208 REPORT— 1870. 



greatly for the convenience of commerce ; were roads narrow and in bad repair, 

 Avealth would not accumulate so very rapidty, nor would property or commercial 

 products be as safe in banks and warehouses if streets were badly lighted. And 

 the wear and tear of the roads, in the main arteries, is enormous by the grindino-, 

 crushing, and heavy loads drawn over them. Narrow streets have constantly to 

 be widened by the growing demands of commerce, and it should be compelled 

 to contribute towards the expense, which it would do through a property- and 

 income-tax. 



Then commerce should contribute towards the expense of an abundant water- 

 supply, i. e. according to the value of products protected, as by insurance, not by a 

 mere rate on a warehonse. A property- and income-tax would "be an approximation. 



Prevention is better than cure. Commerce should contribute towards the 

 Liln-ary, Museum, and Education Rates, because property is safer in the midst of 

 the educated. Mr. Williams shows that Id. in the pound for the Library and Mu- 

 seum or poor-rate yields about £6300 per annum within the parliamentary borough 

 of Liverpool ; that Id. in the pound for the property- and income-tax yields about 

 £.39,000 within the same area ; and that a rate, on the principle of the property- 

 and income-tax, of about ^d. in the poiiud would yield as much money as the pre- 

 sent excessive rates of over Qs. in the pound. 



He advocates that national and local taxes should be collected by the same col- 

 lectors ; that on the face of the tax-bills should be printed in two Knes, National 

 Taxes and Local Taxes ; that the collectors should pay to the Government the 

 national and to the local authorities the local taxes collected. And he suggests 

 that the poor-rate authorities, the watch, education, sanitary, water, improvement, 

 indeed that all committees should send into the mayors of tlie several boroughs the 

 sums required by each for the next year ; that they, respectively, should be required 

 to send the amount required to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, again, would 

 fix the rate to yield the amounts required and to be collected with, but separate 

 from, the Government taxes. In this way the same local authorities as at present 

 would have the expending of our taxation, maintaining the golden feature that those 

 who pay shall expend their money through their representatives. Exceptional 

 legislation is recommended, instead' of a national bill, as the writer believes that 

 it would be much easier to get a local bill than a general measure through the 

 House. 



MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 



On a New Steam-iioiuer Meter. By Messrs. Ashton and Stoeet. 

 [Ordered to be printed in exfcnso among the Eeports, see page 151.] 



On the unprotected state of Liverpool. 

 By Admiral Sir Edwakd EELcnER, K.C.B., F.B.0.8. 



On a New Beat-Engine. By A. W. Bickeeton, F.C.S. 



The engine is intended to be worked by the expansion of crude nitrogen or 

 common air, under the intiuence of heat. The air is heated in a serpentine sj'stem 

 of tubes passing up and down inside a flue which surrounds the fireplace : the fire 

 itself does not come in contact with the tubes ; but as they entirely surround the 

 fireplace, loss by radiation and conduction is prevented. The air to be heated is 

 compressed and forced into the tubes at the end most distant from the fire, and as 

 it travels forward, it is gradually heated ; so that the air to be heated is travelling 

 towards, and the products of combustion away from the fire : in this way the heat 

 is almost all abstracted from the products of combustion and given to the air, thus 

 preventing the loss that usually occurs by the hot gases passing up the chimney. 

 The air that has been expanded is allowed to pass out of the tubes from the end 



