The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-06 00:00:00

after a few hours it used to get clear again. The de-
posit, howev.r, was generally produced in the course
of a month, and had to be removed in ,hovelsfuli. He
believed the Right lion. Baronet repudiated the idea of
e Bill guaranteeing the existing companies 5 per cent.
Insteeel of that, however, they would have more than
10 per cent., which was about what they divided now.
The stock on which they divided was, he believed, about
4,800,0001, on which they shared the sum of ei per
Cent. But, in point of fact, had they ever paid up
4,800,000/.? No such thing. They had never paid up
room than about 2,000,0001. The effect of that Bill
Would be to give the existing companies a return of at
least 10 per cent on their bona fide capital. Ho believed
the people of the metropolis would never submit to such
a burden for the purpose of perpetuating their present
Miserable and pernicious supply of water. He had no
hesitation in stating that he telt convinced the companies
could never carry into effect such a measure he defiance
of, the popular storm to which it would inevitably give
ruse. He could only account for the fact of the Right Hon.
Baronet the Secretary for the home Department having
introduced such a measure, by supposiog that, in the pres-
sure of business with which he had had to deal, he had been
enable to give the master any ordinary amount of atten-
tion. He had himself introduced a Bill upon that sub-
ject; but he was as yet unable to proceed with it, be-
cause the examiner had not, for some reason which was
unknown to him, reported that he had complied with
the standing orders. In that Bill he proposed that the
metropolis should be divided into seventeen districts,
that the rate-payers should choose four Commissioners,
Mut the corporation of London should choose four more,
end that the Government should choose four also. He
further proposed that an Executive Committee should be
IPPointed, for the purpose of carrying out the provi.ions
of the Act. He would give to the Commissioners a
Power of levying a yearly rate, not exceeding three
pence in the pound, on the rateable property of the
Metropolis. He believed that such a rate would, in the
course of thirty years, give the inhabitants of London
iv right to a gratuitous supply of good water. In con-
clusion, be had to state that ho felt bound to offer his
decided opposition to the measure then before the House.
' Mr. HUME said they were all agreed that it was ex-
tremely desirable to provide a better supply of water for
the metropolis, and they only differed as to the best
mode of carrying out that object. They had two Bills
before them for that purpose, and under these circum-
stances he would suggest that both measures should be
referred to ono and the same Select Committee. If that
course were to be pursued, he should recommend to the
Rouse to assent to the second reading of the measure
then under their consideration.
Sir GEORGE GREY said that he had no objection
to have the te o Bills referred to the same Select Com-
mittee, provided that all interested parties were ex-
cluded from the Committee.
Mr. LABOUCHERE justified the conduct of the
Gentlemen who had been unable to report that in the
ease of the Bill of the Hon. Member for Falmouth (Mr.
Mowatt), the standing orders had been complied with.
They could not have so reported, because the measure
had only that day come under their notice, and because
curtain parties had come forward to state that they
meant to oppose the measure on the ground that the
standing orders had been violated in the case.
Sir W. CLAY said that every one must admit that
the people of the metropolis were entitled to have the
best and the cheapest possible supply of water that was
consistent with a fair regard for existing interests. He
believed the existing companies would be perfectly
ready to allow the control over that supply to be placed
in the hands of a Government board or of a municipal
board, if Parliament should think that either of these
courses was the best which could be adopted; and he felt
convinced that in that case the Legislature would not
refuse to grant a fair compensation to those persons who
held property in the present companies under the faith
of an Act of Parliament. The Hon. Gentleman oppo-
site (Mr. B. Cochrane) had accused those companies of
malversation.
Mr. B COCHRANE said he had not used the word
malversation. He had merely said that the companies
had not performed their duty to the public.
Sir W. CLAY continued—He believed that the Hon.
Gentleman had done great injustice to the existing
companies. The Hon. Gentleman was not, perhaps,
aware of the exertions made by those companies to sup-
ply water at an extremely low rate in those poorer dis-
tricts to vieflich he had referred; and neither, perhaps,
Was he aware of the fact that those exertions had only
been frustrated by the refusal of the landlords of the
houses in those districts to pay any sum whatever for a
supply of water. The Hon. Member for Falmouth had
said that the same house in the New River district which
was at present provided with water for es. per annum
Would have to pay 103. if that Bill were passed. But the
fact was, that such a house would in that case be sub-
ject to a payment of only ss. per annum. He confidently
asserted that under that Bill there would be a very con-
siderable diminution in the charges for the supply of
water in the metropolis. Power was, no doubt, liable
to abuse; but some of the opponents of this Bill went
further, and assumed that men would always do
what they ought not to do. Under this Bill, however,
not only must the directors fall gratuitously into evil
Paths, but they must do so with the certainty of pecu•
niary loss, for the Bill reserved to the Government the
power of stopping them if they refused to carry out its
intentions honestly. The Hon. Member for Falmouth
assumed that no new sources of supply would be sought
for, but the Bill made it imperative on the consolidated
companies to provide a better supply of water when
called on by the Secretary of State for the Home Depart-
ment, ho being the organ and exponent of public opinion.
Re contended that the Bill would also secure a great
diminution in the expense. He admitted that the supply
of water to London required amendment, but denied that
even at present it produced ill health and death, and the
Board of Health positively denied that it had produced
Any such result. With respect to the objection of mono-
poly, he denied that the word had any meaning when
applied to the supply of water. In one sense, undoubt-
edly, all water supply was a monopoly, because they
could not, without injury, have more than one set of
Works and one capital applied to the supply of one lo-
cality. The only question was, what conditions they
ought to impose on those to whom the supply was en-
trusted, and the point on which they had now to deli-
berate was, whether this Bill was the beet practical
solution of a question which imperatively required to
be solved. Three distinct parties had united to op-
pose it, every one of whom differed as widely as pos-
sible from each other as to the best mode of ad-
ministering to the supply of the metropolis. What
the Bill would do was this—it would give, and that
with certainty, the best possible supply of water; it
would distribute that supply in the best possible way
and on the lowest possible terms. If any one supposed
that he could violate with impunity the engagements
into which Parliament had entered he greatly mistook
the temper of that House. They could not take from
these companies their existing charters without compen-
sation. Their only course, consistent with justice, would
be to create fresh companies to enter into competition
with them, and the result would be, not to bring the
rates so low as those contemplated by this Bill, but pro-
bably to raise them after a. short struggle to a higher
pitch. His own opinion was that the Bill, under the
circumstances, offered a wise and practicable compromise
and solution of a very difficult question. He did not
think the House would ever deal unfairly with existing
companies, and it would bo not only a pitiful policy if
they abused their power by dealing unjustly with those
who had embarked their capital on the faith of a Parlia-
mentary sanction, but it would bo also a most unwise
policy, and one which would shake to their very founda-
tions those feelings of unbounded confidence in the jus-
tice of Parliament which lay at the very root of that
spirit of enterprise by which all the great works in Eng-
land had been accomplished. He left the question with
the most perfect confidence in the hands of the House.
If they did not pass this Bill, they would to a certainty
put off to another year a reform which was highly de-
sirable. Ho had been so strorgly impressed with the
justice of the view taken by the Board of Health as to
the necessity of obtaining a supply of soft water, that he
had taken steps to ascertain whether their recommenda-
tions could be carried into effect, and the result of his in-
quiries had convinced him that a sufficient quantity of
water of the quality recommended by the Board might
be obtained; but he thought nothing would be got by
going to the Wandle or the Colne.
Viscount EBRINGTON called attention to the re-
port of the Registrar-General in January, 1850, to
prove the influence of the quality of the water on the
health of the people. From the report it appeared that
the rate of mortality from the cholera on the banks of
the Thames, between Battersea and Hungerford bridges,
was ten times as great as that between Hammersmith and
Kew. It appeared to him that a Bill affecting the health
of the greatest city in the world, with a population of
2,250,000 ought not to be sent to a Committee up stairs to
be licked into shape, but ought to receive the full conside-
ration of the House. He protested against the question
of a constant or intermittent supply being still treated as
a moot point, when it was established de concesso that a
constant supply was not only the morn convenient, but
also the more economical system. Mr. Mill said that
it was a mistake to suppose that prices were in all cases
kept down by competition. In this case the competi-
tion should, in his (Viscount Ebrington's)opinion, be for
the occupation of the field of monopoly. The rating of
the houses in London at 14 per house for domestic pur-
poses would yield 300,0001, and to this should be
nadded
100,000/. for the supply for manufactures, i all
400,0004 a-year, which was more than double the ac-
tual cost at which the article could be supplied by
company beginning de novo. He could not see why the
people should be thus overtaxed to pay the interest of
the money squandered in former days by those compa-
nies in extragavant competition, aad expended in igno-
rance of all the modern improvements of science. lie
did not 'oelieve that the rejection of the Bill would re-
tard the obtaining of an improved supply of wholesome
water; if he did, be would not oppose. But, deeming it
a hasty and ill-considered measure, he should vote
against the measure.
Mr. WAKLEY said that scarcely a word had been said
on either tide, except by the Right Hon. Gentleman
(Sir G. Grey), to show that the Bill should be sup-
ported. The people had asked for cheap hops and they
hail been refused; for cheap malt, and they had been
refused; for unadulterated coffee, and they had been re-
fused; and now they asked for pure and cheap water,
and the answer was this Bill. What the Administra-
tion did drink, he could not imagine.—(Leughter.) The
people asked for clean water, and the Government in
reply delivered them over to the hands of those who bad
long persecuted them with foul and muddy water. It
wis idle to say there was not the means of remedying
the evil—where there was the will there was the way.'
But the Government had not the disposition. The Hon.
Mr. Napier had proved that an adequate supply of ex-
cellent water could be obtained from the lands of Surrey,
but they did not avail themselves of the advantage. The
public, however, were becoming angry, and if this Bill
were read a second time, the Government vt ould be met
with a general burst of indignation which would astonish
them.