The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-11 00:00:00

1868 must rest the blame if they signified their approval
of an Act which did -not fulfil the requirements of the
Act of 1867, and he thought Parliament and the country
would hold them primarily responsible for the temporary
misappropriation of the loan.

Mr. WHATMAN seconded the motion.
Mr. MONSELL in reply said he differed from the hon.
gentleman who had brought forward the motion. He
believed that Canada was faithfully discharging its duty
and proceeding with the railway in the most satisfactory
manner. They were pushing the works forward
with the utmost despatch, and he believed
the railway would be opened in the year 1872, and that
there was no ground to find fault with the Canadian
Government. The great point, in the matter was, Did
the Canadian Act satisfy the Imperial Act, and after con-
sulting the best authority he could he had to say that he could
discover no divergance between them. Indeed there was
no divergence between them ; and the one fulfilled
the other in every single requirement. He thought the
hon. gentleman had altogether failed to substantiate his
motion, and he hoped therefore the House would not give
its assent to it. Considering the gallant conduct of
Canada, it was unwise, unjust, and far from generous to
raise the question. As he had already said, he believed
that the Canadian Legislature had faithfully carried out
all that was required of them.

The motion was withdrawn.
LOCAL TAXATION.

Mr. CAMPBELL called the attention of the House to
the subject of county government, and moved that in
the opinion of the House the principle of representation
ought to be applied to the Government and financial ad-
ministration of counties. The hon. member urged the
desirableness of forming county financial boards all over
the country, and expressed his opinion that the best results
would follow such a proceeding. With regard to repre-
sentation, he said that those who paid the rate should have
the power of expending the money which they contributed.
In Scotland, he went on to say, a knot of country gentle-
men had the power, according to the present system of
petitioning Parliament in name of the county, whilst their
opinions were in direct opposition to those entertained by
the county which they professed to represent. The hon.
gentleman commented on the vagueness of the functions
of a Lord-Lieutenant of a county, and remarked that he
was selected not only on account of his character, but his
politics, family influence, and property. The powers of
nomination possessed by the Lord-Lieutenant in respect
to the magistracy was condemned by the hon. member,
who remarked that on the point he had indicated a great
and radical change was required.
Mr. BRUCE alluded to the wide scope of the speech made
by the hon. member, and remarked that if the House
assented to the motion they must be prepared to give
effect to the large scheme of local taxation which the hon.
gentleman sketched out in his speech. He called attention
to the fact that in the Queen's Speech it was stated that
the admission of the representative principle into the
local administration in counties was necessary, and the
principle was assented to by both sides of the House.
The Government could not adopt the motion of the hon.
member, and he referred to the committee appointed with
reference to County Financial Boards.
Sir R. ANSTRUTHER, without saying a word as to the
way in which the Commissioners of Supply in Scotland
performed their duties, did think that it would be a
great advantage to them if the occupiers were on the
commission. He agreed with the mover of the resolution
that there was a considerable divergence of opinion
between the Commissioners of Supply and the representa-
tives of counties who sat on that side of the House.
Mr. NPLAREN supported the motion.

Colonel WILSON-PATTEN thought there were more com-
plaints made in towhs as to expenditure than in the
counties. He was not opposed to the representation of
the ratepayers, but he should go with the Government
believing that the question should be examined in all its
bearings.
Sir E. COLEBROOKE and Sir W. GALLWEY having ad-
dressed the House, a division took place and the motion
was lost by 61 to 39.