Lancashire's Lesson. By W. M. Torrens. (Trubner and Co.)—This is
an argument put with much force for having some permanent system of dealing with labour out of employment. Mr. Torrens says that there is always plenty of public work which wants doing—sanitary, if no other —and that the time for doing it is when wages are exceptionally low, and the men are not required for private enterprise. In Lancashire, by the time the special Act was passed and the plans approved, the necessity was nearly over. Ile would therefore give the Crown per- manent powers of advancing money to municipal bodies. If the expen- diture is entrusted to the local authorities he thinks waste might be prevented. One would certainly suppose there can ha no insuperable difficulty in laying down once for all the conditions on which the Poor- Law Board may sanction the borrowing ofamoney on the security of the rates or the Treasury lend money to the municipalities for public works.
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