The majority in the London County Council are much too
Eager. They want to obtain more money to spend without visibly increasing rates, which might end in their dismissal by the voters, and they want also more power to do as they like throughout London, including the City. They, therefore, desire the Government, as it values the Liberal seats for London, which they contend they won, to introduce a Bill, granting them full municipal powers; and a Bill imposing a duty on rents, to be paid, of course, by receivers only; and a Bill crea- ting a municipal death rate on real property ; and a Bill exempt- ing valuations from appeal to any but a special tribunal. Each of these proposals involves principles of the highest importance. and will meet with the bitterest criticism and resistance ; and each must pass through a House whose whole time will be taken up by a Home-rule Bill, and a Bill for the reform of Registration. It would be far wiser to ask for one big Bill a year, and suffer that to be threshed out, carried, and put in operation. There is no necessity for hurry, for if the Council needs money it can, if it will only do it publicly through an increase of rates, tax London ad miserieordiam. The grand list of demands published by the Local Govern- ment and Taxation Committee, and their extreme urgency, suggest a secret fear that if the Council cannot get all it wants in the next Session, it may in the Session after find itself confronted by a different kind of Parliament.
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