A meeting of delegates from the London Vestries was held
on Friday week, in St. Martin's Vestry Hall, to discuss Mr. Cross's Water Bill, which was defended by the chairman, Mr. Wather- ston, representing St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, but very roughly treated by the majority. Mr. Berry (St. George's) thought Mr. Cross had been a great deal too liberal with the public money ; Mr. Morton (Wandsworth) condemned the Bill as bad from beginning to end, and thought Mr. Cross had deceived the public ; Mr. Lambert (Lewisham) desired a memorial to the Government to abandon the Bill ; Mr. Stevens (Rotherhithe) wanted the Bill got rid of entirely ; Mr. Reed (Marylebone) thought the new Government would show greater regard to the public good ; and Mr. Downs (Piccadilly) said the view of his vestry was " utter condemnation of the Bill in its entirety." Finally, a resolution was passed by nine to seven that " the meet- ing disagreed entirely with Mr. Cross's Water Bill, and declared it to be entirely objectionable." There seemed to be an impres- sion in the meeting that the new Government might take up the Water Bill, but that must be entirely unfounded. The new Government is much more likely to hand the Water Trust over to the Metropolitan Board. It should, however, before taking any action at all, call for a nominal return of all persons who bought and sold shares within three months of the Dissolution, with the amount of those shares. We must not have a second scene of the kind that occurral last Session.
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