Page:On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom.djvu/55

49 , the reply of Lord Granville, on the part of the Government, being that "the Home Office was in communication with Lord Robert Montagu, who had introduced a measure on the subject into the other House, and he (Lord Granville) hoped a satisfactory measure would be framed."

On the 8th March following, Lord Robert Montagu, in a most able and exhaustive speech, moved the second reading of the "River Waters Protection" Bill.

This Bill, however, owing to strong objections being felt by the House to its machinery, was, in deference to a generally expressed wish, withdrawn, though at the same time the enormous extent and dangerous nature of the nuisance it sought to arrest, and the pressing necessity for legislative action, were admitted to have been fully established by Lord Robert Montagu's masterly exposition.

On the 17th of the same month a deputation from the Fisheries Preservation Association, including in it Lords Robert Montagu and Ebury and other influential persons, had an interview with the Home Secretary, when it most earnestly represented to Sir George Grey the urgent need there was for the Government, on the supreme ground of the public health, and in the interest of the fisheries, taking prompt and energetic steps to abate an evil which had now become so vast and in every way so baneful.

The result of this interview was the issuing by Sir George Grey on the 18th May following of a Royal Commission "to inquire into the best means of preventing the pollution of rivers.

Extracts from the several reports of this Commission on the Thames, the Lea, and the Aire and Calder have been given at pages 25—27, 28—30, 32—38.

In the Session of 1866 the "Thames Navigation Act" (29 and 30 Vic, cap. 89) passed, containing certain