At the last moment before the initial meeting of the new London County Council better counsels prevailed with the Progressives, and they consented to make their opponents a present of the Deputy Guteautip and of two out of the ten Aldermanic chairs. Mr. McKinnon Wood, the former leader of the Progressive Party, has been given the Chairmanship, Lord Welby the Vice-Chairmanship, and Mr. Harris, a Moderate, the Deputy Chairman-in not acting too strictly on the principle ip. "The Progressives have done wisely of the spoils to the victors, which would have been all the more unjustifiable seeing that although the Progressives have the substantial majority of twenty-two among the elected councillors, the majority of electors by whom they were returned was exceedingly narrow. The metropolitan Unionist members have been urging the Government to introduce their London Municips! Reform Bill in spite of the ver-diet of the constituencies as given at the County Council elections, and time will show whether they the courage to adopt this advice. Sir Walter Besant, the new historian of London, has rung a pean of jubilation over the ' Saving of London" from being split up into a score of petty municipalities; but he has perhaps been a little premature. From his point of view there is certainly this to be said for the Progressive Party. They may be ruthless revolutionists but they have always done their best to preserve those interesting relics of ancient London which are disappearing day by day.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.