The most controversial point in the new Local Government Bill
for London is evidently going to be the clause reuniting the scattered fragments of the old city of Westminster into a singlel municipality. On Monday the vestrymen who will be dispossessed by the amalgamation held a meeting of protest, and on Tuesday there was an angry little debate on the subject in the London County Council. It looks, in fact, very much as if there were going to be an alliance of vestrymen and Progressives against the scheme. Our own opinion is distinctly in favour of the Westminster proposal. The new, or rather the older and greater, Westminster will be less a mere city of the rich than the present Vestries of St. George's and St. James's, and it will enjoy the prestige that comes from historical association. We have always defended the London County Council for its actions, if not for its talk, and would do nothing to destroy it or to impair its usefulness, but the talk of Westminster overawing the County Council is pure nonsense,—is about as sen- sible, that is, as the talk of the County Council over- awing Parliament. The Council will have practically the same amount of control, financial and otherwise, over Westminster as it has now over the component Vestries, and, therefore, the plea of breaking up the County Council does not hold.
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