The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-24 00:00:00

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1-Jsoavenar.. If the House of Commies rejects or hypo-
tually supporta the cause of reform, the right of the nation
to declare its will becomes irresistible, and the government
will be compelled, by popular indignation, to advise the
dissolution of an assembly which has pronounced itself an
intolerable anachronism.
The Mar describes the speech of the bon. mem-
ber for Birmingham as one of the most thoroughly argu-
mentative, one of the least rhetorical, the orator has ever
delivered. Every true liberal will rejoice, as Mr. Mill, Mr.
Torrens, Mr. Goschen, Mr. Leveson-Gower, and all other
true friends of the people and of parliament rejoice, to aid
in the carrying of a measure which, even judging by bald
arithmetic, will not bring the representation to so
popular a pitch as to call for counterbalances or checks ;
but which, judging by known and well appreciated facts,
will increase the love and veneration of the common
people for the institutions under which they worthily
live. As Mr. Torrens well said last night, it is a technical
and transitory question, on which the opponents of the
bill seek to ruin its fortunes. But no true liberal will
let a technical and transitory question detach him from
the party with which is bound up all that is progressive in
the history and future of our country.

demonstration that, aatiafactory as lard &swill".
reasons in favour of the Amendment might appear
to those who were against the Bill, they must ap-
pear futile to those who were in favour of Reform.
He showed that, supposing, as indeed the Govern-
ment had guaranteed, that the present House of
Commons shoukl deal with the Beata Bill in this
session or the next, it would be in complete com-
mand of its own destinies ; and even supposing a
dissolution between a Eranchiae and a Seats Bill,
such a dissolution must operate against the
Government in the constituencies. Then taking
the member for Caine, and his famous self-
adjusting or self-expanding franchise, he asked
how, if the virtuous portion of the working
classes could obtain the franchise by self-control
and self-denial, it happened that the constituencies
which, according to the statistics presented to
Parliament, contained the largest number of work-
ing class electors, were not those great constituencies
of the North which had behaved so nobly during
the cotton famine, and whose intelligence and
moral superiority were proverbial, but a batch of
towns, principally on the coast, in which, whatever
the character of the working clam portion of the
constituency, it was certainly not superior to
the working class of Rochdale, which still
remained unenfranchised. Mr. GoscuEs
remarked that the confidence in the un-
enfranchised class, so warmly expressed by
the Conservative party, appeared to be condi-
tional on their not having votes, and that it should
desist from educating them to the point of fitness
for the franchise; to drink is less dangerous
for unenfranchised men than to think. The public
will expect with some impatience the reply from
the member for Caine to the member for the City
of London, and will scarcely feel indebted
to Mr. SHERIDAN for insisting as a public duty
on interrupting the Reform debate this even-
ing in order to bring on his motion on the Fire
Insurance Duty. The member for Dudley
doubtless is inspired by zeal for a great
public object, to which he has devoted his
labours and energies not without success;
but he is putting a somewhat severe strain
upon his parliamentary reputation in obstructing
the progress of the Reform debate. It was
hardly to be expected, considering some former
passages between them, that the CHANCELLOR
of the ExcaseuEß would discover an-
other day for the member for Dudley, and
it would have been better if the member for
Dudley, content with his former triumphs, had
preferred loyalty to the party to which he pro-
fesses to belong to the taunting cheers of the
Tories, who snatch every pretext for obstruction
and delay.

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• - • i=
EXPRESS, ft TuESDAYI EVE G, APRIL 24,' 1866.

i"

AItROPOLEW r 4 AL GOVERNMENT AND
TAXATION.

VEST REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE.
This morning was issued the first report of the
select committee appointed to inquire into the local govern-
ment and local taxation of the metropolis.
The committee have deemed it expedient to report in
the first instance upon the local taxation of the metropolis
under the acts constituting the Metropolitan Board of
Works ; and the greater part of this document *mists of
a narrative of the proceedings of the board. According to
this aooount,nearly the whole of the expenditure andobliga.
tions of the board have been incurred for the purpose of
supplying the wants arising from the defects of former
administration of the affairs of the metropolis and of
effecting permanent improvements which have tended to
increase the value of property in the metropolis. The
works undertaken are of such magnitude that the chimps
for them have been extended by parliament over many
years, and their effect will be felt long after all the
charges have been defrayed. The whole of this
expenditure is of a novel character, resulting from
special legislation, imposing new and unforeseen
burdens, and the committee recommend that in any
arrangement of the financial resources of the board
a portion of the charge for permanent improvements and
works should be borne by the owners of property within
the metropolis, the rate being in the first instance paid by
the occupier, and subsequently deducted from his rent.
The committee also recommend that whenever improve-
Iments or other works undertaken by the board are of mag-
nitude and of a permanent character, the charge for them
should be defrayed in the first instance by loans to be raised
by the board on the security of its rates. They add
that in prosecuting their inquiry they will not fail to con-
sider the question of conferring upon the owners of pro-
perty the power of being represented in the Board of
Works. The following clauses in the report relative to
the coal and wine duties in the City of London were stab.
atituted for clauses of a different kind in the
original draft as written by Mr. Ayrton, the chair.
man, at the instance of Lord John Manners. After
alluding to the evidence taken the report says :—" Year
committee cannot but attach great weight to the opinion
thus expressed by the representatives of the metropolitan
board, and the Corporation of the City of London ; and
although evidence has been given by some witnesses as to
the unfair incidence of the tax upon their particular
trades, your committee have no reason to believe that the
existence of the coal and wine duties has exercised a pre.
judicial effect upon any of the industries alleged to suffer
by their imposition. It is further, in the judgment of
your conunittee, no slight recommendation of these duties
that they axe cagily and economically collected, are already
allocated by act of parliament for a term of 161 years to
defray the coat of the several improvements above enume-
rated, and, having enured for a long period of time, do not
excite the hostility which a new tax is likely to incur.
Your committee are therefore of opinion that should the
works already referred to another committee be sanctioned
by it, the coal and wine duties might beneficially be con-
tinued fora further limited period."
In the insertion of the foregoing, Lord J. Manners was
supported by Mr. Tite, Alderman Lawrence, Sr M. W.
Ridley, Mr. Sandford, and Mr. Kekewich. The original
words which condemned the coal tax were supported by
Mr. Bayley, Mr. Baring, Mr. J. S. Mill, and Mr. Locke.
An important passage in the report refers to the heavy
pressure of local taxation in the less wealthy districts of
London, where, in the opinion of the Metropolitan Board,
direct taxation on the occupiers of property has reached its
utmost limits. This is more felt from the fact that,whilst
the burdens which produce inequality are placed
upon districts locally, those which have been
incurred for the benefit of the more wealthy dia.
tricts, and which, if they had been also localised,
would have tended to redress the inequality, have been
made general. " It is apparent," say the committee, " that
if the local taxation of the metropolis were more equal,
and the heaviest burthens were not cast on those least able
to bear them, and the lightest ea those meet able, a much
greater revenue could be raised from direct taxation ; for
if the inhabitants of such districts as St. George-the.
Martyr or Whitechapel have paid rates ranging from 6..9d.
to be. 6d. in the pound, it is obvious that the inhabitants
of St. George's, Hanover-square,Paddington, Kensington'
and St. Margaret's and St. John's, Westminster, could
more easily bear rates to the same extent. A rate ut is. in
the pound (instead of the existing average rate of 3s. 9d.)
over the metropolis, for all the purposes of local govern-
ment, would yield an additional revenue of 181,7681. It
would appear, therefore, that one mode of providing funds
for all local purposes would be found in a nearer approach
to the equalisation of local burthens on the metropolis ;
but as this involves not merely the charges imposed by the
metropolitan board, but the charges for the administration
of the poor-law, it would carry your committee beyond
the scope of their present inquiry."

MILITIA REonivrrs.—The establishment of the
militia regiments of the United Kingdom consisted
lad year of 4,686 officers, 5,027 non-commissioned officers,
and 124,622 privates. There were present at training, on
the day of inspection, 2,478 officers, 4,509 non-commis-
sioned officers, and 85,850 privates. There were absent
from training on the same day 449 officers with leave, 25
officers without leave, 52 non-commissioned officers with
leave, 6 non-commissioned officers without leave, 1,810
privates with leave, and 6,719 privates without leave.
There were wanting to complete 1,734 officers, 474 non-
, commissioned officers, and 30,307 privates. In a note to
the return from which these figures are derived it is
stated in explanation of the large number of " officers
wanting to complete," that the full establishment of
officers has been given, whereas all appointments of
ensigns (second lieutenants in artillery corps) have been
suspended since July, 1860, two supernumerary officers,
in lieu thereof, being allowed to each regiment. The
large number of " privates wanting to complete," is stated
to have been chiefly caused by the reduction made in
August, 1864, in the effective strength of all regiments
whose establishments exceed 600 privates.

On Thursday Lord John Manners will ask the
Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has prepared
amendments to the bill for the abolition of church rates
and, if so, when he proposes to lay them upon the table of
the house.

Mr. McEvoy on Thursday will ask the Secretary
of State for the Home Department whether he is aware
that the Midland Railway Company, having obtained an
act (27 and 28 Vic. c. 231) which by its twenty-third
section allows them to pass a tunnel under the old church-
yard of St. Pancras (a closed burying ground), are about
to make an open cutting through the said churchyard,
thereby disturbing the tombs and bodies ; and, whether
the government will interfere to protect the place from
such desecration.

Mr. Mill to-morrow will ask the Secretary of
State for the Home Department, whether the In-
closure Commissioners have finally signed and sealed
their award for the inclosure of the newly created common
set out for the ratepayers of the parish of Chigwell ; if he
is aware that the timber on the fifty acres of recreation
ground, granted by parliament, in 186r.1, for the use of the me.
tropolitan public,is being cut down, thereby destroying the
forestal appearance of the spot, which the intention of the
legislature was to keep unenclosed and preserved in its
natural wildness ; and, if the destruction of the timber has
been sanctioned by the Incloanre Commissioners.

A Naples letter in the. Debats says :—" Prince
Napoleon has had two balls given in his honour—one at
the Court, the second at the French Consulate. On dis-
embarking from his yacht he first went to the royal palace
to pay a visit, and afterwards took up his residence at the
Hotel Vittoria. The Prince is said to be negotiating for
the purchase of the palace at Port-id erected by Charles
111., near the site of the former city of Herculaneum.
The building, which was formerly royal property, now be-
longs to the public domain, and is for sale by the state.
His Majesty has also just sold a magnificent stud of Arab
horses. The Count de Flandre has arrived here from
Rome."

The official journal of Teheran gives the sub-
joined report of a shooting party in which the Shah bad
taken part :—" The royal personage, who casts on the
earth the shadow of God, has passed very agreeably his
time at the chase at Djadjround ; with the aid of God he
killed 32 head of large game, and deigned to bring down a
number of partridges, moor-hens, and pheasants. The
grand sypachaadar (Minister of War) who accompanied
the great sovereign of Iran, obtained a remarkable dis-
tinction, for his Majesty, who dispenses his grace and
generosity so unsparingly, deigned to present him with a
partridge with his own hand.•.