When I first began to have to do with an insurance company's investments, I found I had to gather from many quarters the elementary information necessary to enable me to understand in a general way the work I had to do. A great deal has been published since then to remedy this state of matters, but it seems to me there is still room for a treatise of this kind giving the outlines of the subject without going into much detail. Although I have had in view principally the requirements of a beginner, I venture to hope that even those who are further advanced may find something of value in my notes.

In submitting these remarks on Income Tax I need hardly say that they do not form an exhaustive article on the subject. The paper is intended rather to show in a general way the practical effect of the Income Tax law as regards Life Assurance Offices. The method of dealing with the subject would appear, perhaps, to be following the line of least resistance; but, as the more recent Income Tax legislation, so far as regards the assessment of such Institutions, is hardly yet out of its infancy, I think the purpose of the paper will be best served if it is confined to a review of the recent changes in the law and of the law as it at present stands.

The following paper is intended to form a link between the elementary text-books, which for the most part deal with stable monetary conditions, and the voluminous output of modern writings on the financial situation of the present day. The immediate objects of the paper are to collect very briefly the opinions of experts as to the practical forces which now operate on foreign exchange, to differentiate between points on which they agree and points on which they differ, and to explain where necessary the technical language used.