other causes, may, in the course of a long period, operate so to impede the undertaking, as to render it an inconvenience, rather than an advantage to the community.

3. Of the PETITION to Parliament for leave to bring in the

PRIVATE BILLS.

Duty of Solicitor.

PETITION.

Bill (1).

The next thing to be done by the solicitor for the intended bill, is to prepare a petition to the House, whether Lords or Commons, for leave to bring in the bill (2).

The form of the petition is given hereafter; the principal things to be attended to in which are, that it correspond in tenor and substance with the bill of which it is the intended prelude, and also with the subject-matter of the notice previously given of the application to Parliament, that the public may not be taken by surprise, or deceived by a pretended application for one purpose, whilst another, or a more or less extended one is really in the contemplation of the parties; and as every fact stated in these documents, which can materially affect the objects of the bill, will be required by the Houses to be proved by satisfactory evidence, care must also be taken that no allegation be made in the bill of which such evidence cannot be produced.

The draft being prepared, it will be proper to transmit a fair copy of it to the Parliamentary agent intended to conduct the bill through the House, for his approval; whose experience will enable him to correct any technical formalities in which it may happen to be deficient.

The petition being engrossed on parchment (which is required by the standing orders) the signatures should be procured of as many respect

(1) Before a petition will be received, the plan of the undertaking and other preceding do- Deposit of plan, cuments must be lodged in the Parliamentary Office; but as this is the province of the Parliamentary agent, and not of the solicitor, the detail of these preliminaries are here omitted.

&c.

(2) "It being ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, that no private bill shall be brought into this House until the House be informed of the matters therein contained by petition to this House for leave to bring in such bill."

able persons interested in, or who will be affected by the undertaking as may be, of which, to prevent any supposition being entertained of collusion, ought not, if the nature of the subject will admit of it, be less than twenty or thirty, none of which however, for the reason already mentioned, when speaking of the list of subscribers, should be persons whose evidence will be required before the committee to support the bill.

Hence the solicitor is to be apprised (in summary) that previous to the bill being introduced into Parliament he must be prepared with the following proofs, viz.

That the necessary advertisements have been inserted in the newspapers, by the production of such papers.

That the notices have been affixed to the sessions or church doors, by the affidavit of the person affixing the same.

That the plan and book of reference have been deposited with the
Clerk of the Peace.

That application has been made to the several parties affected by the bill, and their respective assents, dissents, or neutrality, by the attendance of the person making such application.

That the signatures to the Subscription List are genuine, by the party seeing such subscriptions.

That the allegations contained in the petition for the bill are true, by the attendance of competent witnesses, and the production of such deeds, certificates and other documents as may be necessary to verify the recitals and facts upon which the bill is intended to be founded.

But the form in which, and the time when these proofs, as furnished by the solicitor, are to be respectively presented, belong to the agent for the bill.

4. Of the BILL or Private Act itself.

The above preliminary steps having been taken, the solicitor is to prepare, or procure to be prepared by counsel, a draft of the intended bill; the general form of which, as well as the particular form adapted

to some of the most usual objects of private bills, will be found amongst the ensuing Precedents. But as it would be impossible to comprise in a work of the present compass a sufficient variety to serve precedents for every imaginable purpose, it may be useful to notice for the information of the solicitor, such particular provisions or clauses as are, by the standing orders of Parliament, required to be inserted in bills of the different descriptions: with respect to those for the purpose now under consideration, it is ordered,

That in all bills presented to the house (Commons) for making, vary

ing, abridging, extending, or enlarging any cut, canal, reservoir, or aqueduct, or for continuing or amending any Act of Parliament for any or either of those purposes, or for making tunnels or archways, or for making or improving the navigation of any river, provision be made for compelling the persons who have subscribed towards carrying any such work into execution, to make payment of the sums severally subscribed by them, and also to oblige the company, commissioners or trustees to take security from their treasurer, receiver or collector for the faithful execution of his office.

That every such bill before it is reported to the House of Commons, or read a third time in the Lords, shall contain therein a provision that the ascent to every bridge to be made over such cut, canal or aqueduct for the purpose of such public road, shall not be more than one foot in thirteen, and that the fence on each side of such bridge shall not be less than four feet above the surface of the bridge.

That every bill for any such purposes as aforesaid, except turnpikeroads, shall before it is read a third time in this House (Lords), contain therein a provision that in case the work intended to be carried into effect under the authority of such bill shall not have been completed so as to answer the objects of such bill within a time to be limited by such bill, all the powers and authorities given by such bill shall thenceforth cease and determine, save only as to so much of such work as shall have been completed within such time, with such provisions and qualifications as the nature of the case shall require.

PRIVATE BILLS.

Duty of Solicitor.

Bill must pro

vide for payment of subscriptions.

And for limiting bridges, &c.

the ascent of

And for limiting

a time for completing the undertaking.

PRIVATE BILLS.

Duty of Solicitor.

Four-fifths of expenses to be previously subscribed.

And proviso in

bill for complet

ing subscription.

Fair copy of draft of bill to be sent to agent.

That no bill for any such purposes except turnpike-roads shall be read a third time in this house (Lords), unless four-fifths of the probable expense of the proposed work shall have been subscribed by persons under a contract binding the subscribers, their heirs, executors and administrators, for payment of the money so subscribed within a limited time, nor unless there shall be contained in such bill a provision that the whole of the propable expense of such work shall be subscribed in like manner before the powers and authorities given by such bill shall be put in force.

When the draft of the bill has been prepared, a fair transcript of it should be sent to the Parliamentary agent, for his revision and correction, as to such technical minutiæ as are required by the standing orders of the House in which it is intended to be introduced, and the general Bill then left to usages of Parliament: after which, it may be considered as under his

agent,

chief care and superintendence; the solicitor having thenceforward no-
thing more to do than to observe the directions of such agent: for al-
though many of the subsequent proceedings, as the filling up blanks,
printing, and engrossing of the bill, lodging the different documents in
the Private Bill Office, and the like, may be performed by the solicitor,
yet it will be more prudent to entrust them to the agent, whose daily
udent
practice in these matters will prevent any inadvertencies occurring to
impede the progress of the bill. And even as to those matters which it
will belong more properly, or entirely, to the solicitor to do, such as de-
positing a printed copy of the bill with the clerk of the parish-giving
notices of the time when the committee will sit on the bill-waiting on
the chairman of the committee with a copy of the bill, &c. &c.—it will
be better that he should receive instruction from his parliamentary
agent, than depend upon any printed directions, however circumstantial
or minute.

PRIVATE BILLS.

Duty of Solicitor.

SECTION II.

OF INCLOSURE BILLS.

Bills for inclosing, draining or otherwise improving commonable or other lands, although they class with other private bills of a general nature, i. e. bills relating to a great portion of the public as contradistinguished from Estate Bills, and others which concern one particular person or family only, are subject to different orders and regulations in some respects from bills of the former description, and therefore require a separate notice.

1. OF NOTICE.

INCLOSURE
BILLS.

NOTICES.

rishes.

The Notices of intended application to Parliament for draining, inclosing, and other land-improvement bills, are the same, and to be given in nearly the same manner as the Notices already treated of (1), and therefore require but little consideration. It is however to be observed, Adjoining pain addition to the instructions already given, that if the inhabitants of an adjoining parish, as not unfrequently happens, have a right of common over, or other interest in the lands intended to be inclosed or otherwise improved, the notices required to be fixed on the church-doors of the parish where the land is situated, must also be affixed to that or those of such adjoining parish or parishes.

And the person affixing these notices must be accompanied by some Affidavit. person competent to make an affidavit of having seen them affixed,

for the purpose of its being laid before the Committee on the Petition

or the Bill.

And if the object of the Bill be any part of the Bedford Level, (or Bedford Level. great Level of the fens) notice must likewise be given to the Corpora

tion of that Level.

(1) See ante, pp. ii. xi.