METROPOLIS WATER SUPPLY BILL. (Hansard, 24 June 1852)

§ The EARL of LONSDALE
moved the Second Reading of this Bill, and said, that one great question relating to this measure was the settlement of the rates. He thought the effect of this measure would be greatly to reduce the rates of profit on the part of the water companies. At present their rates of profit might be said to vary from 5 to 10 per cent—the average being about 7 per cent. He believed the effect of this measure would be to reduce the profits to an average amount of 4 per cent. The general effect of the measure, he believed, would be a great boon to the middle classes of the metropolis. After thirty years of fighting and quarrelling, they had at last come to an understanding and an arrangement which, he believed, would give general content to all classes, and he therefore hoped that no opposition would be offered to the second reading of the Bill.

§ The EARL of SHAFTESBURY
would not oppose the Motion; but he hoped that this Bill would not become an obstacle to other measures which might be brought forward in some future Session of Parliament, as he had no doubt whatever that this could not be considered as a final settlement of the question. There must be some future measure, founded on some better principle for ensuring a sufficient and cheap supply of water. He objected both to the principle of this Bill, and to several of its details; but he would not detain the House at present with recounting his objections. He must, however, protest against this—that, owing to the late period at which the Bill came before their Lordships' House, they were not allowed to hear or to read any evidence upon the subject. No time was allowed for deliberation, nor were they permitted to refer it to a Select Committee. The Bill must be passed at once, without their Lordships knowing more of it than if it were a Chaldee manuscript.

§ The EARL of DERBY
agreed with 1268 much that had fallen from the noble Earl. The Bill must either be rejected, or it must be passed without duo deliberation. Unfortunately that was the only alternative that was left to them; and if they rejected it, they would cause that all the labours of the other House with regard to this measure must be gone over again in another Session, with the possibility of having again the same termination. It was undoubtedly desirable that their Lordships should have the opportunity of examining not only this particular Bill, but also the various opposing schemes that had been brought forward by other parties; but their Lordships were aware that this measure had occupied much of the time and attention of Parliament for a number of years, and this was the first Session in which, after all the investigation that had taken place, there was any prospect of carrying a measure with the general consent of all the various interests—the interests, he meant, not only of those companies whose rights and privileges, however, it was impossible altogether to overlook, but, to a great extent, of the inhabitants of the metropolitan districts also, whose opinions, so far as they had been able to collect them, were in favour of this measure; and if it were now postponed for another year, it might be questioned whether the same favourable conjuncture of circumstances would again arise. There was no doubt of this, that the Bill did provide for a purer, a more extensive, and a regular supply of water to the metropolis. These were the three objects of the Bill. It placed limits also to the expense at which it was at present to be supplied, and if it did not procure water from all the sources from which the noble Earl thought a supply was available, it, at all events, did provide a supply from purer sources; and at the same time it provided that both in the case of the new and the old sources, an efficient system of filtration should be adopted. It provided also—and upon this he laid great stress—that the supply of water should be constant. These were great advantages; and when the alternative was, as he had said, either to sacrifice all the labours of the other House of Parliament by rejecting this Bill, or to sacrifice some part of the dignity of their Lordships' House by passing it without due deliberation, he did trust that their Lordships would adopt the latter part of the alternative.

LORD CAMPBELL
said, he did not 1269 rise to object to the Bill, but to express his regret that the evils which had existed in the case of all the Governments of his time appeared also to beset the present Government. He alluded to the practice of Bills being sent up from the other House at so late a period of the Session that it was impossible for their Lordships to give them that attention which was their due. He thought it would be much better if, by a system of vigorous legislation, Bills were brought into their Lordships' House at an earlier period of the Session, so that they might meet with the mature deliberation of their Lordships; and he was sure that not the House of Commons only, but the public generally, would be benefited, if their Lordships were at an earlier period of the Session to be employed in the consideration of measures which could afterwards be sent down to the Lower House and finally passed into a law. He trusted Her Majesty's Government would take this suggestion into their serious consideration, for he was sure that by a vigorous proceeding of that kind the business of the Session would be greatly facilitated, and the measures more fully matured.

§ The EARL of DERBY
said, he begged to remind the noble and learned Lord that the present measure was one of a taxing character, and could therefore have been only originated in the other House. He might further state that, if the noble and learned Lord looked to the Order-book of the House of Commons, he would find there twelve or fourteen Bills standing at various stages, all of which had originated in the House of Lords; and among these were some law Bills, the importance of which he was sure the noble and learned Lord would be the last to undervalue.