The London County Council has failed in its endeavour to
smuggle the London Improvement Rate through Par- liament as a private Bill. This is the measure under which a special Income-tax not exceeding fourpence in the pound is to be placed upon the owners of London freeholds. On Thursday, the Speaker decided that, under the provisions of Standing Order 194, all Bills promoted by the London County Council, containing power to raise money, must be introduced as Publics Bills. This Bill did not simply confer power to increase rates, but to im- pose a new rate upon persons hitherto exempt ; and it must be introduced as a public measure, and, there- fore, freely debated. It is difficult to understand how the Council's advisers can have entertained any doubt upon the subject. Be the new taxation just or otherwise, it is entirely new both in principle and method; and as it increases Im- perial taxation on a class, it must be discussed on the grounds of public policy. The Council might as well ask for a private Bill enabling them to levy Income-tax on all Consols owned by Londoners, and we rather wonder they did not do it. The Government must bring in the Bill, and not a step should be taken until the number and position of London freeholders is ascertained. The notion that the county is owned by half-a- dozen great peers is unfounded. They own many of the richer blocks, but we doubt if they own as much, in regard to the number of tenants, as the Insurance Offices and Building Societies.
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