A CRITICISM OF FALLACIES, AND A SUMMARY OF FACTS. BY JOHN NOBLE, Author of "National Finance," "The Queen's Taxes," "Fiscal Legislation," "It is expedient to make owners as well as occupiers directly liable for a certain pro- LONDON P. S. KING, PARLIAMENTARY BOOKSELLER, PREFACE. THE attempts that have been made in recent years, and are still continued with remarkable perseverance, to obtain a readjustment of Local Taxation in favour of landed proprietors, and thus to throw an additional burden upon the general public, already heavily taxed in comparison with the class seeking relief, render the question one of great and pressing interest. The Government of Mr. Disraeli have proceeded as far as they are able in the direction above indicated; they are now stopped for want of means, and a breathing time is afforded in which it is to be hoped the public will examine the question, and decide whether they ought not themselves to seek relief, but in quite another direction. In the following pages the whole subject is fully and carefully examined, with a view of presenting a complete resumé of the facts of the case, and an accurate statement of the arguments employed on both sides. The work is divided into five parts or sections, of the contents of which a summary is appended. The First Part consists of an examination into the accuracy of the statistics and the soundness of the arguments employed by Mr. Dudley Baxter in his work on Local Taxation, in which he attacked Mr. Goschen's report, and claimed to have pointed out a series of errors and fallacies, which destroyed all the credit and authority of that document. Mr. Baxter's work was con |