116. 118

125-129.

131-133D.

XXVIIL

also required to observe substantially the same rules, Chapter and to introduce practically the same clauses and S. 0 114- provisions, as in the Commons, relative to the fixing 122 123A. of rates and charges, the completion of the railway, the application of the deposit money, the protection of holders of preference stock or shares, the purchase of steam-vessels by railway companies, the payment of interest out of capital or of parliamentary deposits out of capital, the financial arrangements of companies in cases of purchase and amalgamation, the application of the provisions of the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, the revision of rates, the working of tramways by local authorities, and other matters (such as the specific statement to be given of the length of a proposed line) which are set out in similar standing orders in the House of Lords. All these provisions, however, would be included in a bill originating in the House of Commons.

S. O. 117.

S. O. 123.

S. O. 124.

By standing order No. 117, the committee on a railway or tramway bill may insert a clause prohibiting the use of compulsory powers of purchase, if the direct object of the bill be to serve private interests, and provide that no penalty should accrue for non-completion, and for the return of the deposit money to the promoters.

By standing order No. 123, no bill by which a railway company is incorporated is to contain

"Any powers of purchase, sale, lease, or amalgamation, or any working agreement not made unconditionally determinable by the company at the expiration of a period not exceeding ten years from the passing of the Act, or any power of entering into working agreements, except under the provisions of Part III. (working agreements) of the Railways Clauses Act, 1863, as amended by the Railway and Canal Traffic Acts, 1873 and 1888."

And, by standing order No. 124, when powers are applied for to amalgamate with any other company, or to sell or lease the undertaking, or purchase or take on lease another undertaking, or to enter into traffic arrangements, all such particulars are to be specified in the bill as introduced into Parliament.

Chapter XXVIII.

The following clause is also required to be inserted in s. o. 130. every railway bill incorporating a new company :

"The directors appointed by this Act shall continue in office until the first ordinary meeting to be held after the passing of the Act, and at such meeting the shareholders present, personally or by proxy, may either continue in office the directors appointed by this Act, or any number of them, or may elect a new body of directors or directors to supply the places of those not continued in office, the directors appointed by this Act being, if they continue qualified, eligible as members of such new body."

In the case of bills for extending the terms of letters And to patent, compliance must be proved before the committee letters, on the bill with the following standing orders :

"Every bill for restoring any letters patent shall have a true copy of such letters patent annexed thereto; and the total amount of fees... due and to become due on the patent shall be deposited with the comptroller-general of patents, designs, and trademarks before the meeting of the committee on the bill, and such deposit proved before the committee.

patent bills.

S. O. 136.

"In any case in which a bill to restore a patent is entertained, the S. O. 137. following clauses shall be inserted for the protection of persons who may have availed themselves of the subject-matter of the patent after it has been announced as void in the official journal of the Patent Office, with such alterations as the circumstances of each case may require :

"No action or other proceeding shall be commenced or prosecuted,
nor any damage recovered :—

"(1) In respect of any infringement of the said patent which shall
have taken place after the
day of
(the day on
which the patent was announced to be void in the official journal),
and before the passing of this Act.

"(2) In respect of the use or employment at any time hereafter of
any machine, machinery, process, or operation actually made or carried
on within the British Islands, or of the use or sale of any article
manufactured or made in infringement of the said patent, after the
said
day of
and before the passing of this Act: Pro-
vided that such use, sale, or employment is by the person or corpora-
tion by or for whom such machine or machinery or article was bonâ
fide manufactured or made, or such process or operation was bonâ fide
carried on, his or their executors, administrators, successors, or
vendees, or his or their assigns.

666

(3) In respect of the use, employment, or sale at any time hereafter by any person or corporation entitled for the time being under the preceding subsection to use or employ any machine, machinery, process, or operation of any improved or additional machine or machinery, or any improved, extended, or developed process or operation, or of any article manufactured or made by any of the means

Instruc

tions on private bills.

Recommitment of

local bills.

XXVIII.

aforesaid, in infringement of the said patent: Provided that the use Chapter
or employment of any such improved or additional machine or
machinery, or of any such improved, extended, or developed process
or operation, shall be limited to the buildings, works, or premises of
the person or corporation by or for whom such machine or machinery
was manufactured, or such process or operation was carried on within
the meaning of the preceding subsection, his or their executors,
administrators, successors, or assigns.

"If any person shall, within one year after the passing of this Act,
make an application to the board of trade for compensation in respect
of money, time, or labour expended by the applicant upon the subject-
matter of the said patent, in the bona fide belief that such patent had
become and continued to be void, it shall be lawful for the said board,
after hearing the parties concerned, or their agents to assess the
amount of such compensation, if in their opinion the application ought
to be granted, and to specify the party by whom and the day on which
such compensation shall be paid, and if default shall be made in pay-
ment of the sum awarded, then the said patent shall, by virtue of this
Act, become void, but the sum awarded shall not in that case be
recoverable as a debt or damages.'

Instructions to committees on local and personal bills are rarely given by the House of Lords,1 though instances of this mode of procedure have occurred.2

No local bill reported from a select committee may be recommitted to the same or another select committee S. O. 141. before the third day on which the house shall sit after notice of the motion to recommit the bill.

Recommitment to committee

In order to ensure attention to bills affecting public interests, the chairman of committees may propose that any local bill be recommitted to a committee of the whole house but no local bill so recommitted is, by reason of S. O. 142. such commitment, to be allowed to proceed as a public

of the whole

house.

bill.

149 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 457; 109 ib. 1340-1; 146 ib. 1080

2 Dublin Corporation Bill, 1897, 129 L. J. 168, and 49 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 453-464; London County Council (Subways and Tramways) Bill, 1902, 134 L. J. 249, and 109 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1332-1350; Woolwich Borough Council Bill, 1905, 137 L. J. 162, and 146 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1075-1087. And cf. 124 L. J. 112 (general instruction to committees on railway bills of session 1892).

In 1893 the committee on the London Improvements Bill, treated as an instruction a resolution of the house passed on the 25th July of that year-to the effect that a clause in the bill, authorizing the principle of taxation for betterment, ought not to be embodied in a private bill-and refused to hear the parties on the clause.

3 Oriental Bank Corporation Bill, 1873; Nottingham Corporation Bill, 1882.

posit of

bills with

Chapter A copy of every railway, tramroad, and tramway bill, if As to deXXVIII. amended in committee, is to be deposited at the board of amended trade three days before the third reading,1 and of every departlocal bill, as so amended, at the Treasury, the Local Govern- ments. ment Board, and the General Post Office.

S. O. 143. 143A.

Local

bills to be

It is further ordered that all local bills in which any amendments have been made in the committee, shall be reprinted. reprinted as amended, previously to the third reading, un- S. O. 145. less the chairman of committees shall certify that the reprinting of such bill is unnecessary.

ments on

of local

No amendment may be moved to any local bill on the Amendreport or third reading, unless it has been submitted to report, &c., the chairman of committees, and copies 2 deposited in the bills. Office of the Clerk of the Parliaments one clear day, at S. 0. 144. least, prior to such report or third reading.

reading

bills.

When a private bill has been read the third time, and Proceedings after passed, it is sent to the Commons; or, if it is a bill third originally brought from that house, it is returned "with of private amendments," or a message is sent to acquaint the Commons that it has been agreed to without any amendment. The ordinary proceedings in the Commons upon amendments made by the Lords to Commons' bills were described in the last chapter. In the event of any disagreement between the houses in reference to amendments, the same forms are observed as in the case of public bills (see p. 506 et seq.).

Proof of compliance with this order has to be given by depositing a certificate from the board in the office of the Clerk of the Parliaments.

2 These copies of any proposed amendment have to be printed, unless the chairman of committees considers printing to be unnecessary.

RULES, ORDERS, AND COURSE OF PROCEEDINGS IN THE LORDS Table of

UPON PRIVATE OR PERSONAL BILLS.

Personal HAVING traced the progress of Local bills through the
bills: origi-
nate in the House of Lords, it is time to advert to the proceedings
peculiar to Personal bills which have always been first
solicited in the Lords.

Lords.

Definition

of, in

All estate, divorce, naturalization, and name bills, and S. O. 149. all other private bills not specified in standing order No. 1 as local bills, are termed Personal bills.

Petitions for bills.

S. O. 150. 151.

Personal

delivered

concerned.

No personal bill is to be brought into the house except on petition for leave to bring in such bill, and a printed copy of the proposed bill is to be annexed to the petition. One or more of the parties principally concerned in the consequences of the bill must sign the petition; and the sessional order, to which reference has already been made, fixes certain dates, each year, after which no petitions for private bills will be received by the house.1

A copy of every personal bill is to be delivered before bills to be the second reading to every person concerned; and, in to persons case of infancy, such copy is to be delivered to the S. O. 152. guardian, or next relation of full age, not concerned in Where an the consequences of the bill. In any case in which an infant is or may be interested in the consequences of an S. O. 152. Estate bill

infant is

concerned.

S. 0.163A.

"The chairman of committees may, if he think fit, require that such infant shall be represented before the committee on the bill by a person to be appointed as or in the nature of a guardian or protector of such infant by the lord chancellor or the lord keeper of the great seal by writing under his hand.":

1 Supra, p. 845; 137 L. J. 67; and infra, p. 857, note 3.

2 Earl of Aylesford's Estate Bills,

1883 and 1884, 10th May, 1883, 115
L. J. 142; 7th July, 1884, 116 ib.
307; Belfast Corporation Bill, 1890,

Contents, see Introduction.