"While London grew," he said,[160] "the Corporation remained stationary." "The central body must deal with the large affairs, ... a central body doing all the great things." "The central principle of the Bill is this, that there should be some common control over the Vestries which shall give them a uniform action for the benefit of the whole community instead of leaving them as they now are, independent of any such control." "What is the great evil? It is that the metropolis is broken up into fragments acting on a different principle, some doing ill, and those who do well suffering in consequence of the ill-doings of their neighbours." "When the danger (of invasion of cholera) threatens a great metropolis like London, all must desire and want a central authority which should advise, which should assist, which should compel every part of the community to take those measures of precaution which are necessary for the safety of the whole. No such authority exists at this time. "If a Vestry refuses to make sanitary bye-laws, or to carry out a proper system of sanitary inspection, you are absolutely powerless to compel them to do so. A single parish may become a plague-spot in London from which disease may be spread all around, and the Metropolitan Authority have no authority to make the parish do as it ought to do." Mr. Gladstone said[161]:-- "The local government of London is, or, if it is not, it certainly ought to be, the crown of all our local and municipal institutions. "The principle of unity (of London) has already been established under the pressure of necessity as a matter which could not be resisted. It has been established in the Metropolitan Board of Works.... There can be no doubt we have established a principle of unity, and that we have found it satisfactory. "The supply of water and the supply of gas ... two of the most elementary among the purposes of municipal government, have been handed over to private Corporations for the purpose of private profit because you have not chosen to create a complete municipality for the metropolis. "And that is not all. "The defects of the present system are admitted.... Surely if there are these great and intolerable defects they ought to be remedied by the action of some genuine popular local authority. But we have got no genuine popular local authority.... "London, large as it is, is a natural unit--united by common features, united by common approximation, by common neighbourhood, by common dangers--depending upon common supplies, having common wants and common conveniences. "... Unity of Government in the metropolis is the only method on which we can proceed for producing municipal reform." The Bill was strongly opposed in Parliament, and was withdrawn at a late period of the Session, "but its introduction and discussion had done much to awaken interest and mature opinion on the question of the practicability of the government of London by a single municipality."[162]