A letter of protest, signed by thirty of the Moderates
of the London County Council, and subsequently approved by six others, has been addressed to Lord Rosebery, in his capacity as Chairman. The main ground of the protest is the action taken by the Council in regard to a petition on the question of taxation, which they are about to press upon the attention of Parliament. The petition asks that the Legisla- ture "shall provide forthwith that the burden of all future loans for permanent improvements shall fall upon such per- sons as the law shall direct, all private contracts notwith- standing." The vagueness of a proposal which asks Parliament to assent to burdens being put upon unknown shoulders is bad enough, but the next clause of the motion adopting the petition is far worse. In it the Council declare that they will "postpone all new loans for such improvements which can be postponed without grave inconvenience until Par- liament has so provided." In other words, they say that, unless Parliament will hang up a sort of fiscal sword of Damocles over certain persons now unknown, they will not carry out the Metropolitan improvements which they have been specially sent to accomplish. In order, however, to realise fully the impudence and fatuity of this proposal, it is necessary to look at the previous history of the petition.
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