HC Deb 04 August 1846 vol 88 cc341-2
SIR DE LACY EVANS

rose to ask the Attorney General if he would propose an Amendment of the law, affording means of obtaining compensation in the following case, viz.: in the poorer part of St. John's parish, Westminster, there are various persons who have resided for a series of years in the same dwellings without leases, relying on the good faith of their landlords that they would not be dispossessed; and whose families have been supported, and livelihood depends on the good will or business connexion they have established in the locality—they are now about to be removed compulsorily without compensation, and their houses taken down, in order to construct new streets, under the provisions of a "Westminster Improvement Act," passed last year, empowering a building company or association to this effect.

The ATTORNEY GENERAL

replied, that although every one would admit the hardship, yet the question of landlord and tenant's relative rights was so complicated, that it was wholly impossible the hardship could be satisfactorily remedied.

SIR DE LACY EVANS

felt it to be his duty not to let the matter rest.