Mr. Goschen made a most important speech at Rugby on
Tuesday, in which he stated that he was strongly in favour of enfranchising the soil, and giving more security to tenants,. though not through free sale, which, he held, would give the farmer the benefit not only of his own improvements, but of property rights which were not his own. He was ready to sup- port a scheme of county government, tinder which the Councils should be elected by the ratepayers, and should hold all the powers of the taxing bodies now in existence, who are so numerous that he himself received 87 taxpapers for one property valued at E1,100 a year. He would make the elections dignified, would give each district a civil head or mayor, and would sur- render to the council some control over the local church and its services. "The despotic sway of the Incumbent is opposed to the spirit of the age." Mr. Goschen would also reform the rates, divide them between owner and occupier, and relieve agriculture by handing specified branches of national revenue over to local control. Mr. Goschen concluded a speech of most unusual force, by supporting the reform of procedure, and denouncing the Conservative alliance with th3 Paraellites as discreditable to the former.
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