CHANGES NEEDED.

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indispensable ; so that assessments on it cannot lessen itsamount or impair the extent to which it is used. Itcannot be carried away or concealed. It is open to thesight of all; and though its valuation is not entirely freefrom difficulty, yet, since it is immovable from year toyear, it can be more accurately appraised and more easilycompared than any other property.

Its value is determinable in advance of assessment; thetax is a first lien on the property, so that it has becomeproverbially certain, whilst the active interest of realestate owners in public expenditure testifies to thebeneficent effect of its directness. As to the way inwhich this tax on buildings is distributed, the New York Times well remarked:

“ Everybody who pays rent, or who pays board to anyone who pays rent, or who buys anything of any one whoeither owns or rents real estate, contributes his sharetoward the taxes that are collected from land and build-ings. The landlord who directly pays the tax bills addssubstantially the amount of his payment to the rentwhich he charges for the use of his building, and theamount of rent paid by the occupant affects the price of

be ; but if any one will consider the words of Chief Justice Marshall inpassing upon this question, namely, ‘ that the power to tax involves thepower to destroy,’and that if the right exists to tax at all, ‘ it is a rightwhich in its nature acknowledges no limits,’ he will probably come to theconclusion that Congress could not delegate to the States this power of im-pairing Federal sovereignty if it would, and should not if it could. ”— TaxDocuments.