View report page

19
be the merits or demands of the Bill it will of course receive a
careful consideration by the Sanitary Authorities.*
Metropolitan Local Government.
The Queen's speech at the opening of the present Session
intimated that the Government would introduce a Bill for
improving the Local Government of the Metropolis. The state of
public business before Parliament has prevented the introduction
for this Session of any such measure, and although many conjectures
have been made as to the nature of the promised Bill none
are reliable. The only intimation that has been given upon which
any opinion as to the character of the intended reform can be based
is a remark by the Home Secretary, to a deputation, intimating
that the Government would endeavour to utilise rather than destroy
existing institutions, which would seem to point to a form of Local
Government for purely Local affairs, and a Central Municipal
* Since the above was written an Article from the pen of Sir Richard A. Cross,
on the "Homes of the Poor in London," has appeared in the Nineteenth Century.
As Sir Richard was also the author in the main of the Parliamentary Committee's
Report, the one is, as might be expected, almost the echo of the other. It is only
natural that the ex-Home Secretary should endeavour, by explanation and subsequent
legislation, to rescue his special work from the discredit of utter failure, but so far
as his article—which, from such a source, may be regarded as a semi-official
utterance—is concerned it cannot be said that he has done so. If the article is not
disingenuous it is certainly circumscribed in view, and misleading. In speaking of
Torrens's Acts he makes no allusion to the fact that every Order made by the Vestry
may be the subject of a vexatious and costly appeal, and that most Orders have been
so appealed against. He treats the Compensation and Purchase clauses in the
Amending Act as additional reasons why the Acts should be enforced, when in fact
they arc still greater deterrents to its operation, and thinks that the want of action
on the part of the Vestries is due to a misapprehension that his own Act obviated the
necessity of the Vestries' interference. He admits that the putting into force of his
Act, by the Metropolitan Board, has cost the Metropolis a nett sum of £1,115,500,
but he does not say, which is a fact, that it has not resulted in the seven years since
it passed in the supply of a single dwelling. He does admit that nearly all that has
been done in this respect is by private enterprise. He urges " That no time should
be lost by the authorities of the City of London, by the Metropolitan Board, by the
Vestries and District Boards, each in their own special province, in giving full effect
and without delay to all statutory powers for the removal of so much evil and for
the accomplishing of so much good; " and one of the inducements to the Vestries
to so exert themselves is the increased rating which new and better premises will
bring, forgetting that in the first place the parishes where these improvements are
most required are the poorest parishes and consequently unable to sustain the
burden, secondly, that if increased rating is to be got from working class dwellings,
the working classes must pay the increase or be overcrowded on the improved site,
and thirdly, that much of the proceeds of rates, ordinary or increased, in any parish
goes outside the Parish altogether, and is therefore not applicable for the payment
of principal or interest on loans incurred for such local improvements.