The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-17 00:00:00

districts with which I am connected, do not resemble tke
places from which the right hoe. baronet derives his law
nation. No doubt, sir, the religions question is one whims
must, I am afraid, oppose great difficulties in the way et
those who take this subject in hand ; but, at the same bee'
I entirely agree with the right hon. baronet, in hoping tot
those who entertain different opinions upon tbei
branch of the subject will recollect, that we all
do hold opinions in common, which ought to be.
and may be, the foundation of a common
of education ; and I eonfess I di not agree with
noble lord who has spoken on that side of the house, be
thinking that differences upon religious questions an
radical and so complete as to render it impossible that than
should be a common system applicable to persons of all ge;
nominations. (Cheers.) Sir, under these circumstances, I
accept with the greatest pleasure and cordiality the peeped
of the right hon. baronet to bring in his bill. I think aw ass
done right in postponing his further statement of the big
till after Easter. The house will then have before thee
the two =ensures, that of my noble friend, and that of the
right hon. baronet ; and I must say, with mart is
them, that the criticism which the honourable nee.
tlesan, who has just eat down, has made efr-sbe
bill of my noble friend, is one that does not seen%
me strictly to apply. He has contrasted the greater Übe.
rality of the arrangements of the right hon. baronet with
what he conceives to be the smaller liberality of the mums
of my noble friend. The one propmes that the manage.
meat of these school, should be confided to persons elected
by the ratepayers, while my noble friend would place thorn
more in the hands of the town councils anti vestries; pea
surely the hon. gentleman forgets that the town tease&
themselves are the creatures of election, and therefore it
merely a question of whether there shall be as elemeseje,
the first instance, or a double election ; but equsilly, In 'nee
case, the selection arises from the most complete
slangs. The house will have to determine which
two may be the most expedient: but clearly, is palm et
principle, each measure relies upon, and is determined by,
a purely popular and general choice. Sir, Ido hope gem
the discussion which has taken place will satisfy the hews
on the present occasion. (Cheers.) If gentlemen yolk
reserve their more detailed opinions on the matter until tee
two bills are both upon the table before them, I think ses

. .
might now be allowed to proceed to those other maths;
which are equally worthy of the attention of the bonne).
Leave was then given to bring in the bill. i
LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF THE METROPOLIS,
Sir B. HALL said that, after the unavoidable &lets
which bad taken place in the introduction of the imam
of which he had given notice, he was glad to have en upper.
Utility, however late it might be, to move for leave to brhig
in a bill for the better local management of the metropolla
It would be his duty to lay before the house a stateliest of
the present condition of the metropolis, and of themes,
in which its local affairs were now administered. Hula
done this at considerable length, the hon. baronet sell
that now the difficulty arose, bow should they deal lija
this question ? Various plane had been proposed, led
there were some of them so complicated as to be bud
worth any notice ; but there were two or three others of %
different character. One was that there should be ell
great corporation for the whole of London, including die
City. The objections to any such scheme were so wall
stated by the pommissiocers for inquiry into the corps/mint
of the City that he should refer to their statement:—
" Landon taken in its full extent is (sa it has with Mend
truth been called) a province covered with houses ; its die-
meter from north to south and from east to west is so greet
that the persons living at its furthest extremities have fon
interests in common; its area is so large that each inlaid-
teat is in g I acquainted only with his own quarter, sad
has no minute knowledge of other parts of the town. Beam
the two first conditions for municipal government, mints
local knowledge and community of interests, would be
wanting, if the whole of London were, by an est/slim of
the present boundaries of the City, placed under a single
municipal corporation. The enormous numbers of the pse.
potation, and the vast magnitude of the incase& white,
would be under the care of the municipal body, would like.
wise render its administration a work of great diflleilty.
And these considerations appear to us decisive against*,
expediency of placing the whole of the metrop?lll
under a single municipal corporation, without advertiat
to those more general questions of public policy which na-
turally suggest themselves in connection with the subject."
Another suggestion was that there should be charters of in-
corporation granted to the present boroughs. lie thought
the greatest inconvenience would arise from that. The
Tower Hamlets contained 550,000 inhabitants ; Fleabag,
330,000; Marylebone, about 400,0a0. They were too large,
and would probably be larger, and they must not legislate
merely for the present, but for some time to come. MOM*
over, they would be imposing on the inhabitants of Leedom
that to which they
were much disinclined, in imposing
them municipal corporations. There was a
plan which was suggested by the commissioners which be
proposed to adopt. It was put forward in these words :
" We see no reason why the benefit of municipal indite-
Hosts should not be extended to the rest of the metropolis by
is division into municipal district; each possessing a m
cipal government of its own. IVhat the form of this
government should be, and what should be the number or
extent of the districts, are questions not lying within the
scope of our commission, and upon which we are not cos.
potent to express any opinion. We may be permitted hue
to remark that the 'power of petition to the crown for the
grant of a municipal corporation given to parliamentary
boroughs by the Municipal Corporations Act, and by the
set of 1 Vict., c. 78, does not appear to us to be practically
applicable to the metropolis. In order that a proper dis-
tribution of the metropolis into municipal districts should
be effected, it would be necessary to take a connected view
of its different parts, and to arrange the boundaries and
Ilse of each district with reference to the other districts.
Without such mutual adjustments, a proper combination of
districts would be impossible, and such adjustments could
not be made if charters were granted singly to parliamen-
tary boroughs. If a distribution of the metropolis
into municipal districts is to be made, it ought, as
it seems to us, to be made simultaneously, and with
due consideration of the manner in which the in-
terest' of each part are affected by the general plan."
The recommendation which be should take was that the
metropolis should be divided into municipal districts. It
so doing, a connected view of the different pacts could he
taken, and the boundaries of each district made in referee*
to the other districts. Ho proposed to carry out these peer
positions without creating corporations. He proposed that
ecclesiastical boundaries should not be interfered with,
neither should he interfere with the poor law, nor with any
power that the Poor-law Board might have. Be had stated
already that be proposed to take the RegistrarGenerel%
district for the metropolis. There were 30 districts, with
the exception of the City of London. which he did not
propose to include, because another bill would be brought
to having reference to the City. The bill would, in the
first place, extend the provisions of Ilobhouse's Act
to all the parishes comprised within the Regis-
, tear-General's district. There were two clauses of
parishes in the metropolis. The one he would call parishes
sole, as not being in union ; the other, he would call united
parishes, being in union. There were 21 of these Slagle
parishes, having • population of 1,456,363. The vestry of
these parishes would be elected snider the provisions of the
art be had referred to, and be proposed that the Two
that should be so elected should be the local board, iss
of having a separate board elected by the ratepayers. Re
then came to the parishes in union, of which there wes•
66 comprised in 14 unions, containing a populatioe at
776,607 persons ; and he proposed that parishes in union
should send to the district board • certain number 04
representatives arranged according to their population. The
district board would have the power of paving, lighting,
and cleansing their respective districts, as would also the
local boards to which he had referred. The local uttered
these different localities would be placed under. the control
of the different local boards. Representations were made
to him that it would be utterly impossible for any one beard
to manage the sewers of the metropolis, and therebre he
had placed them under the local boards, but this was a sob•
ject for consideration. These district boards would bee
the power and duties of local boards of health so fat
as related to the p ion and removal of nuisances. The
rates, which would include the amount to be paid by the
district board to • metropolitan board, to which he would
Refer, would, to save expense, be all collected by the collec-
tor of the poor rate. The rates for paving and lighting
would be borne by the occupier, end where not otherwise
provided for by lease or agreement, the sewers rate would
be paid by the owner, as at present. As regarded the
existing liabilities, he should provide that these debts
should remain steady chargeable on the places where they
were created, and he would provide that they should be
paid off, principal and interest, in 60 years. It wee
obviously necessary that while they provided for the
local works being done by the local boards, there
should be some general board for the whole of the metro-
polis. Respecting this, the following suggestion had
been made by the commissioners : "We suggest the
creation of a Metropolitan Board of Works, to be composed
of a very limited number of members deputed to it from
the council of each metropolitan municipal body, including
the corporation of the City. We propose that the Manage-
ment of public works, in which the metropolis has a com-
mon interest, should be conducted by this body. At present
works of this sort can only:be undertakes either by the
corporation of London, from its own peculiar funds or under
powers created for the purpose by special legislation, or by
the executive government oat of parliamentary grants. It
is manifest that a power of executing public' works of gene-
ral metropolitan importance, such as the construction of
bridges over the Thames, or the opening or widening of
main lines of street, accompanied by s power of metropo-
litan taxation, would, though founded on a basis of popular
election, require efficient safeguards for its prudent and
nodal exercise. We therefore think that the plans of the
works to be executed should be submitted to a committee
of the Privy Council, and its consent obtained before they
are serried into effect. We may add, that cases may arias
where public works may be executed in the metropolis
portly out of the metropolitan fund and partly from parlia-
Fofgrants, end that I. these cases a control of the
ve government such as we have proposed would be
ble. Ihe oommiseionen recommend in their 29th
on, that in the event of a division of the metro-
tato municipal districts being made, a metropolitan
work. be created, composed of members de-
pleted to it from the conned of each metropolitan
sansielgol body, including the Common Conned of the City."
igb missed that this board should consist of 42 elected
member; two to be elected by the corporation of the City of
Leaden, and the remainder by the districts which would be
found in the schedule attached to the act. The chairman
would make 43, and persons would be eligible, whether be-
longing to the district or not. One-third would be eligible