legislature thinks fit. We only ask for fair
play; and that if purchase be decided on, the
value of existing interests shall be decided by
competent authorities, and not taken at the
haphazard computations of vestrymen and their
friends. You want your gas to be better and
cheaper than at present, and you cite Manchester
and Plymouth, as examples of towns in which
the gas supply is in the hands of local authorities,
and where low prices are charged. Let us
examine each of these representative cases, and
see how far London is subject to the same
rules. At Manchester the principle of monopoly
has been uniformly sanctioned, one capital
instead of three or four has done the work,
and the expenditure inseparable from competition
been avoided. It is, moreover, so near the
great coal-fields, that Cannel can be supplied at
a less price than we, the London companies,
pay for ordinary Newcastle coal; labour is far
cheaper than here; and a great portion of the
original capital having been paid off out of
profits, it necessarily follows that a comparatively
small charge per thousand feet suffices to pay
a dividend on the capital as reduced. It is
but fair to remember that the present
Manchester price of three shillings and twopence
per thousand feet was only reached in 1865;
and that from 1848 to 1859, inclusive, the charge
was five shillings per thousand feet. It was
considerably above twelve shillings a thousand
at one time, and did not go below ten shillings for
many years. The amount of the bond-debt now is
only some three hundred and forty-eight thousand
pounds. Manchester, therefore, having paid for
its gas at a rate which, besides yielding good
interest, has cleared off half the capital laid out in
its production, is now reaping the benefit of past
prudence in a reduction of price. At Plymouth,
the minimum illuminating power the company
is bound to supply is but ten candles, while the
minimum standard imposed on the metropolitan
companies by the act of 1860 is twelve candles.
I think you'll agree that no true comparison of
prices can be made which does not take into
consideration the difference of quality in the
article supplied; and as wages and other
expenses of manufacture are also on a much lower
scale than in London, it would be found, if all
circumstances, such as recent reduction and
previous high charges, as at Manchester, were
considered, that gas is not cheaper there than
here. You smile at all this, but I can assure
you that a case has been made out most unfairly
against the London gas companies, and popular
prejudice is so strong that we have difficulty in
getting a hearing.

"We've earned a bad name by being arbitrary?
That is because gas-charges are looked upon as
rates, and so share the genuine English
abhorrence of taxation. But the conduct of our
opponents and the statistics hatched up against us
are curiosities of unfairness. Rely on this, that
in every town where a lower rate is charged for
gas than in London, the fact is susceptible
of other explanation than the common one of
exorbitance of charge here. When the select
committee of the House of Commons sat last
session, we were anxious to prove this, as we
could easily have done; but the chairman told
our counsel that the committee did not consider
such evidence relevant to the inquiry, as the
circumstances were not similar to those in
London. It is a fact that a large majority
of provincial towns charge higher rates than
we do; and as for the benefits to be derived from
corporation management, look at Middleton,
where the local authorities buy coal at five
shillings and tenpence a ton, and charge five shillings
a thousand feet for their gas. You know how
metropolitan consumers clamoured at one time
for competition as the proper means of obtaining
cheap lighting, and that as many as three
companies in the City, and four in the best part of
the West-end, were encouraged to lay pipes and
supply gas in the same streets. Joint-stock
companies, you must remember too, introduced
the improved system of lighting, and took all
risks upon themselves; and the capital sunk must
be considered before deciding upon change.

"What is the best mode of remedying existing
evils of supply? Simply putting the act of
parliament into operation. When it was decided
by the House of Commons that the inconvenience
of competition exceeded its advantages,
and that having streets torn to pieces and
traffic suspended, in order that rival companies
might discover which pipes and mains were out
of order, was a public nuisance; the grosser evils
of monopoly were carefully guarded against.
The companies had distinct districts assigned to
them, but adequate legal machinery was
provided to keep them in check. Thus, any
vestry, any local board of works, or any twenty
inhabitant householders, may call upon the home
secretary to send a competent inspector to
examine and report upon the quantity and quality of
the gas supply. That high functionary is bound
to act on his inspector's report, and the
companies are bound in their turn to remedy what
is amiss. Will you believe that, during the
seven years this act has been law, it has never
once been put into operation, nor attempted to be
put into operation, beyond the limits of the City?
'Inhabitant householders' groan under what they
conceive to be an oppressive tyranny, and all
because no one takes the trouble to inquire how
the law stands, or how it may be worked. Surely
it would be more in accordance with common
sense to use the machinery provided to bring us
to book than to indulge in vague denunciations
and complaints. If it can be shown that our gas
is either inferior in quality or higher in price
than is warrantable, remove the monopoly and
let another company meet us on common ground.
If the Board of Works, that 'fortuitous
concourse of vestries,' is to make gas, supply gas,
and be the supreme judge of the purity of the
article it manufactures and vends, I don't
suppose the companies will have the faintest objection
to hand over their plant and responsibilities
at an equitable price. These companies, you
must remember, are private enterprises, existing
under the sanction of legislative enactments, and
upon conditions settled after three years'
parliamentary investigation. On the faith of these