Lord Rosebery has been unjustly blamed for his absence from
the meeting of the London County Council on Tuesday, he having been elected with a full knowledge that he had other occupations. In his absence, however, the Council got a little out of hand, and attacked too many subjects at once. Very little was done in a four hours' sitting ; but one im- portant point was provisionally settled. The Council intends to do its work through Committees, and there was dis- pute as to whether these Committees should be elected by the Council, or nominated by a Standing Committee. Under the former system, everybody will press to be elected on favourite Committees, leaving the hardest worked Committees to the residuum, and log-rolling will very soon creep in. Under the latter system, the Councillors will be selected to do the work they are best fitted to do. As we understand the rather vague resolutions, the latter system is adopted provisionally. A still better scheme would be to allow the three Chairmen to make the selection ; but we suppose that would be too " despotic." The Council, we see, is inclined towards the foolish waste of building or enlarging a hall of its own, which in three years may be useless, and is doubtful about paying a Deputy-Chair- man, though without such an officer business will never be done. No unpaid man will give the necessary attention, and no one but a Chairman will possess the necessary authority.
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