§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ MR. AYRTONsaid, the Bill was introduced early in the Session, but owing to the great consideration which the subject required, the second reading had been postponed from time to time, and it was now too late to proceed with the measure in the present Session. He might, however, say, inasmuch as no explanation had as yet been given of its objects, and as it had been made the subject of much misrepresentation, that the Bill had been framed in accordance with the Report of the Committee which had deliberated upon the subject, and that it proposed not to increase 1534 the taxation of the metropolis, but to restrict, regulate, and make its incidence fall more regularly upon the community. To do this, of course some people would be subjected to more taxation than they had hitherto paid, and hence the misrepresentation that had been made. He thought it was impossible to conceive anything more just than that works undertaken for the permanent improvement of the metropolis, and enhancing as they must do the freehold interest of the metropolis, should be in some measure paid for by those who possessed freehold interests. He trusted that the Government would in the recess give some attention to the subject, and bring in next Session a comprehensive measure, dealing not only with the taxation, but the general organization of the metropolis. The hon. and learned Gentleman concluded by moving the discharge of the Order.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ Order discharged: Bill withdrawn.