§ MR. LOCKEsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to introduce this Session any Bill to amend or vary the provisions of the Metropolitan Board of Works Loans Act, 1869; and, if so, whether such Bill would be introduced at an early period; and, if the Government is aware that the Metropolitan Board have introduced three Private Bills which, if passed, would extend their borrowing powers to the amount of £275,000 in excess of the ten millions fixed as the maximum in the said Act of 1869?
MR. BRUCE, in reply, said, he believed that a Bill was in course of pre- 493 paration to explain and amend the Board of Works Loans Act, 1869; but it had not yet been finally settled or submitted to the judgment of the Government. As to the three Private Bills to which the hon. Member referred, it was quite true that it was proposed to create stock under the Loans Act to provide the funds necessary to complete the improvements contemplated by those three Bills. Of course, those proposals stood on their own merits; but there was nothing new in their principle, similar Bills having been introduced last Session.