The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-27 00:00:00

THE CATTLE PLAGUE.

Mr. Mums said be should like to be informed by Mr
Gibbins, the chairman of the Markets Committee, whether.
he was in a condition to report any diminution in the
amount of the cases of cattle disease in the metropolis.
(Hear, hear.)

Mr. GIBBINS said that as chairman of the Markets Com-
mittee he was not in a position to give any information upon
this subject with regard to the metropolis generally ; but
so far as the market itself was concerned, he was able to
say that very few diseased cattle wore sent into it. On last
Monday and the previous Monday only one diseased ani-
mal was sent on each occasion. (Hear.) He believed he
might also say with regard to the metropolis generally
that from the information he had received the disease ap-
peared to be decreasing. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. H. L. TAYLOR said that perhaps Mr. Gibbins would
be good enough to inform the court whether, since this
disease had existed, there had been any sensible diminu-
tion in the number of cattle sent to the Metropolitan
Market?

Mr. GIBBINS said there had not. On the contrary, there
was a larger supply than ever each market day, both from
abroad and the home districts. (Hear, hear.)

SOUTHWARK BRIDGE.

Deputy HAWTREY brought up a report from the Bridge
House Committee recommending that the committee should
be empowered to negotiate with the Southwark-bridge
Company for continuing the opening of the bridge to the
public free of toll for a further period of six month.; upon
the same terms as those upon which the bridge was opened
for the last six months.

The report was agreed to.
THE GAS QUESTION.

Mr. H. HAINES, the chairman of the General Purposes
Committee, then brought up a report from that committee
"On the reference of 22d June last relative to the supply
of gas, and for authority to engage professional assistance
in obtaining the information necessary in connection with
an application to Parliament for powers to erect worksand
engage for the supply of gas to the citizens, should such a
course be adopted by the court." He moved that the report
be agreed to.

The public is aware of the controversy that has been
going on for a very considerable time between the citizens
of London and the three City companies—the Great
Central, the Chartered, and the City Gas Company, and
the complaints that have been made as regarded the
quality, the quantity, and the price of the gas supplied.
These complaints have become louder since the passing of
the Gas Act of 1860, under the provisions of which act the
city was parcelled out into districts, one being allotted to
each of the three companies ; and this, according to the
opinion of the gas consumers, has entirely destroyed every-
thing like wholesome competition, and enabled the com-
panies not only to supply an inferior article, but to charge
whatever price they pleased for it. The arguments upon
all these points have been so frequently laid before the
public in the discussions that have taken place in this court
and before the Commissioners of Sewers that it will be
unnecessary to repeat them at any length on the present
occasion.

Mr. E. D. RCCGERS, in the course of a speech of coasider-
able length, said that at Manchester and other large towns
the governing bodies had taken this matter into their own
hands, and they were enabled to supply a much better
article than that furnished to the citizens of London at a
-great deal lower price, and he said that only over the water'
in the South London District, the inhabitants were sup-
plied at 3s. 4d. per 1,000 feet, while the citizens of London
were now paying 4s. 6d. for an inferior article. He con-
cluded by moving what was in terms an amendment, but
which in reality was a stronger resolution than the one
agreed to by the committee, for it was to the effect that
the matter should be referred back to them to be at once
carried into effect, and that they should immediately take
the necessary steps to give the usual notices, with a view
to an application being made to Parliament next session to
enable the citizens of London to take the supply of gas into
their own hands.
Mr. Ruraux seconded the amendment.

Mr. RONVE was the only member who addressed the tour
that defended the proceedings of the gas companies, and
said that so far as the one he was connected with was con-
cerned they had no desire to charge a high price for their
gas, but desired to make their profit by an increased con-
sumption. (Cries of " Oh, oh," and laughter.) He then
proceeded to argue amid a good deal of laughter and
ironical cheers from different members, that the different
gas companies had done more, both with regard to the
quality and the illuminating powar of the gas supplied by
them, than they were required to do by the act of Parlia-
ment. (Cries of " Oh, oh.") He also reminded the court
that at Christmas next the price of gas would be reduced
from 4s. 6d. to 4s. per thousand feet.
Mr. R. N. PHILIPPS supported the amendment, and he
expressed a hope that if the corporation should not decide
upon having works of their own, the agitation that had
been made would have the effect of inducing the different
companies to reduce the price of gas. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. DE JERSEY, the chairman of the Commission of
Sewers, said that from his own experience he was enabled
to gainsay both the propositions of Mr. Rowe, namely, that
the gas was purer and of better quality than was required
by the last Gas Act, and the reports that were made every
week by competent persons to the Commissioners of Sewers
proved that fact. (Hear, hear.) It Was true that the gas
companies promised to reduce the price of gas sixpence
per thousand feet next Christmas, but this was not a
willing act on their part, but was solely owing to the
pressure that had been put upon them by the gas con-
sumers. (Hear, hear.)
In answer to a question put by Mr. 3lEDwirr,

Mr. DE JERSEY stated that the increase of £5,000 during
' the last year in the cost of lighting the street lamps arose
from the increase of cost that had been charged since the
City had been districted under the last act of Parliament.
Deputy Emorr said he could not help thinking that the
citizens of London were acting under a feeling of panic
during these discussions, and they were doing so on the
present occasion. Ho could assure the court he was no
friend of any of the gas companies, and with regard to the
Great Central, his opinion was it was conceived in sin and
shapened in iniquity. (Laughter.) He believed, however,
that if they went to Parliament they would be looked upon
as great commercial speculations, and the amount of capital
they had invested in these undertakings would be consi-
dered, and they would be treated equitably, and Parlia-
ment would not allow them to be interfered with, unless
very good grounds were shown for doing so.
Mr. IL LowmAN TAYLOR said it appeared to him that
the time had arrived when it had become absolutely neces-
sary for the citizens of London to endeavour to destroy the
unnatural coalition that had taken place between these
three companies, and to abolish the power given them by
what he could not help calling the iniquitous act of 'lB6O,
to charge what price they pleased forthe gas they supplied.
(Hoar, hear.) With regard to the Great Central, he must
say that they seemed to have abandoned every pledge that
they made when they were called into existence by the ex-
ertions of the citizens of London. By a deed they entered
into with the Commissioners, they undertook never to
charge more than 4s. per 1,000 feet, and promised, as soon
as thoy were able, to reduce the price to Bs. 6d., and even
three shillings, but they had entirely broken the agree-

ment they had entered into. (Hear, hear.) He cordially
supported the present movement, but reminded them that
if they once entered upon the course they proposed they
must do it in earnest ; there must be no shilly shally about
their proceedings. (Hear, hear.) He believed that if they
went to the House of Commons and stated what they bad
to complain of, that house would not refuse to give them
another act of parliament which would relieve them from
being bound to use the gas of the existing companies.
(Hear hear.)
The amendment was then put and carried unanimously,
and, upon the motion of Mr. MEDWIN, a special committee
composed of 12 members of the court was appointed to
carry it into effect.
The court shortly afterwards adjourned.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

~--

TIMES.—The Emperor of the French is reported
to be contemplating a financial reform, and any
measure of that character proceeding from France is
sure to merit attention. The acute and analytical
genius of our neighbours never shows to greater ad-
vantage than in financial organisation. Whether
their appreciation of financial principles be equally
admirable is another question, but, taking their sys-
tem of taxation for what it is, it is impossible to
conceive any more skilful presentation of results
than is seen in the statements of their Finance
Minister. Mr. Gladstone, on producing his own
budget last session, described these accounts as per-
fect marvels of lucidity and exactness, although the
actual rate of expenditure was obscured by the
practice of additional and supplementary credits.
The reform now proposed affects in the first in-
stance only the collection of taxes in a particular
branch, but there is probably more in the proposal
than meets the eye. The direct taxes in France,
which are now very considerable, are gathered within
certain fixed districts by collectors, who pay over
their collections to particular receivers, by whom in
turn the moneys are again paid over to receivers-
general. There is one of these latter officers in every
department, and it is with him exclusively that the
Treasury keeps account. He is answerable for his
subordinates ; so that, in fact, he is the paymaster
of the department in the eyes of the State. This
office it is now proposed to suppress, not, indeed,
abruptly, but by allowing it to expire. It is thought
that the intervention of the receivers-general is un-
necessary, and that the receipts in each department
might as well be paid into a branch of the Bank of
France. It will be evident that this is either a piece
of administrative reform palpably suggested by
arithmetical computations, or a scheme carrying
with it certain ulterior effects, and the latter is per-
haps the more probable hypothesis. At the present
time a French receiver-general is a very important
public officer. His salary, to be sure, is but £240
a year, but his perquisites derived from percent-
ages are very large. Still, we are not told that any
economy will be effected by transferring his duties
to other agents, nor is anything promised as a re-
sult of the reform, except " simplification" of the
machinery. This, no doubt, is worth securing ; but
it does not appear on the face of things that three
grades of collectors are too many, or, indeed, that
they will be reduced in number by the proposed
change. We hear that, instead of a Receiver, 'a
Paymaster-General is to account with the Bank for
the sums collected by subordinates, so that the ma-
chinery would appear to be unaltered except in
names. The salaries of the finance agents are cer-
tainly not extravagant, though the poundage may
be high, and admit, perhaps, of reduction. We are
not, however, told that any retrenchment at this
point is expected, and it seems obvious, at any rate,
that economy is not the chief object in the proposal.
There are other motives • at work, connected curi-
ously with usages of bygone times. The truth is, a
Receiver-General is, or was, a great deal more than
an officer of the revenue. M. de Tocqueville has
shown how very many institutions of modern
France date from the old Monarchy, and this is one
of them. Under the Bourbons the two great
branches of revenue were superintended by two sets
of officers, the Receiver-General taking the direct,
and the Farmers-General the indirect taxes. The
latter functionaries, as their name implies, rented
or farmed the taxes from the State, paying the
Treasury a fixed sum by contract, and making
what they could out of their bargain. These were
the men who became so obnoxious to the people
in the Great Revolution ; the Receivers-General
had less to do, and they subsist to this day. They
receive, as we have said, in the last instance the
direct taxes of the several Departments, and ac-
count for these with the Treasury ; but their
transactions with the State go far beyond these
limits. They conduct within their own Depart-
ments the operations of the Treasury, and their
account with the Exchequer is an account current.
They sometimes advance what they have not re-
ceived, and are allowed interest upon the loan ; or
they are permitted to be in arrear, and pay interest
on what they owe. To facilitate such transactions
they are licensed to become private bankers, to re-
ceive deposits from customers, and, in short, to carry
on a general trade in money. Now, in the days
when State loans were negotiated withi bankers and
capitalists exclusively, a servant of Government in
the position of Receiver-General might be exceed-
ingly useful, and would, indeed, be the natural
agent in such transactions. Of late, however, this
system has been abandoned for a more open and
popular practice. Loans are taken from a multi-
tude of small subscribers, and the mediation of an
agent or "promoter" becomes of less importance.
Nevertheless, it must be plain that the abolition of
such an office as this will materially affect the rou-
tine of the Treasury, and it is reported, indeed, that
the proposed reform is not entirely acceptable to
that department. There is yet another question in-
volved in the case. The banks, as they may fairly
be called, of the Receivers-General are to be super-
seded by branches of the Bank of France. But for
this purpose the Bank of France must have a branch
in every one of the 89 Departments, which is not the
case at present ; so that one result of the change
would be multiplied and extended. This, it is held,
would be advantageous to the country, as promot-
ing the circulation of money and giving a stimulus
to industrial enterprise. Already the Bank of France
is under obligations in this respect which have not
yet been fulfilled, but the scheme in prospect would
both compel and encourage it to perform its under-
takings, just as if some great trunk line were induced
to carry branch railways to districts unprovided with
the accommodation. Altogether, we may pretty
safely presume that the project now before
us is suggested rather by a desire of adapting
administration to circumstances than with a
view of economising the public revenue. At
the same time it must be owned that, in this par-
ticular branch of financial science, there is much
room for progress. It is not uncommon to see the
system of taxation far more perfect than the system
of collecting taxes. Our own Revenue Estimates
are but things of yesterday, and some recent de-
bates in Parliament, as well as a long correspond-
ence in our columns, have shown that in the opinion
of many we have still much to do. We have officers
whom some people would send the way of the
Receivers-General, though, upon the whole, the
charge for collecting the public revenue cannot be
thought exorbitant. It will be interesting to see
what the Americans are doing in the matter. Often
as we have been referred to that country for in-
struction, it was probably little thought that its
chief example would be in the way of taxation.
Yet that is now the case. No country is doing,
and we may probably say that no country has ever
done, what the Americans propose to do at this
moment. If Mr. M'Culloch's plans are actually
put in execution, the Government of Washington
will have the credit of raising the largest revenue
from a given population of all the Governments in
the world. As yet we know only the broad out-
lines of the scheme, not the distribution of imposts,
still less the system of collection. For all these
details we look with great interest, especially as the
project, though arduous, is not chimerical. The
Americans can achieve it if they choose to do so ;
but if, besides providing a current revenue of
£70,000,000, they extinguish a debt of £600,000,000
in half a century, they will be at the head of all the
nations of the earth in financial resources and
popular endurance.

Po ST.--The Senate of Frankfort has, after mature
deliberation, sent an identic note to the two great
German Powers, energetically rejecting their de-
mand, and vindicating the independence of the
Free City as a Sovereign Republic. This is pre-
cisely the course which the wijg Minister of the
Prussian King anticipated wound be taken by the
Senate, and we do not perhaps greatly err in
suggesting that it was in the hope that the preten-
sions of Austria and Prussia would be disallowed
that Count Bismarck penned the despatch which
appeared in our columns yesterday. The great
Powers, no doubt, desire to retain the minor
Powers in such abject submission as to be virtually
their vassals, but they probably desire still more to
absorb them so completely as to destroy even the
outward and visible signs of their independence.
Frankfort is the capital of the Confederation and
the seat of the Diet, but, being nothing more than
a town, it is intrinsically one of the weakest mem-
bers of the Bund. It is by virtue of treaty a Sove-
reign Republic, but its sole protection lies in the
respect which its powerful neighbours may have for
public law. For many reasons, therefore, the Free
City was specially calculated to be the first of the
minor Powers against which any act of aggression
intended indirectly to affect all should be directed
by the leading States of the Confederation. Hitherto,
Austria and Prussia have vindicated their claim to
represent all Germany by overruling the decisions
of dissentient majorities in the Diet, by the simple
process of carryingout the policy on which they

• bad resolved. Now, however, they have gone
step further. It is not sufficient that they should
absolutely determine the course which shall be pm'-
sued by the Confederation in its relations with the
rest of the world, but they must also regulate the
domestic policy of each particular State. A meet-
ing of a political nature, but as harmless in its wai,
as could be well imagined, having been held at
Frankfort, supplied to the Great Powers the much
desired pretext for intervention. Through Frank ,
fort it was resolved that the minor Powers shout,ut
be taught the new regime under which they mils,
henceforth exist, and accordingly Austria and
Prussia instructed their representatives in the Free
City to inform the Senate not to allow any future
meetings of a similar kind to be held in their city
A reply has now been given in which, as might
have been expected, the Senate reminds the gre,
Powers that Frankfort, although but a town, 'al'
republic, and the groundwork has consequently
been laid for that active intervention of the neces-
sity‘ of which the Prussian Minister broadly hint.'„
in his original despatch. It is not a little amusing
to hear that the Austrian Government have been
both surprised and offended at the contents of the
identic note of the Frankfort Senate, which, esPe:,
cially in its forms and language, they consider to
at variance with diplomatic usage. We venture t°
affirm that, amongst the collective archives of ever);
Foreign-office in Europe, one would search in nail,
for despatches the language and contents of wale
would be found to be more completely at variance
with the established forms in which the representa-
tives of independent States address each other than
those written by Counts Bismarck and Alensd°r f
to the Senate of Frankfort. The affectation oe
offence at the language of the Senate is of eon
simply a phase in a preconceived design, and the
next step will probably be the physical assumPtt.
by the great Powers of that authority which, in
their despatches, they contented themselves with
asserting that they were entitled to exercise. If t',B
nt
Senate, for example, has declared that it will ilvd
submit to the dictation of Austria and Prussia, an
will excercise its own discretion in respect to per-
mitting political meetings to be held within the tow::
the latter Powers will no doubt declare themsett
compelled to use forcible means to prevent pall,
manifestations of a revolutionary character, anu,:,,
which all Germany disapproves. Of course' Ansu„';
and Prussia can have no selfish motives to serl,"ol
their sole aim will be the good of Germany. In r
interests of the common Fatherland, therefore, turi,eie
will probably deem it expedient to insist on we,
Senate of Frankfort exercising its sovereign Nil a
tions henceforth under the protectorate not of
Federal, but of an Austro-Prussian garrison. True
to their mission the great Powers could not of CO'l,'7l
tolerate, on the part of any other of the min"ct
Powers, any assumption of authority in rely,
to their domestic policy which, in their
might be used to the disadvantage of "'lli
many, and consequently the lesson tatlAto
to Frankfort will not be without its rest'
upon all. Whether the league known as the Get;
manic Confederation serves any good end may be
question fairly open to discussion ; but whether sow,
of the members of that league, simply because ti!eillo
are more powerful than the rest, should have "0
right of so far interfering in their domestic polio/ if
virtually to exercise a quasi-sovereignty in °au
dominions, can scarcely be said even by GerM.,,
professors to be a moot point. The present is
age of non-intervention, and we hear much less L.
the balance of power in Europethan we did formerly'
but notwithstanding the apathy with which State„
have learnt to look on at the annexation or aba°,„'-,,„
sootposed or extinction of others, it can scarcely be 01;
posed that there is not some limit to forbearanoefi
some point at which the instinct of self-preserlti;
tien will not assert its supremacy. Whether
free city of Frankfort became a Prussian town 1-0 i
morrow might, taken alone, be perhaps a matter its
trifling importance, but whether Liberal-4%f,
Count Bismarck would term it—Democratic .a
many is to be trampled under foot by Austria
tang
Prussia, which pride themselves on represen;
nothing but a pure despotism, cannot but 131,,5t
a vital interest for Western Europe. Wit'e
entering into a disquisition on the comParB,iiir4o,
merits of arbitrary and constitutional governmerat,
it is at all events pretty generally admitted tLi
when a state relapses from constitutionalism roof
despotism, the step is one of retrogression. 00
course every State has a right to determine
nature of its own political institutions, and if Prilf"of
chooses to abandon a representative system
government for a pure autocracy, she is unev-so
tionably entitled to do so. But it does not foil
that she has a right to compel others to follow 1140
example. We have yet to learn what will be 'ln
course on which the minor Powers may resolve/4G
presence of the danger which threatens them ; wvio
we can hardly suppose that they will go one by
A°,4
like lambs to the slaughter. The existing Bun
not the only Confederation of German States w* to
which history is familiar, and certainly, if any evend
were likely to lead to a union of States resemble
the Confederation of the Rhine, they are tho'
which are now passing in Germany.