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and thereupon such Vestry or District Board was to proceed to
execute such works, under the authority and with the powers con
ferred upon them by the above-mentioned Act, as amended by the
intended Act; and the cost of the necessary works was to be made
a charge—general or special, as the Metropolitan Board might
determine—upon the ratepayers and owners of riverside property
in the neighbourhoods affected by inundations.
Shortly after the introduction of the Bill into Parliament, this
Board proceeded to consider its provisions; and, at the solicitation
of the Vestry of Lambeth, appointed delegates—viz., Messrs
Thorn, Cozens, and Goodwin—to attend at the Lambeth Vestry
Hall, and confer with that Vestry and other riparian parishes and
districts whose interests were affected by the proposed measure
After several conferences had been held, it was resolved by the
assembled delegates to oppose the Bill, on the ground that the
necessary works for preventing inundations would constitute a
metropolitan improvement, and as such should be paid for out of
the funds of the Metropolis at large.
This Board concurred in the above-mentioned resolution, considering
that it would be unjust to the ratepayers and inhabitants
of waterside districts to charge them with the entire cost of the
works as proposed by the Bill; they being the principal sufferers
by the inundations, and having contributed a rateable proportion
of the cost of the northern and other embankments of the Thames,
besides other extensive works in various parts of London: but as
the interests of the several parishes and districts represented at the
conference were not absolutely identical upon all points, this Board
resolved to take separate action in opposing the Bill.
A petition was accordingly prepared on behalf of this Board and
presented to Parliament, praying that such Bill might not pass into
a law as it then stood, and that the petitioners might be heard by
themselves, their counsel, agents, and witnesses, against the
preamble and clauses thereof; and, if need were, in support of
amendments and provisions for the protection of the district under
the care of this Board.
The Bill was read for the second time on the 7th March last, and
referred to a Selcct Committee of the House of Commons, before