120 AGRICULTURE AND TARIFF REFORM. 



local taxation, and to impose tliat every descrip- 

 tion of property should equitably contribute to 

 all national burdens. Mr. Gladstone resisted 

 this, and bis Government carried the day by 241 

 to 195 votes, on bis undertaking, however, at 

 once to produce a comprehensive measure of his 

 own. On April 16, 1872, Sir Massey Lopes, 

 although opposed by the Government, carried a 

 motion by 259 to 159 votes declaring that no 

 legislation with reference to local taxation would 

 be satisfactory which did not provide either in 

 whole or in part for the relief of occupiers and 

 owners in counties and boroughs from charges 

 imposed upon ratepayers for the administration 

 of justice, police, and lunatics ; the expenditure 

 for such purposes being almost independent of 

 local control. The motion, although carried, was 

 ignored by the Government of the day, a most 

 unjust proceeding. In 1874, the je&r after the 

 General Election, Mr. Gladstone, in his election 

 address, made special reference to the question 

 of local taxation. He promised that the relief 

 of the ratepayers from exceptional burdens would 

 be the foremost item in his future financial 

 policy. Mr. Gladstone, however, did not get into 

 power at such election ; but Mr. Disraeli declared 

 that " a system of raising taxation for general 

 purposes from one particular kind of property 

 involves as great a violation of justice as can 

 well be conceived." Hereupon Sir Stafford 

 Northcote, in his Budget, made provision for the 

 relief of ratepayers in respect of the charges borne 



