But, lest the noble lords who have opposed the motion, should think their honour engaged in continuing the opposition, I take the liberty, my lords, to move that the previous question may be put.

[Other lords spoke on each side; at last the previous question was put by the president, who demanded, “Is it your lordships’ pleasure, that the question be now put?  Those lords who are for it, say, Content:  those who are against it, say, Not content.”  There was, accordingly, a cry of both; after which the president declared, “the contents have it;” and some lords replying, “the non-contents have it,” his lordship said, “the non-contents must go below the bar:”  which is the manner of dividing the house.  Those who remained being told in their seats, and those who went out being told at coming in again, there were Content, 81; Not content, 54:  so that the resolution moved for, passed without a division.]

HOUSE OF COMMONS, FEB. 24, 1740-1.

[DEBATE ON CLEANSING THE CITY OF WESTMINSTER.]

Lord TYRCONNEL made a motion for bringing in a bill for the better cleansing and paving the streets of Westminster, and the liberties thereof; in support of which motion he spoke to the following purpose:—­

Sir, though the grievance which I am about to lay before the house is not of the most formidable or dangerous kind, yet as it is such as grows every day greater, and such as every day endangers the lives of thousands, I hope it will not be thought useless or improper to propose it to the consideration of this assembly, to offer my thoughts on the methods by which it may be most easily removed, and to endeavour to incite others to the same considerations.

It is impossible, sir, to come to this assembly, or to return from it without observations on the present condition of the streets of Westminster; observations forced upon every man, however inattentive, or however engrossed by reflections of a different kind.

The warmest zeal for publick happiness, the most anxious vigilance against general dangers, must, I believe, sometimes give way to objects of immediate, though of less importance, nor will the most publick-spirited senators deny, that they have often been in the streets alarmed with obstructions, or shocked with nuisances.

The filth, sir, of some parts of the town, and the inequality and ruggedness of others, cannot but in the eyes of foreigners disgrace our nation, and incline them to imagine us a people, not only without delicacy, but without government, a herd of barbarians, or a colony of hottentots.

The most disgusting part of the character given by travellers, of the most savage nations, is their neglect of cleanliness, of which, perhaps, no part of the world affords more proofs, than the streets of the British capital; a city famous for wealth, and commerce, and plenty, and for every other kind of civility and politeness, but which abounds with such heaps of filth, as a savage would look on with amazement.