PREFACHK
Tue whole of the first edition of this book, published
in 1896, with a few corrections and the omission of
the last five pages, reappears in the first five chapters
of the present edition. To the original title, * The
History of Local Rates in England,” I have now added
the words, “in relation to the proper distribution of the
burden of taxation,” to indicate the particular limita-
tion of the scope of the work which I have always had
in my mind.
The purpose of the five original chapters and of the
lectures founded on them which were delivered at the
London School of Economics at the end of 1893, soon
after the foundation of that institution, was to explain
why and how local taxation in England came to be
confined to immovable property.
After that was settled in 1840, efforts soon began
to be made to shift some of the expenses borne by
local rates on to national funds. The powerful
agrarian interest, smarting under the loss of Protec-
tion, supported these efforts, and a struggle between
those who are regarded as predominantly local rate-
payers and those who are regarded as predominantly
national taxpayers set in, and has continued to our
own time. In the sixth chapter I have endeavoured
to give a sketch of the results of this struggle which
shall be accurate and sufficient without being over-
loaded with detail. This is an extraordinarily difficult