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has contributed much towards the West, and has received but little
in return, would meet with any opposition in Parliament, and the
Vestry was astonished to find that an antagonistic movement was
fostered in the House itself, ostensibly led by Mr. Groldney, Member
for Chippenham, and Mr. Locke, Member for Southwark, who
succeeded in obtaining the appointment of a large Committee, and
treating the Bill as of a hybrid character, and the first-named
Member being appointed Chairman, those two gentlemen persistently
led the opposition throughout. The Vestry of St. Mary, Islington
and the Board of Works of Plumstead, opposed the Bill, and appeared
by Counsel against it. Had the Bill have been dealt with as an ordinary
private Bill, and referred to a Select Committee in the usual
way, neither of those opposing parties would have had any locus standi,
and it is not considered that under any circumstances their opposition
would have had any weight with a purely unbiassed Committee. But
the course they took served to enable Mr. Goldney and Mr. Locke to
suggest reasons for rejecting the Bill, which they did. Two Members
voting for the passing, viz., Mr. Headlam and Dr. Brewer, and six
against it, viz., Mr. Groldney, Mr. Cowper Temple, Mr. Locke, Lord
Elcho, Mr. Fellows, and Mr Morrison. Two others were absent when
the decision was given. The following is the Resolution of the Committee,
by which the Bill was rejected:—
"That the widening of High Street, Shoreditch, although in
" itself an important improvement of an arterial communication,
" does not appear to have been considered as part of a general plan
" for the improvement of the thoroughfares of the Metropolis, or to
" have been compared in point of urgency with other similar im"
provements, and being proposed on a different footing from other
" improvements of a similar nature, which have been paid for partly
" by contributions from the districts and partly from the general
" rates, it is expedient that, before granting to the Metropolitan
" Board of Works the powers sought for by the 'Metropolitan
" Board of Works (Shoreditoh Improvement) Bill,' a general plan
" for the improvement of the main communications of the Metro"
polis, and the mode in which the cost of such improvements
" should be apportioned between the whole Metropolis and tho