The Sun.
London, England, 1818-04-04 00:00:00

PARLIA MENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, FRIDAY, APRIL 3.

Mr. Bulky, from the Exchequer. presented an
account of the progress made in the reduction of
the public Funded Debt of Great Britain and Ire
land, and other papers ; Mr. Bradley, from the
-Mint, accounts of the issue of Sovereigns anti
Half Sovereigns, of the number of grains of pure
gold and silver in the different coins, &c. ; and Mr.
Hutchinson, from the Bank of England, accounts
of Bank Notes issued, the market prices. of gold
and silver, -the rates of exchange, and other pa-
pers.—Ordered to lie upon the Table, and several
of them to be printed.
Petitions against the additional ditty on Leather
were presented by the. Earl of SHAFTESBURY, front
the Tanners. &c. of Whir by, in Yorkshire ; and by
the Earl of LAUDFKDALE from the Tanners of In-
verness.—Ordered to lie upon the Table.
On the motion of the Marquis of DOWNSHIRR
011StOld of a fornwr motion erroneously worded,)
the Letter of the first Commissioner of Excise in

Ireland, to the Clergy, &c. respecting a propi),ed

Commutalion of th-ekVindow ;fax, and a subse-
quent Letter to the Sovereign of Belfast, ►vete or-
dered to be laid beiore the Hon e.

The Husbandry Horses Bill was read a third
time and passed.
The bad GROS-viNOR adverted to the teiurn of
Offices granted in Reversion, for the poi-pose of
stating that Lord Ducie, there mentioned as Pro-
vost Marshal of Jamaica, had given up all the
emoluments of the office. With respect to his in-
tended motion on the subject of Reversion, his
Lordship stated that he could not yet name a (lay
for bringing it forward.'

SUPPLY OF,WATER IN THE METROPOLIS.

The Earl Gtiol.vENoß stated he bad been in-

formed by some of his tenants that a coalition had
taken place amongst some of the Water Com-
rallies in the Metropolis, by which four had been
reduced to three, who had divided great part of
the town between them, and the consequence was

(without now adverting to the price) that the
• water was, in several instances, very had. Some
of Lis tenants who bad been served by the Chelsea
Company were now compelled to take the Grand
Junctiou Water, which was of a very bad quality,
discoloured, and very disagreeable to the taste.
He had thought it ►ight to call the attention of
the House to this subject, which was of very con-
- biderabie importance. He was glad that notice
bad been taken of it in the other House, and he
tressed some measure Would be ultimately adopted
to prevent the evil consequences of this monopoly.
The Batt of LAUDELUIALE observed, that the

object of Parliament, in pasting different Bills for
supplying the Aletropolis with water, with a view
to a competition, had been by these Companies
completely defeated; and a monopoly substituted.
The consequences of this conduct were not mere-
ly increased price to the consumer and bad water,
but still morn, they might. be productive of treat
loss of property. When the pipes of two Compa-
nies ran parallel in-the same streets, in case of fires,
for instance, in two different quarters of the town
st the same time, each might he extinguished by
the water supplied by the different Companies
but now, when only one Company supplied one

quarter of the tOwn, suppose a fire to happen in
Soho, and then immediately afterwards another

in the neighbottrhood of Carlton-house, the first
-would have exhausted all the supply of water, and
a great number of houses might be destroyed in
the other situation before a supply of water could
be obtained. He trusted this subject, which had
been taken up in the other House, would he ef-
fectually followed up till the evil was remedied.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said, the ,UhjeCt was
one of great importance, and if the object of the
Legislature paising the different Bills for the
supply of water in the metropolis, which must be
supposed to be that of creating a competition, had
been defeated by the different Companies joining
together to establish a monopoly, he trusted their
Lordships would not separate without its being
distinctly understood that it was perfectly within
the competence of Parliament to sct that-matter
right. •
The Earl of SHAFTESBVHY expressed his satii.
'faction at. what had been said, and declared his
intention, when the 13111 came before the llouse,
of contributing all in his power to remedy the evil.
Adjourned till Monday.