The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-11 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

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THIS DAY.—Morning, 6h. 51m.—Afternoon, 7h. 12m.
To-stonnow.-Morning, 7h. 31m.—Afternoon, 7h. 59m.

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r• 110'

THE SUN.
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1860,

What were the Commons about last evening
when in Committee upon that unfortunate Gas

(Metropolis) Bill ? Was it by design or was it by
accident—that the whole thing came to be quashed,
as it were, quite suddenly at the close of that
wretched little wrangling discussion nrovoked by the

hon. member for Boston, the champion of the gas
companies, Mr.MEABIJRN STANILAND ? However,
this may be, the consequence of the whole squabble
last night in Committee was that eventually the

motion that the chairman leave the chair was

(writes one of the reporters present) " apparently
by inadvertence " agreed to—" so that when the
Speaker resumed the chair no report could be made !'
It is so far suspicious that the motion thus agreed
to " apparently by inadvertence" was the identical
motion introduced last evening (in the course of his
elaborate and ingenious speech) by Mr. STANILAND
However this bungle on the part of the Commons

then in Committee on this unlucky Gas (Metropolis)
Bill may or may not affect the measure itself
eventually—there is certainly discoverable down
upon the Parliamentary papers for this afternoon,
Mercuric 110 die Jtelii 1860 (among the Notices of

Motion) this subjoined announcement :—" 4. Mr
SOTHERONESTCOURT—Gat(MetropoIis)BiII—That
the Gas (Metropolis) Bill be referred back to the
Select Committee." This last, by the way, being a
proposition the reasonableness of which was only
too eagerly assented to by the right hon. baronet
the Home Secretary, who intimated that various
circumstances had been brought to light (since the
presentation of the original report of the Select
Committee—upon which report remember the Bill,
then under consideration of a committee of the whole
house, was founded!), which circumstances, argued
Sir GIIORGRLEWIS, rendered some further examina-
tion of the question between the Companies and the
Consumers expedient. And so—remarked the
Minister—it certainly appeared to him that the
house would do well to follow out the course sug-
gested by Mr. ESTCOURT, viz., by recommitting
the bill to the same Select Committee from whose
deliberations it may be said to have emanated—to
the end that certain conflicting interests might, if
possible, be reconciled !
Now all this is done, as clearly as anything can
be done, with a view to delay the measure yet
further, by any means, however tricky, upon any
pretext, however flimsy—so that legislation upon
the matter for yet another session may be rendered
altogether impracticable. The hon. member for
Boston, in the first instance, the right hon. mem-
ber for North Wiltshire in the second, the Home
Secretary, in his turn, and the House of Commons
itself in committee, each in succession, designedly
or und_si{„.cr
nedly, had a gash yesterday at the throat
or this other little innocent. The best that can be
hoped for it now, apparently, is that Mr. ESTCOURT
will be enabled to induce the House:of Commons
to
this afternooner the bill's exceedingly bad
came back again to hist: Select Committee for reconsi-
deration. And recollect that among the inexorable
standing orders of the Rouse of Lords there ig that
sufficiently reasonable one which precludei the
other house from sending up to the Peers any new
bill for a first reading there after the 26. th of
July ! Subtracting 11 from 26, we may very easily
the chances against this uubhaptt
therefore calculate
Gas (Metropolis) Bill being developed now ,
t
fag end of the present session into a perfected
enactment.
The foremost argument by which Mr. STAN LAND
besought the House, last evening, to paulie yet