When the report of the select committee has been made, the committee clerk delivers into the Private Bill Office "the committee bill," which is printed at the expense of the parties, and delivered to the members of the House. The report of the bill is ordered to lie upon the table, as also is the amended bill ; and after the interval of three clear days from the delivery of the report the consideration of the bill may be proceeded with, on the third reading. So jealous is our legislature, theoretically, of the rights of private property, that it is easy, even at this stage, to stop the progress of a bill ; but, in fact, it is very rarely that the decision of a select committee is reversed. The usual course is, that the bill, as it leaves the committee, passes on the third reading; and it then has to go through nearly a similar ordeal in the House of Lords; and, unless important amendments should there be introduced, the bill receives the royal assent, and becomes an Act of Parliament. The proceedings before the House of Lords differ in some respects from those which are followed before the House of Commons ; but the differences consist mainly in points of form, and they seem to have been inspired principally by the desire of the former House to protect in the most efficient manner the vested rights of pro perty. The reader who would desire to study more in detail the law and the practice of Parliament in these matters, would do well to consult the work by Mr. May !before referred to, and to read the Standing Orders published by the respective Houses of the legislature at the commencement of each session. Amongst other provisions made by the House of Lords, there is one it may be important here to notice—namely, that they fix at the commencement of every session a day beyond which they will not take any proceedings in private bills, whencesoever proceeding. Mr. May's work contains also an ample description of the fees payable to the officers of the respective Houses of Parliament, a study of which might fairly be recommended to the attention of the administrative reformers of the day.
Owing to the numerous subjects embraced, a railway act is always a lengthy document ; but of late years these measures have been considerably simplified by the passing of the Railway and of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts. In cases where companies simply apply for powers for increasing their capital, or when they apply for powers of amalgamation, or purchase of other companies, the forms of parlia mentary practice are slightly different from those above described ; and the Wharncliffe standing orders prescribe the observance of certain conditions under the peculiar circumstances they were designed to meet, especially with reference to the manner of ascertaining the opinions of the shareholders of any existing company as to the extension of their operations. The principle of this legislation is, however, on the whole, extremely equitable, and it substantially affords protection to existing interests, whilst it gives every reasonable facility for the development of enterprise.
Formation of the Road.—The Act of Parliament being obtained, the land required for the railway is definitively set out and purchased. Power is usually given to take a width of 22 yards, exclusive of that which is necessary for the sloping sides of cuttings or of embankments; and it may be added that, in ordinary cues, the average quantity of land taken is about at the rate of 12 acres per mile lineal of road, leaving out of account the stations, when the hitter are of considerable importance. The price to be paid for the land is either settled by amicable arrangement, or it is fixed by a jury ; and it includes all claims for compensation, severance, and compulsory purchase. It appears that, practically, railway companies are compelled to pay about double the real value of all the land or hereditaments they take—so deeply rooted is the popular opinion that the interests of private individuals should be studied at the expense of public companies.
The works themselves connected with the formation of the road consist in the embankments and cuttings, the tunnels, the bridges, viaducts, and culverts, and the stations and minor accessory buildings. These works are usually divided into separate contracts, and are let by public or by private competition, unless when—as is far too often the case in England—the bulk of the capital has to be provided by the contractor. In ordinary eases, the works which would take the longest
time are commenced the first, especially when it is desired to open the line at once in its entire length. Before any works, however, are com menced, it is essential to make a series of deep borings wherever important structures are to be raised or tunnels to be formed ; the result of the preliminary observations upon the Kilsby Tunnel seem, indeed, to show that these borings should be made very close to one another, and that they should be carried at least to the maximum depth it may be desired hereafter to attain. Careful observations must also be made upon the hydrographieal conditions of the country to be traversed, the inclination of the strata, and their hydroseopic nature, not only for the purpose of dealing with the springs they may yield, and their greater or lesser tendency to floods, but also in order to provide against any danger from the slipping of the earth. It must be observed here that tunnels upon railways are objectionable, on account of their darkness, their dampness, and the singular inter ference they produce with the action of the electrical telegraphs, as well as on account of the special attendance they require. As far, therefore, as possible, they should be avoided; nor should they ever be resorted to in the open country where land can be obtained cheaply, unless the cutting it would otherwise be necessary to make should exceed 80 feet in depth. In towns, of course, the value of land will materially affect this question, and, as in the case of the Underground Railway, it may even be desirable to execute nearly the whole of the line in tunnel. [TUNNEL.] The angle of inclination of the slopes of cuttings should be made to vary with the nature of the material traversed. Hard limestone or sandstone rocks will stand when dressed off vertically ; chalk and the softer limestonea-will ultimately assume a slope of about 45°, or of 1 base to I vertical; bard gravel, bound together by waters containing the hydrous oxide of iron, will stand at a similar inclination to chalk, but the ordinary open gravel and sand, without water, should be dressed to a slope of 1 base to 1 in vertical height; the London, Oxford, and Gault clays may sometimes stand with an inclination of 2 or 3 to 1, but if they should contain any beds of permeable sand they have been known to slip even with inclinations of 10 to 1. Wherever moveable strata of this description are encountered, the greatest pre cautions must be taken to provide an efficient surface drainage, so as to prevent the passage of water to the more permeable lower strata. The danger arising from the tendency of some materials to slip after the condition of stability they have naturally assumed has once been disturbed, is principally felt when the cutting has to be made on a hill side, and when it lays bare the lower edges of inclined beds of said or of gravel intercalated between beds of clay. In many cases, it is better to construct at once a retaining wall than to trust to any form of slope ; but the thrust of a lofty bank of earth, such as is now under consideration, must be so enormous that especial precautions must be taken to guard against its effects, and to provide an outlet for the waters which would otherwise accumulate at the base. The history of the New Cross cutting, near London, of the Euston cutting, of the Loudon end of the Groat Northern Railway, of the Kilsby cutting, and of the cutting near the Val Fleury, on the Versailles line, may be cited as illustrations of the accidents to which deep cuttings are exposed, and of the means of obviating them. Much information on this subject is to be found in Sganzin's`fours de Construction,' and in Penlonnet's "Trait6' already referred to. In settling the amount of cutting to be executed on a line of railway, It is essential to bear in mind that it should, as nearly as possible, balance the amount of the embankment so as to avoid either the necessity for purchasing ground to receive the spoil or surplus earth, or to furnish the material for the completion of the bank from side-eutting. The Tring cutting on the Birmingham Railway, and the Gadelbach cutting on the Ulm and Augsburg line, are amongst the largest works of this description yet executed : the former contained nearly 1 b inillious of cubic yards; the latter about 1,410,000 cubic yards.