91 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[March, 



TPittee on pelitions of llie House of Commons that they have complied with 

 4be standiti'' orders of tliis House, Hiid the rcptirt of fucii committee shall 

 Reordered to lie on the table. If the committee should report that the 

 standiii" orders have nut heen complied with, their report bhall be reft-r- 

 T^d to the committee on standing orders, whose report shall be ordered to 

 lie on the table. 



That wiien a railway bill sliall have commenced in thf Hou.sc of Lords, 

 ^and shall he sent down to liiu House of Comii:ons from the House of Lords 

 U shall be reiul the lirst time in the House of Comnious, and shall then be 

 referred io the committee on petitions, to ascertain whether the railway bill 

 SQ sent down is substantially in accordance wuhthe standing orders, as 

 iletermined by the House of Comraous, 



SECOND REPORT, FEB. 10, 18-iti. 



I. That a committee of bve members be a]ipointeiJ, lo be calleil the Classification Com- 

 mittee of Railway BilN, uirl thtit three be tlie t'piorum of such committee. 



'2. Tbftt collies of uU petitions for railway bills presented to the House be laid before 

 ihe said committee. 



3. That the committee of classification shall inquire and report what railway bills com- 

 •pete with, or ought to be consittcrod in connexion with any railw.iy bills, the promoters 

 ■of which shall have pr(.x*ed themselves entilied to the privilepe agreed to be granted in 



certain cases by the rusulutions of this House of the 7 th of July la>it. 



4. That the committee of classilicalion shall form into grovips all olher raihviiy bills 

 ■ft'hich, in their opinion, it would be expedient to submit to the same coimnittee. 



fi. That as soon as tile committee of cla«sitication shall hare determined what railway 

 tJUs are to be grouped together, they shall report the same to tlie House, and all peii- 

 lians a^aiust any of the said bills shall Le prvseuled to the House three clear days before 

 tlie meeting of tlie committee thereon. 



G. That no railway bill be read a fust time later than the next day but one after the re- 

 port of the committee on i)etitions or of the standiru' order committee oii «tich bill, as the 

 case miv be. shsdl have lieen laid on the table, except by special urder of the House. 



7. That there be not more than seven clear il;iys between the first reitding of any rail- 

 way hill and the second reading thereof, except by special order of the House. 



8. That the brevipte of every railway bill shall he laid on the tabic of the House, and 

 hs printed and delivered one clear day before the second reading. 



II. That such railway bills as shall have been read a tirst time before the House shall 

 agree lo ihese resolutions, shall be read a second time within seven clear days thereafter. 



10. That such of the standing orders as relate to the composition of the commiltets on 

 private bills, and the orders consequent thereon, be suspended so iar as regards railway 

 mis pending in the course of tlie present session. 



11. That committees on railway bills during the present session of Parliament shall be 

 composed of a chairman and four members, to be appointed by the committee of selec- 

 tion. 



13. That each member of a committee on a railway bill or hills, shall, before he be en- 

 titled to attend and vote on such committee, sign a declaration that his constituents have 

 no local interest, and that he hitJiself has no personal interest for or .-ifainst any bill re- 

 ferred to him ; and no such committee shall proceed to business until the whole of the 

 !;. embers thereof shall have signed such declaratiwn. 



13. That the promoters of a railway bill shall be prepared lo go into the committee on 

 the bill on such day as the committee of selection shall, subject to the order that there be 

 seven clear days between the second reading of every private bill and the sitting of the 

 committee thereupon, think proper to appoint, provided that the classification committee 

 shall have leported on such IjiU. 



14. That the committee of si-lection shall give each member not less than 14 days* no- 

 tice of the week in which it will be necessary for him to be in attendance, for the purpose 

 cf serving, if required, on a railway bill committee. 



lo. That the committee of selection sliall give each member a sufficient notice of his 

 appointment as a member of a committee on a railway bill, and shall transmit to him a 

 copy of the I'ith resolution, and a blank form of the declaration therein required, with a 

 Yequest that he will forthwith return it to them properly filled up and signeii. 



W. That if the committee of -election shall not within due time receive from each such 

 member tlie aforesaid declaration, or an excuse which they shall deem sufficient, they 

 ■E'lall repoit lo the House the name of such defaulting member. 



17. That the committee of selection shall have the power of substituting at any time 

 Vefore the first meeting of a comnr.ittee, anoilier member for a member whom they shall 

 deem it proper to excuse from serving on that committee. 



ly. That power be given to the committee of selection to send for persons, papers and 

 records, in the execution of the duties imposed on them by the foregoing resolutions. 



I'.t. That no member ol a cnmmitr*c shall absent himself from his duties on such com- 

 Tnittee, unless in the case of sickness, or by leave of the House. 



20. Tr.at all questions before committees on ra'lway grorps or bills shall be decided by 

 a majority of voices, including the voice of the chairman; and that %vhenever the voices 

 shall be equal, the chairman fhnW have a second or castinu: vote. 



'21. That if the chairman shall be absent from the committee the member next in rota- 

 tion on the list (wlio shall be present) shall act as chairmau. 



22. That committees shall be allowed to proceed so long as three members shall be pre- 

 sent, but not with a leSB number, unless liy special leave of the House. 



2."{. That if on any day within one hour after the time appointed for the meeting of a 

 ■committee three members sliall not be present, the committee shall be adjourned to the 

 same hour on the next day on which the House shall sit, which had been fixed for that 

 day. 



2-1. That in the case of a member not being present Avithin one hour after the time ap- 

 ■pointed fur the meeting of the comiaittee, or of any member absenting himself from his 

 idu(i*'S on such committee. such member shall be re)torted to the House at its next sitting. 



'j'k That eicJi committee shall be appointed to meet on each day of its sitting, not 

 later than 12 o'clock, unless Vjy the regular vote of the committee. 



'2G, That committees on railway bills have leave to sit io the present session, iiotwith- 

 'Etandii'd any anjournment of the House, if the committees sliall so think fit. 



27. That every committee on a railway bill shall fix the tolls, and shall determine the 

 maximum rates of charge for the conveyance of passengers (with a due amount of luggage) 

 and of goods on such railway, and such rates of charge shall include the tolls, and the 

 costs of locomotive power, and every other expense connected with llieconveyar.ee of 

 (i;assengers (with a due amount of luggage) and of goods upon such railway; but if the 

 committee shall not aeem it expedient to determine such maximuifi rates of charge, a 

 special report, explanatory of the grounds of their omitting so to do, shall be made to the 

 'liouse, which special report shall accompany tht report of the bill. 



THIRD REPORT, FEB. ]7. 



The number of petitions for railway tilts, which have been prasented this session, have 

 "leen st:.tcd by your committee to amount to .'(02, viz. :— 



For railways in England and Wales .. .. ,. 3i(5 



,, Scotland . . . . . . . . 120 



„ Ireland .. .. .. .. 47 



The above numbers include petitions for amalgamation bills, and in some cases there 

 Tire more petitions than one for the same sclieme. After the deduction to be made on 

 ■this account, the number of distinct railway shemes appecra to be — 



For England 

 Scotland 

 Ireland 



47 



As, however, many of these schemes may fail, from non-compliance with the standing 

 orders, the number of bills presented to Parliament may possibly fall coiisiderably short 

 of this amount, and your committe« are of opinion that it will not be necessary or ex- 

 pedient io the present session of Parliament to refer mere projects to committees, as was 

 done, owing to peculiar circumstances, in the last ses<^io^. 



From a statement prepared 1 y the officers of the hoard of Trade, it would appear, that 

 if the same piinciple of grouping which was adopted last year should be followed in the 

 present session,) the riiilway schemci in England and Wales might be formed into .51 

 groups, and those for iicotland into lU ; about Gl select committtes would therefore be 

 retpiired. 



As the bouse has already ordered, that all Irish railway bills, and a certain limited class 

 of English bills, (the hitler of which are included in the foregoing siatement), should 

 commence in the House of Lords, it is impossible to say how many of these may be sent 

 down tu the House of Commons. The number of gron;)s into which railway schemes for 

 the United Kingdom were divided last year was ^2; but, owing to various circumstances, 

 only 45 committees appear to have actually sat. 



The necessity of considering so great a number of railway billf, in addition to other 

 .private bills, ma; certainly be expected to produce an unusual and inconvenient pressure 

 upon the time of members of the house ; but your committee trust, that as committees 

 on railway hills may in this session begin to sit at an earlier period than in the lust, it will 

 not be found impracticable to constitute the requisite numbw of committees during the 

 progress of tht session. 



Under these circumstances, your committee have not deemed it advisable to recommend 

 to the house to make any selection from, or to place any limitation on, the number of 

 railway schemes to be submitted to the consideration of Parliament during the present 

 session. 



As your committee, howfver, believe that much of the time of the select committees 

 on railway bills is consumed, with little public benetit, Ui miHUte and detailed inquiries 

 into the amount of traffic and the probable profit lo the projectors, your committee are of 

 opinion that the stamling orders on these points should be altered, and that it should no 

 longer he obligatdry on conimitiees on railway bills to make special reports on them. 



At the same time, yonr committee have no K-ish lo fetter the discretion of the select 

 committees to make such intjuiries as they may judre proper wiihregard to population, 

 and to the extent of accommodation that would be afforded to the public, where they con- 

 sider such infoimatiou to be require<l. 



Your committfe beg further to suggest, that power be given to select committees to 

 refer the consideration of any unoppf>sed railway bill included in" the group referred to 

 them to the chairman of Ways and IMe.ms, and the members ordered to prepare oud 

 bring in the bill, to be dealt with as other unopposed bills. 



Standing Ordi;r, No. 87. 



On Thursday. Feb. 19, in the House of Commons Nos. 7, 8, and 9, of 

 the Standing Order ; No. 87 were rescinded, this will get rid of a very ex- 

 pensive, tedious, and troublesome part of railway proceediug, as it wdl no 

 now be compulsory to produce evidence relatixe lo traffic. 



Datum Line, Order No. 25. 



A doubt arose in the minds of tlie committee respecting the London and 

 Brighton (Dorking Branch) Railway, whether the datum line taken from 

 tlie proposed junction with the Loudon and Brighton Railway was taken 

 from a sufficiently tixed jjoint, and was in compliance with order No. 25, 

 The comiiiiltee accordin^^ly postponed their decision, but subsequently de- 

 cided that in this respect the standing orders liad not been complied with. 



The reception of the petition of the London and South AVestern (Romsey 

 and Redbridge Junction) Railway, was objected to on several technical 

 grounds. Among other objections, it was urged that the datum line taken 

 Jrovi the top-'iiattr of the Andover and Reigate Canal was not sufficiently 

 fixed. One engineer stated that the top-water was always nearly on the 

 same level, it being regulated by a weir, but two olher witnesses gave 

 evidence of a very different nature on this point. One of tlie latter, who 

 was employed on the canal itself, stated, that so far from the weir being 

 suflicient lo preserve the level, it was very small, and when there was 

 much water he had to open a hatrh to let it fiow out. The sub-committee 

 declared thai the stauding orders iu this case had nut been complied with. 



It appeared that in the North Stafibrdshire (Churnet Valley Line) there 

 were three fixed points given in tlie plans from which a datum line was to 

 be drawn, one only of which, however, was the subject of controversy be- 

 fore the committee. The petition stated tliat one datum line depended oa 

 a point 418 feet below tlie " sollit" of the arch of Cocksliott-bridge, and his 

 agent contended that this point was not fixed, but variable and uncertain. 

 The whole turned ou the meaning of the "soffit." The opponents called 

 several wituesses. among \\ honi were Mr. Leather, a civil engineer of some 

 years' practice, Professor Hosking, of King's College, London, and Mr. 

 Tite, the architect of the Royal Kxchange, «lio stated that by *' soffit" they 

 understood the whole of the interior surface of an arch from springing to 

 springiug, and not the top or crown. One of these witnesses said, that 

 with such a point given to him he should consider himself at liberty lo take 

 the measurement for the datum line from any part of the interior surface of 

 the arch, and tliat, therefore, this was a fluctuating and not a fixed point. 

 On cross-exaniitiation, most of these witnesses admitted, that from this 

 word being used in reference to a level, they might probably suppose it 

 meant the top of the arcb. , 



Mr. Burke, on behalf of the line, brought many experienced engineers 

 among them Mr. Vignoles, IMr. R. Stephenson (the engineer of this rail- 

 way), and Mr. <i. B. Bidder, who proved, that whatever schoolmen might 

 understand by the word '* soffit," 00 doubt could exist in the mind of a 

 l>ractical man as to its meaning, especially in a case like this, where height 

 or depth was to be measured from it. These gentlemen distinctly stated, 

 \\\M none but a tyro in engineering could suppose it to mean auj other por- 

 tion than the top of the arch. 



The Chairman announced that the committee (No, 1) considered the 

 ttauding orders complied with in this case. 



