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52
I venture to say this with some emphasis, because I am well
aware that the opponents of the unification of London endeavoured
to alarm the Vestries and District Boards of London
by the fear of supersession. But you will remember that a
Royal Commission was appointed to deal with this matter, which
has guided the Councils of the Government in framing its Bill,
and the words it uttered on this subject have no halting or
faltering sound. They say, "In considering the government of
the metropolis we must take note of existing facts, and London
already contains within itself a large number of separate areas,
administered with varying but, in many cases, considerable
success, and possessing attributes of local life which could not be
wisely weakened or endangered. So far as this local life exists
outside the City it is in connection with the Vestries and with
the District Boards of Works set up by the Act of 1855 for the
management of such affairs as can be efficiently administered
locally, and with these ready at hand it would be, in our opinion,
most unwise to discard a system which goes far to meet this
very difficulty of size which has formed such an obstacle in
dealing with the question of London government." You will
remember—those of you who have studied that report—that in
the latter passages of the report, far from wishing to degrade or
minify the district bodies of the metropolis, it proposes to raise
them by making their chairmcn mayors, and although that is
an open question, yet I do not despair of addressing in this hall
the mayor of Clerkenwell—(cheers)—subordinate, of course, to
the mayor who will preside over the central body of the
metropolis.
I also read to you that extract for another reason, because
the Bill of the Government for the unification of London, which
is in type, which is ready to be launched at any favourable moment,
follows almost strictly and literally the recommendations
of that Commission. If you have apprehensions as to the loss
of your district life, I think that a perusal of that report—which
in itself will well repay perusal—will dismiss and chase away
all those fears. I see the Chairman of the London County
Council in the corner there. I daresay if he were free to speak
—and I hope you will not give him the opportunity of speaking,
because I am sure he will ask the question I am going to put
for him—he will ask why, if the Government is so zealous—why,
if it has the Bill ready, why, if all the artillery is ready, is it not
discharged ? Well, I shall not answer that question. (Laughter.)
It implies such a lamentable disregard oi the conditions of Parliamentary
life—(laughter)—that to answer it to anybody above
the lowest standard in a Board school would be almost to insult
their intelligence. I am quite sure that Mr. Arnold knows the
answer as well I do; and though, if he has an opportunity, he