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object in view; hot in the following February (1871) the Bill
was abruptly withdrawn by direction of the Vestry, without
notice to the Board or any explanation, either then or at any
subsequent time.
The Board at once resolved to urge upon the Secretary of
State the necessity for re-opening the Inquiry, but on the faith
of representations made on behalf of the Beckenham Vestry that
the withdrawal of the Bill was due to objections to its general,
rather than special object, and that there was still a sincere desire
on the part of the parish authorities to carry the proposed
arrangement with this Board into effect, negociations were reopened
with the Vestry with that object.
In the session of 1870-l, however, the jurisdiction under
which the Secretary of State had acted was, by "The Local
Government Board Act, 1871," transferred to the poor Law
Board, under the name of the Local Government Board, and by
the delays and difficulties consequent upon such change of jurisdiction,
the Board were prevented from applying to Parliament
in the session of 1871-2. In that session "The Public Health Act,
1872," was passed, by which the authority of the Beckenham
Vestry under the Sewage Utilization Acts was taken from them
and vested in the Guardians of the Bromley Union as the rural
sanitary authority. The Board, however, were determined not to
lose the opportunity of another session of Parliament in putting
an end to the gratuitous use by Beckenham of their sewers; and
immediately on the Public Health Act being passed, they resumed
with the Bromley Guardians the negociations which had been
carried on with the Vestry, and notwithstanding urgent appeals
by the Guardians for delay, the Board removed all doubt which
might have existed as to their intentions by passing a resolution
on the 7th November, 1872, that all sewers and drains in the
Parish of Beckenham flowing into sewers vested in the Board
should be disconnected therefrom on the loth of the same month,
unless in the meantime the terms of arrangement then recently
proposed were accepted, or some counter proposal were made by
the Guardians in the spirit of such arrangement, and the necessary
preliminary steps were taken for an application to Parliament to
sanction the same.
Under this pressure the Guardians consented to concur with