'Finance is not mere arithmetic; finance is a great policy. Without ment no sound finance is possible.' govern- London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1892 PREFACE THE subject of Public Finance, as distinct from that of Political Economy, has not of late years attracted much attention in Great Britain. The very excellence of English financial institutions and management has contributed to this result by making the need of theoretic study as a basis for practical reforms less pressing. Though our financial literature is not quite so poor as some critics imagine, it must be allowed to be deficient in works dealing with the subject as a whole. Since the well-known book of McCulloch-first published in 1845 and now out of print-there has been no manual available for the student. Such a want is specially felt in the work of teaching. A lecturer who desires to deal with financial questions has no text-book-like those at the service of his French, German, and Italian colleagues—to use as the groundwork of his instruction, and is therefore compelled to make constant reference to foreign treatises not readily accessible to, or easily read by, his class. In the present work I have sought to temporarily supply this need by going over the whole field of Public Finance and presenting the results in a systematic form, so that a student may at least obtain a general knowledge of the leading facts and present position of this branch of political science. The selection of topics and the space |