According to a Washington telegram, the Elec- toral Commission, before deciding in favour of counting Oregon for Mr Hayes, rejected the Demo- cratic certificates from that State. In the American House of Representatives a Bill has been reported reducing the effective strength of the army, and providing that no portion of the military power shall be used to support any State government or officer until they have been recognised by Congress. Satisfactory reports are given as to the result of the negotiations now going on between the Porte and the Servian Envoys, and a telegram of Satur- day evening's date announces that an agreement has been established for the conclusion of peace. The Berlin correspondent of a contemporary re- marks upon the strange contradiction between the silence and reserve of Russia, and the vigour with which the warlike preparations of that Power are being pushed forward, and reports a belief that Russia meditates a sudden attack upon Turkey, in order to frustrate the possibility of England's new policy, of giving the Porte a respite for carrying out reforms, being acted upon. On Saturday there was a rumour in Vienna that a new ministerial crisis had occurred at Constantinople, and that Midhat's recall is imminent.

----LEGISLATIVE ABSURDITIES,…

LEGISLATIVE ABSURDITIES, SOCIAL AND -MUNICIPAL. THE absurdity and the injustice of levying a pas- c!1 senger tax on railways, while persons who travel by iiiiu omnibuses and tramways are exempted from the tax by the abolition of the horse duty, were forcibly impressed upon the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE- QUER on Thursday by an influential deputation, introduced by Lord HOUGHTON and the equal if not greater absurdity and injustice of retaining a property qualification for members of town councils, when it has been abolished in the case of mem- bers of Parliament, were with great vigour and conclusiveness urged upon the atten- tion of the same CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER on Saturday, by an important deputation from the Labour Representation League. To the gentlemen of the former deputation Sir STAFFORD NORTHCOTE gave the usual stereotyped reply invariably given by Tory Chancellors of the Exchequer when they are asked to reduce any tax which presses unjustly upon the people at large. Sir STAFFORD NORTH- COTE not only admitted that the tax was condemned by all sound principles of commercial policy, but that it moreover inflicted a special injustice upon railway shareholders in reducing their dividend, and sometimes operating to make a railway"wholly unremunerative while it was also an injustice to passengers, and more especially to working men, who were thus compelled to travel and occasionally to their work—in carriages taxed by Government. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER did not venture to dispute arguments the cogenCy of which he could not evade,and hence he fell BACK upon the last refuge of a, Tory Chancellor—the impossibility Of abandoning the tax in tho present state of the national revenue. We now living under a regime of tax add-on, and not of tax reduction. A penny in the pound increase in the Income-tax is but an earnest of what is in store for us. Expenditure is swelling into alarming proportions, while the REVEL1116 obstinately refuses to expand and Sir GTAJ-FORD NORTHCOTE is therefore at his wit's end to discover some loop-hole of escape from the FINANCIAL difficulties which are environing him. NOTWITHSTANDING the additional penny in the pound Income-tax, his expenditure has largely exceeded his income. The Civil Service departments have spent more than half-a-million above their esti- mated expenditure, which will have to be found in some way or other by the llatIon, while those great spending departments- the Army and Navy—have largely overspent. To ask a Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer to reduce expenditure would be a hopeless prayer for the impossible, and therefore taxes must increase. The CHANCELLOR pleaded that the tax was a necessity in the present state of the revenue, and however forcible and conclusive the argments showing its injustice and absurdity were, he could not do without it, and hence it could not be abolished. The reduction of taxation is no part of the Conservative programme. For this blessing the country must patiently wait until the era of a Liberal administration arrives-when A finaimiar LIKA by economy with EFFICIENCY will be, able triumphantly to show how the ptewing burdens upon the industry and the necessities of the people. can be reduced. This good time coming" must not be hoped for, however, while the Conservative re- action" flourishes. To the deputation which interviewed Sir STAFFORD NORTHCOTE on Saturday he gave the same non possumus reply. He certainly did not require the property qualification of aldermen and town councillors for Ex- chequer purposes, but, nevertheless, he was not able to support a Bill for its abolition. The traditions, the privileges, and the prejudices of Toryism are inveterately opposed to Free Trade in politics, just as they were opposed to Free Trade in Commerce, and as they are still bittferly opposed to Free Trade in land. Sir STAFFORD NORTHCOTE acknowledges the anomaly, the absurdity, and the injustice of retaining the property qualification for tha local representatives in town, councils, when it has been abolished in the case of the national representatives in the Imperial Parliament: But Toryism is eccentric, and while it demands uniformity in the national faith, it reveres anomalous contrasts in the political machinery of 'mmen". Symmetry in political architecture would tend to weakness in the political structure. Hence the pyramid should be reversed, and the pressure laid upon the weakest parts, so as to obtain permanence and ability. This is Tory political philosophy. Sir STAFFORD NORTHCOTE, -however, was not ab- solutely prepared to defend the wisdom or the justice of retaining the property qualification of town councillors,now that the property qualification of members of Parliament is repealed. He could not promise to vote for its abolition, however, neither could lie say whether the Government would oppose Mr MUNDELLA'S Bill. For his own part the matter should have his best attention, and with that tlie gentlemen of the deputation must be content. IN-the complex machinery of our political govern- ment,—imperial and local,—we Great Britons exhibit a strange compound of political sagacity and of political contradiction and unwisdom. The notion that the amount of cash in a man's pocket was a test of the quality of the man's brain could only have originated in an age of wide spread national ignorance, when education was a luxury to be obtained only by the titled and the wealthy, and when wealth was in the hands of a few. But that the degrading superstition should hold within its enfeebling grip the great majority of the nation even now is a reflection upon the boasted intelli- gence of the AGE and that it should be still enshrined in our Statute-books is a. disgrace to our modern legislation. That a man should be disqualified, declared by the law to be positively unfitted to fill an office to which he may be elected by the voice of his fellow-townsmen, unless he resided in a house rated at R30 a year, or had 21,000 in cash at his command, is an unjust favouritism shown to the rich, and an invidious and insulting disability inflicted upon the poorer class of ratepayers but this is the law which governs Municipal elections at the present hour in boroughs similarly situated to Cardiff. And yet it is not the case in Cardiff, and this, amongst other absurdi- ties, strikingly shows the egregious folly of this Municipal property qualification. The Muni- cipal Corporation Acts provide that in boroughs having four wards or les3, the property qualificaton of a town councillor sliould be occupation of a house ratedat Cl5 per annum, or the possession of E500 in cash after paying all his debts and liabilities and in boroughs with more than four wards, occupation of a house rated at C30, or the possession of £1,000 in cash after paying all his debts. In Cardiff, however, although it has five wards, the property qualification is the same as in boroughs having four wards or less. This arises from a clause in a later Act, which declares that if a borough which, at the passing of. that :Act, had tour wards or less should increase the number of its wards above four, the old property qualification of R15 rating occupa- tion, or JE500 in cash, should nevertheless remain. Suppose, however, that Merthyr should, as the re- sult of its present action, become incorporated, and the borough should become divided into five wards, there the qualification for a town councillor would be a R30 rating occupation, or the possession of £ 1,000, whereas in Cardiff, with five wards, the qualification in either case is only half the money. This is, however, only one of the legislative anomalies which serve to show the absurd- ity and the injustice of this Municipal property qualification. A man may have less cash in his pocket than his next door neighbour, and he may reside in a house of less rating value but he may, never- theless, be the equal of his neighbour in political integrity and honour he may be better acquainted with the social and political history of the country he may be better instructed in the principles which should underlie all government, imperial and local; he may have a sounder practical knowledge of the questions that are likely to crop up in the Munici- pal Parliament than his neighbour has, and in these and all other respects would be infinitely better qualified to be a town councillor than he but because he cannot show as much money as his neighbour can, or does not live in a house as highly rated, the law absolutely disqualifies him, and declares that the man of money, no matter what his fitness is, and not the man possessing the needed qualifications, shall alone represent the < burgesses in the town council. This is a 'special disabilitv inflicted unon the Doorer class of rate- I payers, and an invidious and insulting distinction which ought not to be tolerated, and which will not be endured when the people rightly apprehend their political rights and their political responsibi- lities. With the Municipal property qualification abolished, the ratepayers can be as readily trusted to return fit and proper men to the town council as without a property quali- fication they are trusted to return members to the Imperial Legislature. The great Tory objection, orat least that which was most often with cuckoo cry repeated in Parliament, against the abolition of the Parliamentary property qualification, was that it would flood the House with poor men, artisans and labourers, who had not made politics a subject of practical study and that consequently the country would rapidly descend into that nethermost gulf into which Mr HENLEY predicted it would sink after the ugly rush had come. Whether thou- sands of working men and artizans are not as thoroughly acquainted with, and as competent to discuss questions of politics as the majority of the county squires and the successful speculators who cheer Sir CHARLES ADDERLEY and applaud Mr WARD HUNT, is a question which needs not to be discussed to-day. It is a noticeable truth, how- ever, that all the predictions with which Tory alarmists frightened themselves and sought to frighten the country have been falsified by facts. The social status of the House of Commons, taken as a whole, is as high now as ever it was while tile I political knowledge of its members still, taken as a whole, will bear comparison with that of any Par- liament'from the time of the Commonwealth to the abolition of the property qualification. Or if the present House of Commons since the last general election shows marks of political deficiency, this arises from causes entirely apart from the abolition of that property qualification. The Tory alarmists who uttered such lurid pre- dictions of evils that would follow the abolition of the Parliamentary property qualification, which have not come, now prophesy the ruin of our municipal institutions, if the Municipal property qualification is abolished. "Every Dick, Tom, and Harry," we are assured, will then seek for admission into the town council. Perhaps so; and perhaps, moreover, Dick, Tom, and Harry and their colleagues may be able to govern the boroughs as wisely and as well as many town councils that now rule them. The Municipal property qualification has not surrounded the council table with such a select and capable class of councillors in all the boroughs of the nation as to prejudice us in its favour on that ground; while we contend that the burgesses should be permitted to select their representatives from any class of the ratepayers, when they think them competent. To secure this result is the ob- ject of Mr MUNDELLA's Bill, which is simple, and, if carried, will be most effective. It proposes that all the property qualifications for the office of town councillor should be abolished, and inste'ad thereof it provides that any person who for one whole year has been rated to the relief of the poor, shall be eligible for election. The muncicipal con- stituencies should strongly support Mr MU^DELLA'S I BIH

NOTES IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS-

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