§ MR. HOWELL (Bethnal Green, N.E.)asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether, in the event of the clauses relating to the government of London, in the Local Government Bill, failing to pass into law this Session, the Government will, in consequence of the disclosures which have recently taken place, consider the propriety of dissolving the Metropolitan Board of Works, and of temporarily handing over the whole of its authority to, and of vesting its powers in, a Royal Commission, until Parliament shall determine as to the government of London by the creation of the proposed County Council?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Mr. W. H. SMITH) (Strand, Westminster)I am not prepared to admit the probability of the contingency referred to by the hon. Member; and therefore it is not at all necessary to consider what should be done in the event of such a contingency.