have not sufficient pressure on their
rates. Where I find, for example, that the total assessment on the
nett rateable value does not exceed ninepence or tenpence in the
pound, I really think such districts ought to be called upon to
increase their rates before applying for extraneous help. But we
have urged as far as we could urge--we have no power to command the
guardians to be more liberal in the rate of relief, and to that
extent to raise the rates in their districts.

And now a word on the subject of raising rates, because I have
received many letters in which it has been said that the rates are
nothing--'they are only three shillings or four shillings in the
pound, while we in the agricultural districts are used to six
shillings in the pound. We consider that no extraordinary rate, and
it is monstrous,' they say, 'that the accumulated wealth of years in
the county of Lancashire should not more largely contribute to the
relief of its own distress.' I will not enter into an argument as to
how far the larger amount of wages in the manufacturing districts
may balance the smaller--amount of wages and the larger amount of
poor-rates in the agricultural districts. I don't wish to enter into
any comparison; I have seen many comparisons of this kind made, but
they were full of fallacies from one end to the other. I will not
waste your time by discussing them; but I ask you to consider the
effect of a sudden rise of rates as a charge upon the accumulated
wealth of a district. It is not the actual amount of the rates, but
it is the sudden and rapid increase of the usual rate of the rates
that presses most heavily on the ratepayers. In the long run, the
rates must fall on real property, because all bargains between owner
and occupier are made with reference to the amount of rates to be
paid, and in all calculations between them, that is an element which
enters into the first agreement. But when the rate is suddenly
increased from one shilling to four shillings, it does not fall on
the accumulated wealth or on the real property, but it falls on the
occupier, the ratepayer--men, the great bulk of whom are at the
present moment themselves struggling upon the verge of pauperism.
Therefore, if in those districts it should appear to persons
accustomed to agricultural districts that the amount of our rates
was very small, I would say to them that any attempt to increase
those rates would only increase the pauperism, diminish the n