HC Deb 08 March 1866 vol 181 cc1710-1
MR. HUNT

said, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department a question respecting a Bill that had gone up to the other House—the Cattle Plague Bill. He understood that the Bill was likely to be returned to the House that night, with certain Amendments; and inasmuch as the Courts of Quarter Session are waiting to see the law before making new orders, he wished to ask the right hon. Gentleman, Whether he will undertake that the Lords' Amendments will be considered to-morrow?

SIR GEORGE GREY

said, he understood that the Bill had been referred to a Select Committee of their Lordships, and that many notices of Amendments had been given. It would be quite impossible, there- fore, to say in what state the Bill would come down from the other House, and it was due both to the House and to the country that hon. Members should have full opportunity of considering the measure in its altered condition.

MR. CHAMBERS

said, he would beg to ask, whether the attention of the Home Secretary has been called to the serious inconvenience caused to the inhabitants of the Metropolis by the refusal of the Magistrates of Middlesex and other neighbouring counties to allow manure to cross the boundaries of their districts?

MR. BARING

said, that the Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works had called the attention of his right hon. Friend (Sir George Grey) to the inconvenience caused by the orders of the magistrates in the counties referred to by the hon. Member. Sir John Thwaites expressed his fear that, on account of the refusal of the magistrates to allow the manure to be sent from the city into the country, the public health might be endangered. He (Mr. Baring) had communicated with some of the magistrates, and trusted that arrangements might be made to obviate the difficulty. The Cattle Plague Bill contained some provisions with reference to the subject, and when the Bill came down from the House of Lords, the House could introduce into it any provisions which might seem desirable. Under these circumstances, the Government did not intend to issue any Order of Council upon the subject.