MR. A. J. BALFOUR 117 



people and is spent by different people. But, after all, when you 

 are dealing with different objects the distinction between local 

 and Imperial may fall to the ground so far as taxation is con- 

 cerned. Nor is it even true to say that local taxation goes entirely 

 to local purposes. What is the taxation raised for the education 

 of youth? Is it Imperial or is it local ? Why, we are told on 

 every platform throughout the country it is a mere educational 

 commonplace to say that the training of the young is a question 

 in which not merely the parents and not merely the locality are 

 concerned, but the greatest interests in the State are involved. 

 And yet vast sums are raised locally and expended locally for 

 this Imperial purpose of education. Therefore I say that any 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer who desires, rightly or wrongly 

 I do not argue it now to revolutionise the whole system of our 

 finance should have looked at the whole JSystem of our finance. 

 He should have taken the burdens on land, or real property, 

 which are raised locally, and apportioned the weight of local 

 burdens ; and if he wished to lay a new foundation of our fiscal 

 system, he should at least have laid it in a manner which \vould 

 bear the test of examination, and which every class concerned 

 would have felt to be equitable. That has not been done, and 

 at this moment I do not think anybody who has examined into 

 the question can deny that, if you take local and Imperial finance 

 together, real property in general, and agriculture in particular, 

 are being weighed down by burdens disproportionate to the 

 comparative amount that they bear to the general wealth of the 

 whole nation." 



Another instructive document was issued this year, and 

 as it gives so clear an exposition of the policy of the Com- 

 mittee, and applies with as much force to-day as it did then, 

 it is reprinted here almost in full : 



12th March, 1895. 

 To the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 



Sir, 1. On the 15th of December last, when declining to receive a 

 deputation from the Central and Associated Chambers of Agri- 

 culture and the Local Taxation Committee, you stated that 

 you would be glad to receive " any representations in writing 

 on the subject of local taxation." 



In accordance with your expressed wish, we beg to submit the 

 following statement : 



2. The claim for further relief from the burden of local taxation 

 is grounded solely on the principle of equality of taxation as 

 between different classes of property, which was the avowed 

 object of the Finance Act of last session. 



3. We admit that so far as that branch of Imperial taxation 

 known as the ; ' Death Duties " is concerned, an apparent equality 

 between realty and personalty has been secured. We use the 

 term " apparent " advisedly, for though the amount of the 



