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revenue. At the present time the Board's share of the proceeds
amounts to about .£325,000 a year, and if the duties are allowed
to cease in 1889, it is considered by them that they will have
to make good the resulting deficiency by an increase in the
Metropolitan Consolidated Rate of about twopence-halfpenny in
the £. In view of this contingency, they have, since 1872,
made repeated applications to successive First Lords of the
Treasury, being met always with discouraging replies. The last
request was made, in October last, to Lord Randolph Churchill,
then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and, in consequence thereof,
his Lordship received a deputation from the Board and the
Corporation, specified with considerable detail his objection to
the impost, and announced, with the concurrence of his colleagues,
that the Government were not disposed to assist in obtaining a
continuence of the duties. At this time the subject was
receiving a large share of the public attention, and the
Board—in view of a statement of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer that, should a large majority of the Ratepayers of
the Metropolis be in favour of the renewal of the dues, the
attitude of the Government might be modified—issued a circularletter,
under date the 21st January, 1887, dealing with Lord
Randolph Churchill's arguments against the duties, and asking
the favourable co-operation of the "Vestries and District Boards.
" The London Coal and "Wine Duties Continuance Bill," was
also brought into the House of Commons by Sir James McGarelHogg,
Sir Robert Fowler, Mr. Hubbard, Colonel Duncan, and
Mr. R. G. Webster, to provide chiefly that " from the 5th of July,
1889, the duty of four shillings per tun upon wines, and the duty
of one penny per ton upon coals, culm, and cinders, and the duty
of eight pence, part of the said duty of twelve pence per ton upon
coals, culm, and cinders, shall, when levied and collected, be paid
into the said Consolidated Loans Fund, and applied to meet the
charges for dividends and principal in respect of Metropolitan
Consolidated Stock, which has been, or may be, created for raising
money for works and public improvements, for Thames communi