Sir Henry James made a very able speech at St.
James's Hall on Wednesday, against the programme of the "Pro- gressive " candidates for the London County Council. He was not, he said, opposed to all their proposals, for he approved, amongst other matters, their proposal to divide the im- provement rates between owners and occupiers, but he was opposed to the rash and ambitious character of their programme as a whole. He pointed out how much more already the London County Council had to do than the Metropolitan Board of Works ever had to do, and how much more they had from one source or another spent,—about as much more as an extra threepenny rate would yield ; and he enlarged on the enormous laboriousness of the Councillors' present duties, and the difficulty with which they were per- formed. He deprecated earnestly the vast enlargement of their duties and responsibilities for which the Progressives con- tend, and pointed out how great an opening that enlargement would make for the most dangerous kind of local corruption, with an army of some forty thousand voters all clamouring for profitable work under their representatives on the Council. And he insisted especially that such a body as the London County Council, with no individual responsibility, would be very unfit for the control of the police, since there would be no single person to hold responsible for such a failure of justice as occurred, for instance, in the case of Miss Cass. It was a masterly speech.
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