Considering the repeated discussions which have taken place on the question of the Income Tax, it is not a little surprising that the true understanding of it has not made greater progress. After all that has been said to demonstrate the injustice and unequal pressure of the tax as at present levied, the perseverance of some portion of the press, and of one or two persons of considerable reputation as regards their understanding of such matters, in the opposite opinion, is quite unaccountable. It will be seen by the Second Report of the Committee of the House, just published, that some still maintain that the taxing a temporary annuity at the same rate as a perpetuity is perfectly fair and equitable, because, as they are at great pains to show, the present value in each case is mulcted in the same ratio. It is, at all events, satisfactory to find that these authorities so far admit that “present value” is the proper thing to tax. They maintain, in fact, that in these cases a property tax and an income tax have an identical operation; and as they approve of the one, they must clearly give their sanction to the other. But, unfortunately, the identical character of the two does not hold good, in spite of the assertion of these gentlemen to the contrary; they do not observe that in the case of the temporary annuity the wave of taxation having once passed over, must, to make their argument good, leave it ever untouched thereafter, let the capital out of which it arises reappear in what shape it will: otherwise it is clear that such capital is liable to be taxed over and over again.