Overlegislation in 1883.

The Employees' Liability Act Amendment Bill

Employers' Liability Act (1880) Amendment Bill

is one against which both employers and employed should be on their guard, From the mining districts of the north a protest has already come against this measure, and this not from the masters, but from the men. The Bill proposes to render void any bargain by which masters may agree to insure themselves against, liability for accidents to their work-people by the payment of higher wages or subscription to an accident fund, or both, or otherwise; a system which has hitherto worked well and harmoniously. And in future, if a workman enters into any such page 4 agreement, he is to be allowed to accept the higher wages, and when the accident occurs, to repudiate the contract altogether, and to hold his employer liable just as though no bargain had ever been made. Now, apart from the class-hatred thus engendered, it is high time to enter a protest against this system of put ting a premium on breach of contract which is fast becoming a feature in our legislation. Thus, by the Ground Game Act, a tenant may get his farm at a lower rent on the understanding that he will forego certain privileges, and then snap his fingers in his landlord's face, and claim the privileges; and now, by the Bill under consideration, he may take money by way of insurance against an accident happening to himself, and then, if it should happen, claim compensation all the same. Neither masters or men desire this boon, and yet it is to be thrust upon them in the name of philanthropy. But philanthropy which tends to make men dishonest, is not even a kindness in the long run. As a mere question of expediency from the workman's own point of view, is it an advantage to substitute a system of costly litiga-tion, uncertain in its result, and applying only to a particular class of accidents, for a system under which compensation was in all cases of accident, instant, certain and without cost, and towards which the employer voluntarily contributed 25 per cent.?

Steam Boilers (Persons in Charge) Bill.

Manufacturers are to be worried with a thoroughly characteristic "short Act of Parliament" called the Steam Boilers (Persons in Charge) Bill. Every boiler is to be looked after by a person who is provided with a proper certificate of qualification issued by the Board of Trade, and specifying among other things the color of the grantee's hair and eyes, the state of his complexion, and any other little personal peculiarities which the examiner may consider sufficiently interesting. The Board is to appoint proper examiners for these purposes, of course with suitable salaries; but, lest these gentlemen should give certificates for a consideration, such transactions are in page 5 future to render the examiner liable to a penalty of a hundred pounds, if (let us add) he is found out, which, under the circumstances, is extremely unlikely. For fear all the boiler-users in a town should evade the provisions of the Act by employing the same certificated supervisor, it is provided that "no one such person shall undertake the supervision or inspection of a greater number of boilers than may be prescribed by any regulations of the Board of Trade for the time being in force." In order that there shall be no mistake in the interpretation of the Act we are provided with some definitions, of which one is to the effect that a "boiler-user" is, amongst other things, one who does not use a boiler—for example, one who lets a boiler out for hire. But the great objection to this Bill and all those of a like character is that it acts in restraint of progress and invention. In the case of marine engines the system of Government inspection which has now been in operation for some years, has already wrought a very bad effect; the form of boiler has become stereotyped, and marine engines have not kept pace with mechanical knowledge. Naturally, as Sir F. Bramwell has pointed out, inspectors who have nothing to gain and something to lose by trying new experi-ments, prefer to pass engines and boilers of the old type rather than take the trouble to understand a new construction, or run the risk of sanctioning without understanding it. The same eminent engineer was a member of the Committee of the British Association appointed to consider the question of boiler explosions which reported that "anything like Government inspection would bar progress, and that the best prevention of boiler explosions would be to make coroners' inquests really useful by compelling the coroner to call in to each inquiry two independent engineers of standing." Surely, then, it behoves all persons who believe that the commercial greatness of England is due to the enterprise and untrammelled inventiveness of her mechanical engineers, to oppose all measures on the lines of this meddlesome page 6 little Bill, which, however well intended, will probably fail to preserve life, while it will certainly check invention and bar mechanical progress. In support of this view we cannot do better than refer to the evidence of Sir F. Bramwell, before the Royal Commission on Boiler Explosions.

An important question to be dealt with by the legislature page 7 this Session is undoubtedly that of Patents for Inventions.

Patents for Inventions Bill

The two principal Bills before the House relating to that subject err in the same direction, while both offer decided advantages to the public. Most inventors are now-a-days poor men, and the first condition of a good Bill is that the cost of taking out a patent should be as small as possible. This condition is fairly satisfied by Mr. Anderson's Bill, if not by that of the Government, and so far all is well. In other respects there is little improvement on the present state of the law, and in one particular, there is a marked retrogression on the lines so characteristic of the times. The good old plan of leaving the responsibility for originality and utility upon the inventor is in one Bill supplanted by the modern system of entrusting these duties to paid examiners to be appointed by the Board of Trade, which will also appoint a comptroller-general of patents, designs and trade marks, and a variety of other clerks and officers, upon whose discriminatory powers inventors will be for the most part dependent. Then this department of the Board of Trade is to provide costly buildings and conveniences for the purpose of competing with private enterprise in the publication of an illustrated journal of invention, and of making a collection or museum of models, which, if of advantage to the inventing class, should be established and supported at the expense of that class. Every application is to be referred by the comptroller to an examiner, who is to report whether the invention is subject matter for a patent, and if so, whether the nature of the invention has been fairly described in the prescribed manner. Now all this is better left to the inventor, or if he dare not trust himself, to his patent agent, who has a reputation to lose, and is therefore far more likely to take pains, and to see that the specification will hold water in an action for infringement or otherwise, than a mere official, even though he be under the direction of the Board of Trade. Then again, the examiner is called in to report whether the complete page 8 agrees with the provisional specification, a point upon which the eyes of a respectable patent-agent are wide open. These

Patents for Inventions (No. 3) Bill.

examiners, according to Mr. Anderson's Bill, are actually to decide whether the invention is likely to be useful, a point upon which the inventor is the only capable judge. Of the two Bills, Mr. Chamberlain's is decidedly the better, and with a few important amendments might be worked up into a sound practical measure. The attention of the President of the Board of Trade might, with advantage, be called to the two following points:—1st, Whether it is not time that patent-right should be recognised as of right (proprietary or contractual) and not of grace; 2nd, Whether, if it is expedient to obtain revenue from patents, it would not be more just and also more profitable to the treasury to tax inventions and not inventors? Now a levy of ten per cent, on the royalties would not only bring in a considerable revenue, but it would be the most cheerfully paid of all the taxes in the country. Inventors would pay only out of clear gain—a great advantage to poor mechanics. It is pleasanter for a man in receipt of a thousand pounds to pay a hundred, than for a man who has labored in vain over his invention to pay a five-pound note. A good Patents Bill will reduce the fees for taking out a patent to the lowest figure compatible with the efficient registration of specifications, and provide for the raising of revenue, if any, in the form of a percentage on royalties. That patents should be encouraged is beyond ail question; England has already fallen far behind the United States in respect of inventiveness, and the only explanation to be given of this is the defective character of our patent law. The greatness of England and her present wealth owe more to the recognition of patent-right by the law than to any other legislative enactment whatever; hence whatever re tillers patenting cheap, easy, simple and safe, is to be approved; and this is best attained by leaving inventors free from official interference, and taxing them no more than is necessary for the protection of their proprietary rights.

Strange to say there is no Bill before Parliament this Session

Threatened Shipping Legislation.

for interfering with Ship-owners; and the conclusion drawn from this fact by that much State-regulated class was till very lately the natural one that everything which it was possible to do in that direction, had already been done. They have, however, been roused from this state of false security by the assurance of the President of the Board of Trade that if his predecessors have beaten them with rods he is prepared to beat them with scorpions. Neither members of the shipping interest nor other members of this League would raise a hand to resist this threatened legislation, if they believed that it was likely to result in a saving of life and property. It is because such acts of Government interference are not calculated to succeed that they should be resisted. Mr. Chamberlain has himself admitted that the result of past similar legislation has been not only a failure, but actually harmful. He says, "I am sorry to say I must also tell you that interference has not produced the result it was intended to produce in the security of the lives for which we are in some degree responsible." And he proceeds to quote figures which fully bear out this damaging admission. "I have had the loss of life at sea taken out for the last six years, and I page 10 am sorry to say it is an increasing quantity. The average from 1877 to 1881 was 368 vessels totally lost, and 1,551 lives per annum. But in this year, 1882, that number increased, for it was 548 ships and 2,883 lives." Thus we have an increase of 180 ships totally lost at sea, and of 1,332 lives lost with them-an increase concurrent with and despite of recent legislation. This is a melancholy result of measures which were undeniably brought in with the best intentions. And yet what does the Board of Trade in face of this evidence propose to do? To bring in more measures of the same kind, and based on the same faulty principle.

Licensed Victuallers will do well to read Clauses 43 and

Parliamentary Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Practices) Bill.

Parliamentary Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Parliamentary Bill together, or they will run a good chance of being deceived by the wording of the same. According to the latter Clause, any person who is obliged to come forward as a witness before an election-court, shall be entitled to receive a certificate of indemnity, which shall serve as a guarantee that no legal proceedings shall be instituted against him for any offence under the Acts in connection with the said election, whereby he might otherwise have suffered in respect of his liberty or property; the certificate of indemnity is not to relieve him, page 12 however, from any incapacity to which he might be liable—such incapacity being understood throughout the Act as a loss of status, incapacity to vote in such a county or to fill certain offices. But at the end of Clause 43 occur the following words:—"A person disqualified under this Act for holding a license for the sale of intoxicating liquors shall be deemed to be subject to an incapacity within the meaning of this section! "The plain English of this is, that although a Licensed Victualler may obtain such a certificate as would indemnify any other person against loss of liberty or property on account of any misdoings of his own, upon which his own evidence might throw some light, yet in his case, under the head of an incapacity is included disqualification for holding a license. So that, although he is not to be mulcted in liberty or property, his right to carry on his business is taken from him for three years, under the pretext of a capitis diminutio. This may be expedient, but it is not honest; and, perhaps, it is even yet a question whether a publican ought not to be treated with the same justice as is meted out to his fellows. By Clause 15 of the same Bill, it is provided that licensed premises shall not be used as committee-rooms, and however expedient such provisions may be, it is clear that besides being generally inconvenient, it is hard on those whose business partly consists in the letting of such rooms.

Sale of Intoxicating Liquors (Ireland) Bill.

Next come a batch of Bills to prohibit the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors on Sunday. One of these is to amend and make perpetual an Act to that effect passed in 1879 and applying to Ireland.

Sale of Intoxicating Liquors on Sunday Bill.

This Bill begins with the statement that "it is expedient to amend the said Act, both by making it perpetual and also by ex-tending its provisions to the places exempted, so as that they shall henceforward extend and apply to the whole of Ireland;" a statement which is a mere begging of the question, and wholly unsupported by statistics or any other evidence, and is furthermore in page 13 direct contradiction of the public utterances of several of the

Sale of Intoxicating Liquors on Sunday (No. 2) Bill.

judges of the land, viz.: Lord Justice Fitzgibbon, Baron Dowse, and Judges Harrison and O'Brien, who may be

Ditto Cornwall

supposed to know something of the facts. Others are to

Ditto Durham

apply to divers localities which in no respect differ from the

Ditto Isle-of-Wight

rest of the country in such a way as to render expedient in

Ditto Northumberland

their case exceptional legislation. Why Yorkshire, Cornwall,

Ditto Monmouth

Northumberland, Durham, Monmouth, or the Isle of Wight should be put on a different footing from Lancashire, Middlesex,

Ditto Yorkshire

or the Isle of Man it is very difficult to see, and therefore we may rest assured that if these Bills are deserving of support it would be more rational to accept Mr. Stevenson's Bill or Sir J. Pease's Bill to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors on Sunday in any part of England. Laws limiting the hours of sale on Sunday have now been in force for some years, and they have not been "attended with great public benefit," but they have caused great inconvenience, and produced a good deal of irritation; add to which that even if they had reduced the total number of arrests for drunkenness in the streets, it would prove nothing more than that if men cannot drink at the public-houses they will drink at home. Again, even supposing the total amount of drunkenness on Sunday had actually been reduced, of which proof is wanting, it still remains an open question whether enforced temperance on one day is not paid for with interest by increased indulgence when the restraint is removed. But let us go further still. Is the man who abstains from strong drink because he cannot get it, any better, more virtuous, or more fitted for overcoming all the temptations of life (and there are thousands of others besides drink) than the man who learns to practice the virtue of moderation by experience? If so, the miscreant languishing in the dungeon to which Justice has consigned him is the most virtuous man in the community. But our legislators cannot, it is alleged be troubled with deep ethical and page 14 social problems, they must guide themselves solely by the statistics of crime, and it may be added, if necessary, by the manufactured statistics of crotcheteers. Nevertheless, we cannot shut our eyes to the "fact that self-help, self-reliance, and self-control are far more powerful factors in the evolution of society than all the paternal measures of a mistaken philanthropy. It is for this reason and not from any sympathy with drunkenness and crime that the League is opposed to all measures on the lines of the Bills referred to, and relies for improvement on the operation of public opinion and the natural laws which have already banished drunkenness from the category of tolerated vices in good society. The effect of making that illegal which is not in itself wrong, is to create a class of virtuous law-breakers, and to induce the feeling that law-breaking in itself is not immoral.

Infectious Diseases Notification Bill.

We must now turn to several Bills affecting not special classes of persons, but the whole community, and foremost among these is the Infectious Diseases Notification Bill. With the final aim of this Bill all must sympathise. Its object is to secure that due notice be given to the sanitary authorities of the existence and whereabouts of infectious disease; the onus of notifying to the medical officer of health the existence of any infectious disorder in the house, is to rest both on the inmates of the house and also on the medical man in attendance. The former are not to have any other inducement to conform to the requirements of the Act beyond fear of the consequences of offending against the law; but the latter is to receive half-a-crown as informer. Medical men are very naturally strongly opposed to such an arrangement, and prefer to exercise their own discretion as to the expediency at any time of reporting serious cases of infection to the authorities when assistance is necessary in the interest not only of the patient, but of the neighbours and the community at large. The present practice is page 15 for the medical man in attendance to give information to the officer of health, but if notification is made compulsory, the responsibility will practically rest upon the householder or guardian, and thus create a very different condition of things. The first effect of the passing of the proposed measure will be to divert a considerable amount of medical practice from qualified medical practitioners into the hands of quacks, who will have little to lose and something to gain by keeping the true nature of the malady secret. The law has already been in force some time in about twenty-seven towns in England, with results far from satisfactory. The Liverpool Health Committee having appointed a deputation to visit eight of the towns where those provisions are in force in order to make inquiries as to their working, obtained a great amount of evidence hostile to the Acts, none of which appears in their sanitary officer's reports. A member of the deputation has publicly stated that the evidence led him to the conclusion that "positive evils have arisen from the working of the Acts, while but few good results can be proved, and even these are not distinctly traceable to them, because other agencies have been at work. If there is one piece of information more than another which has been impressed upon me by my visit to the different towns, as an effect of the compulsory notification of disease, it is this of the concealment of the more prevalent diseases—measels, scarlet fever, and fevers generally—by the public. The slighter cases of all these diseases are kept secret by the parents or relatives, are unattended by medical men, are not surrounded by disinfecting precautions, because of the tell-tale nature of the latter; and so these slight cases become the nidus from which numerous others, more severe ones, spring." Again, unless the notification is to lead to action of some kind it can be of no use to anyone, beyond putting the ratepayers' money into the pockets of medical officers; but it is an open secret that the Bill is intended to pave the way to a more drastic and despotic measure to follow, viz., a com page 16 pulsory Isolation Bill which would certainly operate most oppressively on the lower class of the community. Surely if the Royal Commission on the Hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums District Board reported that after an expenditure of lour and a half millions sterling, the hospitals of the Board had increased the spread of small-pox, and that the death-rate had doubled since the formation of the Board, it behoves us to think twice, and yet thrice, before sanctioning any further action in the same direction and at such an extravagant cost. At all events, great care should be taken in dealing with matters of this kind affecting the health, lives, and liberty of the people.

Free Libraries Bill.

The next Bill affecting all classes of persons to which attention should be directed, is the Free Libraries Bill, which provides for the purchase of books by persons who do not want them, for the benefit of those who do. It is based throughout on the good old Communistic lines, for which only the angels and the promoters of these Bills are yet ripe: it is more blessed to give than to receive, and most blessed of all to give page 17 at other people's expense. The library authority is to be endowed with rather formidable powers. It may buy any lands and buildings it requires, or it may erect or hire, improve, alter, and maintain any building for the purposes of a public library, museum, school of art or school of science, or even a picture-gallery. It may buy books, newspapers, maps, specimens of art and science, and all things incidental to any of the purposes enumerated. And all this is to be done at the expense of the ratepayers, of whom nearly one-half may be strongly opposed to such outlay, and a great many more than half utterly ignorant of what is going to be done with their money. It need hardly be said that the library authority is allowed to borrow on the security of the rates.

The Imprisonment for Debt Bill is good for the same

Imprisonment for Debt Blll.

reason that the Bankruptcy Bill is bad, and not for the reason page 18 which its promoters have in view. It will have the effect of rendering credit less easy among the lower classes of the community. The small tradesman who now trusts the poor laborer or artisan, who has no visible property of any value, does so on the security he has in his person; the debtor who will not exert himself to pay his debts for any other reason, will do so to avoid imprisonment, and the creditor knows this. The Bill should also be supported for another and higher reason; it is desirable that all apparent civil inequality as between class and class should be removed.

Banking Laws (Scotland) Bill.

One of the most remarkable Bills before Parliament from the point of view of State-interference is the Banking Laws (Scotland) Bill. Its object is to provide for the issue by local banks of notes guaranteed by the State. For this purpose "the bank to which privilege of issue has been so granted shall deposit with the Treasurer (a paid officer of State, to be called Treasurer to the Scotch Banks of Issue) page 19 Government securities of the prescribed value to cover such amount of issue as it means to have in circulation." This pre-scribed value is to be such that the Treasurer is satisfied their market value exceeds by at least fifteen per cent, the amount of note-issue for which he grants certificate upon them. Clearly these guaranteed notes will be as good as gold as far as their credit is concerned, for the Bill provides that "in the event of suspension of payment by any such bank" the Treasurer is to seize the securities and apply them to the redemption of the notes, and if there be a deficiency on the realisation and redemption, it shall be made good "out of moneys to be provided by Parliament." Now, therefore, since a deficiency is practically impossible unless there has been fraud on the part of the bank—a not impossible occurrence—the British taxpayer is to guarantee the creditors of these Scotch banks against the fraudulent acts of directors. Surely this will tend to diminish rather than to increase the caution of those whose duty it is to weigh well the credit of bankers.

The Theatres Regulation Bill calls attention in its

Theatres Regulation Bill.

preamble to the inconvenient and unsatisfactory state of the law, by which certain theatres are licensed by the Lord Chamberlain, and music halls and other places of public entertainment by the magistrates. The Bill proposes to abolish the censorship of plays page 20 by the Lord Chamberlain, and to place all places of amusement under the department of the Home Secretary. Although the symmetry of this arrangement is a decided recommendation, it is a question whether the proprietors of these places are not throwing off the rule of King Log to fall under that of King Stork. Inspectors arc to survey and continuously inspect all their premises and to report to the Home Secretary as to the manner in which the regulations framed by him are observed, as to the stability of the structure, as to due security against fire, as to facilities of ingress and egress, &c. The Bill deals with two totally distinct questions; there can be no doubt that the common law properly administered is quite competent to deal with all questions of decency, order, and propriety, and requires no supplementing; but the question of stability and security against fire is one which might warrant the interference of the State if the experience of the last two years (to go no further back) justified the belief that State-regulated theatres were better looked after and safer than others. The case of the Ring Theatre at Vienna, for which the State was wholly responsible, and that of the Alhambra, for which the State was in part responsible, hardly warrant that belief. Some of our London theatres are known to be in a dangerous condition and wholly unfit for large assemblages, but the most effective way of bringing their proprietors to their senses is precluded, or virtually so, by the present state of the law of libel. If so amended that truth in such matters shall not be a libel, the public will not long continue to flock into a building which is continually being advertised as insecure.

Land Law (Ireland) Act (1881) Amendment Bill.

Interfering between landlord and tenant we have two Irish Land Law Bills; one brought in by Mr. Parnell, which is too well known to require special exposition, the other by Mr. Givan, which proposes to enact, amongst other things, that any improve- page 21 ment in the value of a holding shall be deemed to be the tenant's

Land Law (Ireland) Amendment Bill.

until the contrary is proved; that if the tenant gives his word in writing that he will not part with the holding, nevertheless an assignment shall be a valid and effectual assignment in law, and the Court shall have power to relieve the tenant against the covenant into which he has entered. Should the tenant wish to purchase his holding the whole of the principal sum for the purpose is to be advanced out of the pockets of the British taxpayer; as to one-fourth of the sum, on personal or other security; the whole to be repayable if the tenant wishes, by instalments spreading over sixty-one years. Mr. (xivan is good enough to stipulate in Clause 9 that "this Land Law (Ireland) Amendment Act shall not apply to England or Scotland;" and for this we have reason to be grateful.

The Distress Law Amendment Bill, if it becomes law,

Distress Law Amendment Bill.

will render it necessary for the hard-pressed tenant to give a bill of sale to his landlord before he can obtain credit for more than page 22 one year's arrears. This provision, which is clearly to the interest of neither party, is put forward in the interest of third parties, hut as they know perfectly well beforehand how matters stand, and what amount of general security they possess, it is difficult to see how they will be benefited. There is, doubtless, something to be urged in favor of Clauses 5 and 6, by which the bona fide property of third persons is made no longer liable to distress for rent in arrear. Male stock belonging to other persons being on the premises solely for the purposes of breeding, machinery belonging to others, and bona fide lent on hire, are to be totally exempted from such liability; and live stock of all kinds belonging to others, and being on the land for agistment or feeding for full payment, are liable only to the extent of the amount of such payment, and no further. Now, reasonable as this at first sight appears to be, the matter might have been greatly simplified without leaving the door open, as is done by the Bill, to petty frauds on the landlord. A written notice served on the landlord by the third party, to the effect that such and such stock or machinery was about to be placed on the tenant's land for the purposes therein described, and that such stock or machinery would remain his, the third party's property, would surely suffice. And in this way the landlord would not be deceived as to the general assets of his tenant, upon which, if desirable, to allow him time.

The Tithe Rent-charge (Extraordinary) Bill is almost as extraordinary as its name implies. Farmers in the hop and fruit districts have never ceased to complain that the incidence of this burden falls almost exclusively upon the tenant; but now that it is to cease, the tithe owner is to be compensated at the expense of the landlord. Clause 8 contains the following provision of modern brand:—" Subject to as aforesaid a rent-charge under this Act shall, as between landlord and tenant, be payable by the landlord, any agreement to the contrary notwithstanding."

This Report would not be complete without some reference the Ground Game Act (1880) Amendment Bill. At the time of the granting of the Great Charter who would have believed that six centuries later one of the statutes of the realm would consist of a definition of the word "rabbit-hole?" Yet so it is in this year of grace 1883! "Rabbit-hole shall mean and include the ground within a distance of six inches from and in front of the roofed opening of any rabbit-burrow." And what is a rabbit-burrow? That will probably be defined in another Act next year.

Private Bills.

It is not, however, in Public Bills alone that danger to individual liberty and the rights of property is to be looked for and guarded against. It is frequently to be found lurking in obscure corners of Private Bills, whose utilitarian and business-like, titles are apt to lull suspicion. Out of 234 Private Bills now before Parliament, there are a number of measures promoted by local bodies for the improvement of their several towns or districts. This class of Improvement Bills furnishes repeated instances of the increasing tendency of local governments, in imitation of the example set in higher quarters, to exceed their normal functions by taking upon themselves the business of traders or regulators of trade within their respective districts. The manufacture of gas, and the storage and supply of that and water, are fast coming to be classed among the first duties of local bodies; and electric lighting seems doomed before long to fall page 25 into the same category (see note). The replacement of individual enterprise in these matters by corporate monopolies may possibly at the outset be attended by some superficial and immediate advantages. On the other hand it is very certain that the suppression of open competition will tend to weaken the strongest and surest stimulus to progress and invention in these as in all other industries. The fate of telegraphy in England as a monopoly in the hands of the State for the last fifteen years does not lead us to expect very rapid growth under this closed system of conducting trade. On this point it is instructive to note that all the greatest developments in this and in allied branches of applied electricity have in recent years proceeded from the United States, where telegraphy is still left to private enterprise.

There is also a growing inclination on the part of local authorities to seek in this class of Bills for powers of "local option," enabling them to supersede the general law of the land in reference to the rights of person and property by special enactments applicable only to their own areas. The Liverpool Improvement Bill is an instance of the latter class. In the midst of 34 sections, dealing mainly with the construction and management of streets, is one making that city an exception under certain sections of the

Since these words wont to press, we find the following strong confirmation of the soundness of this view. A deputation, introduced by Mr. E. Pleydell-Bouverie, and representing Electric Lighting Companies, waited upon the President of the Board of Trade on the 21st inst. (April), to point out the hardships inflicted upon them by certain of the regulations issued "by the Board, with respect to provisional orders for electric lighting. The spokesman contended that the rules thrust obstacles in the way of the successful working of the system, and, moreover, that they were contrary to sound policy, for, if insisted upon, people would not entrust their money to such undertakings. To this remonstrance Mr. Chamberlain, with questionable courtesy, replied that "Mr. Bouverie had spoken with a high sense of conscious virtue, and criticised matters beside the actual circumstances of the case." Now, attention should be called to the fact that the provisions of the Electric Lighting Bill, passed last year at the instance of the Board of Trade, are open to such abuses as may operate in restraint of electric enterprise by admitting, when in mischievous hands, of undue State interference with the property and profits of shareholders.

Lands' Clauses Consolidation Acts. The first class of cases is typically illustrated by the Burnley Borough Improvement Bill. Embedded in this Bill, amidst a mass of extraneous matter, there is, or rather was, one section which sought to put into the hands of the Corporation of that town unlimited powers for the regulation of unlicensed clubs within their jurisdiction. The full force of these extraordinary powers, which would have been doubtless used as precedents for other places, was destined in the first instance to fall upon the working-classes. In the interest of the liberty not of one class only, but of all, the Parliamentary Committee of the League have the satisfaction of knowing that the petition they presented to the House of Commons, the representations they made there, and the rest of their action in conjunction with the Working Men's Club and Institute Union were instrumental in procuring the withdrawal of this objectionable section.

In conclusion, the Parliamentary Committee of the League express a hope that this short survey of Bills now before Parliament by which liberty is threatened and the rights of property ignored or over-ridden, may induce Members of Parliament to look at the grave matters thus brought before them with a view to arresting the present tendency to substitute State-help for Self-help in the business and other transactions of national life; bearing in mind that although for children and lunatics paternal solicitude is required, the similar treatment of sane grown persons only tends to deteriorate the race in the long run by diminishing self-reliance on the one hand and self-control on the other.

April 18th, 1883.

This Report appears somewhat late in the Session, owing to the impossibility of procuring sooner printed copies of all those Bills before Parliament which it was necessary to examine. Some of the Bills here considered appeared in print for the first time within a few hours of sending this Report to press.