required to be affixed on church-doors, and also, except in cases where a written acknowledgment is allowed as evidence of such notice or application) no notice has been given on a Sunday or Christmas day, or before 8 o'clock in the forenoon, or after 8 o'clock in the afternoon. (H. L. 224.)

Proof is further required before the Standing Committee that (when in any bill introduced into the House for the purpose of establishing a company for carrying on any work or undertaking, the name of any person or persons shall be stated as manager, director, proprietor, or otherwise concerned in carrying such bill into effect), the said person or persons have subscribed their names to the petition for the said bill, or to a printed copy of the said bill, as brought up and introduced into the House. (H. L. 225.)

The following matters must likewise be proved before the same committee, in the case of bills for railways included in the second class of bills:

1. That plans, sections, and books of reference, (required by the Standing Orders of the House to be deposited with the clerk of the peace, &c., on or before 30th November) were on or before the same day deposited in the office of the Railway Department of the Board of Trade, together with a published map to a scale of not less than half an inch to a mile, with the line of railway delineated thereon.

2. That a copy of the bill, as brought into the House of Lords, has been deposited in the office of the Railway Department of the Board of Trade.

3. That the plan exhibits thereon the distances in miles and furlongs from one of the termini; and that a memoradum of the radius of every curve not exceeding one mile in length is noted on the plan in miles, furlongs, and chains.

4. That in every section of a railway the line marked thereon corresponds with the upper surface of the rails.

5. That distances on the datum line are marked in miles and furlongs to correspond with those on the plan. That a vertical measure from the datum line to the line of railway is marked in feet and inches at each change of the gradient or inclination, and that the proportion or rate of inclination between each such change is also marked.

6. That the height of the railway over or under the surface of every turnpike-road, &c., is marked in figures at every crossing thereof, &c. [For particulars, see Standing Order 227, sec. 6, in Appendix.]

7. That tunnelling and arching, where they are respectively substitutes for open cutting or for a solid embankment, are marked, the first by a dotted line on the plan and on the section, and

the viaduct by a dotted line on the section. (H. L. 227.)

[In bills that are unopposed in their Lordships' House, evidence that the Standing Orders have been proved in the Commons to be complied with, will be held to be sufficient.]

Report of the Standing Order Committee.

The Standing Order Committee having (where requisite or called upon) investigated all these matters, has to report to the House whether the Standing Orders have been complied with, in so far as they relate to railway bills or any other bill in the same (i. e. the second) class that may have been referred to that tribunal.

If the report be that the various Orders have been complied with, as required, the bill is at once in a position to proceed to the next stagenamely, its second reading.

If, however, any of these Standing Orders have not been complied with, the committee has, in the strict and positive performance of its duty, to report to the House the points in which they have not been so complied with, and to state the facts upon which their decision is founded, together with special circumstances connected with the case. Like the Standing Order Committee of the other House (but unlike the committee on petitions to which such bills are, in the first

instance, referred in the Commons), the Lords' Standing Order Committee has, after stating the fact whether all the requisite Orders have or have not been complied with, to give, in the latter case, their opinion as to the propriety of dispensing with any of the Standing Orders that have not been observed. It then remains for the House to decide whether, under all the circumstances of the particular case, the recommendations of the report should be carried into effect or not. If the Lords determine against the propriety of dispensing with the Orders in question, the parties promoting the bill are not permitted to proceed, and the bill falls to the ground. If, on the other hand, the House grant indulgence and do not insist on this penalty strictly due to all who do not comply with their Lordships' Standing Orders, such Orders are declared to be dispensed with, and the parties are allowed to proceed with their bill.

After the investigation before the Standing Order Committee, the next stage is the

Second Reading.

Previous, however, to any private bill being read the second time, copies of the subscription contract, with the names of the subscribers alphabetically arranged, and the amount of deposit respectively paid up by each such subscriber (or where a declaration and estimate of the probable

amount of rates and duties, according to Acts previously passed, are substituted in lieu of a subscription contract, copies of such declaration and estimate) must be printed at the expense of the promoters of the bill, and be delivered at the office of the clerk of the Parliaments. (H. L. 224, sec. 6.)

No private bill can be read a second time in this House until printed copies thereof have been left with the clerk of the Parliaments for the perusal of the Lords. (H. L. 96.)

No private bill can be read before the hearing of any cause that may be appointed to be heard on that day in the House of Lords. (H. L. 97.) The bill having been read the SECOND TIME, the next stage is the

Committee on the Bill.

The committee on any "private bill" cannot sit until ten days after such bill shall have been read a second time. (H. L. 94.)

No committee on any private bill relating to such railways as are included in the second class, or of any other bill included in any of the three classes which shall be opposed, has power to examine into the compliance with the Standing Orders, the compliance with which is required to be proved before the Standing Order Committee. (H. L. 219, sec. 8.)

A committee in the House of Lords, where the