The Report stage of the Local Government Bill was con-
cluded in the House of Commons on Friday, July 27th, the following Commissioners being appointed to settle the financial questions at issue between the counties and the new county-boroughs :—Lord Derby (Lancashire is the chief point of difficulty), Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, Mr. J. L. Wharton, Mr. F. Mowatt, and Mr. Joseph B. Henley. The Bill passed the third reading on the same evening, though not before Sir William Harcourt had congratulated Mr. Ritchie upon the ability, temper, conciliatory demeanour, and strong common-sense he had displayed. In the House of Lords, the Bill was read a second time on Tuesday. In the debate, Lord Monk-Bretton complained of the changes for the worse made in the House of Commons, and Lord Carnarvon took a strongly antagonistic attitude towards the principle and policy of the whole measure. His greatest objections were to the uniformity between county and borough government created by the Bill, and to the new field he saw opened for the arts of the caucus and the election agent. Lord Salisbury, in his reply, remarked that " the whole language and tone was strained considerably too high for the very modest proposition contained in the Bill," and pointed out of what very modern origin were the powers of Quarter-Sessions. The Bill did not make revolutionary changes, but was necessary to prevent any jealousy on the part of the electors of the classes above them.
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