(see sections 16, 18, 30, and 32,) that nothing heard for parties who resisted the clause as it short of an actual necessity established by ex- now stands, and Mr. Baines, Q. C., and Mr. perience could have induced the legislature to Overend, being of counsel for the bill. In our grant them. The act next gives directions as judgment, it ought to be a rule with committees to the mode in which those powers shall be to adhere with the greatest strictness to the carried into execution, particularizing the cross-provisions of the uniformity statutes, and only ing of roads and construction of bridges; the to depart from them in circumstances of the making of protection and accommodation strongest necessity. works such as gates, fences, drains, wateringplaces, &c. rendered necessary by the company's operations. Then follow a series of regulations respecting passengers and goods; the charges to be made in respect thereof; and the description of carriages and engines to be used—which bring us to a clause deserving peculiar attention-the arbitration clause-which (with some not very material variety of language) occurs in each of three statutes now under consideration.

NEW BILLS IN PARLIAMENT.

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE.

This is another of Lord Brougham's bills, the preamble of which states, that it is provided by many statutes that various certificates, official and public documents, documents and proceedings of corporations, and of joint stock and other companies, and certified copies of documents, bye laws, entries in registers and other books, shall be receivable in evidence of certain particulars in courts of justice, provided they be respectively authenticated in the manner prescribed by such statutes: And whereas the beneficial effect of these provisions has been found by experience to be greatly diminished by the difficulty of proving that the said documents are genuine; and it is expedient to facilitate the admission in evidence of such and the like documents: It is therefore proposed

The arbitration clause has valuable practical capabilities; although founded upon a principle to which it certainly would not be desirable to give an universal operation. It compels parties to submit to arbitration, by enacting that when a dispute arises, unless both parties concur in the appointment of a single arbitrator, each party, on the request of the other, shall appoint an arbitrator; and after such appointment, neither party shall have power to revoke the same, without the consent of the other; nor shall the death of either party operate as a revocation; and if for the space of fourteen days after such dispute, and after a request in to enact, writing shall have been served by the one party on the other to appoint an arbitrator,the latter fail to make an appointment, then the party making the request may appoint his own arbitrator to act on behalf of both parties; and the award and determination of such single arbitrator shall be final. In the event of the arbitrators dying before making their award, the vacancy may be supplied and made effectual in like manner as the original appointment; the arbitrators, or should they fail the Board of Trade being in both cases empowered to appoint umpires, should differences of opinion arise between the arbitrators.

1. That whenever by any act now in force or hereafter to be in force any certificate, official or public document or documents, or proceeding of any corporation or joint stock or other company, or any certified copy of any document, bye law, entry in any register or other book, or of any other proceeding, shall be receivable in evidence of any particular in any court of justice or in any judicial proceeding, the same shall respectively be admitted in evidence, provided they respectively purport to be sealed or impressed with a stamp, or sealed and signed, or signed alone, as required, or impressed with a stamp and signed, as directed by the respective acts made or to be hereafter made, without any proof of the seal or stamp, where a seal or stamp is necessary, or of the signature or of the official character of the person appearing to have signed the same.

This, therefore, is a very remarkable clause, and in our opinion, well calculated to furnish cheap and easy remedies to parties who might otherwise be compelled to seek redress at great cost against powerful companies in a court of law. We think it necessary, however, to ob- 2. That all courts, judges, justices, masters serve, that railway companies have in more in chancery, masters of courts, commissioners than one instance successfully endeavoured to judicially acting, and other judicial officers shall exclude the operation of the arbitration clause henceforth take judicial notice of the signature from their case, by inserting in their bill special clauses concocted by themselves, and providing methods for adjusting disputes, very different from that prescribed by the uniformity statutes. For example, we may refer to the recent case of the Leeds and Thirsk Railway, where a clause 3. That if any person forge the seal, stamp, has been inserted enacting, that disputes shall or signature of any certificate, official or public be referred to the Recorder of Leeds for the document, or document or proceeding of any time being. And this, be it observed, was not corporation or joint stock or other company, or done per incuriam, but after full deliberation of any certified copy of any document, bye law, and copious argument by counsel; Mr. White-entry in any register or other book, or other hurst, Q. C., and Mr. Macqueen, having been proceeding as aforesaid, or shall tender in

of any of the equity or common law judges of the superior courts at Westminster, provided such signature be attached or appended to any decree, order, certificate, or other judicial or official document.

New Bills in Parliament.-Parliamentary Returns.

137

evidence any such certificate, official or public examination, and liable to the same penalties document, or document or proceeding of any and punishments in case of false deposition, as corporation or joint stock or other company, or if he or she had been a witness in the cause, any certified copy of any document, bye law, and subject to be proceeded against by summary entry in any register or other book, or of any commitment for prevarication by the court as other proceeding, with a false or counterfeit well as to prosecution for false swearing or false seal, stamp, or signature thereto, knowing the affirmation. same to be false or counterfeit, or if any person 2. That either party in any action or inquiry shall forge the signature of any such judge as of damages shall, upon giving notice to any aforesaid to any order, decree, certificate, or adverse party one month before the trial of such other judicial or official document, or shall ten-action or execution of such inquiry, and upon der in evidence any order, decree, certificate, or tender of the expenses of attending the trial, other judicial or official document with a false be entitled to call such adverse party as a counterfeit signature, or any document with the witness; provided such party so calling the false signature of any such judge as aforesaid adverse party shall tender him or herself to thereto, knowing the same to be false or coun- be examined in the cause. terfeit, every such person shall be guilty of felony, and shall upon conviction be liable to transportation for seven years, or to imprisonment for any term not more than three nor less than one year, with hard labour: Provided also, that whenever any such document as before mentioned shall have been received in evidence by virtue of this act, the court, judge, commissioner, or other person officiating judicially who shall have admitted the same, shall, on the request of any party against whom the same is so received, be authorized, at its or at his own discretion, to direct that the same shall be impounded, and be kept in the custody of some officer of the court or other proper person, until further order touching the same shall be given, either by such court, or the court to which such master or other officer belonged, or by the persons or person who constituted such court, or by some one of the equity or common law judges of the superior courts at Westminster, on application being made for that purpose.

4. That this act shall not extend to Scotland. 5. That this act may be repealed, altered, or amended during the present session of parlia

ment.

6. That this act shall take effect from the 1st day of November next after the passing thereof.

CIVIL ACTIONS,

3. Provided always, That nothing in this act contained shall enable any party to be examined in any action or any inquiry brought by or against the next friend of any infant, or the committee of any lunatic, or any trustee or other person not himself or herself beneficially interested as the real party to the suit.

4. Provided also, That in case it shall be made to appear at the trial of any cause or execution of any writ of inquiry, when either party is tendered to be examined as aforesaid, that the adverse party or any one of several adverse parties is incapable of attending or being examined from sickness, incapacity, or extreme age, or absence on the public service, or any cause other than voluntary absence, then and in such case the party so tendered shall not be allowed to be examined; and if notice of such sickness, incapacity, or necessary absence be given to the opposite party before the cause is set down for trial, or notice is given of executing the writ of inquiry, such opposite party may apply to the court to postpone the trial or inquiry as in the case of absence of a material witness, which application shall be dealt with by the court or judge according to his discretion, in respect of granting the same, and likewise in respect of the terms on which it shall be granted.

Provided always, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend to any

This bill (also brought in by Lord Brougham) prosecution or action for penalties at the suit of proposes to enact,— the crown, and wherein there is no person

any suit in equity, nor before any consistorial or other ecclesiastical court, or any court of admiralty or vice-admiralty, or to proceeedings before the privy council.

1. That from and after the first day of Janu-suing as well for himself as for the crown, nor ary 1846, it shall be lawful for any person, to any suit or information by the attorney or being a plaintiff or defendant or one of such solicitor-general on behalf of the crown, nor to plaintiffs or defendants in any action or inquiry for assessing damages, or the lessor or one of the lessors of the plaintiff in any ejectment, to be tendered or to tender himself or herself in evidence, and to be examined before the court touching the matter in question, subject to the same rules of evidence in respect of his or her

6. That this act may be repealed, altered, or annulled during the present session of parliment.

PARLIAMENTARY RETURNS.

Common Pleas Fees.

A RETURN made by the Masters of the Court of Common Pleas, of all monies received on account of Fees in the years 1841, 1942, and 1843, in the Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, or of any of the officers thereof; of the application or appropriation of monies so received; and of all salaries, compensations, and other payments

made out of such monies, stating the names of the persons to whom paid, and the office, or abolished or reduced office, in respect of which such payments are made: and also, of all officers of such of those courts who are paid in whole or in part by fees, stating the names of the persons so paid, and the office in respect of which they are so paid, and the amount of fees paid to or received by any such officer so paid in part or in whole by fees in each of those years, so far as the same relates to the Court of Common Pleas.

To the messenger

Amount of rent of chambers, tradesmen's bills, office expenses,

&c., paid

3,040 0 0
100 0 0

673 12 11

10,619 4 3

Con-}

Balance paid into her Majesty's Exchequer to the account of the Con-
solidated Fund

Name of the retired Master-E. R. Porter, Esq.

Names of the Clerks and Messenger-The same as in the year 1841,

Holland, Richard David, 4, Clarendon Place; William Bolton Girdlestone, Golden Square. Maida Vale

Hewson, Frederick, Balham Hill; and Wring- Bryan Holme, New Inn.

Hanson, William Stonehewer, 9, Dorset Square Edward Richard Comyn, Bush Lane.