kind except from the official assignee act following year, another Act was passed ing under the orders of the Bankruptcy to enable banking companies to register Court. But it might happen there had with limited liability. The only companies been a petition for winding up under the therefore, excluded from the operation of Act of 1848, and then a bankruptcy might these Acts were insurance companies. take place under the Act of 1844, and a They seemed to be excluded on the notion collision of jurisdiction thereupon arose, of that there was something peculiar in the which, perhaps, their Lordships might have nature of their business, which ought to presome recollection from the proceedings con- vent them from having the benefit of the nected with the Royal British Bank, in Act; and he believed that in a Report of which there was a contest between the a Select Committee of the House of ComBankruptcy Court and the shareholders mons it was stated to be necessary to reunder the Winding-up Act, which led to peal the Act of 1844 before insurance enormous litigation and expense, and, it companies could be brought within the must be added, to very great scandal. operation of the provisions he had referred The creditors were no parties to the pro- to. He did not think it necessary to ceedings for winding-up companies under mention the few other Acts which had the Bill of 1848 until 1857, when an Act been passed, one of them for the purpose of was passed which enabled the Judge or the compounding in some degree the two systems Master to call a meeting of the creditors, of voluntary and compulsory winding up; and to require the creditors to appoint a by directing that where proceedings began representative, who should act for them under the voluntary system, but the crein the proceedings under the winding up. ditor afterwards petitioned, the voluntary The intention of the Legislature was, that proceedings should be continued, but unthe two systems should thus be drawn der the control and direction of the creinto one. But until 1855 the shareholder ditors. All these different Acts of Parliaof a company was liable to the full extent ment, to the number of thirteen he proposed of his means for all the company's debts. to consolidate in the Bill he now presented Creditor after creditor might sue the same to their Lordships. Only such companshareholder if he were a wealthy person,ies as had a share capital had hitherto and he, on the other hand, had the been enabled to take advantage of the greatest possible difficulty in getting Acts from 1844 downwards, and there contributions from his co-shareholders. had been great difficulty in bringing the In 1855, however, the Limited Liability Act of 1856 into operation, as the comAct passed, by which shareholders were panies taking advantage of it had to oballowed to limit their liability to the serve all the regulations in the Act of amount of their subscriptions; and in 1856 1844. The leading feature of the proposed all the Acts for the formation, the regula- consolidating Act was to enable all comtion, and the winding up of companies were panies, whether having a share-capital or incorporated and consolidated. The object not, to take advantage of the Act to be of this Act was to make incorporation the registered, to become incorporated, and to principle upon which these partnerships have facilities for winding up in case of should be regulated, to prevent the personal necessity. The Bill would embrace mutual liability of each shareholder, and to provide building societies, mutual loan societies, for the winding up of companies. Two and insurance companies, because there modes of winding up were provided for in was no reason now that the Act of 1844 the Act of 1856-one being a voluntary, was to be repealed, why insurance comthe other a compulsory process under the panies should be excluded from the operaorders of the Court of Chancery. In either tion of the present Bill. Their Lordships case liquidators were appointed; those were aware that the present companies persons being the nominees of the parties were established on the principle either of interested where the winding up was volun- limited or unlimited liability. With respect tary, but where they were appointed under to the unlimited, the persons who dealt the orders of the Court they acted as with them had only to ascertain the shareofficers of the Court and according to its holders, and if they found them to be men directions. That Act of 1856 did not apply in whom they could have confidence, of to banking or insurance companies; but in course they would trust the companies. 1857, an Act passed to enable banking With respect to the companies of limited companies to register themselves with un- liability, persous intending to deal with limited liability, and in the same or the them looked to the registry of shareholders,

SIR JOHN PAKINGTON said, that tenders for Marine Engines had been lately called for to a large amount; that a larger number of manufacturers than usual had been invited to tender; and that among them, was one manufacturing firm upon the Clyde-the Messrs. Napiers and Co.

THE SUGAR DUTIES.-QUESTION.

MR. HANKEY said, he wished to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether there is any foundation for the report in The Times, that he is about to propose an alteration in the sugar duties?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER:-I have observed the statement in the city article of The Times to which the hon. Gentleman refers-namely, that it is in my contemplation to deal with the sugar duties, and to establish an equal duty upon all sugars. I have only to say at present that there is not the slightest foundation for the statement.

ship General Simpson, which left England ders have been recently given out for for Calcutta on the 8th of August last with Marine Engines; and, if so, whether the draughts of Her Majesty's 80th and other Marine Engineers of the river Clyde have regiments on board, amounting to upwards been asked to tender? of 400 men, and which reached Calcutta on the 22nd of December; whether it is true, that, although the contractor is bound to have provisions and water for 140 days on board, officers, soldiers, and crew were placed for several weeks on short allowance of both food and water, the lower tier of water tanks having been found empty; and, whether any explanation of the unusually long voyage of the General Simpson (137 days from England to Calcutta), and of the circumstances alluded to, has been given to the Indian Department? LORD STANLEY :-The owners of the troopship General Simpson are Messrs. Fernie, Brothers, of Liverpool. The General Simpson was engaged for the transport, from Gravesend to Calcutta of 10 officers and 402 men, being draughts for fourteen different regiments. She sailed on the 8th of August, and arrived at Calcutta on the 22nd of the following December, having been 137 days out. The owners were bound to take out provisions, stores, and water for the soldiers, as well as for the crew, for 140 days. Previous to starting the vessel was visited by the embarking officer, and he verified that the proper quantity of provi- LORD NAAS said, that the Acts relatsions was on board. No papers have been re-ing to Irish county prisons were fourteen ceived at the Indian Office from Calcutta, in number, and that considerable difficulty where the final settlement of the freight is made, on the subject of this ship, and I am therefore unable to explain the reasons of this unusually long voyage. On the 7th inst. a letter was received at the India Office from the Deputy Quarter Master General containing the following report from the officer who commanded the troops on board the General Simpson :-" The troops were without porter for the last six weeks of the voyage. The provisions very good except porter. Troops placed on short rations of water-an unusually wet passage. It appears that neither the owners nor brokers of the ship have yet received intelligence beyond the following by the last homeward mail. Simpson was just towing up the Hooghly, and had been spoken a few days before, short of water. No further explanation can be given, but under the circumstances I have thought it right to institute an inquiry.

MARINE ENGINES.-QUESTION. MR. DALGLISH said, he wished to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty if any ten

COUNTY PRISONS (IRELAND).

LEAVE.

some

having arisen in their interpretation the consolidation of these statutes was much needed. He proposed to repeal all those Acts and re-enact the law in one concise code, so that all the functionaries of these establishments might be able to see at a glance what their powers and duties were. In addition to this, there were changes urgently required, to which he wished to draw attention. At present the Board of Superintendence was appointed by the grand jury twice in every year. He proposed that the appointment should be made only once a year-at the spring assizes, when the greatest number of grand jurors attended, and when the subject could be more fully considered. He proposed to make it mandatory on the Board of Superintendence to appoint a deputy-governor, a schoolmaster, and a schoolmistress, in addition to the present gaol officers, and to give power to the Board to fix the salaries of all the officers. He proposed that the Board of Superintendence should lay before the grand jury an estimate of the sum necessary for defraying the ex

penses of the gaol for the ensuing year, | isted in any, and many of them were and that the estimate so submitted should totally unfit for the detention of prisoners. be noted by the jury as an imperative It was contrary to law confine prisoners in presentment. Great inconvenience was them after trial, but they were frequently now felt with regard to the mode of pro- detained in them a considerable period cedure as to the salaries of the officers of before trial. It was a barbarous thing to gaols. According to the present law they confine prisoners in such horrible places could not be paid as their salaries be- as many of the bridewells of Ireland were, came due, unless there happened to be and he proposed to adopt somewhat the a balance in the treasurer's hands of the same plan as he had stated with regard to sums left over from the last levy, so that gaols; namely, to define certain requisites they had often to wait a considerable time and to give power to the Lord Lieutenant before they were paid. He thought they to close these bridewells if the provisions of ought not to be in a different position from the law were not fulfilled. These were the that of other public officers, but should re- principal provisions of the Bill. It had been ceive their salaries half-yearly or quarterly, prepared with great labour and pains, and as they became due. Although the state of he hoped it would receive the support of the Irish gaols was generally very good, and the House. The noble Lord concluded by although there were as good county gaols moving for leave to introduce a Bill for in Ireland as in any other part of the consolidating and amending the laws reQueen's dominions, still there were a few la- lating to county prisons in Ireland. mentable exceptions to that state of things. The establishment at Waterford was deficient in almost every requisite for the proper conduct of a gaol. There was little accommodation, no provision for instruction, and even a deficient supply of water. The gaol of the city of Kilkenny was remarked upon by the Inspector General in his last Report as equally deficient, and such was its state of over-crowding and want of accommodation that only a fortnight ago, as Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, he was obliged to make an order for the removal of prisoners to the county gaol. He proposed in this Bill to lay down all the requisites necessary to the proper conduct of a prison, and to give power to the Lord Lieutenant to declare, after notice, that unless those requisites were fulfilled the prison complained of should not be a legal place of detention for the county or city to which it belonged. In a subsequent clause the Lord Lieutenant had power to order the grand jury to provide accommodation in such cases, and there was further power that, in the event of the grand jury refusing, the Lord Lieutenant should appoint Commissioners to provide proper accommodation. While the condition of the county gaols was generally very good, the condition of the bridewells in Ireland was as bad as could possibly be, and he referred the House for proof of that statement to the last Report of the Inspector General on prisons. The bridewells were 113 in number. In not less than fifty-three there was no supply of water; all of them were small, ill-ventilated, dirty; no means of classification ex

COLONEL FRENCH said, he did not rise to offer any objection to the introduction of the Bill. At the same time he must say that it appeared to him to contain a most objectionable principle throughout; namely, that it gave the Executive Government a power of taxation for the whole of the year by the election of the Board of Superintendence at the spring assizes. That would render it incumbent on the grand jury to levy the expenditure for the twelvemonth instead of, as now, for the half-year. He also objected to the powers given to the Lord Lieutenant to compel presentments and to tax the counties ad libitum. Such an objectionable doctrine had never been submitted to in England, and he hoped it would never be permitted in Ireland. The prisons up to the present time had been managed by efficient officers, and he saw no reason to change the system of payment. On the whole, while he thought the consolidation of the laws on this subject would be an advantage, he hoped that time would be given for the due consideration of the details of the Bill, which were extremely important.

LORD NAAS said, that he proposed to lay down distinctly in his Bill those requisites which the House would see were absolutely necessary. The same power they now possessed would be left to the grand jury for carrying out necessary orders. It would only be in the case of the grand jury refusing to comply, not with the will of the Lord Lieutenant, but with the law of the land, that the Lord Lieutenant would be empowered to step in. He believed that if any hon. Gentleman would read that part