, 1872-09-14
THE BRITISH PREMIER'S NEXT GREAT
WORK.

pledged to undertake.. flE. OldIStOAo hHo PAO-
missed next Session to reform our whole system
of Local Government, with a view to It's ro-lnYlgo-
ration in the representative sense,-tlat 49, no mas
pledged himself to examine, %readjust, and tighten
a system of taxation as complex and almost as
burdensome as that Of the kingdom before the IN
PRODUCTION of Free Trade, to invade the last
stronghold of privilege, and to devise a represent
tative Constitution applicable to provinces hlther-
to governed almost exclusively by nominees or
tho Grown. With the towns, which are included
in the scope of his measures, there will not, we
imagine, be much difficulty. The Councils are
fairly elected, do not job much, and are not un-
popular, and no serious change Will, we appro-
bend, be suggested in their constitution. All
they want is more power, II direct check on the
use of it, which we should like to supply by the
direct popular election of a Mayor with It veto,
and a better-dcfined responsibility for their finance
to the Local Government Board. If the Premier,
with his splendid genius for finance, can devise
new modes of giving them revenue, 50 as to pre-
vent the increasing pressure on rental from pc
coming dangerous to ciYIlization-WhIcl requires
that the people be well lodgcd-he will add great
ly to his popularity, but we imagine that no very
radical change will be made in the principle Of
municipal taxation. We wish it could be made,
that the millionaire could at least be made to pay
q little more for his municipal privileges than he
professional man who happens to occupy as large
II house, but the difficulties i'll tho way may provo
too great even for Mr.. GladstonC's courage and
lclluClLJs OCtIOl5 are, We plCSuilG, OuI VI CHr
question, and u general transfer of the proper sub
iects for monopOIies, gas, water, and tramways, to
the municipalities, would cmbarras3 tho reform,
by arousing q host of individual interests in oppo-
sition. 1t is in the counties that the change
must be greatest, and in the counties That the
difficulties will be tho most numerous and the moso
embarrassing to Il Government which, itself com
posed in great part of squires, has always to
reckon on such matters with the banded squire
archy. The Ballot will greatly facilitate reform III
this direction, but even with the Ballot hanging
over them, the squirearchy will not, we predict,
yield u it of their privileges without forcing u
dissolution.
Until this month there was not, properly speak
ing, a trace of representative Government in the
English counties. The Poor Law Revenue is
distributed in part by elected bodies, but even in
this department the nominees of the Crown arc
~er-o6ici0 members of the Boards, hold the balance be-
tween the two parties, tho economists and the spend
thrifts, and whenever they are interested, that IS,
whenever the subject of debate is important or in
wolves patronage, exercise their legal authority
with much decision. In all other matters the
sduires arc supreme. The magistrates are chosen
from among them alone, the possession of u hun
dred a year in land being a qualification demanded
by law, and to the magistrates is committed all
substantial power. They are the local Judges
they control the policy; they maintain and adj
minister all public institutions, gaoIs, penltentla-
ries, asylums, and Court-rooms; they settle the
amount of taxation, and they distribute the taxes
when collected. They arc collectively the public
prosecutors, they officer the Militia, and they are
responsible for the public peace. All power Is,
in fact, legally in the hands of u limited class,
which is rendered, by the pressure Of social opln-
ion upon the county members, the Lcrd-Lieuten-
ants, and the Lord Chancellor, an exceedingly min
ute one, so minute that in many places there IS
serious difficulty in recruiting the magistracy, and
the Crown is driven back, greatly to the annoy
ance of the people, on the clergy. The country
gentry govern the country districts. Any
scheme, no matter what, which processes to be
representative, must break up this monopoly of
power, and the difficulty of breaking II up will be
extreme. The caste will fight for its last preroga-
tives with the utmost tenacity, and with no small
show of moral indignation, and though it may
under the Ballot be defeated, the county voters
being bitterly Jealous on their own exclusion, the
gentry have strong arguments on their side. No
tenant-farmer, whatever his qualifications, is fit to
be n magistrate and decide cases which may IN
terest his landlord and if be were fit, English
men will not endure an elective judiciary, how
ever limited in power. We have quite enough OF
eleotion in the choice of Coroners. who very sell
dom have to act in opposition to high influence or
to tho popular will, and when they have often
prove discreditably incompetent. No transfer OF
judicial power can be made from the unpaid magIs-
trates to any but stipendiaries, and their Judicial
power in the lever of the country gentlemen.
Then on the existing plan of county finance they
nav the greater part of the taxation which is levied
on real property alone. Nothing is more certain
than that if the rates on Lord Greenshire's pro-
perty were abolished he could add on equivalent
amount to his rental, and he therefore pays the rates.