REVISE THE GRAND JURY LAWS, IRELAND.
xxxvii utility, and was properly planned, the Commissioners might be considered the vi.
Remedial fittest persons to decide upon it; but there.are
other points to be taken into Measures.
consideration when Presentments are sought or desired.
It is material to con-Nature of appeal sider the circumstances of tho District upon which it is proposed to cast any
that should be additional charge before such charge be cast upon it, as otherwise the Rate-
establlshed :~
payers may be taxed to an amount beyond what a due regard to their means would admit of.
We therefore think, that any appeal which may be given touching local taxation for works of any description, should be given, not to administrative or executive Officers, but to a deliberative body competent to the exercise of judicial functions, and authorised to examine Giich Public Officers and other persons as they may think proper, upon the subject.
In England, a Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has been established, which not only hoars Colonial and other appeals, but is also authorized to enquire into and report upon any matter that the Crown may refer to it.
We recommend—
That a Judicial Committee of the Privy Council shall also be established £ Committee of
in Ireland, and that an appeal shall be given to it from the decisions of llvy ouncl1.
Presentment Sessions, from the decisions also of Grand Juries, and from the decisions of the Board of Works; and that it shall be armed with tho like powers for compelling the attendance of witnesses, and enforcing obedience to its orders, as arc given to the Judicial Committee of tho Privy Council in England.
By giving the general right of appeal which we have* suggested, and giving Necessity for such to each Circuit Engineer as wo have proposed, a riffht to apply for any new ?Ppe.llaJf
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J ' illustration of its Road or Work, a remedy would bo provided for a very serious inconvenience functions, to the public, to which our attention has been called by Lord Clancarty, and which consists in " the difficulty," to use his Lordship's words, " in some cases insurmountable, of getting tho great national thoroughfares shortened, when it rests with some County having no interest of its own to serve, to effect such required alteration."
He adds, -"the case 1 shall mention will suffice to show the existence of an inconvenience, of which there arc, no doubt, in other parts of Ireland, many examples, mid for which a general remedy ought to be pro¬ vided.
The Groat Western line of Mail Coach communication from Dublin to Gaiway and Westport, is, as far as Athlonc, a good and weU-carcd-for line of Road, useful to every County through which it passes, and deriving, by means of Turn¬ pikes, some part of tho cost of maintaining it, from tho Province to which it leads.
From Athlono to Ballinasloe, from whence branches tho Westport line of Road, it crosses an angle of the County of Roscommon; but in so doing, it takes a roundabout and zig-zag direetiou,' increasing the distance, and traversing a suc¬ cession of short gravel hills, most dangerous to Coaches heavily laden, and adding greatly and unnecessarily to tho labour of draught in general, instead of running in a direct line over a dead flat, by winch not only all the hills, but a distance of between two and three Irish miles would be saved out of twelve miles, the present length of the stage between these two Towns.
The County of Roscommon has no interest whatever in taxing itself to shorten this line of Road, so important to Mayo and Galway, and has distinctly refused to do so, even when Government was willing to have made a free grant of half the expense."
In any such case as that put by Lord Clancarty, the District Engineer of each County through which the desired line of Road should be carried, might he directed by the Commissioners of Public Works to make the necessary application for it to tho Presentment Sessions, and if a sum were not then allowed sufficient to cover the expenses of it and other necessary Works—or if the Grand Jury should afterwards refuse to make tho requisite Pesentment, the matter could bo brought before the Judicial Committee by appeal; and we recommend—that tho Judicial Committee shall be authorized, upon any such appeal, to determine what portion of tho expense of any Road or Work that it may order, shall be borne by each County through which it shall pass,
