MISCELLANEOUS MEASURES OF THE SESSION.
In the course of the session there were several acts passed of great utility without any prominent discussion. One of the most important of these was an act for the regulation of railways, which was brought in by Mr. Gladstone, and which embodied a variety of enactments designed to protect the public against the injurious effects of monopoly and combination, by vesting in the government a controlling power over such companies as should thereafter come to solicit powers from parliament, and a right of intervention for the reduction of charges and tolls whenever the profits of a railway should exceed the maximum of ten per cent, on its capital. The act also contained salutary regulations for securing economy and comfort in travelling to the poorer classes. Another act passed contained provisions of practical importance for the regulation of joint-stock companies. The main object of this measure was to protect the public against fictitious and delusive schemes, by requiring from all joint-stock companies the observance of certain conditions for the purpose of ascertaining their real character, and subjecting them to an efficient responsibility. There was to be a system of registration under a proper superintendence, whereby the names and descriptions of the projectors, and the particular nature and objects of the undertaking were required to be enrolled at an office established for that purpose. Upon compliance with these regulations, certain privileges were to be accorded to the company, and some anomalies and inconveniences heretofore existing removed. Reports were also to be made annually to parliament by an officer to be appointed under the act, relating to such companies as should have come within its provisions during the year. A third Act remodelled the entire system of turnpike-road management in South Wales, the abuses of which had given rise to the Rebecca riots. The leading principle of this measure was the consolidation of trusts, the debts of those existing being paid off by a system of arbitration, to be conducted by three commissioners appointed by government; the money required for this purpose being lent by the treasury, and secured on the rates of the several counties. The consolidation having been effected, all the roads in each county were to be administered by a now executive body, consisting partly of ex-officio members, partly of magistrates, and partly of ratepayers. A further alteration was made this session in the original poor-law amendment act, the principal feature of which was an alteration in the enactments of the statute of 1835, relating to the maintenance of illegitimate children. By this alteration, a more efficient mode of obtaining from the father a provision for his child’s maintenance was placed in the power of the mother, by means of a proceeding in which she herself was entitled to make the application, and not, as under the original law, the officers of the parish: more stringent remedies were also substituted for enforcing the remedy against the putative father than had before existed. Towards the close of the session, repeated discussions of an animated nature took place in both houses of parliament, on the subject of a petition which was presented by Mr. Thomas Duncombe, from Serafino Calderara, Joseph Mazzini, W. J. Linton, and William Lovett, complaining that their letters had been opened at the post-office. Mr. Duncombe, in the commons, and the Earl of Radnor in the lords, moved for committees of inquiry, which were ultimately appointed; and these committees made their reports during the session; from which reports it appeared that the warrants of the secretary of state had only been issued in peculiar emergencies; and that the cases in which his power had been exercised formed a small annual average, and did not amount to an invasion of private correspondence, which the assailants of government had represented. No other result arose out of the conflicts upon this subject than a bill introduced by Lord Radnor, in the house of lords, for the abolition of the power complained of; but this bill did not proceed beyond the first reading.