Preface.

It is notoriously evident, that, in the agitation of every important question which has occupied the attention of the City of Bristol during the last ten years, the Corporation and Citizens have been divided: which, it is presumed, can only be accounted for, by the Members of the Common Council having been influenced, if I may use the expression, by the CouncilHouse views of the subject.

The object of the Writer, therefore, in laying before the Public the following pages, is to obviate, if possible, such occurrences in future, by enabling the Members of the Common Council to form a just notion of the question upon Local Taxation in general; and thereby, to prevent a repetition of such unpleasant differences, as have unfortunately existed, between the Corporation and their Fellow-citizens for several years past; as well as to put an end to the expenditure of large sums of money, which he has no doubt might be far more beneficially applied to public Improvements.