“ No considerations of mere convenience are sufficient. And if the party primarily and directly charged with a tax is unable to make a case for the interference of a court of equity, no one subordinately and indirectly affected by the tax should be given relief unless he shows, not merely irreparable injury to the tax debtor as well as to himself, but also that he has takne every essential preliminary step to justify his claim of a right to act in behalf of such tax debtor. ”

“ It appears affirmatively that no demand has been made on the directors to protect the corporation against this alleged illegal tax. The only demand shown is that upon the managing agent of the corporation in charge of the business in Alaska, and the excuse is that the directors (living in San Francisco) are too far away to be reached by notice. The act went into effect March 3, 1899, and this bill was filed July 17, 1899. The rule requires that the plaintiff must set forth with particularity the efforts made by him to secure action by the directors. ”

“ We are of opinion that the excuse is not sufficient. He should at least have shown some effort. If he had made an effort, and obtained no satisfactory result, either by reason of the distance of the directors, or by their dilatoriness or unwillingness to act, a different case would have been presented, but to do nothing is not sufficient. For aught that the bill discloses, he may have been in San Francisco from the time of the passage of the act until he left to come to Alaska for the purpose of bringing this suit. ”

“ It does not appear from the bill that any other stockholder shares with the plaintiff his belief in the illegality of the tax, or objects to its payment by the corporation, although, of course, it may be assumed that every person is willing to be relieved from the payment of a tax if other parties will bring about that relief without any trouble to himself. ”

“ Not only is it the general rule that equity will not restrain the collection of a tax on the mere ground of its illegality, but also, as appears by its legislation, Congress has attempted to enforce that rule and to require payment of a tax by the party charged therewith before inquiry as to its validity will be permitted. ”

“ The city of Oakland filed a demurrer, which was sustained and the bill dismissed, and from such decree the case was appealed to this court. The opinion, which is too long to quote in full, opens with these observations (pp. 452, 453, L. ed. p. 829) :
'Since the decision of this court in Dodge v. ”