The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-14 00:00:00

BPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOI7IINAM

The Times considers the question raised by Sir litiasey
Lopes on Tuesday night, whether, at present andlupon
the whole, land is taxed more or less heavily than it otight
to be. Nothing can be more difficult than to strike-the
balance ; but perhaps we shall not be far wrong if `we
conclude that it is over-taxed for local, and under-tamed
for imperial purposes. Such a conclusion is not altogether
unsatisfactory. It may not be very scientific to set otl
the severer pressure, of poor rates and county rates
against the reduced scale of duty on succession td
Jand, or the questionable advantages of landowners
over professional men and tenant farmers over shop•
keepers in the assessment of the income tax, but
this solution of the problem is not without a rational
foundation. It was acknowledged on all hands, in the
debate of Tuesday night, that local taxation is vitally con-
nected with local management, and local management
is highly valued—not to say jealously guarded—by the
very class whose interests Sir Massey Lopes advo-
cates. Almost the only mode hitherto suggested of
emtending local taxation, in effect, to other classes, is
by :tacking grants from the national exchequer, and these
grants would involve a proportionate extension of central
supervision. The reasonable inference is, that whatever
relief may be fairly claimed by the landowners should be
given by Parliament, in respect of those expenses over
;which central supervision is necessary or desirable ; and
this is the inference which the House of Commons, with-
out dividing, had the good sense to draw.
Taking up the same subject, the Daily News admits that
oo..tsiderable taxes and great charges are laid on the con-
vey -arce of land. But proportionate taxes are levied on
the %milder of railway shares. The sale of land is not alone
visit Id with stamp duties; nor can the Legislature be
blame d for the cost of v
sconeyance. The processes by
which land is tied up under a ettlement are devices which
conveyancers have invented in order to defeat the law, not
hardships which the law has imposed. Primd facie, it is
nobody's concern that this nobleman or baronet
or esquire thinks proper to take precautions for "founding
a family," mad appropriating, as far as possible, a landed
estate to his .eldest male representative. It is inevitable
that such`unity should be a costly enjoyment; that
parchment sl.wald multiply upon the hands of these
country gentle.nen, and that settlements should become
more and more expensive. But the nation does not put
this impost on the laaccumulate the ndowner ; he has
immetata to thank
ugera, for his own
pride, his longing to'
these incidents of his ostentation.
The Post, in dealing with the riots at Ashton, wants to
know what on earth the authorities could have been doing
or thinking of to allow the fight to go to such a head, and,
in fact, to be actually concluded before they were ready to
play their appropriate share in the matter. They had
had ample warning on the Saturday and Sunday ; they
ought certainly to have been prepared by Monday
night to deal with any fresh outbreak, and they
ought to be called to a strict account for their
failure to prevent the scenes we have described.
The Mayor appears to be very active now that the mis-
chief is done, in devising remedies for the effects of it, and
so far deserves -praise ; but prevention is proverbially
getter than cure, arid it is difficult to see how it could have
been that the better means of dealing with the matter was
not adopted. As for the rioters themselves, it would be
hopeless to expect their brutal and stupid natures to be
affected by anything like reason, or it might be of
service to point out to them that they will neither
advance their own cause nor injure that of their
adversaries by fighting with them, even if they are
allowed, as they have been on this occasion, to have their
fght out to the end without interfence. It is useless to
make any appeal to such creatures ; but as we still have
Laws and power to enforce them, if only used, we must pro-
teat against the feebleness which results in handing over to
ruin and plunder any town which savage factions choose to
select for the scene of a fight.

Discassing the well-worn subject of casual relief, the
Herald :suggests an expedient for suppressing professional
vagrancy- The person starting, say for London, should
be furnish ed with a recommendation from the authorities
of the place he leaves, stating his object and destination,
which should on presentation at once entitle him to relief,
while its non-production by those who had not procured it
would at once denote their characters and diseutitle them
to consideration. Lord Kimberley's apprehension that
the poor law may be but too laxly administered seems to
us, basing our conviction on past experience of the
new l aw, to be perfectly unfounded. It would evidently
be a far greater hardship to cast the entire support
of his aged parents on a struggling child than to
divide it on the shoulders of the community for
whose benefit they may have before honestly laboured.
Such a course would in truth be a total perversion of
charity, aucl tend rather to increase than to diminish the
extent of pauperism. Neither do we think that the Duke
of ClevelEnd's dread of workhouses becoming " what the
French called hospices" should :influence legislation on
the subject. None are admitted into the French este,-
blishmerts, whose comforts he seems disposed to grudge,
until they have attained their seventieth year, after which
they are charitably considered to be entitled to repose.
Awl surely ro examples can be quoted in which undue
consideration has been extended in our workhouses to
their occupants, although, unfortunately, but too many
instances have been brought to light in which their heart-
less treatment has excited public indignation.

The Telegraph declares that no one can deny that the
House of Commons has given its sanction to the introduc-
tion of the metric system into this country. Why, then,
hesitate any longer ? The sooner we put our hands to
work and enter in good earnest to make the change the
better. The experience of France and other countries is,
that a very short time is sufficient for diffusing the neces-
sary information on the subject. So long as there is any
uncertainty as to its becoming the law of the country,
few;comparatively, will use the plan, and even teachers
will abstain from introducing it into the schools.
But let it be known that in a few years the rule
will become compulsory, and it will at once be
taken up and learnt in every nook and corner of
the land. There is no need of any further inquiry
on the subject. What is wanted is the passing of a simple
measure, enacting that in five or ten years the metric
system shall be obligatory; and the bill before the House
wisely leaves the number of years a blank to be filled up
in committee. In a matter of this kind the Chambers of
Commerce have a right to be heard, and they have pro-
nounced strongly in favour of the measure. The Metric
Committee of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science has also expressed itself in favour of the
system, and public opinion has been manifested in every
way in the same direction. A little more boldness, and a
desire for thoroughness in our legislation, would save us a
world of time and much useless disputation.

The Council of the Liverpool Chamber of Com-
merce have agreed to a petition in favour of the Govern-
ment management of the electric telegraph system of tll6
United Kingdom. The council suggest that the telegraph
lines he managed on the Post-office system, and that in
ea-1 village consisting of 500 or more inhabitants, there be
a station.

REFUSING TO ACCEPT A FINE-ART COLLECTION.
The Liverpool Town Council has refused to accept a col-
lection of pictures and works of art, left, on certain con-
ditions, to the town by Mr. Gower, an English merchant,
who recently died in Marseilles. A deputation of the
council, who had inspected the collection, reported that not
one out of about 400 pictures was worth more than £5 ;
while the bronzes—described as old classic works—were of
the coarsest modem manufacture, and not even " aged"
artificially to imitate long•buried works of Roman and
Greek art.

Those to whom it is a satisfaction when the
representative of an ancient and distinguished family is
placed in the enjoyment of " his own again," will have
observed with pleasure that the noble Secretary for the
Colonies has for some time past occupied Chandos House,
and has resumed his residence at Stowe, which for
many years, after being stripped of its unrivalled contents,
was deserted. His Grace is, moreover, we are informed,
gradually re-collecting many of the dispersed treasures, of
whose fate a careful account had been kept ; and he
intends that, as opportunities occur, many more shall
again find a resting-place in their old home. Buckingham
House, the residence of the family in the last generation,
and the scene of such splendid hospitality in the days of
the Regency, has, like its neighbour, Schomberg House,
been absorbed by that greedy encroacher on " the sweet
shady side of Pall-mall "—the War Office. The arms and
supporters of the family still adorn their family mansion.
—Tdegraph.

Reviewing the state of Ireland and the prospects
of the harvest, the Irish Times says that if the season con-
tinues as favourable as at present, there is every reason to
believe the crops will not only be abundant, but early,
"The high prices obtained for their produce last year
have encouraged the agriculturists to place a larger
extent of land in tillage. A slovenly farm is now the ex-

" The 1v rater and spring-sown wheat
A like account is given of the
oat crop. The same paper adds that the Irish in America
continue to send over money to pay the cost of passage
for relatives, and the prospect of high wages, with the
hope of ultimate possemion of land at a cheap rate, prove
irresistible temptations. Yet wages in Ireland are in-
creased, and will probably become still higher. The
peasantry are better clothed and fed and lodged than they
I ave ever been, and there is a complete absence of crime
throughout Ireland,

cei tion, not the rule
is thriving well.