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6
by the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. This arrangement
might have been equitable, seeing that the roads proposed to
be annexed to St. George's were territorially in the Parish of
St. Martin's, but on the Bill reaching the House of Lords and
being referred to a Select Committee there, further alterations
were made, and it was provided that St. George's should bear
three-sixths of the cost, St. Martin's one-sixth, and the Metropolitan
Board of Works two-sixths, thus restoring in a modified
form the proposal to tax the whole of the metropolis for
the benefit of the two west-end parishes. The Metropolitan
Board of Works again opposed, and most of the District
Boards and Vestries protested against the arrangement, this
Board causing a letter to be forwarded to Mr. Arthur Cohen,
M.P., asking him to oppose the Bill on its being returned to
the House of Commons, which he promised to do. On the
23rd ult., however, the House of Lords, owing to the strong
opposition which the Bill had encountered, resolved itself into
a Committee to consider the amendments, and, on a motion
of Lord Henniker that the House should disagree with them,
the Chairman of the Committee, Earl Jersey, virtually withdrew
them, stating that he would not insist upon their
retention. The Bill was thereupon read a third time minus
the objectionable provisions, and it now only awaits the Royal
Assent to become law (a).
Improvement,
Bear
Lane.
In June, 1886, a plan was submitted by Messrs. Wheeler
and Hollands, Architects, on behalf of Sir William Armstrong
and Co., of proposed new buildings at Nos. 1 and 2, Bear Lane,
showing an alteration which they were willing to make in the
line of frontage, giving up to this Board the site of a projecting
angle of the old building and taking in exchange a piece of
land, the property of the Board, at the side, and offering to
contribute ten guineas towards the legal expenses. This
Board, deeming the improvement to be a desirable one, agreed
to carry it out on the terms proposed, bearing and defraying
its own costs in relation to the transfer or exchange of the
properties subject to the contribution referred to. The land
(a) Royal Assent given 5th July.