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to face the worry of a petty election, and that the elected Councillors will largely consist of intriguing local politicians of a low class.

As a member of the first London 'School Board, I have a vivid recollection of the proceedings of a brand-new purely elective Board, which became worse as time went on, and I doubt not but that the County Council, as proposed in the Bill, would repeat its vagaries and extravagances on grander scale, over a larger area, and with possibly more disastrous results. In this case the rate- payers proved to be no check to extravagance, and experience shows that, setter it at first as you will, the powers of an elected body with a large con- stituency will always increase. It would be also foolish to shut our eyes to the general complaint in all our towns, that the leading men are less and less inclined to face the municipal elections and municipal business, and that the Town Councils are more and more in the hands of a very inferior class; the rapidly increasing local debts bearing witness to their management.

But over and above all this, it seems unwise, at a time when we need to strengthen authority, to overlook the fact that the complete deprivation of the present governing, magisterial, and master classes, of all acknowledged share in the manage- ment of their county affairs will bear the appear- ance to the lower classes of intentional dethrone- ment and degradation, and will be an unnecessary social shock.

My proposal, therefore, would be, while still reserving a full, or two-thirds majority, of the Council for members elected (as in the Bill) by the Petty Sessional Divisions, to add to the Council, say, ten or twenty Justices, elected by Quarter Sessions, and, say, one representative, elected by each Board of Guardians. All these, having been elected for the purpose, may be expected to attend just as well as the others. I should also add to the ex officio members, i.e., the Lord Lieutenant and Chairman of Quarter Sessions which the Bill provides, all Peers and M.P.'s" resident in the county, who, however, like the House of Lords, should have no vote on money Yüestions, and I should endeavour to have some representation from

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