, 1872-09-14

change in the taxing system, the taxes will be paid
by one set of men and spent by another set OF men,
and the temptation to extravaganza Will be IN
tolerable yet if they are not superseded, what
becomes of the promised representative govern
ment +! The county electors will never endure
their own exclusion from the County Council after
the nominee system has ended, yet to re-
conciIe nominees with representatives in one
body is proved by experience to be nearly I'M
possible. The difficulty is not diminished by a
change in the incidence of taxation, say, by
throwing it in part on personally, for that will
give the electors rights no Minister could affect to
disregard, and increase the antagOnism between
the elective and the nominee constituents of the
Council. Who is the nominee by the side of the
representative when both are taxed? In any
other country IN attempt would probably be made
to initiate the British Constitution, and create q
two-headol County Parliament, with Magistrates
for Lords and Representatives for Commons but
the Liberal Ministry has had, we imagine, nearly
enough of the trouble produced oy that arrange
mont, without inEicting it upon every county in the
kingdom. Mr.. StansfeIds's Bill making the Union
district, or Canton, as We hopo it will ultimate
Iy be called, the unit of administration, points to
Il federal system, the Boards of Guardians elect
ing the County Council, but if that idea is adopted,
the fight between the "ex-otlicios'' and their ri
walls will at every election be savage beyond all
precedent, and the Government after all will
scarcely be representative. 1t is, in fact, Il new
constitution which has to be framed, and an old
one winch mas TO De SQperSeu6Q, ana we cannot
conceive work which will moro strenuOusly tux
the Premior's peculiar power, that wonderful
faculty of his of condensing details into states
manship. He must attend to this reform himself,
first because his Ministry and tho future of the
Liberal party will be stakod upon the result; and
secondly, because if Mr.. Stansteld frames the plan
all alone, a prejudice will be excited against it
outside. Members know well that Mr. Stansfeld
is one of the most cautious and conciliatory ad-
ministrators in the kingdom, sympathetic even
towards squires, but the country gentry are still
under tho delusion that he is in English politics @
Red. The Premier must look to the matter him
self, and even to him it will be q heavy task
1t will take genius as great as that displayed in
the manipulation Of the Irish land tenure to franc
a scheme of county government which shall be az
once just and sufficiently in accordance with Eng
lish ideas TO work at all, and we recommend the
statesman who takes it in hand to seek presidents
in Switzerland and Italy rather than America
and when it is done, there will be tho financial diff
ticulty to arrange. We understand the Cabinet
to assent to Sir Massey Lopes' proposition, that tax
alton on roaIty alone for local purposes has been car
riod about as far as it will go, and that the new bur-
den5 at all events must be redistributed, and that
redistribution, affecting as thrust affect every in
terest, will not be a light affair, Nobody has yet in
vented a good method Of getting at local personally,
or even of defining what it is. If Baron Rothschildi is
to contribute towards Buckinghamshire taxes in any
capacity but that of owner OF acres, how much is he
" COlNllbiles aLtI L[ Ntldt I'll tic SJitGtIOlS at
Gunnersbury? We strongly suspect, when the whole
subject is thought out, the method of tightening the
local rates adopted will be a distribution of grants from
the Treasury, and in that case, or indeed any other,
there is a point to be considered which the Premier,
with all his financial knowledge, is very apt either to
forget oy TO suppress. 1t is clear to his mind that a
man, say a thatcher or a carman, can live in a village
and derive no benefit from the county organisation,
from the protection of the police and the use Of the
highway, and the power Of appealing to magistrates if
anybody punches his head ? And if he does derive
benefit, it IS quite clear to the Premier that he ought
not to pay something for those advantages, as he pays
something--anfortunately from his dislike Of water,
Il good deal-for similar advantages from the State?
And if neither of these things is clear, it is quite be.
You'd hope that in some millennial period-say when
this county reform is autobiography in a coun-
ty should contribute his feeble farthing towards the
good government of the county? Is, to speak plainly,
indirect taxation for municipal purposes an absolutely
hopeless dream, and if it is, what is everybody howl
ing about s. ciaIism for, when we have got it estab-
lshed in the land We fear it is impossible, icr Mr..
Lowe would never consent to put the right OF selling
tobacco in each village up to auction; but the impossi-
biIity will have to be demonstrated, before Parliament
can be convinced that County Reform has been
made as perfect as human nature and circumstances
will permit.-&pectator.