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when the resolutions were passed which are given at length in the
Appendix; the proceedings of the delegates received the approval
of this Board, who directed the payment of their quota to the expenses
incurred, and a petition from the Board was presented through C.
W. Martin, Esq., the Member for West Kent, to the House of
Commons, against the bill. The resolutions at the Meeting of
Delegates, and the petition presented to the House of Commons,
which contains the details of the grievance, are given in the Appendix.
Notwithstanding the opposition made to this bill it has
passed, but no proceedings have yet been taken towards carrying it
into execution.
The Board also joined in the movement set on foot by the Vestry
of Marylebone, on the subject of the division of the Metropolis into
Districts by the Gas Companies, an arrangement which has been
made by the Companies with the view of preventing the competition
at present existing between them, and thus eventually increasing
the cost of the supply of gas. A Committee of delagates
from the Metropolitan Vestries and District Boards was appointed
(as with respect to the Finsbury Park Bill), to which the Board
sent a delegate. The Committee adopted the resolutions and petition
to Parliament set out in the Appendix. The result of this
movement has been the appointment of a Committee of Enquiry as
proposed, before whom the question is now pending, and their appointment
cannot, it is thought, fail to be beneficial to the ratepayers.
The share of the Board in the expenses incurred amounts
only to £10.
The Board have not concurred in the agitation which has, in many
parishes, been fomented against the principle upon which the debts
of the late Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, and the expenses
of the Metropolitan Board, are apportioned; for although they do
not approve of the apportionment of the debts which has been made
in this district, they are satisfied of the correctness of the principle
which has been adopted, and the futility of any opposition to it is
manifested by the fact that the districts in which the most violent
opposition was made to the precepts of the Metropolitan Board, have
ultimately succumbed to the necessity of providing for their payment.
The Board have also declined to petition Parliament (as proposed
by the Vestry of Mile End Old Town) that the election of
Churchwardens and Overseers should be continued to the inhabitants
in open Vestry.
The Vestries of St. Pancras and Shoreditch have each set on foot
movements in reference to the Main Drainage Scheme, to which
the Board were invited to, and sent a delegate, but, after several
attendances at their meetings, he reported that their deliberations
were not likely to lead to any beneficial result, and was in consequence,
at his own request, recalled. This subject has received the