HL Deb 01 June 1865 vol 179 cc1115-6

Moved, That the Bill be now read 3a.

LORD DENMAN

rose to move that the Bill be read the third time that day three months. He thought that a work of this kind, which was, in fact, a great public undertaking, ought not to he intrusted to a private company. There was something in the scheme itself which gave it a doubtful aspect. A scheme for raising a capital of £2,800,000 in order to convey the sewage of the metropolis forty miles for the sake of making a tract of barren lands into water meadows, and to grow rye grass, which, when grown, it was difficult to know to what useful purpose it could he turned, was of an extremely hazardous character. Baron Liebig (whose opinion the noble Lord read at some length) had given his decided opinion that sewage applied to sand was not likely to be productive except in the most limited degree, and concluded by expressing a hope that their Lordships would not, on public grounds, sanction a scheme which was in the highest degree experimental and perhaps visionary.

Amendment proposed, "That the Bill be read a third time that day three months."

LORD REDESDALE

said, that a full inquiry into the details of the scheme had been made by Committees of both Houses, and it would be rather unusual to throwout the Bill now on grounds of that kind.

THE EARL OF HARDWICKE

said, he knew nothing of the merits of the particular plan involved in this Bill, which seemed to be to convert the Maplin Sands into land fit for cultivation; hut as people of small property were frequently induced by the sanction of Parliament to invest their money in these speculative schemes, he thought they should not be too hastily passed. Liebig, the greatest agricultural chemist in the world, looked upon the scheme as impracticable, and was astonished that means had not been taken to test the plan, as it might have been tested, upon a small scale.

LORD CHURSTON

(the Chairman of the Committee) said, that most contradictory evidence had been given as to this scheme; but the Committee thought there was a preponderance in favour of its passing. The question of the probable profits was one for the people themselves who put money into the speculation.

On Question,That("now") stand Part of the Motion? their Lordships divided:—Contents 49; Not Contents 4: Majority 45: Resolved in the Affirmative.

Bill read 3a accordingly, with the Amendments; further Amendments made; Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.