The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-05 00:00:00

LOCAL TAXATION.

The report of the committee on Local Taxation
has been issued. The committee do not feel justified
in establishing the wide conclusion that all rates
should be dealt with in the same manner, but
they lay down numerous general rules for future
guidance. They find that local rates
are mostly levied directly on the occupier,
but are often paid either wholly or in part by the
owner, who has, however, no share in their adminis-
tration. It is recommended that in future the
system of rating be so adjusted that both owners and
occupiers may feel an immediate interest in their
administration. Owners should be made immediately
liable,' and power should on certain conditions,
be given to the occupier to deduct from his rent
the portion which belongs to the owner. If

the owners be thus held liable, it will follow that
provision must be made for representing them
in the constitution Lof the body administering the
rates. The committee find, too, that the great
variety of rates levied for different purposes by dif-
ferent authorities creates much confusion and needless
expense. As much simplicity and uniformity as
possible ought to be secured, and the system of one
demand note specifying the number of rates levied,
and their purpose, might well be introduced. The
committee make special arrangements for owners of
property under long leases.

MODERN PRACTICES IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,

An important letter from the Archbishop of
Canterbury, addressed to the Chairman of the Ports-
mouth branch of the Church Association, has been
published in answer to a memorial complaining of
the adoption, by a certain party in the Church, of doc-
trines and practices alien to the purity of the
Reformed faith. The Archbishop expresses his
concurrence with the view of his predecessor in the
primacy, as to the dangerous and unscriptural senti-
ments exhibited by a section of English Churchmen.
His Grace is not surprised to find indignation springing
up against ecclesiastical forms of belief and ceremony
which manifest so great a tendency to assimilate the
worship and teaching of the pure, scriptural, and
reformed Church to the system of the Church of
Rome. He cannot, however, concede that the evils
are due to apathy and supineness on the part of
the bishops, upon whose arbitrary will the clergy
are by no means dependent for their position, as in
the Church of Rome. The Archbishop adds, how-
ever, that notwithstanding the disadvantages that
may follow from it, he rejoices in the system which
provides that no clergyman can be removed from his
position until lie has had a fair and open trial before
a competent tribunal, in which his violation of the
law of the Church has been legally proved. The
proposition of the Ritual Commission that the points
at issue between the Broad, Low, and High Church
parties, might be decided in some less expensive and
more expeditious manner than by au appeal to litiga-
tion, is recommended by the Archbishop, and he
declares that he cannot lose hope that after the
anxieties of a disquieted age, and the rancour of
have somewhat subsided, it will be seen that
the Head of the Church Himself will aid the faithful
endeavours made by those sincere friends who belong
to it, in maintaining its honour, and in preserving its
acknowledged position as the exponent of an en-
lightened Christianity, labouring to promote educa-
tion, boldly rebuking vice, and standing forth as
the bulwark at once against superstition and
infidelity.

NEUTRALITY NOW AND NEUTRALITY THEN.

'I he complaints of Prussia with regard to what she
considers the failure of England to preserve a strict
neutrality have been published far and wide, but a
little reflection on the part of the German nation
will show them that their Government has not been
at all times immaculate in keeping the command-
ment that you should do to others as you would be
done by. It is all very well to complain now, when
she has everything to lose ; but there was a time,
and that not long ago, when Prussia had much to
gain, and went about gaining it, with a profound
indifference to the losses of other people. A corre-
spondent in the Times points out that during the
Crimean war, when Prussia professed to be a neutral,
an unrestricted export of arms and munitions of
war was allowed from Prussia to Russia, and, not-
withstanding a decree prohibiting the transport of
weapons of foreign manufacture, Belgian arms conti-
nued to pass through Prussia into Russia. A mili-
tary agent of Russia als) was-allowed to have an
office in Berlin during the whole of the war for the
purchase and transmission of arms and military
stores.

LIFE DESTROYING MACHINES.

If, as some writers assert, war is often necessary to
clear the moral atmosphere, it is none the less certain
that a certain amount of demoralisation is a neces-
sary concomitant of a state of warfare. Formerly
battles were won by the tough fighting qualities o
the soldiers, and the genius of the generals; but the
rapid progress of service has introdnced a new
element, which threatens to make the valour of the
soldier of very little efict, and to reduce the art of
generalship to a mere minimum. For the last three
or four years, while France and Prussia were actively
preparing themselves for the present contest, the
public were occasionally startled by accounts of the
trial of some weapon of war which was warranted to
have a deadly effect at very long ranges. The success
Of the needle-gun in the Prusso-Austrian campaign,
was quickly succeeded by the chassepot. In a, very short