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to allot to him the particular walk which the family, gratefully accepting the happened to be vacant. He has been proposed honour to Mr. Gladstone's Continuously in receipt of the 5s. weekly memory, on certain conditions which ilowance. The statement in the Ques- will appear in the letter. The tion is, therefore, incorrect. letter will be published, I understand, in the course of this evening. The funeral is fixed to take place on Saturday morning. The Duke of Norfolk, as Earl Marshal, is making the necessary arrangements, and a statement in regard to these USSIAN PASSPORTS AT TA-LIEN-WAN. arrangements will be published in toSIR J. FERGUSSON (Manchester, morrow's morning newspapers. I wish to N.E.): I beg to ask the Under Secretary give notice that to-morrow I propose to for Foreign Affairs the following question, move

which I have given him private "That this House will attend the funeral of potice: Whether it is true, as stated the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, in by the Pekin correspondent of the Times the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, WestIn this morning's issue, that the British minster, on Saturday next, May 28th." Government appears to have acquiesce in the notification to the Consuls at

hifu and Tien-tsin that no Englishman other foreigner would be permitted to and at Talienwan or in the Leao-tong ninsula without having a passport ised by the Russian Consul?

MR. CURZON: No, Sir; the statement n question is entirely without foundaion. On the contrary, we are informe y the Russian Government that the ircular in question respecting the visé passports by the Russian Consuls w. sued without the knowledge of the Imerial Government, and that the Russian "hargé d'Affaires at Pekin has been told instruct the Consuls to withdraw it.

MR. GLADSTONE'S FUNERAL. THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEUER: I wish to acquaint the House, ith reference to the resolution passed Friday with regard to the funeral of nd monument to Mr. Gladstone, that a egram has been received from Baloral to the following effect:

"The Queen gives her assent to the Adesses from both Houses of Parliament as to

Mr. Gladstone's funeral."

presume that a formal reply will be ent in the ordinary course. A letter has en received by the Prime Minister fro: e right honourable Gentleman the 'ember for West

behalf of Mrs.

Mr. Hanbury.

In order to make arrangements for the purpose I hope the House will waive any such occasions will at once proceed to notice, and in pursuance of custom or appoint a committee to consider the matter. If that be so I would move

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The Motion was agreed to.

*MR. SPEAKER: I have to communicate to the House that I have received the following telegram from the Presdent of the Chamber of Deputies at Athens. The telegram is dated May 20, but it arrived too late to be read to the House on Friday

"In the name of my colleagues of the HelLeeds, writing lenic Parliament. I beg you to transmit to the Gladstone and ho curabl Members f the House of Comm s

the expression of our grief at the loss of that eminent statesman and friend of Greece, Gladstone. He was entitled to the gratitude of the Greek people, and his name will ever be venerated by my fellow countrymen."

*THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: Perhaps I may venture to express the hope that you, Sir, will send an appropriate answer.

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE. [EXEMPTION FROM THE STANDING ORDER.] Ordered, That the Proceedings on the Local Government (Ireland) Bill, if under discussion at Twelve o'clock this night, be not interrupted under the Standing Order Sittings of the House. Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer.)

*THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER moved that the House do meet to-morrow (Tuesday) at 12 o'clock.

ing should be given that a reasonable opportunity should be afforded.

*THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: I hope the anticipations of the honourable Gentleman as to the length of to-morrow's sitting will not be realised, and that to conclude Committee on the Bill it will not be necessary to sit till 4 or 5 o'clock on Wednesday morning. However that may be, I think the honourable Gentleman will see that as he desires to address the House in the presence of the Leader of the House he will not have that opportunity either at the beginning or the end of the sitting, because the health of my right honourable Friend will not permit him to be at the House tomorrow. As I have already stated, if there is any general desire to take the Foreign Office Vote on June 10th, we are prepared to place that day at the disposal of honourable Members for that purpose. I understand that the question the honourable Member desires to raise has reference to foreign affairs, and this would give him an opportunity.

MR. GLADSTONE'S FUNERAL AND

MONUMENT.

MR. LABOUCHERE (Northampton): I think we ought to have some more clear understanding of what is going to take place to-morrow. These motions for adjournment are usually taken advantage of by Members to raise questions of interest. I quite understand the difficulty the Government have in finding that the progress with the Local Government Bill is slower than they anticipated, and that they are anxious. to dispose of the Committee stage of the Friday was agreed to. Bill before the holidays; but at the same time the right of Members to use the adjournment motion as an opportunity of expressing their views should be remembered. From this opportunity, however, we shall be precluded, because Committee on the Irish Bill may be continued to 4 or 5 o'clock on Wednesday morning. I think the Chancellor of the Exchequer will see that we shall have some difficulty in gaining the attention of the House at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. As far as I am concerned, my attention has not been absolutely fixed on the Irish Local Government Bill. Therefore, I should come the Chair.] perfectly fresh to the matter.

The Resolution brought forward on

In regard to the particular matter to which I desire to call the attention of the House, it is desirable that the First Lord of the Treasury should be here. I am sorry to hear that he is unwell; but I am glad to hear that he is taking sufficient care of his health not to come to the House. If this question cannot be raised on the morrow, an understandVOL. LVIII. [FOURTH SERIES.]

ORDER OF THE DAY.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT (IRELAND)
BILL.

Considered in Committee

[Mr. J. W. LOWTHER, Cumberland, Perrith, CHAIRMAN OF WAYS AND MEANS, in

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(In the Committee.)

CLAUSE 54.

Amendment proposed

Page 29, line 33, leave out from Provided that,' to end of sub-section, and insert"A county council may, with the approval of the Local Government Board, in the pre

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scribed manner order any road which may | lated purpose like this. The sessions appear to them to be useless to be stopped up.' consisted of a certain number of cessMr. Serjeant Hemphill.)

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payers, and they had also a certain number of magistrates associated with them. It would answer any object he had to allow it first to come before the district council and then go before the county council in the shape of an appeal, and then, with the approval of the Local Government Board, have an order made. would be very easy to have a clause to that effect.

*MR. SERJEANT HEMPHILL (Tyrone, N.) said that the object of the Amendment was to simplify the proceedings by which county roads could be closed up. The clause, as it stood, would not work. After this Bill became law, there would be no road sessions in Ireland, nor would there be any means of presenting the matter to the grand jury. His Amendment followed the language of clause 60 of the Grand Jury Act. It substituted for that, that the county council, with the approval of the Local Government Board, and in the prescribed manner, might order any road which might ap"Page 29, line 35, after pear to be useless to be stopped up. the prescribed objection is This was not a matter of principle, but T. M. Healy.) a matter of procedure.

THE CHIEF SECRETARY ΤΟ THE LORD LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND (Mr. GERALD BALFOUR, Leeds, Central) desired to point out to the right honourable Gentleman that if the words suggested by him were adopted, the direct result would be to prevent the district council having a voice in the matter.

MR. M. HEALY (Cork) thought there was something in the point raised by the right honourable Gentleman the Member for Tyrone; and, subject to what the Chief Secretary had said about the district councils having a voice in the matter, he thought it would be desirable to make some such change as the right honourable Gentleman had suggested. So far as he understood, proceeding by presentment was wholly abolished. In the order regulating procedure under the Grand Jury Act, there was no such thing as presentment at all. On the wording of the Bill they would have to go to the grand jury if they intended to stop an old road. He would like some information from the right honourable Gentleman as to whether or not the new county councils would have to make a presentment. So far as he had read, there would be no such thing as a presentment if this Act passed.

*MR. SERJEANT HEMPHILL said he might explain that they could not have a presentment sessions for a single iso

It

After some further conversation, Mr. HEMPHILL withdrew his Amendment. Amendment proposed

effect,' insert 'if lodged.'" (Mr.

MR. T. M. HEALY said there was no need whatever for bringing in the Local Government Board unless some objection were made. On another matter he desired to say that as to the complaint made on Friday he thought it right to acknowledge--after inquiry from one of his colleagues that the right honourable Gentleman was entirely right in the statement he made, and that he intended in no degree to pass a slur on any Member of the House.

66

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Amendment proposed

"Page 29, line 36, at end, insert

Provided that nothing herein contained shall be held to compel a county or district council to keep a particular road in repair if both the county and district council consider it, tor any reason, unnecessary or undesirable to do so."-(Mr. M. Healy.)

MR. M. HEALY said that at present there was no sort of obligation on the grand jury or presentment-sessions to keep a road in repair. As he understood the practice of the grand jury, it was, in some cases, where the traffic was small, to let it temporarily go to contract on the ground that putting it into repair occasionally was sufficient, and answered all the purposes of having the road attendel

MR. ATKINSON replied that whenever a road was presented it became a public road, and as such it ought to be kept in repair.

to. The grand jury of county Cork at what they considered the county Armagh the last two assizes were given a great had done illegally in regard to keeping deal of trouble by a particular road certain roads in repair. whose condition came before them, which communicated with a brickyard. The sub-soil was particularly bad for roadmaking purposes, and the owners of the brickyard had, for the purpose of transporting their bricks, a heavy engine and MR. VESEY KNOX (Londonderry) was two trucks, which they put on the road and kept running continually between not sure that they were not going further the yard and Cork. It was absolutely than the English law in this section. In impossible to keep this road in repair England there must be a formal adopwith this engine constantly passing over tion of a road by the local authority it, and the contractor had to give up his before it became a road to be repaired, contract. No one could be found to but he understood that without this keep the contract; and no money the

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repairable by the county for ever afterwards. For instance, in regard to the Giant's Causeway, about which there had been some litigation, a road had been presented to the grand jury some 50 years ago as a repairable road, and, as he understood, however remote the period of presentment might have been, in the case of any road in Ireland, under this sub-section it became a road which the public authority were bound to re

grand jury could have spent on this Amendment, if any grand jury at any road would have sufficed to keep it in time in the past had had a presentment repair. To do anything effectual would for the repair of any road, it must be have cost at least £200. The grand jury spent days in considering it, with the result that the people who had this engine running had themselves to see to the repair of the road. There was the case of a remote locality in which it might be proper for the grand jury to keep it in proper repair by putting it under contract at intervals, so as not to let it altogether lose its character. There was also the other case which he had indicated, where there was extraor-pair for ever after, and they would be dinary traffic on the road, and in which the ratepayers were asked to be put to a large expense because a particular industry required the use of the road. In that case the grand jury was under no obligation.

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. ATKINSON, Londonderry, N.) said there had been no provision or no means of compelling the grand juries in Ireland to do their duty, namely, to keep the roads in repair. They had now altered the law in that respect. There were two alternatives either to stop a road which was useless and relieve the county from the expense of keeping it in repair, or to keep in repair every road that was required. The Government could not possibly accept this Amendment.

COLONEL WARING (Down, N.) asked whether it would be possible under this clause to compel the county Down to do

liable for any accident which might happen through any default of theirs in fulfilling that obligation. If that was so, it was going a great deal farther than the English law, and he thought it was a matter which required some more consideration.

MR. M. HEALY wished to say, before the right honourable Gentleman replied, that, of course, if the Government would not accept his Amendment, he could not had shown that there was a blot in the press it, but he thought the discussion Bill, and he feared the right honourable Gentleman had not fully grasped what would follow if the Bill passed in its present form. What was a public road? A public road, it appeared, might be any passage dedicated to the public. What did this section say?

"It shall be the duty of every county and district council, according to their respective powers, to keep all public works maintainable at the cost of their county or district in good condition and repair."

Now, what was a public work? Accord-| It further provided that section 15 of the ing to the definition clause of this Public Health Act. of 1896 should Bill the expression "public work" apply, but he presumed that it referred means any road or work for to cases where matters seriously affectwhich, under the Grand Juries ing the public health were under consiActs, a presentment might, but for this deration, and therefore this would be a Act, be made, and so on. In other very drastic sub-section, which they words, a public work under this section ought to be very chary of putting in the would not require to be a road which had Bill. He believed that a county council been presented to the grand jury, but it properly constituted would have due would mean any kind of road which had regard to any case presented by a dis been dedicated to the public. That was trict council, would do what was right the effect of the definition clause, which for the benefit of the locality and the said: "any road for which a presentment public at large, and would be actuated might have been made but for this Act," by public spirit. But under this suband such a road must, after this Act section, whenever there was a difference passed, be kept in repair by the county. of opinion between the smaller body and It was not necessary in order that this the larger body, the smaller body would liability should be cast upon the county have the right to appeal over the head to keep a road in repair that it should of the other, and, irrespective of the have been previously adopted by a grand merits of the case, the Local jury; and if any landowner had chosen Government Board could compel for his own private interests to dedicate the county council to do that which, in to the public a passage to his own house, its own judgment, it thought would be or a passage to any street or any part of inexpedient. the property which he owned, it would immediately become a public road under this Bill.

MR. ATKINSON did not think that was meant to be the effect of the definition clause. The intention was that this Bill should merely apply to such roads as might have been presented to a grand jury, and it never was the intention to apply it to paths or passages such as the honourable Member indicated.

MR. M. HEALY said that after the explanation of the right honourable and learned Gentleman he would ask leave to withdraw his Amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Amendment proposed

MR. GERALD BALFOUR did not think the clause was open to objection in this respect. In its first sub-section it provided that it should be the absolute duty of every county and district council, according to their respective powers, to keep all public works maintainable at the cost of their county or district in good condition and repair. If a district council persistently refused to do its duty in that regard, or, to take the opposite case, if a county council persistently refused to undertake the maintenance of a public road, work submitted by a rural district council, it would be the duty of the council concerned to represent the facts to the Local Government Board, whose powers to act in the matter were not too drastic. They would be empowered to

"Page 29, line 37, omit sub-section 2."- make, after due inquiry, an order, fixing (Mr. Flynn.)

MR. FLYNN (Cork, N.) thought the sub-section conveyed an undeserved reflection upon the local bodies concerned. It provided that—

"If any district council complain that a county council, or any council complain that a district council, has failed to perform any such duty as aforesaid, the complaining council may, without prejudice to any other remedy, appeal to the Local Government Board."

Mr. M. Healy.

a limitation of time within which the
work must be done, and he very much
doubted whether it would ever be neces-
sary for the Local Government Board to
go beyond making that order; but, if it
were, they would have the power to
appoint some other persons to perform
the duty. Some power to complain to
the Local Government Board, and some
correlative power on the
part of
the Local Government Board to enforce
the duty, he thought, was necessary.

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