Lord Rosebery has made two very admirable speeches this week
on the immense responsibilities of the London County Council, and the magnitude of the duties which, without any gradual preparation, it will have to assume. On Monday, he quoted the very wise advice of an American statesman who had said to him :—" Whatever happens in this country, I hope and pray that London government will not become the prey of party politics. If you permit that, you will allow abuse.s to creep in such as made the City of New York the laughing- stock of the world, and which had to be purged with fire before it could extricate itself from the position in which it found itself." Lord Rosebery tried to make his audience understand what the new County Council would have to do. It will "almost immediately take over the whole business of the Metropolitan Board of Works. Just think what an enormous business that is. The Metropolitan Board of Works has a vast income. It has a debt of some £30,000,000, which alone shows what its operations have been. It has functions that touch you at every step you take in the streets of London. This, which has taxed the energies of fifty-seven people to do not very adequately, will only be part of the functions of the
new County Council It will govern 5,000,000,people. To put it by space, it will cover 120 square miles of people. It will have to look after the physical well-being of this incalculable population, which is growing at a rate that I hardly like to estimate day by day. It will have to look after their houses, drainage, water, air, streets, fire-engines,—and I hope it will increase their fire-engines,—their lights, and their amusements." And yet it is all but certain that the London County Council will be less carefully and skilfully chosen, unless great efforts are made within the next few days, than any County Council in England.
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