The second reading of the Land Values (Scotland) Bill was
moved by Lord Herschell in the Lords on Wednesday. The Bill, which was rejected by the Lords last Session, and now reappeared unaltered, provides for the ascertainment of the ground value of the land, land value being defined as the amount which the land might be expected to realise in the open market if divested of the buildings erected upon it. Lord Herschell, who maintained that the evidence on rating reform already produced fully justified the introduction of this Bill, declared that all that its passage would imply was the willing- ness of the House to consider the question of rating reform. The Lord Chancellor, like Lord Herschell, insisted at length on the preliminary character of the Bill. It was not a remedy, but it was preparatory to other schemes, which might not get rid of the evils of overcrowding, but which might mitigate them. The debate was concluded on Thursday, when on the advice of Lord Lansdowne the Bill was read a second time without a division. The course pursued by the Lords was wise. The Bill was not read a second time last summer because it was sent to the Upper House at a date which left no time for discussion. It can now be properly debated and amended in Committee. The second reading of the Children Bill was moved in the Commons on Tuesday by Mr. Shaw, the Lord Advocate, in an able speech. The ease for the Bill, he pointed out, largely rested on the Reports of the Committees on Physical Training and Physical Deterioration. He deprecated the objection that some of its provisions might seem to interfere unduly with the liberty of the subject, and laid special stress on the clause providing that a child should not be sentenced to imprisonment for any offence and exempting young persons from a sentence of penal servitude. Incidentally he main- tained that George Borrow had done his country a great disservice by glorifying tramp life, in which children were generally brought up in squalid and immoral surroundings. We cannot agree. Tramps do not read Borrow, and, as for the public, they are not demoralised, but improved, by the manliness and humanity of his outlook on the world. A " stuffy " indoor age owes a great deal to Borrow'a vindication of the free air and the "wind on the heath." No one ever rose from reading " Lavengro" or "The Bible in Spain" in the mood which promotes cruelty to children.
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