Mr. Goschen made an able speech on Friday week, introducing
a kind of amateur budget for London and the great cities. The speech was a little too cautious to catch a public still ignorant of the urgent need of reform in our municipal taxation, but it was listened to in the Home with grave attention. We have com- mented upon it elsewhere, but may briefly summarize here Mr. Goschen's main ideas. He holds that the kreat cities, London especially, imperatively require larger revenues ; that the existing system of rating cannot be pushed farther without injury to the people, already too much crowded ; that rates in London must, as a preliminary step, be equalized ; that some taxation must be placed upon owners who at present pay nothing, the tenant's neces- sity to live within a certain distance of business interrupting the law of supply and demand ; and that these resources, when obtained, must be supplemented by a gradual surrender of such small branches of Imperial revenue as are clearly local, e. g., the house-tax. The deficiency to be made up by increasing the income-tax. Our only objection to Mr. Goschen's proposals is, that the resources he suggests will not be sufficient, and that it is better to accustom the country to the truth that if civilization is to advance, the revenues of the great cities must be nearly doubled.
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