Mode of Assessment.

There are two ways of ascertaining the amount of private property and income in any country:—One is to employ Government assessors; the other is to let the owner of property or receiver of income assess it himself. Both plans have been tried in various ways, and in different places.

The objections to Government assessors are, that a large number of such people are needlessly made acquainted with their neighbours' private circumstances and affairs; and that, unless highly paid, they may be accessible to bribery in order to procure a low assessment.

If the first of these two objections could be got rid of, the second would disappear. A thoroughly public assessment of every person's property and income, open to appeal, either for reduction or for enhancement, before a competent and reliable public tribunal, would remove all danger of bribery.