§ MR. SAMUELSONsaid, he would beg to ask the Vice President of the Council, Whether his attention has been called to the fact that, notwithstanding the warning which the local authorities at Liverpool had received in the occurrence of recent cases of cholera, accumulations of night soil had been allowed to remain on waste ground near populous parts of the town from which typhus fever was never absent?
MR. BRUCE,in reply, said, he had received an unofficial intimation of this state of things, but the hon. Member did not seem to be aware that, though the Privy Council had power to institute inquiries in cases where epidemics had broken out, they had no power to compel the local authorities to adopt precautionary measures beforehand with regard to any particular nuisance. There was a Bill now before a Select Committee of the House by which a power of this nature was proposed, but at present nothing could be done by the Privy Council.