17 OCTOBER 1835, Page 8

SCOTLAND.

A meeting of the Justices of the Peace, Commissioners of Supply, and Road Trustees for the county of Edinburgh, was held on the 6th instant, in the County-rooms. Sir George Clerk took occasion to deliver a long speech on the change effected by a bill passed in the last session of Parliament in the manner of collecting theAssessed and Land Taxes in Scotland. Sir George condemned this alteration, in strong language ; but it is not necessary to give his speech, as it will be seen from the following statement, copied from an able Scotch paper, the Dumfries Times, that the Government has acted with sound discretion in the matter.

" What is the law of which the county gentlemen so loudly complain, and which, with a singular disregard of probability as well as truth, some of them denominate a Ministerial job ? The Land-tax and Assessed Taxes are, or rather we should say were, collected in each county by an officer chosen by the Com- missioners of Supply—that is, by the landed proprietors, whose estates amount to, or exceed, 100/. of old valuation. The choice has commonly been a matter of much and keen canvass; and not unfrequently it has been j. lilted, in the strictest sense of the word. The County Collector keeps an office in the county- town ; and he is in the habit of going to the other principal towns once a year, where he remains for a day, at most, in order to facilitate his collections. Who- ever, from any accident, is unable to attend the Collector, on the day set apart for these district payments, must bring or send his quota of taxes, at all cost, to the county-town, or run the risk of a prosecution. The collection of the Land- tax and Assessed Taxes, separate from other branches of the revenue, caused a separate set of accounts, separate remittances, separate clerks, separate offices ; it was cumbrous and expensive, as respected the Governineut, aud exceedingly inconvenient as respected the public. " The Government have, by the Act in question, vested the collection of these taxes in the Distributors of Stamps. The Head Distributor resides and has an office in the chief town of his district ; and there is a resident Sub-Dis- tributor in each town of the smallest note. The town payments will be made as they are at present ; the only change is the change of the person to whom they must be made ; the country payments will be made to the Sub-Distribu- tors, with this difference, that the tax-payer, instead of being limited to one day, will have a month or more in which to effect payment. The remittances, will be one, the accounts one, the officer and office one, as is the Treasury for whom they exist. No new place is created ; almost no additional expense is incurred in the Stamp department ; and the annual saving in the various Col- lectorships, in Scotland alone, will not, it is probable, bill short of ttcelre or fifteen thousand pounds. The duty will be performed with much more plicity and regularity, and it will cost a great deal less. What reasonable ground, then, is there for complaint ? "

Sir George Clerk complained that the clause was smuggled through Parliament ; but, says the Dumfries paper-

" The measure now effected was known to be in contemplation by all such as thought it worthy of inquiry more than a twelvemonth ago ; and in point if fact, had the business allowed, it would have been carried the session before last. So notorious was the fact, even so early as the end of 18:33, that in appointing a Collector of Assessed Taxes for the burgh (of Dumb its), we find Provost Murray stating to the Town. Council that a plan was at present, it was stood, under consideration, by which the Assessed Taxes would be placed under the superintendence of the Board of Stamps. Of course, the person now to be appointed Collector, accepted office, subject to such chawN or regulations se the plan, when carried into effect, might render necessary.' "

This disposes of the whole complaint ; and puts Sir George Clerk and his Tory friends on the bench and of the press quite in the Froag.