86 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



i-ested, by their actually signing the 

 bill, it is necessary to employ a pro- 

 per person, and sometimes more 

 than one, to procure tljis, and after- 

 wards to attend in London to prove 

 it before the committees of botli 

 houses. As it is occasionally neces- 

 sary to travel to a considerable dis- 

 tance, and into difFei-ent parts of 

 the kingdom, for this purpose, the 

 expense attending it is in such cases 

 considerable ; and in one instance 

 it appears to have amounted to be- 

 twreen seventy and eighty pounds, 

 to procure the consent of one indi- 

 vidual. It is also stated to your 

 committee, that the great number 

 of consents supposed to be necessary, 

 according to the present practice of 

 parliament, whether three-fourths, 

 accoi'ding to the ideas of some, or 

 four-tifths, according to those of 

 others (for there is no fixed rule), is 

 a great bar to enclosure. Your com- 

 mittee are thence led to submit it 

 to the wisdom of the house, whe- 

 ther it may not be e.\pedient in fu- 

 ture to allow the proof of a loss 

 number of consents, provided they 

 amount to a decided preponderance, 

 to be sufficient for obtaining a bill. 

 The bill having been brought in, 

 read a first and second time, and 

 committed, it is necessary to bring 

 witnesses to town, to prove that tlie 

 orders of the house have been com- 

 plied with in the foregoing parti- 

 culars, and to verify the allegations 

 in the preamble. All this is attend- 

 ed with different degrees of expense, 

 according to the number of persons 

 employed, the distance of their re- 

 sidence from the metropolis, and the 

 accidental delays \i'hich may retard 

 the progress of the bill to the house 

 of peers ; when the same persons 

 must again attend to be sworn at the 

 bar of the house, and afterwai-ds 



examined before the committee. In 

 cases where the bill meets with op- 

 jiosition, this must necessarily be 

 considerable ; and in all it is suffi- 

 cient to deserve attention. 



The subsequent progress of the 

 bill through parliamentissubject to 

 the payment of the several fees, 

 particularly specified in the table 

 annexed to this report. The amount 

 of these, it is evident, must vary 

 according to the size of the bill, the 

 number of interests affected by it, 

 and the opposition it may happen to 

 meet with. The length of the bill 

 chiefly operates as an increase to the 

 expense in this stage of the proceed- 

 ing, by the additional charge of en- 

 grossing and printing. The only 

 other incidental expense, not yet 

 noticed in this part of the trans- 

 action, is that of a town or parlia- 

 mentary solicitor, usually some per- 

 son whose experience in such busi- 

 ness, and acquaintance with the 

 forms of parliament, render his as- 

 sistance particularly desirable ; and 

 that of a countrysolicitor, whose local 

 knowledge, and immediate connec- 

 tion with the parties interested, in 

 many cases make his attendance also 

 material. The charge of the for- 

 mer, for his whole service, is usually 

 twenty guineas ; but in controvert- 

 ed, or any complicated cases, con- 

 siderably more ; that of the latter is 

 subject to necessary variations, ac- 

 cording to the length of attendance 

 and other circumstances, but must 

 in most cases be considerable. 



When the bill has I'eceived the sanc- 

 tion of the legislature, the usual mode 

 of carrying it into efiect, through 

 the intervention of commissioners, 

 gives rise to charges and expenses of 

 a different nature. Theneces.sityof 

 peculiar qualifications, as well as a 

 reputation for experience and in- 



