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