§ MR. M. BROOKSasked the first Commissioner of Works, Whether he is aware that Macclesfield Bridge and the fence along a large portion of the lie-gent's Canal which were destroyed by the explosion of gunpowder in October 1874 have not been rebuilt; that children may frequently be found playing on the bank at this portion of the Canal; that a child of ten years of age recently fell into the Canal and was drowned; and that great inconvenience is experienced by people entering the Park in carriages, as they must now enter at Gloucester Gate or at the entrance at Park Road; and, whether he proposes to order the reconstruction of this Bridge and the repair of the fence of the Canal?
LORD HENRY LENNOX,in reply, said, that he had very little to add to the Answer he gave in the early part of the Session to the hon. Member for Marylebone. He certainly was not aware that children were in the habit of playing on the banks of the canal, and he did not know of the calamity to which the hon. Gentleman referred until he called attention to it. With regard to the inconvenience which persons riding in carriages felt in entering the Park, in consequence of the state of the approach to it, he might remind the hon. Gentleman that, even after the new bridge would be built, nine or ten months must elapse before the necessary accommodation could be made available. With regard to the broken-down fences to which the hon. Gentleman called his attention, he would give directions to have new fences put up. As he then stated, the delay had arisen from certain 1690 legal proceedings which were about to take place.