Mr. Gladstone and Sir Massey Lopes exchanged on Tuesday a
sort of picket-fire of question and answer in relation to the Local Taxation Bill, and the celebrated resolution for the relief of local at the expense of imperial taxation which Sir Massey Lopes carried last Session. Sir Massey Lopes asked Mr. Gladstone whether, before asking the House to assent to the proposed remission of imperial taxation, he would explain in what way the Government intended to give effect to the resolution he (Sir M. Lopes) had carried last Session. Mr. Gladstone replied that it would be impossible to deal this year with the whole subject of local taxation; that in considering their finan- cial proposals, all they had to do was to consider what were the most urgent calls for relief, and what was the mode of dealing with the available surplus which would, upon the whole, be most for the advantage of the country ; and on that their views had been explained by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was left. open to Sir Massey Lopes, Mr. Gladstone kindly remarked, if he did not like these proposals, to put any proposal of his own for the relief of the county rate- payers out of the surplus, in competition with them,—a sugges- tion of which, we need hardly say, Sir Massey Lopes did not avail himself. We anticipate a rather make-shift Bill from the Government ;—a neutral Bill made to slip through ;—indeed, only a very " slim " measure, as the Americans say, could thread its way through the two Houses this Session.
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