§ MR. W. EWARTsaid, he would beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council, Whether the attention of the Privy Council has been called to a Memorial from St. Mary's Hospital, and also a Report from the Paddington Vestry, respecting the nuisance to health arising from the foul state of the Grand Junction Canal Basin, and of the wharves adjoining, in the parish of Paddington, and whether they are about to take any steps in relation thereto?
MR. H. A. BRUCEsaid, in reply, that the attention of the Privy Council had been called to the state of the Canal Basin and the water in it, and to the fact that the local authority for sanitary purposes stated that they were unable to suppress the nuisance. A communication was therefore addressed by the Privy Council to the vestry, who explained the steps they had taken during the last fifteen years with re- 1044 gard to the nuisance, and added, that they were now instituting another proceeding, in the nature of an indictment. It was to be hoped that those proceedings would have the desired effect. In the meanwhile it should be known that the medical department of the Privy Council had no other power than that of inquiring into the facts of such cases.