Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/72

 64] ENGLISH HISTOEY. [march

already stated. In the interval, however, the Government had managed to elaborate a measure of their own — the Small Houses (Acquisition of Ownership) Bill — of which the management was by a fantastic arrangement entrusted to the Secretary for the Colonies, Mr. Chamberlain. In moving for leave to bring in the bill (March 14) he explained that its object was to extend to the occupiers of small houses the same facilities for becoming the owners of their houses as had been given to the owners of small farms in Ireland, and to the holders of small tenancies in this country. The operation of the bill would be voluntary, the present owner not being compelled to sell, nor the local authority to advance the purchase money. The bill had not attempted to define the classes whom it was intended to benefit. The fact that persons occupied houses of a certain value would bring them within the scope of the measure. The value was 300/. and under, and the amount that might be advanced was 240/. Wherever and whenever the expense under the bill should rise above a rate of Id, in the pound, the operation of the bill was to cease until the expense sank below that limit. All ownerships would be registered by the local authority, and transfers would be freely made upon payment of a fee not exceeding 10s. When an owner's work took him to another place, and he ceased to reside in consequence, the local authority would have power to take over his dwelling at a price to be fixed by arbitration. When the annual instalments were not paid regularly by a purchasing occupier, or when he failed to keep the house in sound and in proper condition, the local authority was to have power to enter and to sell the house. The bill would apply to Scotland and Ireland as well as England. In this case the opposition, as might have been foreseen, came from the Radical quarter of the House, where it was attacked on various grounds. Mr. M'Kenna (Monmouthshire, N.) wishing that the freehold of such houses should when acquired vest in public bodies ; Sir J. Pease (Barnard Castle, Durham) being unwilling to relieve work- ing men of responsibilities which they were willing to incur; and Mr. Asquith (Fifeshire, E.) holding that the means for supplying the demands dealt with by the bill already existed. Notwithstanding this and much subsequent wrangling the division showed that the extreme Badicals had comparatively small support, and the Government was able to carry the bill through all its stages and eventually to place it on the Statute Book.

Shops bills, dealing with the provision of seats for assistants, with shop hours, and with shop inspection and regulation, also bore witness to the activity with which the interests of that class were promoted, although their introduction by Liberal members coincided with the Service Franchise Bill of the Con- servatives, of which the chief object as explained by Sir Blundell Maple (Dulwich) was to give effect to the view expressed by Lord Justice Bigby in the Court of Appeal in the case of