given, or application made, on a Sunday or Christmas day, or before eight in the forenoon or after eight in the evening.

What Notices must contain.

These Notices (which are not required to be signed, though it is usual for the solicitor to do so) must contain (in the case of railway bills) the names of the parishes, townships, town, lands, and extra-parochial places from, in, through or into which the work is intended to be made, maintained, varied, extended, or enlarged. They must also state the time and place of deposit of the plans, sections, and books of reference respectively, with the clerks of the peace, parish-clerks, schoolmasters, town-clerks, and postmasters, as the case may be. (H. C. 22.) The House of Lords, S. O. 223, sec. 1, is to the same effect, except that the last line runs thus :-" Parish-clerks, schoolmasters, town-clerks, and clerks of the union, as the case may be" (adding "clerks of the union" to the Commons' order, and omitting "postmasters" thereform).-[Vide Note.]

If it be intended to obtain powers for compulsory purchase of lands or houses, or to levy any tolls, rates, or duties, or to alter any existing tolls, &c., or to confer, vary, or extinguish any exemptions from payment of tolls, &c., or any other rights or privileges, the notices must specify such intention. (H. C. 16; H. L. 220, sec. 3.)

Notices at Quarter-Sessions.

There is only one great difference between the

Standing Orders of the
Commons as to Notices.

Houses of Lords and

The Lords (by Standing

Order 223, sec. 2) require that all notices (with respect to bills included in the second class containing railway bills, &c.) shall, in addition to being given in the gazette, &c., be likewise given at the general quarter-session of the peace which shall have been held for every county, riding, or division, in or through which the work shall be made, maintained, varied, extended, or enlarged, at Michaelmas or Epiphany preceding the session of Parliament in which application is intended to be made, by affixing such notice on the door of the session house of every county, &c., where such general quarter-session shall be held.

In Scotland, these notices are to be affixed in the same way on the doors of the churches of parishes in or through which the works are intended to pass, and for two Sundays in each of the months of October and November immediately preceding the introduction into Parliament of the bill in question. (H. L. 223, sec. 2.)

This order is frequently overlooked, and bills are in consequence sent to a subsequent session, through the ignorance of those who ought to look to the compliance in all respects with the orders of both Houses.

Under any circumstances, of course, it is absolutely requisite that this Standing Order of the Lords should be attended to; but a state of things might possibly occur in which it would be necessary that the notices should have been given at the earliest date mentioned, namely, during the Michaelmas sessions. Parliament might from some special causes sit much before the usual time, and before the Epiphany sessions. In that case, it would be necessary that the notices should have been given at the preceding Michaelmas sessions; and if so this proves that under some circumstances (and those not of any peculiarly unlikely nature) notices must be giɣen some time before the date at which it is requisite to give the first notice in the gazette. Thus, supposing Parliament to meet before the Epiphany sessions, it is clear that the notices must be given at the Michaelmas quarter-sessions, in accordance with this order of their lordship's House. Those latter sessions, however, are held many weeks before the earliest notice in the gazette is necessary, and consequently the utmost caution is required on the part of those to whom the care of bills is entrusted, that these formal but most important matters should be attended to and complied with at the earliest possible period, as thereby many risks and hazards may be avoided, and defects counteracted in time.

Section II.

First Deposits of Plans, &c., (by November 30). 1. Deposit of Plans, &c., with the Board of Trade.

In the case of railway bills, a copy of all plans, sections and books of reference required by the orders of each House to be deposited with the clerk of the peace or sheriff-clerk on or before the 30th November immediately preceding the session in which application for the bill shall be made, 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 so as to show its general course and direction, shall on or before the same day be deposited likewise in the office of the railway department of the Board of Trade. (H. C. 23 a; H. L. 227.)

2. Deposit with Clerk of the Peace, &c.

On or before the same day, a plan and duplicate, on a scale of not less than four inches to a mile, must be deposited at the office of the clerk of the peace for every county, riding, or division in England or Ireland, or in the office of the principal sheriff-clerk of every county in Scotland, in or through which the work is proposed to be made, &c. (H. C. 23.)

Copies of so much of the Standing Orders of the House of Lords on private bills as relates to the deposit of plans, sections, books of reference, and other books and writings, or extracts or copies of or from the same, must be delivered (at the same time with the plan or other writing, or extract or copy of or from such plan or other writing, deposited with him) to clerks of the peace of counties in England or Ireland, sheriffclerks in Scotland, parish-clerks in England, schoolmasters in Scotland, town-clerks of royal burghs in Scotland, clerks of the union in Ireland and other persons. (H. L. 223, sec. 11.)

Contents of Plans and Sections.

The plan must be prepared on a scale of not less than four inches to a mile (the accompanying published map alone being on that of not less than half an inch to the mile), and must describe the line or situation of the whole of the work, and the lands in or through which it is to be made, &c., or through which every communication to or from the work shall be made. (H. C. 23; H. L. 223, sec. 3.)

When, however, powers are sought to make any lateral deviation from the line of the proposed work, the limits of such deviation must be defined upon the plan, and all lands included within such limits must be marked thereon. Further, in all instances, except where the whole