abuses convinced Mr. Beal, as early as 1861, that what is really wanted is a single municipality for the whole of London. In that year a committee of the House, before which Mr. Beal was examined, considered the whole subject; and ever since his views have been rapidly winning public approval. Mill, Buxton, Elcho, and Shuttleworth have each unsuccessfully brought in bills embodying Beal's ideas. Latterly Mr. Gladstone has promised his powerful support, and placed the reform of the municipality of London at the head of his long list of "unredeemed pledges." Eventual triumph is, accordingly, as good as certain. When it comes, it will be the cleansing out of the biggest Augean stable in Christendom.
Mr. Beal, as is well known, was the moving spirit in the generous electioneering effort which, in 1865, resulted in the return of the late John Stuart Mill for Westminster free of expense; and it was owing to his enlightened action that the first London School Board had among its members such distinguished men as Lawrence, Huxley, and Morley And what he did for Mill he strove hard to do for the greatest of his disciples, Morley, but in vain.
Mr. Cross's vaunted Artisans' Dwellings Act Mr. Beal would have rendered workable, if the right honorable gentleman had only had the good sense to profit by his advice. His plan was, not to enforce sales to the local authority, but to compel the owners of dilapidated tenements themselves to incur all risks in connection with the pulling down and re-erection of condemned buildings owned by them. As it is, the Metropolitan Board is at a standstill, having lost four million dollars of the ratepayers' money in the vain
