as engineers and land surveyors, who were | Baidron, a silkthrowster in London some great promoters of railway schemes for years ago, but who went to the West their own private purposes, in order to Indies seven or eight years ago; and obtain employment; and these parties all shares to the amount of 3,500l. to Marinterested themselves to promote the Bill garet Meredith, a parish pauper! The in the manner which he would state to the letters were examined in four hours— House. They might get up fabricated allowing ten seconds for each letter. They lists by directly fabricating names, by knew that if they wanted to carry their forging signatures, by putting down names Bill they must have a list of a sufficient of persons who had no existence, or who number; for which reason they closed resided in the West Indies, or who were their eyes. Now, if a person had the parish paupers. That was one mode, and means of inquiring, and did not choose to a most clumsy one, of committing fraud; inquire, he was just to be treated as if he but there was also another mode by which did. He had every reason to believe that fraud could be practised against the House. this was a great and beneficial public It was to issue a prospectus with a flourish- work, that it was wished for by the people ing and puffing account of the scheme of Ireland, and that it was calculated to that was about to be brought forward, and confer great benefit on that country; but to declare at the same time that whoever even so, the House was bound to protect applied for shares would have allotments; itself where deliberate fraud was attempted and if the promoters after this took no to be perpetrated against it. He would, steps to ascertain that the applications therefore, heartily support the Motion of which they received were real applications his noble Friend. --if they wilfully shut their eyes against attempts at fraud, and received the applications, in nine cases out of ten, or perhaps in ninety-nine cases out of 100, without inquiry-was it not precisely the same thing as if they were themselves guilty of the fabrications, and were in a conspiracy to deceive the House? Now, what was the evidence in the present case? The Committee took it all from the agents of the Company-from the parties themselves; and yet the facts stated to them were, that 970 persons had applied for shares, and that of these only 111 gave any references at all to show whether they were really existent or solvent persons or not. But was that the way with the London and York Railway Company? No; for, on the contrary, the moment they got any letters without references they threw them into the fire. Not so, however, with the Dublin and Galway Company. They received all applications, though only 111 of them were accompanied with any references, and of these they instituted inquiries into only twenty-nine, out of which fourteen were found to be totally unknown. They thought it better, there fore, not to inquire further, and actually gave shares to the other eighty applicants, without making a single inquiry into the references which had been given. What was the consequence? They alloted thirty shares to Mr. Henry Penton, of Crosby Hall Chambers, who never had an existence in the world; ten to Mr. William

Lord Monteagle said, he had been a Member of the Committee, and if their Lordships would do him the honour of remembering anything that had fallen from one so unimportant as he was, they would not forget that, when the petition in this case had been presented by the noble Duke, he had declared that he thought it would be better that all the railroads in the country should be lost, than that the House should refuse to inquire into a petition like that, involving an accumulated charge of forgery, fraud, and innumerable other offences. That petition had been referred to a Select Committee, and the evidence taken before that Committee had been reported and laid on their Lordships' Table. On that evidence he, for one, would have been perfectly prepared to support a Motion for postponing the further consideration of the Bill for six months. He thought the evidence so clear and conclusive, that he would have no hesitation in coming to that vote on that occasion. But he wished to call their Lordships' attention to the course which the House had taken subsequent to that time. If the question had rested on the evidence, he would, as he had before stated, have been prepared to negative it; but their Lordships did not come to that conclusion. They thought proper to refer the petition, with the Report and the evidence, to the Select Committee appointed to consider the Bill itself-thus showing that they required

sioners, and to them it had been referred for revision and final opinion. He could not conclude these observations without remarking that, although the Commissioners were now functi officio, yet he must implore Her Majesty's Government, and especially his noble and learned Friend on the Woolsack, not to omit this opportunity of securing the services of these Commissioners (others might perhaps be found, but none could be better), by forming them into a board for the systematic revision of all the Statutes submitted to Parliament, including, also, all Private Acts, in whose dark corners much that was highly objectionable often lurked, and remained undetected until too late. Nothing could more tend to facilitate the labours of the Judges than such a simplification of the criminal law as might now

under the revision of the Commissioners.
He hoped that Ministers would bring it
forward next Session; and, supported by
their weight and authority, it could not
fail of success. If they did not, he gave
notice that if he were spared, he would,
and his only doubt was, whether the sys-
tem of our criminal law ought or ought
not, like that of France, to be divided into
two parts, one of which was called "Le
Code Final," and the other "Le Code de
Procédure Criminel."

Report ordered to lie on the Table.
House adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS,

Friday, July 25, 1845.

MINUTES.] NEW WRIT. For the City of Hereford, v.
Edward Bolton Clive, Esq., deceased.

Fees (Criminal Proceedings).

be accomplished; and he threw out the BILLS. Public.-1° Sewerage, Drainage, etc., of Towns; proposition of a board for the consideration of Ministers during the ensuing long vacation.

Reported.-Documentary Evidence; Assignment of Terms;
Death by Accidents Compensation; Deodands Abolition
(No. 2); Libel; Church Building Acts Amendment; Tax-
ing Master, Court of Chancery (Ireland); Granting of
Leases; Real Property (No. 3).

3° and passed:-County Rates.
Private. 1°. Severne's Estate.

2o. Sampson's Estate; Duke of Bridgewater's Estate;
Dick's Estate; Marquess of Donegal's Estate; Winchester
College Estate; Bowes's Estate; Marsh's (or Coxhead's)
Estate.

Reported.-Eastern Counties Railway (Cambridge and
Huntingdon Line).

3o and passed:-Ellerker's Estate.

Lord Campbell, concurring entirely in the opinions just expressed, of the value of these Reports, expressed a wish that they might not, like other blue books, be Jaid upon the Table, and allowed to remain there until they were covered with dust. There was not a country of the Continent that had not had its criminal law reduced into form, and published for the benefit of PETITIONS PRESENTED. those who were either to administer or to obey it. There was now no reason why the people of this Empire should not enjoy the same advantage; and he trusted that this just reproach upon our legislation would soon be wiped away, and that a criminal code would be prepared for Great Britain.

The Lord Chancellor added, that when he said a few minutes ago that the Commissioners had closed their labours, he meant only to refer to the object for which they were first appointed. They had, however, other matters before them, particularly a Bill in which a noble and learned Lord now gazing at him felt a peculiar interest. The Commissioners were also considering the manner in which the country might practically avail itself of their Reports.

Lord Brougham agreed, that it was most unfit to allow these Reports to become covered with dust: in order to prevent it, he had last year reduced one of the Reports of the Commissioners into the form of a Bill, which was at present

By Mr. Lockhart, from Inverleithen, and Traquair, for Better Observance of the Lord's Day. By Mr. Darby, from Clergy of Lewes, against Union of Saint Asaph and Bangor.-By Mr. C. Buller, from Stockholders of New South Wales, for Repeal of certain Acts relating to that Colony.-By Mr. Denison, from Relatives of Settlers in New Zealand, for a Change of Policy towards that Colony.-By Mr. Darby, Viscount Newport, Mr. Newdegate, and Mr. Spooner, for Relief from Agricultural Taxation.-By Mr. Darby, from several places, for Repeal of the Malt Duty.-By Viscount Jocelyn, from Belfast, for Alteration of Law relating to Appraisers (Ireland).-By Mr. G. W. Hope, from Southampton, for Establishment of County Courts.-By Mr. Bankes, from several places, in favour of the Ten Hours System in Factories.

The House met at twelve o'clock.

CORPORATE PRIVILEGES (SCOTLAND).] Mr. Hume put the question of which he had given notice, namely, what was the intention of the Government as to the removal of the vexatious and exclusive privileges of trading, and the exercise of crafts enjoyed by the incorporated trades. in the burghs of Scotland?

The Lord Advocate said, the Report of the Commissioners inclined towards the abolition of these exclusive privileges; and as great weight was due to their opinion, it had made a strong impression on his

ence

mind that there was not that necessity for monastic orders were not affected by the these privileges which once existed ; he enactments of the Bill. There was also thought that, to some extent, inconveni- another point as to which it was in

was caused by them. On the other tended to vary the enactments of the Act hand, it was proper he should state, that of last Session. By that Act, the Law of interests of a charitable nature had grown Mortmain was extended to Ireland, where, up which were connected with the preser- in fact, it operated with more weight 'than vation of these rights; but the Report did it did in this country ; so that it was imnot state what was their extent. It would possible for a party to leave any quantity be necessary to be cautious in dealing with of land, however small, for the site of a such matters.

chapel, glebe house, or hospital. The

Government proposed to relax this proviTHE CHARITABLE BEQUESTS Act (Ire- sion 30 as to allow land, not exceeding five LAND).] Mr. Sheil begged to put a ques. acres, for instance, to be left for such purtion to the Home Secretary, of which he poses. He hoped the right hon. Gentlehad given him notice. His noble Friend the man would think this answer sufficiently Member for Arundel had on a former oc- explicit. casion put a question to the same effect; Subject at an end. but the answer then given to him by the right hon. Baronet was not considered in FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.) Mr. P. Ireland to be as explicit as it should have M. Stewart rose, pursuant to notice, to call been: he, therefore, wished to ask the the attention of the House to the petition of right hon. Baronet whether it were the the Rev. Patrick Macfarlan, Moderator of intention of the Government, early in the the General Assembly of the Free Church next Session, to bring in a Bill to amend of Scotland (presented June 24), complainthe Charitable Bequests Act ?

ing of the refusal of sites to congregations Sir J. Graham said, he was most anxious of that Church. He stated that the petithat the answer should be explicit. It was tioners represented that the General Asexpedient that it should be so; and he sembly of the Free Church had the spirithanked the hon. Gentleman for having tual guidance of one-third of the populagiven him notice of the question. There tion of Scotland; that 470 of the clergy were two points as to which he proposed of the Church of Scotland had left it for to alter the Bill next Session. The first the Free Church, which now had 620 related to matters affecting the doctrine and clergy and 800 congregations ; that discipline of the Roman Catholic Church. 726,0001. had been subscribed for the By the Act as it now stood, if there was a general purposes of the separation, of bequest in favour of a dignitary of the Ro- which 300,0001. had been appropriated to man Catholic Church, or of a parish priest, the building of churches. They further and a dispute arose as to the title of the party stated that the landlords refused to allow claiming it, such a case was now, as the them to purchase sites for their churches. Act stood, referred to the decision of the Owing to the land being in large quanCommissioners. It appeared, however, tities in few hands, this refusal operated as that by a canon of the Roman Catholic a great hardship upon them. The congreChurch, such a question must be decided gations had no place in which to meet for by an authority exclusively ecclesiastic. worship, so that they were obliged to go The Government intended to remove that into the high roads or under the hedgest o difficulty by making the certificate of the perform their devotions. All that the ecclesiastical authority conclusive as to the petitioners wanted was permission to purrights of the parties. The next point as to chase land for sites for their churches at a which the Government proposed to make fair and equitable price, but this was rean alteration, was this :-ihe monastic fused to them. The hon. Member proorders in Ireland considered themselves in- ceeded to mention some cases where the jured by one of the provisoes at the end of refusal of sites had operated as a hardship the 15th Clause. He had stated when he

on congregations. In one place in Rossa introduced the Bill, that it was not in- shire, where the parish occupied an area of tended, either directly or indirectly, to twenty miles, such was the spiritual destiaffect the position of the monastic orders. tution of a portion of the district, that the Whether that was or was not carried out Government had gone to the expense of in the Bill, it was the intention of the erecting a church. There was a case in Government explicitly to declare that the point in a locality which must be known VOL. LXXXII. { Series}

2 N

Third

to the right hon. Baronet (Sir J. Gra- ping leases were so formidable that they ham), namely, Canoby; he felt certain, could not obtain sites for chapels with however, that the right hon. Baronet out incurring very great expense. Al. would never have been the author of such though the Dean and Chapter of these sufferings. The congregation consisted of parishes received upwards of 30,0001, a 500 people, all of whom bad been com- year, they did not instruct daily as many as pelled to betake themselves to the high 3,000 souls out of a population of 56,000. road in order to engage in religious wor- There was a clause in their leases precisely ship. The hon. Member read a letter similar to that with which they were from the Rev. Mr. Guthrie, the minister threatened in Scotland, against the erecof the congregation, who stated that the tion of any Dissenting place of worship, most sacred ordinances of religion had or the use of any tenement for Dissenting been dispensed in the open air ; and that purposes. Freeholds were only to be obhe had seen 500 persons at once, who, in tained at very great cost. Within the last consequence of exposure to sleet and snow, fortnight it had been ascertained by a city were as wet as if they had been dragged missionary, that there were 2,000 families, through the river Esk, which rolled at including a population of 10,000 souls, untheir feet. There were three men in par- possessed of a single page of the Scriptures. ticular, it was alleged, whose countenances Thousands of the children were unbore the stamp of death; and indeed the educated; poverty, wretchedness, irreliweather was bad enough to hurry them to gion, and crime abounded ; and he had that place “ where the wicked cease from been assured that day, by a most benevo. troubling, and where the weary are at lent individual who strove to relieve this rest." Such were the sad statistics of mass of misery, that such was the demomany parishes and of thousands of pa- ralized condition of the district, owing to rishioners in Scotland at this moment. It the slumbering state of the Church and the was only justice to those who were the exclusion of Dissenting aid, that there proprietors of the districts where such were various places where they would not scenes occurred, to suppose that they did be even personally safe. He merely mennot know the full extent of the miseries tioned this as an illustration of the effect endured, for otherwise the remedy sought of not giving a fair field to all denominawould surely come from them. He trust- tions. Two Sundays ago there were 600 ed that the House, the Government, and shops open in Westminster between the the proprietors, would assist in bringing hours of nine and eleven in the morning, about a better state of things. Viewing 200 of which were public houses. It must the matter simply as one of temporal po- be remembered, too, that the leases which licy, if districts twenty miles square in ex. positively excluded Dissenting places of tent grew disorganized in consequence of worship, contained no prohibitory clause the people not being able to attend church against houses for immoral purposes; and as they had formerly done, what but cala- there were, in fact, upwards of 130 such mity could be the result? He might refer houses under the very eye of the Dean and to the city of Westminster as affording an Chapter themselves. Now, such, he reillustration of what he meant. The House peated, was the state of things with which might not be aware that they were sitting they were threatened in Scotland. The at that moment in one of the most dark only reason which he could imagine as inand destitute portions of the metropolis. fluencing those who refused to grant sites, It was, however, proved by statistics was the expectation of a change in the which had been verified, that the greatest feelings of the people ; but to talk of evils had arisen in the parishes of St. John change in a matter of that kind was proved and St. Margaret, Westminster, from a by the history of Scotland to be absurd. He state of things, unopposed, similar to that would recommend the Government to look which then existed in many parts of Scot- at public opinion on this subject. As a land. Were the Government aware that Scotchman, le naturally felt warm and in those two parishes, for a population of indignant on such a topic; but he would 56,000 persons, there were sittings in the quote the opinion of two persons who Established Church for only 7,000, and in might be in a better position to pronounce the Dissenting chapels for 6,000, mak- a judgment. The first was that of a dis

a ing altogether 13,000 sittings, of which tinguished East Indian friend of his, who 5,000 were never occupied? The ob- had been engaged in the late glorious stacles to the Dissenters procuring build- transactions in Cabul, That gentleman