NEWS OF THE. WEEK.
THE measure for suspending railway speculation is before the House of Commons, in the shape of resolutions based on the re- port of Sir Charles Wood's Committee. The measure is permis- sive, not compulsory. The promoters of any bill are permitted to suspend their scheme, and to take it up again at the same stage next session; deposits are to be returned to the speculators, but paid in again on renewal of the bills ; and restrictions are imposed on future legislation which materially limit the power of tailWay speculators to lock up capital in prospective and acou- mulated schemes. The principal objects of this measure, then, are—to release the capital pledged for the speculations which are still before Parliament ; to leave that capital free during the summer; and to place a greater check on the future absorp- tion of capital. It is assumed that, in the pressure of demands for money, speculators will be glad to retract that which they have embarked in railway gambling : and, no doubt, the return of the deposits will be an influential bonus on discretion. But where the danger lies less in the particu- lar schemes than in the gross amount—where the object is less to relieve individuals than secure the safety of the whole—it is bad to trust to anything so precarious in operation as a permissive measure. There have been cases of permissive measures which have remained wholly inoperative. Properly considered, such mea- sures; are only applicable where the public has no interest in the active operation of a law, or where it really has no right to en- force it, but can only ask for its object as a favour. Such is not the case with the suspension of railway bills : the interest of the public requires a general application of the measure, and the pub- lic has indubitable right to withhold assent to schemes which cannot proceed without the grant of extraordinary powers and will in the aggregate be injurious. Sir Charles Wood, therefore, has only half done his work. The other half may be done by good luck—that trusty ally of drunkards, idiots, and professional statesmen.
Few of the other subjects—all either trivial or trite—need men- tion here. Lord John Russell has carried resolutions to suspend the Corn-duties and Navigation-laws for a few months longer— till the tat of March; and the Government system of modified transportation has undergone another debate, as utterly unsatisfac- tory, in every way, as it is possible to be. The Government plan looks weaker and more unworkable at every fresh scrutiny ; it can scarcely stand even these preliminary jars and shakings. The arrangements for its practical administration are defective ; and the attempt to do without the sanction of Parliament is at last fairly abandoned—Ministers have promised to introduce a bill next session. On the other hand, no one—not the acuteat of the objectors—seems to know what ought to be done. Mot of them are for continuing transportation, and some of them think that convictism in the Colonies might be made virtuous ! The sole ray of clear daylight lurks in the speech of Mr. Moncliton Milnes : the question to which it is all reduced, he says truly, is that of reforming the prison system.
