A meeting was held in Westminster on Monday of delegates
from the Vestries of the metropolis, to condemn the opening of Co-operative Stores by Crown servants. The meeting was attended by seventy-five representatives, and was very fierce and unanimous ; but the resolutions complain of no real grievance, except the exemption, under some clause in a statute, of one Co-operative Store—the one in Victoria Street—from payment of Income-tax. That exemption should be abolished, if neces- sary, by Parliament ; but for the rest, the meeting could only declare the management of Stores by State servants, even if superannuated, objectionable, as "crippling the social balance of the community at large," and request that such Stores should be prohibited from taking the titles of Government Departments, 4' which increased their prestige." We have commented on these requests elsewhere, and need only add here that the tradesmen present were evidently in earnest, that they sincerely hated and dreaded the competition of the Stores, and that they all made the same blunder as to their own economic position. They- talked of themselves as if they produced wealth, and did not see that shops, though a great convenience to the community, add nothing to its resources, being merely aids, as the Stores are, and as the costermongers are, to distribution. There would be as much tea in the world if there were no retail tea.dealers, though it would be a little more troublesome for private individuals to store tea.
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