On Wednesday, Mr. Chamberlain addressed a mass- meeting in Stepney
on London municipal questions. We have p3inted out elsewhere how deeply we regret the fact that Mr. Chamberlain failed to accept the very reasonable pro- posals of the Royal Commission for extending to all London the civic traditions and civic dignity of the City, and for creating at the same time a series of sub-municipalities, with Mayors and Corporations. Mr. Chamberlain instead advocated, though not by name, what has come to be known as " tenifica- tion,"—i.e , the leaving the City as it is, and the erection of ten or twelve municipalities in the London districts, endowed with as much autonomy as possible. Here we will only note Mr. Chamberlain's excellent protest against the theory that the more you tax the rich the more you benefit the poor. There were, he said, people who thought the rates of London a bottomless purse into which they could put their hands and scatter gold without ever coming to an end. There never was a more profound mistake. "You may do what you please; you may propose schemes of betterment, taxation of ground land-
lords ; you may try to ruin the rich if you like; you may try, if you like, to put all the taxation on the rich ; you may try till you are black in the face, but you will not do it. What- ever you do, the pressure of taxation will ultimately and in the long-run fall upon the poor."
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