The Chancellor of the Exchequer has replied to a Nottingham
correspondent who consulted him as to the propriety of having a metal label issued with every dog-licence, which the dog should wear on its collar, as evidence that the tax has been paid by its -owner,—that "the subject of the dog-tax is engaging his atten- tion, and that he is considering whether any alteration is possible whieli may effect an improvement of the present system." We hope some such scheme may be devised, if only to check the wholesale slaughter of dogs which is now going on, with- -out relation either to their value as property, or to their rights as friends. Once supplied with an outward and visible token of the money paid on their account into the Exchequer, they may perhaps inspire, even in magistrates and policemen, a share of that respect which evidence of money already paid, and a pledge of money forthcoming, usually inspire in well-regulated English minds. The absurd orders issued from so many Benches of Magistrates in the neighbourhood of London, directing all dogs, however inoffensive and healthy, to be muzzled for months together, because one mad dog has been heard of within a dozen miles, are bad enough, without this universal slaughter of all metropolitan dogs who happen to have lost their way in this human labyrinth of ours,—where it is hard enough for men, even with the aid of speech, to find it.
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