Mr. Stansfeld moved the second reading of his Rating the
discussion turning on various points of detail, such as the -(Valuation and Liability) Bill at the morning sitting on Tuesday, absence of any provision as to the mode of rating mines and the danger of rating woods. On this last point Sir John Lubbock -made the most striking speech. He pointed out that the rating -of woods would tend to diminish the planting and to increase the cutting-down of wood ; that England is already, rela- tively to the Continent, under-wooded ; that while 15 per -cent. of Switzerland, and 16 per cent. of France, and 23 per cent. of Prussia, and 39 per cent. of Russia is under -wood, only two per cent. of Great Britain is under wood. Mr. Stansfeld replied that woods are rated in Scotland, and that the Scotch hill-sides are better clothed with wood than the English, which are not rated,—which may be true. But then the Scotch wood is grown where very little else would grow at all, where -wood is the only thing to give any value to the land. In England poor landowners would hope that the soil, even if denuded of wood, would yield as much under the plough ; and the -danger would be precisely with those who had been reckless in cutting down their woods already, for the poorest would feel the Tate most. Considering the great national danger,—the danger to the rain-supply,—of denuding the soil of wood, we hold that Sir John Lubbock's objection is a grave one. Besides, the ques- tion of beauty is a national one. We have not too much leaf -and shade left in England.
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