each case, that may be brought before the committee.

The bulk of the engineering evidence that has been given at length before the House of Commons Committee on any railway bill has to be gone into again before the committee appointed by their Lordships to investigate such bill, after its second reading. Proof must be given before it (in addition to all the above enumerated matters) that the due notices have been given at the last Quarter Sessions immediately preceding the sitting of Parliament, for every county, &c. through which the work is proposed to be made, maintained, &c. (This is not required by the House of Commons.)

What has been stated in the descriptions of proceedings in committees on railway bills, in the House of Commons, with regard to the evidence required thereby, will apply equally to proceedings before like committees of the House of Lords (with one exception, however), as regards the admission and rejection of such evidence. That exception refers to the swearing of witnesses. It has already been observed that the committees on bills in the House of Commons have no power to administer oaths, and therefore receive the testimony of unsworn witnesses. In committees of the House of Lords, however, no oral evidence can be received unless the witnesses giving it have been previously sworn at the bar of their

Lordships' House. They can be sworn in that House, it being presumed that the judges are always present therein. As cases sometimes occur, however, where the swearing of a witness at the bar of the House would occasion delay, and where his testimony is required to be given immediately, it is sometimes usual, where the investigation does not involve the credit and character of individuals or companies, to allow the evidence to be taken, and to swear the witness to the truth of what he has deposed, subsequently.

Again, with regard to summoning witnesses, or sending for papers and records. It has already been stated in another part of this work, that committees on bills in the House of Commons have no power to compel persons to attend, or to bring documentary evidence (except the Committee of Selection, to which the House has this session delegated such power.) In other cases, application is obliged to be made to the House itself, and it will then issue the required order. Where witnesses, however, are wanted by committees of the House of Peers, they are usually served with a notice thereof from the committeeclerk, in whose notice the day for their attendance and being sworn at the bar of the House is named. If this notice be disregarded or disobeyed, the accustomed course is to procure an order of the House signed by the assistant clerk of the Parliaments, and to serve the same upon the refrac

tory party. If, however, he is not to be found, and there is ground for supposing he is purposely keeping out of the way to avoid being served, the House will resolve that, leaving the order in question at his usual residence, shall be deemed good and sufficient service; and if he do not then obey and attend, he will be ordered into the custody of the proper officer of the House, and become subject to the penalties of contempt, and be liable to fine and imprisonment.

Report.

Two days before the bill is reported to the House a copy, as proposed to be amended in the committee, must be deposited at the Board of Trade. (234, sec. 4.)

Further Consideration of Report.

When railway bills have been opposed in the committee on the bill, the further consideration of the report will not be proceeded with until the House has received from the committee speeific replies in answer to each of the twenty questions on which they are directed specially to report. (H. L. 233, sec. 2.)

Third Reading.

All railway bills that have been opposed, and have undergone amendments in committee, must be reprinted as amended previously to the third

reading, unless the chairman of the committee shall certify that the reprinting of such bill is unnecessary. (H. L. 234, sec. 1.)

Two days before the bill is read a third time, a copy must be deposited with the Board of Trade, as amended in the committee.

No railway bill can be read a third time, unless provision be made therein restricting the company from raising by loan or mortgage a larger sum than one-third of their capital; limiting the alterations of the level of turnpike-roads to one in thirty feet, and of other roads to one in twenty, and prohibiting the railway from crossing highways on the same level, unless the committee on the bill report that such restrictions ought not to be enforced; and also limiting the time for the completion of the work. (H. L. 233, sec. 4.)

(Although such company may be limited to borrow only one-third of their capital, various means are allowed to be resorted to, to enable them to borrow more without infringing on this Standing Order.)

If no amendments be introduced into the bill in the House of Lords, such bill having been "read a third time and passed," is returned to the Commons with a statement to that effect; and it then only awaits the final sanction of the "royal assent," in order to become law.

If amendments, however, are made by their iLordships the bill is returned to the other House,

and (as already stated) a day's notice must be given in the Private Bill Office (according to Standing Order, H. C. 146,) of the consideration of those amendments. If they be disagreed to, and the House proposing them insist on them, the bill is lost; but amendments proposed to the amendments generally arrange every difficulty, and modify the alterations so as to allow of their adoption. Both Houses having agreed upon. the form in which the bill is to remain, it then receives the royal assent upon the first occasion of there being "a commission," unless her Majesty attends the House of Lords at the prorogation of Parliament, and then the royal assent is said to be given in person.

It is exceeding uncertain, however, (when bills have passed through both Houses) when they will receive the royal assent. If the fees of both Houses have not been paid at the time, the clerks of the House of Lords have power to stop the bill in transitu.

Bills Postponed from Session 1845.

It was resolved by the House of Lords (July 4, 1845,)

1. "That any bill included in the second class under the Standing Order of the 16th August, 1838, and which shall be before this House in the present Session, but shall not