It appears from a recent Parliamentary return that only 42,118
persons pay income-tax throughout Scotland, under schedule D. Only 1,578 pay the tax on an income of more than £1,000 a year, and only 74 on more than £10,000. Seven eases are recorded of payments on more than £50,000 a year, but these probably include Companies. Of course many more persons pay under schedules A and B, but there are 620,000 houses in Scot- land, and not more than a tenth of the population are reached by the income-tax. When therefore an addition to that tax is voted, it is really paid by a minute minority much too few to return members, even if minorities were adequately represented. That, the utter powerlessness of the Haves if the Havenots choose to tax them, is the worst danger to which our present regime is exposed, and the best if not the sufficient justification for the existence of a Second Chamber.
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