E be %pectator
March 17, /866 Mr. Gladstone has promised justice to dogs. He suggested in the House of Commons yester- day week that the dog duty is too high, and is in fact a purely voluntary tax, only 300.000 dogs paying it. whereas the dogs of Great Britain are probably some 3,000,000. He thinks it would be well to reduce it to 4s. or 5s. from its present rate. 12s., and also substitute a licence for the assessed tax. Mankind, he says, are strictly divided into dog-lovers and dog-haters, and all who are not lovers of dogs are haters of dogs. Very kindly therefore he proposes to meet the views of both parties, by making dogs cheaper to keep for dog-lovers, and at the same time making it easier for haters of dogs to fasten the responsibility of the dogs on the owner, who will be liable to be asked at any time for his licence, and to lose his dog if he cannot produce it.
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