RATES AND TAXES. 121 



for poliee and pauper lunatics, and this, with 

 the transfer of the charge for prisons to the 

 Imperial Exchequer, relieved the ratepayers to 

 the extent of almost £2,000,000 per annum. In 

 1878 a Highways Bill was passed, by which the 

 area of charge for a portion of the cost of main 

 roads was extended, although it did not remedy 

 the defect whereby the cost of road maintenance 

 falls largely on other than those who use the 

 roads most constantly. Prior to the General 

 Election of 1880 the question of local taxation 

 was brought prominently before the Duke of 

 Richmond's Commission on Agricultural Depres- 

 sion. ; .V^ 



That Commission reported against the unfair 

 exemption of personal property from taxation, 

 and it recommended, as a practical means of 

 relief, that the cost of the maintenance of indoor 

 paupers, instead of being paid by a union rate 

 upon real property alone, should in future be 

 defrayed either out of the Consolidated Fund 

 or by a rate or tax equitably adjusted, according 

 to means of subsistence; in other words, upon 

 the personal as well as the real property of coun- 

 ties, or of areas wider than existing unions. 



Pledges. 



It also reported that a certain proportion of 

 local taxes should be assigned to the local 

 authority in aid of local expenditure. On the 

 28th March, 1881, a motion was lost in the House 

 of Commons by only fourteen votes, declaring 



