25 JUNE 1887, Page 3

Sir A. West, at the Jubilee dinner of the civilians

engaged in managing the Inland Revenue, mentioned a curiously significant fast. Under the Income-tax Acts, it is lawful for the towns to collect the tax under Schedules D and E, through officials appointed by themselves. So complete, however, is the con- fidence in Somerset House, that every great town except London has asked the Inland Revenue Board to collect the tax ; and in Scotland no other agency is employed. Considering the depth of local jealousies, and the bitterness of feeling excited by the Income-tax, that is a fact worth studying by those who believe that a "local" administration must always be more popular than a centralised one.