Colonel T. Woodwished to postpone for a week the second reading of the St. Mary lebone Parish Paving Bill, as he understood from the hon. Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. M. Sutton) that certain clauses of the bill were objected to.
§ Sir B. Hallwas of opinion that the bill should be divided into two parts, as it related to different objects.
§ Mr. Wakleyhoped the gallant Member 218 would do no such thing. He did not want to see the bill broken into fragments, and he trusted that it never would be passed in any shape. The statement that the gallant Member had had some communication with the Government was an alarming intimation for Marylebone, and for all parishes that were governed by local acts. He could see no necessity for such a measure. The parish of Mary lebone, the population of which was now, he believed, 180,000, had been governed under the present system, in a satisfactory way, for ten years. [" No, no."] Gentlemen opposite cried "No, no." What did they mean by that expression? He would assert that Marylebone had been satisfactorily governed with respect to the majority of the inhabitants. Was the government of the parish to be carried on exclusively for the minority? Did Gentlement opposite wish to take the government of the parish from the majority and give it to the minority? If they did not mean that, they meant nothing. As the parish was at present governed, the rates were reduced, the parish debts were reduced, and greater content was manifested on the part of the poor than under the former system. Whence, then, the necessity of a change? Why, the fact was, the minority wanted to govern the majority, and, knowing their influence in Parliament, they came down to that House and said, "Let us have the old state of things." He hoped that a different system would be adopted from that which had prevailed in past years, and that Government would act, with respect to private bills affecting large interests, in the same way as if they were public bills. The measure then before the House had created a violent commotion throughout the whole of that extensive parish to which it related; there was a very strong feeling on the subject amongst the ratepayers of that parish, and he wondered how the gallant Officer could bring in the bill without consulting the principal ratepayers of the parish. He believed that the gallant Member had been earwigged; and he hoped, when the gallant Member was set right, that he would abandon the measure altogether. A more objectionable bill he had never seen in that House, or a bill that was less called for.
Colonel T. Woodsaid, that as to any feeling in the parish against the measure, 219 he knew nothing, Most respectable individuals had called on him, and requested him to introduce the bill. At the proper time he should be ready to state the allegations which were made to him as to the necessity of the measure.
§ Mr. Mackinnonsaid, that having been a churchwarden in the parish of Mary lebone he wished to make a few observations. The present was a bill with which the Government had nothing to do, and the hardship that was complained of arose from the bill introduced by the right hon. Baronet, the Member for Nottingham. By that bill scrutineers were appointed, and five different polling places were selected, the consequence of which was, that one of the districts was overlooked, and there was no security for the proper conducting of the election. The feeling was, that the vestrymen were not elected by the people at large.
§ Sir J. C. Hobhousefelt himself called upon to say a few words after the allusions which had been made by the hon. Gentleman who had just spoken to a measure which he had the honour to introduce. Their laws were not like the laws of the Medes and Persians, and therefore if there were anything defective in the present law, let it be altered. If the act were defective, as regarded the appointment of scrutineers, let that defect be remedied, but this bill did not confine itself to that point. With regard to the general working of the act, which, as an hon. Member had justly observed, had passed almost without opposition, he must say, that in the parish with which he was connected he had found it to work well. If the complaints of the working of the act in Marylebone were well founded, the gallant Colonel was right in endeavouring to improve it. But, it should be remembered, that this was a private bill, introduced for the purpose of getting rid of a public act, and therefore it was necessary that it should be watched most jealously. He protested against the principle of endeavouring, by means of a private bill, to put an end to the operation of a public act which had given general satisfaction.
Mr. M. Suttonsaid, that all the communication which he had made with respect to the bill was, that it contained some clauses to which he objected.
§ Second reading postponed.