1 be done by the notices in March and April 1910 at a cost of £53 83. On the 6th June 1910 payment of that sum was demanded from the appellant by notice in writing sent by post by reg stered letter, and this notice was signed "Edward Cooper, Rating Surveyor for the County Borough of Rotherham." It was deposed on oath before the justices by the said Edward Cooper and was found by the justices as a fact that Edward Cooper, whose signature was attached to the notice of demand, was then and had for two years past been rating surveyor and rate collector for the respondents, and that prior to that period he had for many years been the borough accountant and rate collector for the respondents; and it was his duty (inter alia) to prepare, sign, and serve all notices demanding payment of any moneys due to the respondents for expenses incurred by the respondents in carrying out works under sect. 36 of the Act, and to collect and receive payment of all such moneys on their behalf. On the part of the appellant it was admitted that the notice of demand was duly served and signed by Edward Cooper, and that the sum demanded was correct and was properly due to the respondents if the notice of demand was in fact a good notice of demand; but objection was taken to the notice, and it was contended that any such notice of demand under sect. 36 must not only be in writing or print, but must also be authenticated as required by sect. 266 of the Act, and must therefore be signed by the clerk, surveyor, or inspector of nuisances to the local authority, and that the notice was not so authenticated or signed, and that therefore the respondents could not recover. Sect. 266 of the Act provides that if notices, orders, and documents under the Act require authentication by the local authority, the signature thereof by the clerk or the surveyor or inspector of nuisances shall be sufficient authentication. Held, that the notice was not a notice which required authentication within sect. 266, and that therefore the signature referred to in that section was not necessary.

[Willis v. Rotherham Corporation. K. B. Div.: Lord Alverstone, C.J., Pickford and Lush, JJ. May 10.-Counsel: H. R. Bramley; G. F. Mortimer. Solicitors: Ridsdale and Son, for Willis and Willis, Rotherham; Smith, Rundell, and Dods, for W. J. Board, Rotherham.]

Tablic Health-Plans-Approval-Land_subject to restrictiv. Covenants -Plan showing proposed Street on Land-Practicability of PlanJurisdiction to disapprove.-Rule calling on the corporation of Tynemouth, acting as the urban sanitary authority for the borough, to show cause why a writ of mandamus should not issue to them commanding them to consider and determine according to law an application by one C. that the authority should approve certain plans submitted by C. for the laying out of a certain estate known as the R. Estate, situate within the borough. The rule was obtained at the instance of C., on the ground that the plans were in accordance with the by-laws, and that there was no valid ground for their disapproval. The R. Estate, which was owned by the appli cant C. and one H. D., was situate within the district of the corporation, which was the authority in whom under the Public Health Act 1875 was vested the power of approving or disapproving plans for new buildings. The area comprised in the estate was in two parts, the eastern part being a meadow field. A plan for laying out the estate as a building estate and for the erection of buildings and the laying out of streets thereon was submitted by the applicant to the corporation for approval. Upon the plan as finally deposited there was shown upon the western boundary of the meadow field a street, called N.-street, which was 40ft. in width, the greater part of which was to be upon the meadow field, as appeared upon the plan. The town improvement committee were advised that so much of the estate as consisted of the meadow field must under certain covenants be kept for ever as arable or pasture land, or as lawns, shrubberies, or gardens, and for no other purpose whatever. The committee of the corporation disapproved of the plan for the following reasons: (1) It was not shown that it was practicable to lay out the street described as N.-street on the plan to the width of 40ft.; (2) the buildings proposed to be erected on the street described as N.-street would infringe the provisions of the Public Health (Buildings in Streets) Act 1888; and (3) that the plan did not, as required by a by-law of the corporation, show the mode of construction of the proposed new streets. The affidavit in support of the rule stated that a question might arise as to whether certain affected the land and were enforceable by certain owners of adjoining land so as to prevent the laying out of streets as shown on the plan, but it was submitted that as this was a question involving the private rights of individuals it was not a matter for the consideration of the corporation in determining whether to approve or disapprove the plan. It was stated in an affidavit in opposition to the rule that an action was pending in which an injunction was claimed against the applicant C. and another, to restrain them from using the field in question otherwise than as pasture land or as lawns, shrubberies, or gardens, and it was said that there were covenants of title by which the owners of the field were bound to keep the same open and use it as arable or pasture land or as lawns, shrubberies, or gardens, and for no other purpose whatever. The meadow on which the proposed new street was to be laid out was therefore subject to restrictive covenants, and it was contended in opposition to the rule that the corporation had jurisdiction to refuse to approve the plans on the ground that by reason of the restrictive covenants it was not practicable to lay out N.street as shown on the plan. Held, that the local authority had

covenants

Mr. Thos. W. Haycraft has brought out a second edition of his Handy Book on the Bills of Sale Acts 1878 to 1891 (Effingham Wilson). It is twenty-one years since the book first appeared, and Mr. Haycraft has thought it best to keep to the original size. But it is an improvement to find the cases referred to placed in footnotes instead of in the text as formerly. Such new matter as has accrued to the subject since 1890 has been assimilated, and only by so much is the book increased.

A sixteenth edition of Mr. Charles H. Picken's Handbook to Stamp Duties has been brought out by Waterlow and Sons Limited. The book contains the text of the Stamp Act 1891 and of the subsequent Revenue Acts so far as they relate to stamp duties, and has a complete alphabetical table of all documents liable to stamp duty.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Cole on Seamen and Compensation. James Brown and Son, "Nautical Press," Glasgow. Price 6d. Kime's International Law Directory 1911. 11 and 12, Bell-yard. Temple Bar.

Butterworth and Co.,

Cassels on Hire and Hire-Purchase. Butterworth and Co., 11 and 12, Bell-yard, Temple Bar. Price 53.

Encyclopædia of the Laws of England. Second Annual Supplement. Sweet and Maxwell Limited, 3, Chancery-lane, W.C.; William Green and Sons, Edinburgh.

Mortimer on Probate Law ana practice. Sweet and Maxwell Limited, 3, Chancery-lane, W.C. Price £2 2.

Notable English Trials; Trial of Franz Muller. William Hodge and Co., Edinburgh, and 3, Bols-court, E. C. Price 53, nez.

LEGISLATION AND JURISPRUDENCE.

NOT once nor twice have we directed our readers' attention to the scandals of local government, and it is satisfactory to note that once again Mr. BURNS has shown his courage by putting an obstacle in the way of appointing to paid offices persons who have been ordinary members of some local body. A circular issued by the Local Government Board intimates in language of sufficient plainness that, unless very special grounds are shown, the board will not countenance such appointments to any office in respect of which the board has any locus standi to object. The disapproval extends not only to persons who^ actually are members of borough and urban and rural district councils, but also to those who have been within twelve months a member of the council making the appointment. In so doing, the board are acting on the spirit of a recommendation in the report of the Poor Law Commission to the effect that "a local authority should not be allowed to appoint an ex-member as a paid officer unless he or she has ceased to be a member for a period of, say, twelve months before appointment." It is to be hoped that the boards of guardians will take note of this action, for it is within their premises that so many of these scandals are hatched, and persons of the most humble position, having been elected as guardians in an apathetic area, pull the strings necessary to get themselves appointed to posts affording to them a higher scale of pay than they would be likely to earn by the exercise of their own proper callings. The action taken by Mr. BURNS should go a long way towards efficiency, and therefore towards economy, in a direction where reform is highly desirable.

Ar a time when so much thought is being expended on the constitutional struggle between the two branches of Parliament, it is always interesting to know, what other nations have provided by way of safeguard in the event of a deadlock of this nature. The Constitutions provided for South Africa and Australia have been frequently discussed, and we have had quite recently some example of the working of

the referendum in the latter colony. The Argentine Republic is supposed to have a well-considered system, and under it Bills originate in either House, are passed by both Houses, and sent to the executive power (i.e., the President of the Argentine nation) and by him approved. If not returned in ten days, Bills are, however, to be considered approved. No Bill rejected in one House can be introduced again during the same year. If amended, the Bill returns to its original House. If the amendments are disapproved, the Bill returns to the amending House, and, if by it cɔn irmed by a two-thirds majority, the Bill is again referred. The amendments cannot then be rejected unless by a twothirde majority. A Bill rejected in whole or part by the President returns to its original House for reconsideration, and, if passed by a two-thirds majority, is passed on to the other House for examination and, if passed by it with this same majority, it becomes law. In Brazil much the same system prevails. In Chile, a Bill amended by a revising House returns to the original House, and, if such amendments are rejected, the Bill returns to the revising House. On the latter again passing the amendments by a two thirds majority, they cannot be rejected by the other House unless by a majority of the same weight. The executive power, however, is in a committee, who watch over the observance of the Constitution and address representations to the President, and repeat the same if the first do not appear sufficiently conducive, and certain acts of the President require the committee's concurrence. In Norway, every Bill is first presented in the Odelsthing, and proceeds thence to the Lagthing. Objections of the latter are considered by the former, who may send it up again, altered or unaltered. On the second rejection, the matter is considered by the Storthing, of which is composed the two bodies of the Odelsthing and Lagthing. Upon the meeting of the Storthing, the Bill's fate ia determined by a two-thirds vote. The Bill is then sent to the King, who may dissent from it. If the Storthing has by three regular meetings convened after three separate elections, divided from each other by at least two intervening regular sessions, presented the Bill to the King, the latter cannot disapprove it. The practice in Portugal under the Royalty was on a deadlock between the two Houses to appoint a committee equally representative, and to give them a power to decide by a majority vote whether the project should be imme. diately reduced into a decree of the General Cortes or be rejected. A Royal disapproval was final. It is not insignificant that every country calls for some sort of Second Chamber possessing authority, and that the nation which gave its King so wide a power should have so successfully risen against him

PARLIAMENTARY SUMMARY.

THE petition presented on the 12th inst., at the Bar of the House of Commons, by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, from the corporation of that city, in favour of legislation for the extension of the Parlia. mentary franchise to women will direct attention to the fact that, whereas petitions in general are presented by a member of the House to which they are addressed, the Corporations of London and of Dublin have the privilege of presenting petitions to the House of Commons at the Bar of the House.

Petitions from the Corpo. ration of London are presented to the House of Commons by the sheriffs at the Bar (being introduced by the Serjeant with the mace), or by one sheriff only if the other be a member of the House or unavoidably absent. Under a privilege conceded in 1813, petitions from the Corporation of Dublin may be presented in the same manner by their Lord Mayor. If, however, the Lord Mayor of Dublin should be a member of the House of Commons, he must present the petition in his place as a member and not at the Bar. Lord Cochrane proposed to extend this privilege to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, but his amendment was lost, Mr. Tierney remarking "that the Scotch were generally thought a prudent people, and the Corporation of Edinburgh would know better than to send their Provost 400 miles to present a petition": (see May's Parliamentary Practice, pp. 529 530.)

THE expression by Mr. Asquith of an aspiration for a truly representative First Chamber in which plural voting will be in the past tense may recall an extraordinary instance of plural voting. At the Revision Court at Oxford in Sept. 1883 an objection was lodged against the Rev. Washbourne West, a Senior Fellow of Lincoln College, on the ground that he did not occupy the house for which he claimed. It was stated that he was one of the largest plural voters in England, and he admitted that at the last election he vcted seventeen times and then was obliged to miss seven places

where he was entitled to vote. He claimed to be represented in Parliament by sixty-four members. The objection was overruled as Mr. West stated that he owned the house and had used it during the year. It is one of the curiosities of our constitutional practice that plural voting, against which no exception can now be taken, was absolutely prohibited by statute. Thus a law of Henry V., which provided that all members of counties and boroughs must be residents in the constituencies they represented and that no nonresident could be a voter, was suffered to be absolutely obsolete for centuries and was at last removed from the statute-book in 1772 (12 Geo. 3, c. 20). In Ireland, where by the provisions of Poyning's law all laws enacted in England before the date of that enactment (1495) were made law in Ireland, the judges so early as 1569, on a reference to their opinion, utterly disregarded the provisions of the statute of Henry V. in reference to members of Parliament and electors (see Hallam's Constitutional History, ii., pp. 494 495).

:

THE financial statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the year, familiarly known as the Budget, which was made on the 16th inst., was addressed, not to the committee of the whole House of Commons, but to the Committee of Ways and Means, as the consideration of the taxes for the service of the year is the province of the Committee of Ways and Means. In the procedure adopted by the Commons for the imposition of taxation, the following distinction is generally, if not uniformly, drawn. Taxes applicable to the immediate exigencies of the public income which are renewed from year to year and temporary and other taxes imposed to obtain an immediate source of revenue are considered by the Committee of Ways and Means. Fiscal regulations and alterations of permanent duties not having directly for their object the increase of revenue are dealt with by committees of the whole House. An illustration of this procedure can be drawn from past legislation on the sugar duties. Being an annual duty, the duty on sugar was until 1846 voted in the Committee of Ways and Means. During that year the duties on sugar, after revision in that committee, were made permanent, and accordingly when in 1848 a further revision was proposed of the sugar duties, that revision was proposed in a separate committee of the whole House, and not in the Committee of Ways and Means: (see May's Parliamentary Practice, pp. 589-590).

66

MR. ASQUITH in his speech at Manchester on the 6th inst. unconsciously echoed the matured judgment of Mr. Bagehot, writing forty years ago as a student of constitutional¡ development, in his statement that the supremacy of the House of Commone, until of late years it had been challenged, had actually become the unwritten Constitution of our country. A Second Chamber, the Prime Minister proceeded to predicate, must not in any sense be a co-ordinate institution; it must not claim anything in the nature of co-ordinate or competing authority. Mr. Bagehot, writing in 1865, enunciated these principles as part of the unwritten British Constitution : The literary theory of the English Constitution says that the House of Lords is a co-ordinate estate of the realm of equal rank with the House of Commons; that it is the aristocratic branch just as the Commons is the popular branch. So utterly false is this doctrine that it is a remarkable peculiarity, a capital excellence of the British Constitution, that it containз a sort of Upper House which is not of equal authority to the Lower House, yet still has some authority. . . . Since the Reform Act the House of Lords has become a revising and suspending House. It can alter Bills; it can reject Bills on which the House of Commons is not yet thoroughly in earnest-upon which the nation is not thoroughly determined. Their veto is a sort of hypothetical veto. They say: We reject your Bill for this once, or these twice, or even these thrice; but, if you keep on sending it up, at last we won't reject it'" (Bagehot's English Constitution, pp. 97-100).

The House of Lords, on the 11th inst., went into committee on the Lunacy Bill.

Lord Courtney of Penwith moved an amendment to the 1st schedule with the object of giving a discretion to the Lord Chancellor to appoint a woman as a paid as well as an unpaid commissioner.-The Lord Chancellor agreed that it would not be easy to overstate the importance of having women associated with the care of the insane, and he unreservedly assented to the principle of the amendment. But he could not accept the amendment at the present time, this being a Bill of a temporary character.-The amendment was, by leave, withdrawn.-The Bill then passed through committee.

In the House of Commons, Mr. Watt asked the Lord Advocate in what counties in Scotland committees had been set up to assist the Lord Chancellor in the appointment of justices of the peace; by

The

whom these committees were chosen, and how many members they consisted of; and whether it was the intention of the Government that local members of Parliament should make representations to these committees, who would put the representations before the Lord Chancellor.-The Lord Advocate: The counties in which committees have been set up are Clackmannan, Fife, Kirkcudbright, Nairn, Stirling, County of City of Edinburgh, County of City of Glasgow, and Inverness, which is, however, under reconsideration. numbers vary from four to seven. The members of committees have been chosen by the Lord Chancellor, in a very few cases upon personal knowledge, in general upon communication both with the Lord-Lieutenant and others. Anyone can make representations to the committees, and the committees can make any representations to the Lord Chancellor.-Replying to supplementary questions, the Lord Advocate said he would consider the advisability of authorising the publication of the names of the advisory committee when they had been finally settled by the Lord Chancellor.

Mr. Fell asked the Home Secretary whether there was any agreement or arrangement with the shipowners who brought alien immigrants into this country that they would take them back again at their own expense if the immigrants were for any reason rejected on arrival, even if such aliens had been allowed to land pending the decision as to their being undesirable or not.-Mr. Masterman, who replied, said: Under the Aliens Act 1905 in all cases in which an alien immigrant is refused leave to land it rests with the master of the ship which brought him to this country to dispose of him after such refusal.-Mr. Fell further asked whether any search was now made in the baggage of aliens arriving in this country at scheduled ports for Mauser rifles, pistols, daggers, stilettos, and other weapons; whether they were contiscated if discovered; and whether the aliens trying to introduce them were pronounced to be undesirable and were refused permission to land.-Mr. Masterman: There is no power in the Aliens Act 1905 for immigration officers to search the baggage of alien immigrants; and the possession of arms by any such aliens is not among the considerations which, under sect. 1 (3) of the Act, may subject him to refusal of leave to land as an undesirable immigrant. I hope this matter may be dealt with when the law is amended.

In the House of Lords, on Monday, on the motion of Lord Eversley the resolution of the House referring the Rights of Way Bill to a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament rescinded and the Bill was referred to a Select Committee.

was

In the House of Commons, Mr. Morrell asked the Parliamentary. Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether he could give the names of those who are to be appointed as additional commissioners under the Small Holdings Act and the areas to be allotted to them. -Sir E. Strachey: The names and areas are as follows:-Mr. A. Allsebrook-area, counties, Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, Westmorland, Lancashire, and Yorkshire; Mr. J. H. Diggle-area, counties, Lincolnshire and Isle of Ely; Mr. E. O. Fordham-area, counties, Chester, Derbys, Notts, Leicester, Rutland, Northampton. Warwick, Stafford, Soke of Peterborough, Salop, Worcester, and Hereford; Mr. Sydney Mager-area, counties, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall; Mr. John Owen-area, Wales and Monmouth, Mr. F. E. N. Rogers-area, counties, Wilts, Gloucester, Oxford, Berks, Hants, Isle of Wight; Mr. M. T. Baines-area, Bucks, Bedford, Herts, Essex, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex, Kent; Mr. E. J. Cheneyarea, Norfolk, Hunts, Cambs, Suffolk.

Mr. Martin asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in connection with the Coronation extra work, the Commissioner of Police would endeavour to give a preference to retired policemen who are out of employment -Mr. Churchill: Pensioners were invited to volunteer for service during the pressure of work at the time of the Coronation, and arrangements have now been made with all those whose assistance will be required. The men engaged must, of course, be suited for the particular work to which they are to be assigned, and have been chosen on this principle. It is understood that most of the men are not engaged in cther employments.

Mr. King asked the Prime Minister whether he had taken into consideration the practice of many Lords-Lieutenant who refused to nominate as magistrates any names which had not been approved by the petty sessional benches on which the gentlemen whose names thus submitted would serve; whether he was aware that many suitable persons had thus been refused the opportunity of serving as magistrates; and whether he would approach the Lord Chancellor with a view to this practice being discontinued.-Mr. Asquith: I am informed that no such practice bas ever been approved by the Lord Chancellor, and he is not aware that appointments have been thereby prevented. It is impossible under a system of advisory committees. -Mr. King: Will the Prime Minister approach the authorities with a view to expressing disapproval of this practice ?-Mr. Asquith: It does not rest with me at all. The question is one which concerns the Lord Chancellor.

In reply to Mr. Norman Craig, Mr. Lloyd George said: It is the fact that a formal assessment of estate duty in respect of land forming part of the estate of a deceased person is not, and indeed cannot be, made until the valuation has been received from the Government valuer. A certain amount of delay has unavoidably occurred in the valuing of land for death duty purposes. Steps are being taken to expedite the valuations now that the valuing staff is getting into fuller working order.

Mr. Lloyd George, replying to Mr. Bridge man, stated that the number of copies of Form 4 circulated in Great Britain was 10,721,887. The number circulated in Ireland was 13,000.

Mr. Houston asked the Home Secretary whether he would take steps to keep one main artery free from slow-moving traffic during certain hours so as to facilitate the passage of vehicles conveying persons to railway stations and business premises in the City; and whether, with a view to mitigating the danger to pedestrians and others by reason of reckless driving and exceeding the speed limit by drivers of vehicles, he would give special instructions to the police to endeavour to mitigate this evil. Mr. Churchill: As regards the first part of this question, I can add nothing to the answer I gave to the similar inquiry by the hon. member on the 8th inst. As regards the latter part, I am sure that the police are fully alive to the need of using every endeavour to stop reckless driving. They are already instructed to that effect, and nothing would be gained by issuing any special instructions

In the House of Lords, on Tuesday, the debate on the second reading of Lord Lansdowne's Bill for the reform of the Second Chamber was continued. One of the principal speakers was the Lord Chancellor, who declared that the Bill invited the Government to surrender at discretion after they had obtained victory in the constituencies. They would be traitors and poltroons if they abandoned the Parliament Bill, which must be inscribed on the statute-book before any compromise on constitutional questions could be considered. The debate was adjourned, and the Parliament Bill was afterwards introduced by Viscount Morley, and read a first time.

In the House of Commons Mr. Astor asked the Postmaster-General whether the National Telephone Company were refusing to supply applicants with telephones on the Gerrard Exchange, and whether the Post Office was refusing to supply applicants with telephones on the Mayfair Exchange; and, if so, whether he would take immediate steps to enable inhabitants in the neighbourhoods of those exchanges to install instruments.-Mr. Herbert Samuel: I understand that the existing equipment of the National Telephone Company's Gerrard Exchange is working to its full capacity; and the same is practically true of the Post Office Mayfair Exchange. New apparatus is, however, now being added at Mayfair to provide accommodation for additional subscribers, and is expected to be ready next month. As soon as the Gerrard Exchange comes into my hands, steps will be taken to provide additional accommodation there also. The company state that they are unable to undertake any extension at present.

The House went into Committee of Ways and Means, Mr. Emmott (Oldham) in the chair.-The Chancellor of the Exchequer in making his Budget statement said: The figures which have already been printed and circulated in reference to last year will have revealed the fact that there was a realized surplus of £5,607,000. I would point out that that is practically the surplus of two years. Last year was abnormal in respect to the fact that there were very serious arrears from the previous year which had not been collected, and that therefore a good deal of taxation belonging to last year was thrown into the present year. We are still suffering from the delay and consequent confusion which resulted from the exceptional financial experience that we passed through. We shall not be able this year to collect the whole of our supert.x, and the same thing will apply, of course, to the land taxes, the estate duties, and the licensing duties. Had the arrears of income tax-I mean the normal arrears-been collected the surplus would have been £8,500,000 for the two years. The surplus is due to two things. First of all you had a saving in expenditure in spite of the very heavy supplementary estimates of £1,238,000, and you had besides an improvement in revenue over the estimate, which came to £4,060,000. Death duty was the only disappointment in the matter of revenue, but the cause of it is full of cheer. It was entirely due to the abnormally low death-rate last year. It was lower by 64 per cent. than the average for the previous three years, and it is very remarkable that the receipts were lower by 6 per cent. than my Budget estimate. It shows the extraordinary accuracy with which the estimates are prepared. We have a realised surplus of £5,607,000. There are two new items of expenditure. One is insurance, where the expenditure for this year will be about £50,000. The next item of exceptional new expenditure has reference to the payment of members. The Prime Minister gave a definite promise from this box immediately before the election, and just as we were going to the country, so as to make it perfectly clear what the effect of a favourable answer would be. He gave a similar pledge immediately after the election, and he proposed dealing with the problem this year. I am not going to argue the queɛtion, because it is out of place in a financial statement. I will only say this. This is the only Parliament, I think, in the world, excepting Italy, where the members are not paid. I believe in Italy they have free travelling. But so absorbing have duties become and so difficult is it for men to attend to their ordinary vocations that thoɛ6 who have been able to attend to these duties before find it increasingly difficult to go on attending to their duties. I have examined the scales of payment of members abroad and in the colories. I will give a few of them. The United States of America heads the list with £1500 per annum and limited travelling expenses. The limited travelling expenses mean that those who live in California are paid mileage for going round Cape Horn. France pays £600 per annum, with free travelling on the State railways, but as the majority of the railways in France belong to private companies this is not very valuable. But I believe that there is also a pension at fifty-five after a member has served four years. Austria is a little more niggardly; it pays about 163. 8d. a day during the session, attendance is insisted upon, and travelling expenses are given except for Viennese members. Belgium pays £160 per annum. Germany pays

We

£150 per annum, subject to a deduction of £1 10. for each day's absence; free travelling passes are given during the session. Italy gives no salary, but free passes are given on the rɛi ways and on certain steamers. In Canada the amount is £500 per annum and travelling expenses; New Zealand £300 per annum and travelling expenses; the Commonwealth of Australia £600 per annum, and I think free passes, but I am not sure; the Union of South Africa £400 per annum, but I do not know whether there are free passer. We do not propose to be as generous as the United States or to give as little as Germany. We propose to take a course somewhere between the two an' to follow the precedent of some of the colonies. have fixed the salary at £400, but with no travelling expenses and no pension. There are 670 members of the House. There are thirtyeight in receipt of salary either as Ministers or as officers of the House and of His Majesty's Household. They will be excluded. This will come to something like £250,000 per annum. That is the remaining exceptional item of expenditure; and I will now give the expe. diture by reading out the figures. The Development and Road In provement Funds are £1,280,000; other, Consolidated Fund services, £1,707,000. The total Consolidated Fund service is £37,036,000; the Army, £27,690,000; the Navy, £41,393,000; old age pensions, £12,415,000; other Civil Services, £34,373,000; Customs and Inland Revenue, £3 995,000; Post Office services, £21,082,000; total Supply Services. £143,948,000; payment of members, £250,000; insurance, £50,000. The total with the provision for the National Debt will be £181,284,000. I estimate that the death duties, the old and new duties together, will produce £25,150,000. That is an increase on the true revenue of last year after deducting arrears of £1,078,000. Stamps are much more difficult to estimate. Last year there was very great activity on the Stock Exchange. At the beginning of the year we had an oil boom and a rubber boom, but there was a much more interesting boom at the end of the year, and that was the boom in British railway shares. You cannot depend on these booms in the coming year, and therefore it is very difficult to estimate. I cannot prophesy the next boom, and no one can. The man who could would be a multi-millionaire. Therefore the safest course is to anticipate a falling off from Stock Exchange stamps. The estimate for 1911-12 will therefore be £9,600,000 for stamps. That represents a decrease of £184,000 on the Exchequer receipts for 1910-11.~ May I point out that decrease would be still greater but for the improvement in the real estate market? I now come to the inhabited house duty. There will be a slight increase of about £10,000, making £2,700,000. The ordinary income tax will be £41 300,000, including the arrears of last year, and the supertax will be £3,000,000. That will make the income tax for this year £44,300,000. With regard to the supertax, I ought to say there has been no time yet thoroughly to investigate the returns. It is proposed this should be done this year. but it will involve some delay in collection, and as there has been so much said about delay I think it better to warn the committee of this in advance, so that it will not be thought at the end of the year that the delay was due to some nefarious purpose on my part. I now come to the land value duties. The really productive duty, as we anticipated, will be the increment value duty, but that cannot fructify until the valuation is completed. The valuation has been held back by a variety of circumstances, and it will take some time, as we anticipated, to complete it. Even then, it must take a few years for the increased value to grow and to ripen, but it is welling up. It has not yet reached beyond the high rim of deductions to be provided, but this year we hope to get about £50,000 from the increment value duty. The same observation applies to the undeveloped land duty. This year we hope to be able to complete the valuation of most of the undeveloped urban sites and to collect part of the undeveloped land duty in respect of them. That will produce £200,000 this year. We expect the reversion duty will yield £50,000 and the mineral rights duty £400,000, of which £80,000 will be arrears. We expect the total land value duties will amount to £700,000. The estimated total of the non-tax revenue is £29,666,000; the estimated total of the tax revenue is £152,050,000, making a total of £181 716,000 revenue. The expenditure has already been stated at £181,281,000. That leaves & surplus of will £432,000, and therefore it not be necessary to impose any fresh taxation. But I have got one or two alterations which I propose to b made in one or two taxes. the The first is in relation to cocoa duty. What we propose is to put cocoa on exactly the same footing as any other business or industry in this country, That involves subjecting chocolate to duty according to its ingredients and giving the usual drawback in export. The loss to revenue involvei will be-loss of duty, £20 000, and loss in drawback, £25,000. That means loss in all to the revenue of £45,000. The other alteration I propose to make is in the liquor licence duties. There is a charge now made in respect of liquor licences on account of areas which are in no sense of the term part of the premises in which intoxicating liquors are sold. We propose to modify these conditions. It will involve a loss to the revenue of at least £50,000. Then there is ancther alteration-in stamps-which has been pressed upon me by very important interests in the City. At the present moment all marketable securities passing on delivery pay the same duty of 1 per cent, 10 matter what the terms of the obligation. There has grown up a tendency of late, especially in the United States, to borrow on short-dated obligations, and the 1 per cent. duty practically kills our business in those short-dated securities. The revenue gets nothing out of it, and the City gets nothing out of it. The contention of the City is that it has driven the business out, and that it does not pay. I propose. therefore, that there should be the foliowing rates per £100 secured-namely, half-a-crown if repayable in one year, and 53. if

repayable in two or three years. There must be some provisions, of course, to safeguard the revenue. I cannot tell what the effect will be in the matter of duty, and I am not going to estimate either for loss or increase. In any event it must be trivial and cannot dislocate or disarrange the revenue for the year. Those are all the alterations I propose. The revenus therefore will be £181,621,000, and the expenditure £181,284,000. That leaves a surplus of £337,000 to meet contingencies. Next year we shall have to find £2,500,000; the following year £4,126,000, and the next year, 1914-15, £4,781,000, and I believe we shall find all that money without increasing taxation, provided the conditions I have laid down are strictly adhered to. In Germany the State contribution to the whole scheme is £2,500,000, ours is nearly £19,000,000.

In the House of Commons, on Wednesday, Lord Alexander Thynne, in asking leave, under the ten-minutes rule, to introduce a Bill to provide for the amendment and better administration of the law relating to the poor of London, said that in no part of the country was the problem so unique in extent, intensity, and, therefore, difficulty. The Bill proposed to substitute for the thirty-one boards of guardians in the metropolitan area one central authority into whose hands it would concentrate all the varying functions at present distributed among five or six different types of authority. For this process of unification London would derive three great benefits-(1) Economy and efficiency in administration; (2) improved status and character of the officials; and (3) it made it possible to create one central rate for all Poor Law purposes. The measure proposed that the duties should be laid upon the London County Council, acting through the agency of a statutory committee, of which the majority should be composed of members of the council, a proportion of the remainder being co-opted by the council from outside its own ranks and a further proportion being nominated by the Local Government Board. Under the central committee would be a number of local committees administering areas more or less coterminous with the present areas of the boards of guardians. They would be appointed to a large extent by the central authority, but more than a third of the members would be appointed by the metropolitan borough councils. It was considered desirable to enact in legislative form the general principles on which the new body should act. The broad principle running through the Bill was the rehabilitation of the individual. They asked something more from this reformed system than that it should prove a deterrent and puntive agent except in regard to specified classes. Each case would be dealt with on its symptoms very much on the same plan as the medical practitioner deals with his p.ivate patients. There would be a precise classification of every case and an exact differentiation between different classes of institutions. Provision was made for the recovery of expenses in certain cases in which it was clear that the recipient could afford to pay, and also for the institution of case papers and the treatment of the family in the union. The measure had received very careful consideration from some of the leading authorities in the country. The principle on which it was based enjoyed the sanction of fourteen out of the eighteen members of the Poor Law Commission. It followed in many respects on the lines of the scheme which the London County Council placed before the commission, and it also endeavoured to meet many of the criticisms which had been advanced by the Association of County Councils. Leave to introduce the Bill was given, and the measure was read a first time.

Mr. Peto, in asking for leave to introduce the Merchandise Marks (No. 2) Bill, explained that its object was to amend the Merchandise Marks Act of 1887 by giving some definite indication of the place where the goods were made or produced and how they should be marked in certain cases. The Bill followed the direction of reform indicated by the experience of manufacturers and traders proving the earlier Act to be defective and also ineffective in the security of the goods of manufacturers in this country. It was accordingly provided that goods made in the British Empire should be marked "Empire made" and goods made outside the Empire should be marked "foreign made." He acknowledged that the words "Made in Germany" had acted rather detrimentally than otherwise to British interests. Such a mark also might be looked upon as being invidious from the fact that one country only had been selected to show whence the goods came. The second clause of his Bill, therefore, stopped a gap in the Act of 1887. The third clause imposed the penalty of the prohibition of importation of goods that infringed the provisions of the Bill, while the fourth clause dealt with the imitation of trade marks and the use of the name of a British inventor on articles manufactured. The penalty also imposed here was prohibition of the fraudulently marked goods. The eighth clause provided the machinery for seeing that the goods bore the words "Empire made," thereby acting as a passport for such goods to the favour of the consumer in this country. Those who desired to mark their goods in the way indicated were asked to bring a consular certificate as to the place where the goeds were made.-The Bill was brought up and read a first time.

The Standing Committee of the House of Commons presided over by Mr. Griffith-Boscawen continued the consideration of the clauses of the Copyright Bil on the 11th inst. The whole sitting was occupied with further amendments to clause 2, which relates to infringements, and goes on to enact that "copyright in a work shall also be deemed to be infringed by any person who sells, or lets for hire, or exposes, offers, or has in his possession for sale or hire, or distributes or exhibits in public, or imports for sale or hire into any part of His Majesty's dominions to which this Act extends, any work which to his knowledge infringes copyright or would infringe copy

right if it had been made within the part of His Maj sty's dominions in or into which the sale or hiring, exposure, offering, or having in possession for sale or hire, or importation, took place." The committee adjourned till the 18th inst.

The terms of reference to the committee on the relations between Imperial and local taxation are as follows: "To inquire into the ohanges which have taken place in the relations between Imperial and local taxation since the report of the Royal Commission on local taxation in 1901, to examine the several proposals made in the reports of that commission, and to make recommendations on the subject for the consideration of His Majesty's Government with a view to the introduction of legislation at an early date."

The Prime Minister, in response to requests which have been made to him by many of his supporters, has decided to give a day after the Whitsuntide recess for the discussion of the findings of the Royal Commission on the appointment of magistrates. This promise was conveyed to a deputation consisting of Sir C. S. Henry. Mr. Neil Primrose, Mr. Silvester Horne, Mr. Logan, and Sir G. White, who waited upon the Chief Government Whip.

Sir William Bull asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that a notice, No. 8/2, and headed List to be delivered by Trustees, Agents, &c., of persons chargeable under sched. D, has recently been served by the income tax authorities upon solicitors and others, requiring them to make a return in writing within twenty one days of all money, value, profits, or gains of or belonging to any other person chargeable under sched. D of the Income Tax Acts received by him, and the name and place of abode or residence of every person to whom the same shall belong, under the penalties contained in the said Acts for neglect so to do; and that one of the lists scheduled to the said notice is headed Description of every Person for whom I act as Trustee, Agent, Receiver, Guardian, Tutor, Curator, or Committee, in relation to profits arising from trade, profession, untaxed interest, foreign possessions and securities, or other profits chargeable under sched. D; whether, in pursuance of this notice, solicitors are expected to make a complete return of all moneys they receive and disclose information they obtain in a confidential and fiduciary capacity, either as solicitors or trustees, on behalf of their clients; by whose authority was this notice issued; how many have been issued; which are the clauses in the Finance Act in pursuance of which the notice is stated to be given; and what are the penalties referred to in the notice.-Mr. Lloyd George's reply was that the form referred to, with the requirements of which solicitors, so far as it applies to them, are required to comply, is issued by assessors of taxes. The number issued is not known. It is issued under the provisions of sects. 41, 42, 51, and 190 (sched. G XVI.) of the Income Tax Act 1842, and the penalties are contained in sect. 55 of that Act.

ture is between 35 and 40 degrees. You can imagine the atmosphere in rooms constructed for fourteen persons into which thirty-seven are packed."

In the prison of Alexandrovek, in the Government of Irkoutek, the convicts, in default of beds, sleep upon, and under, the tables. This was in 1910. During 1909 and 1910 there were 600 persons in the prison at Algatchi, of whom 200 were political offenders. Sixty-five persons occupy a room designed for twenty-five. Not only is the accommodation deficient, but the food is commensurate with the accommodation. The prisoners eat seated on the ground. At night they sleep as best they can. Some are under the beds, others in passages, while even the troughs are utilised. There is no bedding. They do not possess 8 change of clothing; once a week they wash without soap. Once a month a bath is taken, sixty being crowded into a bath constructed for a dozen. The food for the 600 is prepared in a kitchen equipped to cook for only half that number. The dinner on les jours gras consists of a ladle of soup with about 7oz. of meat, including gristle. The meat is often putrid. Two tablespoonfuls of oatmeal are served out every other day together with 2lb. (850 grammes) of rye bread. On les jours maigres there is a potato soup without meat. The supper is the same soup with a liberal quantity of added

water.

At Riga Mme. Figner declares the women are literally dying of hunger, while the prisoners of Boutirki, at Moscow, are in the greatest misery, both on account of the insufficiency and the quality of the food. Prisoners, it seems, are allowed to receive small remittances from relations, varying from 53. 6d. to about 9s. a month, but no convict is allowed to share his remittance with another less fortunate. The health of the prisoners, as was indicated at the beginning of the article, is far from satisfactory. Consumption is a terrible scourge, and to combat it the convicts undergo injections of tuberculine, but, as Mme. Figner observes, with such a dietary inoculation is useless. Scurvy and other diseases are to be found, while the Boutirki Prison, at Moscow, Mme. Figner declares, is un centre notoire de syphilis, which is often contracted by the political prisoners from the common felons in conee quence of the linen all Leing washed together and the careless method adopted in distributir g the clothing when it comes back from the laundry. At Algatchi the authorities prepare in the autumn about sixty graves, and the winter inevitably fills them. At the central prison of Vladimir from January to August of last year there were forty-three deaths out of a population of 950.

The prison discipline is the complement of the other conditions indicated. At Vladimir offences are punished with from thirty to thirty-five days in the dungeon (cachot). Some prisoners emerge as invalids, others commit suicide, a favourite method being to place the head in the trough filled with water. Dungeon punishment is visited upon the prisoners not only for the most trivial offences, but in a capricious manner. A button off a garment, a coat with whitewash from the walls, frequently means the dungeon. Here the food consists of bread and water. At Moscow an end of a cigarette found on the floor entails dungeon punishment for all the occupants of the apartment. This punishment is not as purposeless as it might seem on the first impression, for Mme. Figner says that the economy resulting from the bread and water diet finds its way into the pocket of some official. Mme. Figner, who cites cases of cruelty, declares "Les tortures des prisonniers, les violences auxquelles ils sont soum.s sont d'une nature telle qu'on renonce à les retracer par des mots."

RUSSIAN PRISONS.

IN our issue of May 6th, p. 7, reference was made to luxuries said to be enjoyed in French prisons. La Revue (formerly the Revue des Revues) for May gives a glimpse of Russian prisons, which, to say the least, cannot be described as blest retreats of infamy and ease." The writer of the article in La Revue is Mme. Vera Figner. She studied medicine at Zurich, the editor explains in a note, and afterwards practised among her own people. She belongs to one of the high families of Russia, and was associated with the "Volonté du Peuple" movement in 1884. Mme. Figner was one of a band of forty-eight sentenced in that year. In 1890 only twenty. eight remained, and in 1896 there were only twenty-tour. Tue others had succumbed to the terrible hardships which they had undergone. After twenty-one years in prison Mme. Figner was released. Since then she has published a volume of poems, another of short stories, and has contributed to the Revue among other publications. Mme. Figner says that the Minister of Justice has admitted in the Duma, that the population pénitentiaire in 1904 was 91,720. In April 1909 the number was 181,241. For 1910 the administration of prisons anticipated 200,000 incarcerated, but this number was exceeded at the end of the year; consequently it will be seen that prisons constructed to accommodate 104,000 persons must be, as they are, terribly overcrowded. It is the same with the establishments in which suspects awaiting trial are herded.

At Gorni Zérentoui, in Siberia, there are 300 political prisoners who have to sleep turn about. The first batch sleep from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., the next batch take their places immediately, the beds still warm, and rest until 8 a.m. Thus the prisoners can never obtain during the time allowed for rest that repose which is necessary for the nervous system.

Mme. Figner next gives an extract from a letter written by a convict who was released last year, in which he writes: "Since the autumn of 1909 they have taken away our great coats-this is also in Siberia. We are not able to take walking exercise for the tempera

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