Introduction

The taxpayer's three principal legal safeguards of Parliament, the local administrative process and the judiciary were as much dependent for their efficacy on the taxpayer's ability to access them in 1837 as they had been in the previous two hundred years. In direct taxation, where the fundamental voluntaryism of customs and excise was absent, access to the safeguards was of prime importance. Access comprised a knowledge and understanding of the duties which tax law and practice imposed on the taxpayer, and of the appellate bodies permitted by the law, as well as the affordability of recourse to the latter. It also encompassed the availability of expert advice to make the best possible use of the legal safeguards. Only then could the taxpayers' constitutional right to pay only the tax they had consented to through Parliament effectively be safeguarded.

Educated taxpayers in the nineteenth century could learn a great deal about the taxes applicable to them and the passage of any new tax laws through Parliament, through readily available sources. The debates of the House of Commons were published, and the numerous Select Committee reports, and those of Royal Commissions, were printed and could be purchased by the public at a relatively low price from the beginning of Victoria's reign, as well as often being available in local public libraries.