y. The Bill probably
cost at least L50,000. There was a Belfast Corporation Bill. There
was an Armagh and Keady Railway Bill. There were several other
Irish Bills before the Houses, exhausting thousands more of Irish
capital, and diverting it from the material development of the
country. So abnormal was the waste of Irish money on the Railway
Bill that it excited general attention even in England, and became
the subject of comment in Parliament. Mr. J. H. Lewis, the member
for Flint Burghs, speaking on the 24th July, 1899, on the third
reading of the Scotch Private Legislation Procedure Bill, said, 'I
am sure everybody must have regarded with great dissatisfaction
the enormous expenditure to which certain Irish Railway Companies
were put during the last few weeks within the walls of the House.
Surely a better system can be devised than that which drags over
from different parts of the United Kingdom a host of witnesses,
who could be examined on the spot. I am sure all honourable
members deeply regret this great waste of public money.'"

These disabilities have been the subject of frequent representations.
Resolutions advocating reform have been repeatedly passed by the Irish
Chambers of Commerce, by the Incorporated Law Society, and by local
bodies. Leaders of the Unionist party have constantly urged the
necessity of a provision for expediting and cheapening Private Bill
procedure. In 1896 a deputation from the Dublin Chamber of Commerce
laid the matter before Mr. Gerald Balfour, who was then Chief Secretary
for Ireland. He expressed a hope that the Government would introduce a
reform. In the Queen's speech of February, 1897, it was announced that
Bills for amending the procedure with respect to Private Bills coming
from Scotland and Ireland had been prepared. The opportunity for laying
these measures before Parliament did not arise.

But in 1899 a Bill amending the procedure of Scottish Private Bill
Legislation was passed into law. The measure forms the precedent for
future legislation. In the year 1900, Mr. Atkinson (now Lord Atkinson),
speaking for the Government, said that the Government were--

"most favourable to the introduction and passing of a Bill dealing
with private Bill legislation for Ireland. He thought the real and
substantial difficulty was the creation of the tribunal which was
to sit locally and to in