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" districts more immediately and locally benefited, should be pre-
" pared by the Board and submitted to Parliament."
Efforts were made, but unsuccessfully, to obtain the recommittal of
the Bill. Mr. John Holms, the Member for Hackney, however, moved
and obtained an order for the printing of the evidence, and any person
desirous of judging whether the Bill was fairly considered and rejected
on its merits, or by reason of a foregone conclusion, and for ulterior
purposes, is referred to that document, which may be obtained at the
Parliamentary printers, at nine-pence per copy.
Of course, it would be wrong and ill-advised to endeavour to limit
the right or discretion of the House of Commons to enquire fully into
the character and scope of every project submitted to it, which involves
the raising and expenditure of public money, whether it be derived from
local or national taxation; but it does seem hard, if not unjust to the
Parish of Shoreditch and other districts such as Hackney and Bethnal
Green, who are interested in the improvement of this arterial thoroughfare,
that the application to Parliament for a Bill, authorizing this very
urgent work, at a cost of about £275,000, to be spread over the entire
Metropolis, and over a period of sixty years, should have been made the
occasion and pretence for a searching and antagonistic enquiry into the
whole policy of the Metropolitan Board in respect to public improvements,
when it is considered that the East End has contributed heavily,
both by direct and indirect taxation, to the revenue of the Metropolitan
Board, which funds have been expended in the construction of the
Thames Embankment, the improvement of Kensington and Park Lane,
of Covent Garden, Southwark Street, and Holborn, and the formation
of Southwark and Finsbury Parks. The only East End exception
being a comparatively cheap New Road from Limehouse to Mile End,
and the opening of the Commercial Road into Whitechapel, and the
small affair of Shepherdess Walk, which latter trifle is all that the
Parishes of Shoreditch, Hackney, Bethnal Green, and St. Lukes have
collectively obtained in the shape of Metropolitan Improvement.
It is evident from the course taken by the Metropolitan Board in
respect to the Shoreditch Improvement, that that Authority is desirous
of rendering an instalment of justice to the North-East of London, and