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recommendation of the Select Committee of 1877 as to the incidence
of taxation, and praying him to use his influence to procure the
insertion of a clause for giving effect to such recommendation;
and shortly afterwards the Right Honourable Gentleman placed
himself in communication with the Metropolitan Board and a
considerable amount of correspondence ensued. The Bill was
read for the second time on the 28th February, and referred to
a Select Committee of eleven members, six of whom were
appointed by the House of Commons and five by the Committee
of Selection: two were subsequently added, making the total
number thirteen. The Committee met under the Chairmanship
of the Right Honourable "W. E. Forster, and Counsel were heard
on behalf of the promoters and various opponents of the Bill;
Mr. Bidder, Q.C., appearing, as on the former occasion, on behalf
of this Board; ultimately, (after numerous sittings) on the 12th
May, the Chairman announced that the Committee had decided
on passing the preamble of the Bill on the understanding that a
clause, submitted by Sir James M'Garel-Hogg on behalf of the
Metropolitan Board, and designed to meet certain objections raised
by the opponents of the Bill, should be inserted; such clause being
to the effect that nothing in the Bill should authorize that Board
to direct the execution of any works other than were necessary
for the protection of lands within the limits of the Bill from
floods and damage caused by the overflow of the Thames; and
that the Metropolitan Board should have no authority to prescribe
works for any other purpose under the proposed Act; or for
embankments similar in character to those previously executed
under a special Act of Parliament. It was also announced, in
reply to a question of Mr. Bidder, that the Committee had resolved
to leave the incidence of taxation as it stood in the Bill; thereby
casting the expense of the necessary works on the ratepayers and
owners of property in waterside districts, and reversing the decision
of the Select Committee of 1878.