All the municipal vestries and councils within the Metropolitan District,
except that of Westminster, have protested against Mr. Mill's plan of governing London through a federation of corpora- tions. A deputation representing them all was received by Mr. Hardy on Wednesday, and stated that the expense of the proposed change would be unbearable. Mr. Hardy said he disliked the federal project, and would urge his colleagues to resist it, and hinted that London wanted nothing except an Act compelling any vestry which failed to perform its duty to perform it efficiently. Mr. Hardy observed that he did not speak for the Govern- ment, but it is clearly the intention of the Government to neglect London a little longer, to leave the gleatest city in the world in the hands of some eighty or so councils, vestries, boards, and commissions, with conflicting powers, ill-defined authority, insufficient revenues, and imperfect responsibilities. Revolu- tionary in all else, the Government will at least be conservative of disorganization in the capital.
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