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47
relating to powers and duties which may be considered transferable."
Mr. Millward was appointed on this Committee,
upon the proposition of Mr. Johnson. The Draft Bill submitted
by the Committee was carefully considered, and finally submitted
to the Government, and there is no doubt that the work
of the Conference and the continued representations made to
the Government were instrumental in causing the introduction
of the London Government Bill. But it must also be admitted
that the times were ripe for a new measure of local self-government.
Many of the members were really experts on the subject,
especially Mr. Wheeler, Q.C., Kensington, and Mr. Smith,
the Vestry Clerk of St. Margaret and St. John, Westminster,
who acted as Secretary; on these two gentlemen the burden of
the work fell heavily. The Act as passed is naturally a very
different document to the Bill drawn up by the Conference,
which was necessarily piecemeal and permissive, and was in fact
called " A Bill to facilitate the creation of Municipal Boroughs
in the County of London," &c.
The provisions of the new Act are now generally known to
members of the Vestry, and need not therefore be detailed; by
extinguishing subsidiary bodies and by giving corporate dignity
in the form of Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors, it will do
much to raise the status of the new body. Our attendances
both at the Conference and at the Committee were constant and
numerous, and we desire to thank the Board for giving us the
opportunity, as their representatives, to have some share in producing
a result which we believe will be of very great benefit
to all London.
ARTHUR MILLWARD.
J. JOHNSON.
London Government. — In March, upon the
recommendation of the Committee appointed by
the Vestry to watch the interests of Clerkenwell as
regards the changes proposed by the London
Government Bill, the Vestry called a Conference,
consisting of the Special Committee, the Chairman
and Clerk of each of the following Boards, viz.: —
St. Luke's Vestry, and Holborn and St. Giles District
Board of Works, together with their Committee,
to consider the position of the districts
under the London Government Bill. Such