.ZE a Minister with a small and by no means
solid majority TN undertaking to do their public works for them- 1_ objection about incompetence and inexperience. The Corn- For example, Mr. Gladstone is committed to attempt some mittee will have experts to help it, and is just as corn- scheme of Irish Home-rule ; but he is not committed to give petent to judge about foremen's work as about contractors' the Irish Parliament and Government even virtual inde- work, and, indeed, rather more so, for it will be much less which should be pondered carefully by every student of Municipal affairs. He was asked whether his proposals "would not enormously increase the rates," and he replied thus :—" Quite so ; it could only be done by increasing the local rates very much, and in my opinion that is one of the very best things that could be done. It would open up an opportunity for investment, stimulate the healthy circulation of capital, and well repay the outlay." The tendency to vast extravagance, extravagance in millions—for a "public work" to benefit London can never be small, and the Council is magnificent in its ideas—will be greatly increased by another resolution at which the Council has arrived. It is going, under the inspiration of "modern ideas," to try if it cannot hold the balance more even between hand-work and the workers of the brain. Everybody in its employ possessed of ten fingers is to be liberally paid, so that he may be a happy son of toil, and may set an example in the general labour market. That is, he will have, if we understand the figures, about 5s. a week above market rate. This is very nice for him, and may be very proper—we believe in good wages when equally good work is given—but its effect on the cost of all works will be an increase of about 20 per cent., repaid possibly in better work, but still taken out of the little surplus left to that unhappy ratepayer. He will see splendid vistas opened through London slums, grand lodging-houses erected for workmen only, and stone in use where now is brick ; but those gratifications of his taste and his philanthropy will all have been secured at the cost of deductions from his dinner. He cannot, however, com- plain, for the Council on another side of its head is going to be the most economical of public bodies. It does not quite agree with Mr. John Burns that nobody is worth a salary of more than £500 a year ; but it considers that remark a close approximation to the truth. Accord- ingly, it is going to pay its chief professional adviser in the Department of Public Works the magnificent salary of X700 a year. The unhappy man selected is to be Chief Engineer, Chief Architect, Chief Surveyor, Chief Builder, Chief Clerk of Works, and Chief Controller of Labour to the Government of what is really a nation ; and he is to be content with that salary. He is not, that we know of, to have the benefit of an. Eight-Hours Act—that is for handicraftsmen exclusively—and he is to have fifteen masters, each, no doubt, endeavouring to do his duty, and fussing, as Committeemen do, in the doing of it. We do not object ; for if any competent person is willing to pledge himself to do that work, and suffer that torture for that remuneration, we can but pity his extreme neces- sity; but we would just point out that the total arrange- ment can hardly be called cheap. The Council, wholly apart from the risk it will run of being cheated, underpaid men sometimes paying themselves, will, by starving the brains through which its workmen are to be guided, save at the outside £2,000 a year ; while by paying its hands 5s. a week over market rate, it will expend for every ten thousand men in its employ—and by-and-by it will em- ploy fifty thousand at least—over £100,000 a year. It may be quite right. The new wisdom, according to which the generalship at the head of an army does not signify if only the private soldier be fat, may be justified by the result ; but at least, let us not be told that it is economical. The Councillors may be enlightened benefactors leading the way to a new Utopia where all men shall get corn without ploughing ; but at least let them acknowledge that they are meanwhile going to make ratepayers pay for their grand social experiments. There is not the slightest danger in making the acknowledgment. Well-to-do Londoners have never, that we know of, revolted against rates yet, and would not, were they raised to 20s. in the pound, it being easier to quit London than to fight a vestry ; and as for ill-to-do Londoners, they, we doubt not, share the opinion of Mr. Tom Mann, and think that heavy rates, spent extravagantly on "improvements," "stimulate the circulation of capital."
There is one side-point in the new arrangement which it might be worth the while of statesmen to consider. The Council, if it gets the powers it is now seeking, powers to tax and to borrow, and to spend on improvements, will have rather a formidable army at its disposal. It will probably employ in the end at least fifty thousand men ; and fifty thousand navvies, bridge-builders, bricklayers, and drain- age labourers, paid by one paymaster, and directed by one will, would be a good deal stronger than any police force, and might not only make, but succeed in, an ugly rush en Westminster. Suppose Parliament refused further borrow- ing powers, and the Council, with the full approval of its industrial army, whose wages would be at stake, deter- mined that they should be conceded. Will a collision be entirely out of the question ? Every Councillor will at once shout : " Yes ; " but every Councillor has, perhaps, not read with care the recent history of Melbourne and Sydney, capitals not yet greatly troubled with Anarchists, or men who do not speak English.
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