before a select committee of Lords, (Earl of Hardwicke, chairman), the committee decided that the landowners could not be heard with regard to any competing line not before the committee, and having no parliamentary exist ence. In the Erewash Valley Railway, before a select committee of Lords (Lord Lyttleton, chairman), landowners opposing the line were allowed to give evidence as to the general direction of a better line than that before the committee, but not to go into the minutiae of any particular project. A landowner was not permitted to go into the above line of opposition where really, and in point of fact, he was seeking not to establish an independent case of his own, but to set up that of some other company, which, by reason of its not having deposited plans, &c., could not be heard before the committee as a competing line. (z) PROCEEDINGS SECTION VII. RELATING TO BILLS RE-INTRO DUCED INTO PARLIAMENT DURING THE PRE SENT SESSION. (a) 1. Orders of House of Commons. 2. Resolutions of House of Lords. 1. ORDERS OF HOUSE OF COMMONS. Notices in newspapers and gazettes. That the promoters of such bills shall give notice by advertisement for six successive weeks, in the months of October and November, in the London, Edinburgh or Dublin gazette, as the case may be, and in the local paper or papers which may be usually in circulation in the part of the country through which the line of railway is proposed to pass, of their intention to present a petition for the re-introduction of any such bill. (b) Committee to examine whether petition be the same as that in 1845. That upon any petition for leave to bring in a railway bill which shall be presented to the house during the session of 1846, and referred to the committee on peti (s) See ante, p. cccxix. (a) See further, post, sect. IX. tions, the committee do examine whether the said petition be the same in substance as any petition for the same purpose, and from the same parties, which was presented in the session of 1845; and in that case, whether any bill brought into the house in pursuance of such petition in the session of 1845, was pending in either house of parliament on the termination of such session; and if so, whether a subscription contract, as required by the standing orders, binding in the usual way the subscribers to the undertaking, has been entered into and is valid at the time of such inquiry, and whether the deposit of £5 per cent. upon such subscription is lodged in the manner required by the standing orders. (b) If petition be the same as in 1845, standing orders to be held complied with. That in such case, and on proof of such notice having been given as aforesaid, and in case it should appear that such bill had, at the end of the session of 1845, been pending in the House of Lords, or if pending in the House of Commons, had been ordered to be engrossed, the standing orders with respect to any such bill shall be held to have been complied with. (c) Time between second reading and meeting of committee. That the time between the second reading of any such bill which shall be brought in in the session of 1846 and the meeting of the committee thereon be shortened to three clear days, the parties giving the regular notices in the Private Bill Office. (d) Committee to examine whether the bill be in every respect the same as such former bill. That the committee on any such bill do examine whether the bill be in every respect the same as such former bill at the last stage of its proceeding in this house in the session of 1845, and that in such case no evidence shall be received by such committee; but that on the reception and adoption by the house of a report from such committee, that the bill referred to them is in every respect the same as such former bill at the last stage of its proceeding in this house in the session of 1845, such bill may be ordered to be engrossed without any further proceeding in respect thereof. (e) From a purview of these orders it would seem that the evidence to be adduced by the promoters of the class of bills in question before the committee on petitions is in certain respects peculiar to that class. 1st. Proof must be given before the committee of the identity of the petition, &c. with that presented in the session of 1845; for which purpose such petition or a certified copy of it must be produced to the committee. The committee must also be satisfied that a bill brought in in pursuance of such petition was pending, &c. on the termination of the session. To establish this point the proper medium of proof is an inspection of the journals of the house wherein the bill was so pending. (i) The project having passed the committee on petitions, it still remains for the promoters to satisfy the committee on the bill that it is in every respect the same as the former bill at the last stage of its proceedings in the House of Commons during the session of 1845. The proper evidence to establish this is the production from the Private Bill Office of the paper bill preserved there. 2. RESOLUTIONS OF HOUSE of Lords. 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 pass for want of time, shall be marked by the chairman of committees, and shall be proceeded with in the ensuing session if such bill be brought from the commons in every respect the same bill as that which shall have been so marked by the chairman. 2. That any bill of the said second class which shall have been stopped in its progress through the House of Commons in the present session by reason of want of time, and which shall have been brought up to this house in the ensuing session marked by the Speaker of that house as having been so stopped, shall be in like manner received by this house. 3. That those bills which shall have been stopped in this house and so marked as aforesaid by the chairman of committees, and also those bills which shall be brought up for the first time next session marked by the Speaker of the House of Commons as aforesaid, shall be proceeded with upon the same notices as would have been required by this house under its standing orders during the present session and upon no other notice. (k) (i) As to the further evidence required in regard of any such bill before the committee on the petition, see ante, p. cccvi. et seq. (k) Minutes of Proceedings, House of Lords, 4th July, 1845, p. 740. SECTION VIII. COSTS OF PRIVATE BILLS. 1. Of Costs in the House of Commons. 2. Of Costs in the House of Lords. 1. OF COSTS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. In the House of Commons the statute by which provision is made on this subject is the stat. 6 Geo. 4, c. 123, which establishes both a taxation of such costs, and likewise a more easy means of recovering the same. To consider then, 1st, the former point, viz. the taxation, the stat. s. 1, enacts that, If any petitioner or petitioners for a private bill brought into the Commons House of Parliament, or the agent or agents of any such petitioner or petitioners shall make application to the Speaker of the House of Commons complaining of the amount of the costs and expenses charged by any parliamentary agent or solicitor, or any other person employed in soliciting or preparing such bill, or in complying with the standing orders relative thereto, on behalf of any such petitioner; or if any parliamentary agent or solicitor, or other person employed in soliciting any such private bill, or in preparing the same, or in complying with the standing orders relative thereto, shall make application to the Speaker, complaining that he is aggrieved by the nonpayment of the costs and expenses charged by him in respect of any such private bill, the Speaker, upon receiving any such application, is to direct that such costs and expenses, so far as the same shall relate to the House of Commons, shall be taxed by such person or persons as the Speaker shall think proper to appoint. The person so appointed for the taxing of such costs and expenses is to tax the same, and to report to the Speaker the amount of such costs and expenses which he shall think fit to be allowed upon such taxation. The Speaker is then, upon application, to deliver to the person or persons concerned therein and requiring the same a certificate, signed by himself, expressing the amount of the costs and expenses allowed by such report. The person so appointed to tax such costs and expenses is authorised to demand and receive for such taxation and report such fees as shall be from time to time fixed by any resolution of the House of Commons, and for that purpose to charge the amount of such fees at the foot of such report, either against the party applying for such taxation, or against any party complained of, or in such proportions against each of such parties as such person so taxing such costs may think fit. Such certificate, so signed by the Speaker, is conclusive evidence of all demands therein certified, and the party claiming under the same is (upon receiving the amount so certified) to give a receipt at the foot of such certificate, and such receipt is a sufficient discharge for such costs and expenses. 2dly. Of the mode of recovering such costs, &c. provided by the statute. If any petitioner, agent or other person liable to the payment of such costs and expenses shall refuse to pay the amount so certified by the Speaker in any action which shall be commenced for the recovery of such costs and expenses, such certificate so signed by the Speaker as aforesaid shall have the force and effect of a warrant to confess judgment, and the court in which such action shall be commenced shall, upon motion and production of such certificate, order judgment to be entered up for the sum specified in such certificate, in like manner as if the defendant or defendants in any such action had signed a warrant to confess judgment in such action to that amount. (¿)— (s. 2.) 2. OF COSTS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. The provisions on the subject of costs in the House of Lords are very similar in their nature to those in the Commons, though in certain respects more comprehensive; and first as to the taxation of such costs. If any petitioner or petitioners for or against a private bill brought into the House of Lords, or passed by the Commons House of Parliament and carried up to the House of Lords, or the agent or agents of any such petitioner or petitioners, shall make application to the clerk of the parliaments, when discharging the duties of his office in person, or in his absence to the clerk assistant, complaining of the amount of the costs, charges, and expenses charged by any parliamentary agent; or if any parliamentary agent shall make application to the clerk of the (1) As to effect of certificate under 9 Geo. 4, c. 22, s. 63, and the course of proceeding in regard of it, &c. see Fector v. Beacon, 5 Bing. N. C. 302; Bailey v. Bond, 8 Dowl. 119; Ranson v. Dundas, 3 Bing. N. C. 123, 180, 556. |