be mar of foreign bricks last year was £450,000, of foreign tiles £430,000, and of foreign cement £540,000. Imports of bricks and tiles doubled in value last year, and recently a considerable number of German baths of good quality have been coming into this country. This increased competition will in time force down the prices of materials, so long as there is not the indirect protection involved in the subsidy. It should be noted that Mr. Neville Chamberlain is leaving discretion to local authorities to obtain materials from abroad. On the question of money there seems to be no reason to anticipate that lack of money will prevent house building, even if the Government subsidy is reduced, especially if costs, as is possible, come down proportionately. The activities of building societies have greatly increased of recent years. The membership of these societies, as shown by the comparative figures in the return of the Registrar-General of Friendly Societies, rose from 895,524 to 1,000,988; the income from over £61,000,000 to over £72,000,000; and the amount advanced for new mortgages from £32,000,000 in 1923 to £40,584,606 in 1924. On these figures Mr. Chamberlain recently stated: The provision in one year of capital sums of over £40,000,000 is no small contribution to the housing problem. The figures point to the steady increase in the number of owner-occupiers of houses. Ownership carries with it a sense of responsibility which is undoubtedly sa stabilising influence in national life. NE Much of this money is lent on smaller houses, but of course mainly for those who wish to own their own homes. In some parts of the country it is very noticeable, according to information provided by building societies, that the scale is falling. Three years ago there was a demand for houses of about £1400 in value. To-day even in prosperous areas, where industry has not suffered so severely from the slump as in shipbuilding districts, there is comparatively little demand except for houses under £800. If the cost of building could be reduced by more efficient management, a greater output and cheaper materials, then undoubtedly houses might be built with the assistance of building societies more within the reach of the pockets of the unskilled wageearners, who to-day are not being accommodated, speaking gererally, in Council houses. This is one of the most vulnerable points in the whole of the Government's housing schemes. In spite of having spent already over £40,000,000, and incurring a liability for the next two generations of at least £8,000,000 a year, we have not been building houses within the reach of those who most need good accommodation. In many a Council house to-day there will be found a well-paid and salaried civil servant or municipal official. In some flats owned by London Borough Councils there are tenants with businesses in Mayfair. One of the grievances in country districts is that tenants who are well-to-do occupy houses which are being partly paid for out of public funds. Such middle-class tenants are in fact in receipt of a "dole" each week, and the existing rents as a rule are above the means of the unskilled workman. It is surely unwise for the State to continue to undertake heavy liabilities unless some assurance be given that the advantages of any modified subsidy that may be decided upon next autumn will not be enjoyed by those who do not need to be financially assisted at the cost of the taxpayers. The Rents Tribunal, with Sir Theodore Chambers as chairman, has for some time urged the inadequacy of rents charged to tenants who are in receipt of substantial salaries, and in its last report made an important recommendation, which if carried out by all local authorities would reduce the present loss falling on public funds. The Tribunal stated : We are strongly of the opinion that it should be brought to the notice of local authorities that so long as the total rent income credited to the housing revenue account is not lower than that relegated on the basis fixed by the Tribunal, or agreed to by the Ministry, the local authorities can charge such rents for certain houses without incurring an additional charge to the rates. This would mean that rents could be varied according to the capacity of the tenant to pay-a departure from the principle of the flat rent. But local authorities, elected on so-called democratic lines, as owners of houses usually prefer the easier course of uniform rents, however uneconomic. From the national point of view the existence in this country of upwards of 300,000 householders drawing in value approxi mately a week in the form of free accommodation, to say nothing of possible unemployment benefits and all the other forms of public assistance, many of which overlap, is a potential social and political danger. Already rent strikes have occurred, and cases have been known of municipal tenants, who all live in a certain ward, trying to utilize their voting power in order that their own rents may be reduced. This danger may be experienced still more in the future, for the more municipal houses are built, the more voters there will be whose personal interest it will be to vote for the candidate, either in local or national elections, who offers "Lower Rents " as a plank in his or her programme. If voters live in privately owned houses they are obviously not so likely to be influenced by the fact that the candidate promises to reduce the rents of municipal houses, as if they are themselves municipal tenants. This is another reason, considering the matter from a broad national standpoint, for a halt to be called to the present policy of house-owning by local authorities. Mr. Neville Chamberlain evidently himself recognises that, just as the scale of out-door relief under the existing Poor Law system is apt to become an election cry when Boards of Guardians have to be elected, so where local Councils are also landlords on a large scale, a decreased rent cry may open the door to municipal corruption. In order to overcome this the special committee of the Cabinet now considering the housing problem has before it a proposal that local authorities responsible for housing schemes should set up " Estates Management Commissions." These would probably consist of not more than six members, who would be chosen for a definite term of years in order that they should not be exposed to the possible changes of municipal policy. It is also suggested that women should serve on these commissions, which should be specially concerned with the management of property and the encouragement of householders to keep publicly-owned houses in proper repair. The suggestion has much to commend it, but it does not touch the root of the evil, which is the possible ill effect of local bodies indulging in the ownership of property in competition with private individuals. Without doubt the Government must continue to make provision for slum improvements and for rural housing. On this point it is probable that the Cabinet Committee will consider seriously the proposal to enable old cottages to be modernised, and the owners to be assisted in carrying out the necessary repairs. It must not be assumed that those who advocate the termination of the housing subsidy for new houses are any less devoted to the cause of housing reform than those who hope that England may become a New Jerusalem of municipal houses. It is surely neither reactionary nor callous to suggest that the lower middle class, who constitute the majority of the tenants of Council houses, have had sufficient assistance at the expense of the public, and that the time has come to dam the flood of costly loans. From the purely economic point of view there is a very strong case indeed for abolishing subsidies, but from the political standpoint the proposal presents many difficulties. Probably if a Labour Government were in power they would not hesitate to abolish all subsidies to private builders on the ground that they thrust cash unnecessarily into the pockets of speculative capitalists. But if a Conservative government reduced this encouragement to private enterprise it would be unpopular with many of its own supporters. On the other hand, if the government decides to continue subsidies to private builders, and to vary, or even to abolish, the assistance now offered to local authorities, it will have to face the hostility of public bodies, in addition to that of the Labour Party. The opposition will argue that just when the industry is beginning to give a steady increase, when the personnel is growing, and schemes are maturing for better building education and for more scientific research, to depart from the fifteen years' programme agreed upon by the Socialist Government of 1924 would be to break a solemn pledge. The Government must be prepared for this, if they contemplate a reduction without delay, and possibly in a year or two the total abolition of subsidies. Nevertheless much depends upon the course of events in the next six months. If the output of houses reaches nearly 200,000 this year, as is not impossible; if costs appreciably decrease; and if the majority of local authorities. discover that the actual need in their districts is almost satisfied, then we may well hope that, after fair warning is given to all concerned, there may be an end to the ever-increasing bill for urban houses that we and future generations have to meet. B. S. TOWNROE I. LA CABALE DES DÉVOTS Annales de la Compagnie du Très-Saint-Sacrement. Par LE COMTE Publiées et annotées par R. P. Dom Par RAOUL ALLIER. Paris. 1902. 3. Une Société Secrète au XVIIe Siècle, La Compagnie du Très-SaintSacrement de l'Autel à Marseille. Par RAOUL ALLIER. Paris. 1909. 4. Une Société Secrète au XVIIe Siècle, La Compagnie du Très-SaintSacrement de l'Autel à Toulouse. Par RAOUL ALLIER. Paris. 1914. IN N the year 1900, Dom Beauchet-Filleau published the "Annales de la Compagnie du Très-Saint-Sacrement de l'Autel," thereby adding one more to the many services rendered by the Benedictines. These Annales were compiled at the end of the seventeenth century by a certain Comte René de Voyer d'Argenson, whose resounding title and high lineage set the seal of distinction on all his doings. The Compagnie had been dead for many years and the Comte must have been almost a solitary survivor of its quondam members when he prepared, as best he could, for the information of Cardinal Noailles, Archbishop of Paris, an account of its transactions while it was a living force in Paris and throughout the whole of France. The Compagnie was known to the few by the name given in full by d'Argenson; but, in its last years, its adversaries, not without reason, were pleased to call it by a shorter and more invidious name, "La Cabale des Dévots." D'Argenson's compilation lay unknown and forgotten for nearly two hundred years, but during the quarter of a century that has passed since Dom Beauchet-Filleau's publication it has been the subject of a good deal of study and writing in France. M. Allier's "La Cabale des Dévots" is based on Dom Beauchet-Filleau, but his later and smaller books on the daughter companies at Marseilles and Toulouse contain much of what a modern secretary would call the minutes of the proceedings of those companies, and give us first-hand information of their work. M. Allier has, we believe, written from the point of view of a Protestant. A Catholic view can be found in M. Mourret's "Histoire Générale de |