The details of the preliminary requirements of the legislature, stated above as being necessary before the bill can be entertained, are extracted from the standing orders of the House of Commons; but, according to May's ' Parliamentary Practice,' the requirements of the two Houses are identical, excepting in some insignificant matters of detail. The further stages of the proceedings, it may be added, are described upon the supposition that the bill sought for is presented, firstly, to the House of Commons.
Any person interested in the proposed railway, or in its operation, is entitled to present a memorial iu opposition to its progress, on the ground of non-compliance with the standing orders, before some day between the 9th and 23rd of January, according to the number of rotation assigned to the petition for the bill. The examiners of petitions for private bills then inquire into the manner in which the standing orders have been complied with ; and, if any irregularity should have been committed, they make a report to the House of Commons, or send a certificate to the House of Lords, to the effect that the standing orders have not been complied with, but they do not at all enter into the inquiry as to the merits of the bill. If the standing orders should, however, have been complied with, a report is made to that effect. Within three days from the date of the indorsement of the bill by the examiner of petitions, the petition for its being read must be presented by a member, and it must be accompanied by a printed copy of the bill ; and if the standing orders have been complied with, the bill is at once ordered to be brought in ; if they have not been complied with, the petition is referred to the standing orders committee, who are empowered to make special reports to the House on such subjects. The second reading of the bill takes place at some period between the third and seventh day from the first reading, and is considered substantially to sanction, in the opinion of the House, the principle of the bill, which is then committed. It is firstly referred to the general committee on railway and canal bills, which names the chairman and members of the select committee before whom the examination into the allegations of the petition and the clauses of the bill takes place. The select committee must consist of five members not locally or otherwise interested in the bill, when the latter is opposed ; or the bill may be referred to the chairman of ways and means and to two members, when it is unop posed. After an interval of eight days at least from the second
reading, the select committee proceed to hear the parties who seek the act, and those who have petitioned against the bill, either by them selves, by their agents, or counsel ; and after a careful examination of the evidence submitted to them (in the House of Lords the evidence is taken upon oath), the committee are bound to report upon the various subjects involved. These subjects mainly affect the fitness of the proposed railway in an engineering point of view, the peculiar local circumstances affecting the works, and the main allegations of the petitions for or against the bill, with the reasons of the committee for agreeing to or dissenting from them. The committee is bound not to authorise a company to raise a larger sum by loan or mortgage than one-third of the capital ; and until 50 per cent. of the capital has been paid up, the company is not to be allowed to raise any loan. No alterations of turnpike roads are to be allowed which should leave the rate of inclination of the new road more than 1 in 30 ; nor shall any other road be made, without special reason, whose incline shall exceed 1 in 20. Numerous provisions are made also by the instructions of the House for the purpose of preventing any abuse of the powers to be conferred by the bill, or of preventing the smuggling of clauses for one object under cover of a bill avowedly proposed for another one. It is worthy of remark that amongst these instructions, which in fact con stitute the standing orders to the committees, there is one whose object it avowedly is to prevent the payment of interest upon deposits, or payments on calls, until the line is opened—a course of proceeding diametrically opposed to the one followed by all other countries in Europe. The usual coarse of the inquiry before the committee, so as to enable them to make their report to the House, is to discuss firstly the preamble of the bill ; and, if that should be declared to be proved, then to discuss the clauses seriatim. In this nItinner the whole of the measure is capable of being thoroughly examined, and the obnoxious portions can be removed if the parties really interested attend to their own business ; the principal difficulty, however, attending all these pro ceedings lies in their cost.