Mr. Rathbone, the Member for Liverpool, has delivered an address
on the local taxation of great cities which we hope to discuss hereafter at some length. It is full of knowledge and practical suggestion. At present we would only note his state- ments that the taxation of Liverpool Parish has risen to 4s. 50. in the pound, and its contiguous parishes, such as Everton, to more than 6s. ; that the total revenue is £481,039, levied by six indepen- dent authorities, besides £479,427 derived from property ; and that the debt is £4,363,070. In other words, Liverpool rental is increased a fourth by her local taxation ; she pays in local taxes half her Imperial taxation by head, and her debt is, in proportion to her revenue, double that of our Indian Empire. This taxation, moreover, must increase, while the temptation to add to the Debt is very great, and the whole may be said to fall mainly on the smaller occupiers, the rich merchants paying nothing on the wealth the town enables them to make. No County in England is in anything like this position, which, moreover, is not a specially
bad one.
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