{\ GOVERNMENT BY COMMISSIONS

ILLEGAL AND PERNICIOUS.

THE NATURE AND EFFECTS OF ALL

COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY

AND OTHER CROWN-APPOINTED COMMISSIONS.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES OF

TAXATION;

AND THE RIGHTS, DUTIES, AND IMPORTANCE OF

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT.

BY J. TOULMIN SMITH, Esq.,

OF LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

It is not almost credible to foresee, when any maxim or FUNDAMENTAL LAW of this
realm is altered, what dangerous inconveniences do follow."-Coke, 4 Inst. 41.

"New things which have fair pretences are most commonly hurtful to the Common-
wealth; for commonly they tend to the grievous vexation and oppression of the subject,
and not to that glorious end that at the first was pretended."-Coke, 2 Inst. 540.