought the noble Lord was mistaken, and that some charter had been granted in that time; but if for a year and a half the department of the Board of Trade had not exercised its power of deviation from the law, this was a very important reason for urging the immediate consideration of the present state of the law. Under these circumstances he thought that, as the application for a charter had been refused in October, he was not unreasonable if, in March, he put a question to the President of the Board of Trade and inquired whether it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to introduce any measure for the Amendment of the Law of Partnership, more especially as to the Question of Limited Liability; and if so, at what time?
LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYsaid, he did not, for a moment, call in question the propriety of the inquiry of the noble Earl, and he had to state, in reply, that a Bill on the subject of the law of partnership was in preparation, which he thought would remove many of the difficulties incident to the existing law. The Bill would be brought in as soon as possible; but as to the period of the Session at which it would be introduced, he had to say that it would not be brought in before Easter, but very shortly afterwards. With regard to the particular case which had called the attention of the noble Earl to the state of the law, he wished to say a few words, in order to show that the Board of Trade was not culpable in this instance. The custom with regard to the application for charters for the colonies was to send them to the Colonial Office, where, if it was stated that there was no objection to them, they were granted at once; otherwise they were sent out and submitted to the Legislature of the colonies concerned, to decide whether they were expedient or not; and if they reported that they were expedient, the charters were then granted. With regard to this case that course was not taken, as the charter asked for large powers to take land in any colony. If it had been confined to any given colonies, such as Jamaica and Demerara, the charter would have been transmitted to the Legislatures there; and if they had been as favourable to it as had been stated by the noble Earl, it would have been granted.
THE EARL OF DERBYsaid, that as regarded the particular case he had mentioned, the answer of the noble Lord was satisfactory. But he could not say that the answer with regard to the general question was equally satisfactory, for if the question of the law of partnership had been under consideration for a year and a half, and a charter asked for in October last was refused by the Board of Trade, and yet that a measure was not to be brought on before Easter, it was not satisfactory, because it was probable that such a Bill would not, in that case, be passed this Session.
LORD REDESDALEsaid, the subject had been brought under his notice, as he had examined a private Bill relating to it; and he wished to point out that the object of these parties was to have large establishments all over England and buy up all the patents they could obtain. It was obvious that if they accomplished their object of obtaining an exclusive use of all the patents every grower of flax or other fibre must be in their power, and therefore he hoped that, whatever alteration might be made in the law of limited liability, no alteration would be made in the patent law, which prohibited the assignment of a patent to more than a certain number of individuals.
House adjourned till To-morrow.