The London County Council runs up the rates also, though
not as obviously as the London School Board. Lord Lingual. said its rate for this year had decreased, but Mr. G. C. T. Bartley, member for North Islington, shows that it has in- creased from ls. lid. to ls. 20., and even this does not show the citizens the truth, for it is at the instigation of the Council that the assessment has been so greatly raised. There ought to be some method of compelling parochial authorities to record this latter increase in their accounts, as without it any comparison between one administration and another must be fallacious. In Marylebone, from which Mr. Bartley writes, the indignation is widespread, and but for the reluctance to act in municipal matters, would end in the expulsion of the existing Councillors. Even as it is, the personal changes in the next Council will greatly modify its tone,—not to the advantage of consistency in the government of London.
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