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AN ATTEMPT 
 TO SHEW THE JUSTICE AND EXPEDIENCY 
 
 OF SUBSTITUTING AN 
 
 INCOME oa PROPERTY TAX 
 
 FOR THE PRESENT TAXES, OR A PART OF THEM; 
 AS AFFORDING 
 
 The MOST EQUITABLE, the LEAST INJURIOUS, 
 
 AND (UNDER THE MODIFIED PROCEDURE SUGGESTED THEREIN,) 
 
 THE LEAST OBNOXIOUS MODE OF TAXATION: 
 Also, the MOST FAIR, ADVANTAGEOUS, and EFFECTUAL PLANS 
 
 OF REDUCING THE 
 
 NATIONAL DEBT. 
 
 aontjott: 
 
 1. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY. 
 1833. 
 
v*3 
 
 tf* 
 
 3 
 
 '"j 
 
 ENE 
 
 PRINTED BY F. THOROWGOOD, 
 GROCERS' HALL COURT, POULTRY. 
 
DIVISION OF THE WORK. 
 
 FIRST PART. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ADVANTAGES 
 
 OF 
 
 SUBSTITUTING 
 
 AN 
 
 INCOME TAX or PROPERTY TAX 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 PRESENT TAXES. 
 
 SECOND PART. 
 
 MODIFICATIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PLAN 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 PROPERTY TAX 
 
 AND VARIOUS 
 
 PLANS 
 
 OR 
 
 SCALES OF CHARGE 
 
 ON 
 
 PROPERTY AND INCOME 
 
 SUGGESTED. 
 
 THIRD PART. 
 
 FAIR, ADVANTAGEOUS, 
 
 AND EFFECTUAL 
 
 PLANS, 
 
 AFFORDED BY AN 
 
 INCOME or PROPERTY TAX, 
 
 OF 
 
 REDUCING THE NATIONAL DEBT, 
 
 OFFERED FOR CONSIDERATION. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ESTIMATES, ACCOUNTS, &c. 
 
 100S31 
 
INDEX TO CONTENTS. 
 
 FIRST PART. 
 
 ON THE ADVANTAGES OF SUBSTITUTING AN INCOME TAX OR 
 PROPERTY TAX FOR THE PRESENT TAXES, &C. &C. 
 
 Page 
 
 Preliminary Observations 1 
 
 Contrast of the two Bases of Taxation — Income and Ex- 
 penditure — in respect of the Evils of Taxation 2 
 
 Principal Evils of Taxation, or of the Plans of raising it. . ib. 
 
 1st. Inequality of Taxation , . 3 
 
 As it affects Individuals considered as Consumers of Commodi- 
 ties or as Owners of Income ib. 
 
 Commodities cannot be taxed with equality and with a due 
 regard to their relative use and value • • • • 8 
 
 Individuals considered as Producers of Commodities, and as 
 Advancers of the Taxes on them 9 
 
 Taxes on Luxuries unequal and more injurious than a Tax on 
 Income .<,,.. 12 
 
 Taxes on Commodities most unequal and oppressive to the lower 
 Classes ib. 
 
 Effects of Taxes on Commodities in unequally increasing the 
 Cost of different Productions 13 
 
 Unequal effects of Taxation on Commodities in case of Altera- 
 tions in the Value of Money „ . 14 
 
 Conformity of an Income Tax with Mr. Ricardo's opinion as to 
 the Objects fittest for equal Taxation 15 
 
 Equality of a Tax on Income not dependant on any other Process 
 
 affecting Income , , , . 19 
 
 b 
 
il CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Upon the Fall of Prices of Commodities, to an adequate extent, 
 
 on the substitution of an Income Tax for Taxes on Commo- 
 dities 19 
 
 Inequality irremediable under Taxation on Commodities; but 
 avoidable under a Tax on Income 21 
 
 The Difficulties of Taxation much diminished by the Equalization 
 of an Income Tax 22 
 
 Protecting or Prohibitive Duties less necessary under an Income 
 Tax , 23 
 
 Inequality of the present Direct Taxes, viz. Assessed Taxes, Land 
 Tax, Stamps, and Post Duties 24 
 
 Equitable Relief to Persons with large Families attainable under 
 an Income Tax 28 
 
 2nd. Procedure of Taxation ib. 
 
 On the Grounds of objection to the Procedure of Taxation on Ex- 
 penditure, and of a Tax on Income respectively ib. 
 
 On the Exposure of Private Affairs attributed to an Income Tax . . 32 
 On a particular public Advantage of the Exposure of Income for 
 
 the purpose of taxation 35 
 
 On the Disadvantages of Concealment in the operation of Taxes . . 36 
 
 On the Advantages of Ditto 39 
 
 Probable Effects on Funded Property and on Trading and other 
 
 Capital if an Income Tax be substituted for the present Taxes 42 
 On the advantage of Certainty in Taxation and on the effects in 
 
 Taxation of the Shifting of Expenditure 46 
 
 On the most convenient Time of paying Taxes 48 
 
 The various and serious Evils of Contraband Trade prevented by 
 
 the substitution of an Income Tax 49 
 
 Proceedings of a penal nature far less oppressive under an Income 
 
 Tax than under the present Taxes 52 
 
 Procedure of an Income Tax independent of Government 54 
 
 Comparative usefulness of the general Information attainable 
 
 under the two Modes of Taxation — Income and Expenditure. . 55 
 On the necessity of constant Legislation under Taxation on Com- 
 modities , 56 
 
 3rd. .Excess of Taxation. 
 1st. In as far as Taxation may deprive the Payers of the 
 Taxes (the Agricultural, Manufacturing, Trading, 
 and Professional Classes,) of more than is received 
 
CONTENTS. HI 
 
 Page. 
 
 by the Receivers of the Taxes, — (the Public Creditors 
 and Public Servants.) 57 
 
 Mr. Ricardo's Opinion on the general effect of the Advances made 
 for the Taxes on Commodities by the Producers of them .... 59 
 
 The Agricultural and Trading Classes considered relatively to 
 each other, as they are affected by Taxation on Income or by 
 Taxation on Expenditure 63 
 
 The very great Saving in the Expence of Collecting the Revenue 
 by substituting an Income Tax 65 
 
 Excess of Taxation. 
 2nd. In as far as Taxation may exact more than the Pro- 
 perty, Capital and Industry of the Payers of the 
 Taxes can replace , . 65 
 
 On Equalization as increasing the Means of bearing Taxation to 
 the extreme Limit , 66 
 
 The Effects and Amount of Taxation on the Productive and Un- 
 productive Classes respectively 70 
 
 Real Amount of Taxation and Misconception as to it 72 
 
 Probable Effects if the Public Revenue had been earlier and 
 wholly raised by an Income Tax 74 
 
 On the very extraordinary Difference between the two Bases of 
 Taxation — Income and Expenditure — in respect of the aggre- 
 gate amount of Money actually levied, and the consequently 
 advantageous effects on the Circulation of the Country of sub- 
 stituting the former for the latter 76 
 
 Probable Effect, on the Profits of Producers, of the Fall of Prices 
 on abolishing Taxes on Commodities 79 
 
 Comparative View of the Effects produced by the Abolition of 
 the late Property Tax instead of Taxes on Expenditure 82 
 
 Excess of Taxation. 
 3rd. In as far as it may transfer from the Payers to the 
 Receivers of the Taxes a share of the general Income 
 which is more than is just or necessary 84 
 
 Operation and numerical Results of an Income Tax as regards 
 the Payers and the Receivers of Taxation relatively to each 
 other, under this head of Excess ib. 
 
 Whether or how far Taxation, as the Instrument of the Transfer 
 of Income, is, if equitably imposed, a general evil. ib. 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 Page- 
 Equitable variation of Effects of an Income Tax on the two 
 
 Classes (the Payers and Receivers of Taxation) as their re- 
 lative means vary 90 
 
 Excess of Taxation. 
 4th. In as far as the levy of a Sinking Fund or Surplus 
 
 Revenue may be unnecessary or of inadequate utility . 95 
 
 On the Branches of the present System of Taxation which 
 might be discontinued on the substitution of an Income 
 Tax, and the consequent great diminution of the Number 
 of Persons subject to Taxation 98 
 
 General Observations on the Advantages and Expediency of 
 an Income Tax 99 
 
 On the Grounds for Preference of old to new Taxes 100 
 
 On the Popular opinion and feeling with respect to an Income 
 
 Tax and on the particular Objectors to it 103 
 
 Adaptation of an Income Tax, to the peculiar Difficulties pro- 
 duced by the National Debt , 109 
 
 On the Principle of the mode of levy of a Tax on Income 114 
 
 On the Objections against the Continuance of the late Property 
 Tax, which were contained in the Petitions presented to Par- 
 liament, and otherwise promulgated 115 
 
 A more general Diffusion of the burthen of the Poor Rates 
 by means of an Income Tax ] 20 
 
 Just and benevolent Effects, in periods of Distress, of the mode of 
 relieving the Poor by such a general diffusion of the burthen. . 122 
 
 On the applicability of an Income Tax to a more equitable 
 and less injurious mode of levying Tithes, and to other 
 National Objects ib. 
 
 Patronage of Government diminished by the substitution of 
 an Income Tax for other Taxes 124 
 
 Application to an Income Tax of the four Maxims or funda- 
 mental Rules of Taxation 126 
 
 On the Justice and Expediency of a Property Tax, viz, a 
 Tax on Income derived from Property only 127 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 
 Page. 
 On the probable effect of exempting from an Income Tax Profits 
 
 of Trades and Professions, also Wages, and other Incomes de- 
 rived wholly or principally from Labor 1 29 
 
 To what extent a Property- Tax may be carried 141 
 
 SECOND PART. 
 
 MODIFICATIONS OF THE PLAN OF THE LATE PROPERTY TAX, 
 AND VARIOUS PLANS OR SCALES OF CHARGE ON PROPERTY 
 AND INCOME, SUGGESTED. 
 
 Schedules A. & B. — Rides in respect of the Rents and Profits 
 of Lands, Houses, Tenements, Sfc. .•» 143 
 
 Schedule A. 
 
 Landlords' Duty 144 
 
 On the Opinions and Suggestions of Dr. Adam Smith as 1o a Tax 
 
 on Rent— and on the practical Operation of them 152 
 
 Rent of Lands tmm n )m 
 
 Rent of Houses 159 
 
 Ground Rents 162 
 
 Schedule B. 
 Rules in respect of the Profits of Occupation of Lands, and 
 the Occupiers 9 Duty , 163 
 
 Schedules A. & B. 
 Preferable mode of levying the Duty in respect of Lands by 
 Charging in one Sum the Landlord's Rent and Tenant's 
 Profit , 175 
 
 On raising the Duties, according to that plan, on Lands, Houses, 
 
 &c. by fixed Quotas, as under the present Land Tax Act 179 
 
 Dr. Adam Smith's Opinion on the plan of fixed Quotas. 182 
 
 Schedule C. 
 Rules in respect of the Dividends of Funded Property and 
 Interest of Public Securities .*.... 186 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Schedule E. 
 Rules in respect of Salaries, Pay and Pensions of Public 
 Officers under Government , Sfc 186 
 
 Schedule D. 
 Rules in respect of Profits from Commerce, Manufacture, 
 Trade, Professions, Vocations, Employments, Sfc 189 
 
 On the Rules for charging or exempting Wages and Small In- 
 comes connected with Labor, and other small Incomes 198 
 
 Appointment of Commissioners, Assessors, and Collectors. , 202 
 
 Scale of Charge graduated according to the Amount and 
 Description of Income 203 
 
 Basis of Estimate for a Division and Classification of Income and 
 
 of the Produce of a future Income or Property Tax 204 
 
 Total Amount of Income and of the Tax charged thereon under 
 each Schedule of the late Tax, and various other Particulars . . 206 
 
 Division of Income according to its Denomination 209 
 
 Classification of Income according to individual Amount 210 
 
 Total estimated Income arranged in Divisions and Classes 213 
 
 Observations on the Justice and Expediency of a Graduated Scale 
 
 ofCharge 218 
 
 On the Practicability of and on the Mode of carrying into effect the 
 Graduated Scale of Charge if extended to the highest Classes of 
 
 Income 226 
 
 Observations on the Graduated Scales of Charge as prepared in 
 this Work 231 
 
 Graduated Scale of Charge without any distinction between 
 Incomes of different Denominations, and a Comparison of 
 the effects of such a Scale with those of a General Rate of 
 Charge 237 
 
 An Income Tax on a Graduated Scale of Charge, limited ac- 
 cording to the Scale of the late Property Tax j or an In- 
 come Tax with a General Rate of Charge on Trade and 
 other Life Incomes less than the General Rate of Charge 
 on Incomes in Perpetuity 240 
 
 Graduated Scale of Charge on Income according to the Rela- 
 tive Value of it , ,..•..,....,, , 244 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 Page. 
 
 Allowances of Duty on account of Children 246 
 
 Estimate of the Amount of the very great Saving from the 
 small amount of the Charges of Management of an Income 
 Tax, compared with those of the present Taxes in general2A9 
 
 Abstract Estimate of the Gross and JSet Charges and of the 
 Net Produce of an Income Tax under the several graduated 
 Scales of Charge submitted in this Work 251 
 
 Suggestions for Consideration on certain practical points in - 
 case of a Property Tax only 252 
 
 On the probable Produce of a Property Tax, at various Rates 
 of Charge 254 
 
 On a Plan of assessing the Capital instead of the Profits of 
 Trade 257 
 
 An Income Tax on all Income whatever, or a Tax on the In- 
 come of all Property, attainable, in effect, by raising a Tax 
 on Real Property only, that is, virtually, by a Land Tax 
 only 258 
 
 Composition of Income Tax or Property Tax in the manner 
 of the Composition of the present Assessed Taxes 259 
 
 On a gradual increase of an Income Tax, with an estimate of 
 the proportions which its produce under the various 
 Scales proposed would bear to the Total Income of the 
 Country 260 
 
 Proposed exclusive Tax on Persons in Trade and Professions 
 as a Substitute for a Tax on the Profits thereof 262 
 
 On raising an Income or Property Tax, also, by means of it, 
 an Absentee Tax, in Ireland 268 
 
 Abstract Recital of the several different Plans or Scales of 
 Charge to an Income Tax or Property Tax, submitted in 
 
 Work 271 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 FAIR, ADVANTAGEOUS, AND EFFECTUAL PLANS, AFFORDED BY AN 
 INCOME OR PROPERTY TAX, OF REDUCING THE NATIONAL DEBT. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Plan of diminishing the National Debt by means of an Income 
 or Property Tax, without increase of Taxation, and with- 
 out a Sinking Fund or Surplus Revenue 276 
 
 1. Redeemable Income or Property Tax ib. 
 
 Voluntary Redemption of the Tax, and the mode and terms of it . . 277 
 
 Compulsory Redemption of the Tax 282 
 
 Compulsory Redemption to be confined to Property on its 
 changing hands 284 
 
 Estimates of the Extent and Cost of Redemption : also the pro- 
 bable Effects of it on Funded and on Landed Property re- 
 spectively 286 
 
 Advisable Variations or Alternatives in the Plan of Redemption 
 or Purchase • 297 
 
 Great comparative Saving in Cost and Expence attainable under 
 the Plan of reducing the National Debt by a redeemable In- 
 come or Property Tax 300 
 
 Expences of Proceedings, how to be borne 302 
 
 Sale of Estates for Redemption or Purchase to convey a good and 
 valid Title 303 
 
 Incompleteness of Redemption of the present Land Tax not a dis- 
 couragement to a Redeemable Income or Property Tax 304 
 
 Probable Period of completing the total Redemption of the Tax . . 306 
 
 2. Discharge of the Public Debt by an Equitable Mode of Ad- 
 justment depending on the Co-operation of an Income Tax, 
 rendering it redeemable on a different Plan 307 
 
 On the Substitution for some of the present Taxes, of a Pro- 
 perty Tax, at a low Rate of Charge, and subject to redemption, 
 as the tnost expedient means of commencing the desired 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 Page. 
 
 Financial Revision and the sure Reduction of the National 
 Debt 309 
 
 Observations on the Advantage of a Property or Income 
 Tax as the Basis of an equitable Mode of discharging the 
 National Debt 311 
 
 Comparison of the Scheme of a redeemable Income or Pro- 
 perty Tax, for the purpose of reducing the National Debt, 
 with Schemes of Assessment on Property and Capital 
 of every Description, and particularly with the Scheme as 
 advocated by Mr. Heathfield 315 
 
 On the Justice of a general Income Tax, subject to Redemp- 
 tion in respect of Real Property, as regards the Owners of 
 Real Property and the other Classes of Society relatively 
 to each other 338 
 
 General Observations on the Superiority of a redeemable In- 
 come or Property Tax as the means of reducing the Na- 
 tional Debt, and on the very urgent Necessity of resorting 
 to it 341 
 
 Equitable means of getting rid of the present Land Tax 
 unredeemed, in case of a redeemable Income or Property 
 Tax 345 
 
 3. Extension by means of an Income Tax of the Public Re- 
 venue beyond its present Amount, without any actual in- 
 crease of burthen on the Country, for the purpose of form- 
 ing a Sinking Fund for reducing the National Debt, or 
 one-half of the amount of it 348 
 
 On the great Advantage of an Income or Property Tax in 
 case it be not advisable to attempt to reduce materially the 
 National Debt 355 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Page. 
 Attempt to shew the extent of the Deficiency of the Returns and Assess- 
 ments under the late Property Act , 2 
 
 Schedule A.— Rents of Lands *&• 
 
 Rents of Houses, and Profits of other Properties o 
 
 Schedule B. — Profits of Occupation of Lands 6 
 
 Schedule C. — Funded Property and Interest of Public Securities, &c 9 
 
 Schedule D.— Profits of Trade, Professions, &c ib. 
 
 Schedule E.— Profits of Public Offices 13 
 
 Estimate of the Total chargeable Income, and of the Total Deficiency 
 
 of the Amount charged under all the Schedules 14 
 
 Estimate of the Amount of Wages of Labor ► 16 
 
 Estimate of the Total Income of Great Britain) including Wages, at the 
 latter period of the Property Act • 17 
 
 On the probable Amount of the National Income at the present Period. . 20 
 
 Nominal and Real Amount of National Income distinguished 24 
 
 Comparative Estimates of the Amounts of Taxation and of Income at 
 different Periods, distinguishing Income derived from the Public Re- 
 venue and the proportion of Taxation on that Income 25 
 
 Division of Income between the Payers and the Receivers of the Taxes 29 
 
 Real Amount of Taxation paid by the Payers of the Taxes 30 
 
 Real Amount of Taxation paid to the Receivers of Do ib- 
 
 On the great importance of the Information afforded by an Income Tax 
 of any variations in the general amount of Income and in the division 
 of it among the several Classes 33 
 
 On the comparative Extent of Taxation on Real Property at different 
 Periods 36 
 
 On the Reimbursement to be mads to taxed Incomes by the Reduction of 
 the Wages of Labor consequent on the Exemption of them from the 
 Tax on Income • 38 
 
 On the Rate of Increase of Prices arising from the present Taxes on 
 Articles of Consumption and Use , v , 41 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 Page. 
 Estimate of the Number of Persons charged to the late Property Tax or 
 
 chargeable to a future Income Tax, and a Classification of them .... 42 
 
 Two Series of Graduated Scales of Charge to an Income or Property 
 Tax ~ .18 
 
 Comparative Estimate of the total Rent or Annual Value of Lands and 
 Houses in the several Counties of England and in Wales and in Scot- 
 land in the Years 1692 and 1814, viz. the first Year of the Land Tax 
 and the last Year of the Property Tax ** 56 
 
 Account of the Amount of Rent from Land in the different Counties 
 of England, Sfc. so far as the same is shewn by the Property Tax Ac- 
 counts of the Year 1814; of the Average Rent per Acre in each 
 County ; also of the Amount of Rent of Land Tithe-free, with a view 
 to deduce therefrom the probable effect on the amount of Rent of the 
 exemption from Tithes * * 59 
 
 Comparative View of the Income and Population of the different Counties 
 of England, Sfc. distinguishing Agricultural Income from Trade In- 
 come, so far as the same is shewn by the Property Tax Accounts of the 
 Year 1814 ; also the Number of Families chiefly employed in Trade 
 and Manufacture, and all other Families, taken from the Population 
 Returns of 1821 ; also each County'' s proportion of the Total Income 
 and of the Total Population 60 
 
 Exemplification, in the case of the Malt Tax, of the vexatious and in- 
 jurious Effects in the Process of Trade or Manufacture, of the Proce- 
 dure of some of the Taxes on Commodities 62 
 
 Extracts from Reports of Speeches in the House of Commons, March 25, 
 1830, on a Motion for a Select Committee to inquire into the Expe- 
 diency of making a Revision of the Taxes 6Q 
 
 Extract from a late Publication " On Financial Reform" 67 
 
 Statement of the Number and Amount of the present Duties and Taxes 68 
 
 The Articles or Heads of the present Revenue on each of which the Net 
 Receipt of Duty exceeds £10,000 ib. 
 
 Abstract of the Gross and Net Receipts and of the Net Produce of the 
 Public Revenue in the Year ended 5th January, 1832 70 
 
 Statement of the Principal Stock and Annual Charge of the Funded Debt, 
 and of the Amount of Unfunded Debt on bth January, 1832 71 
 
REFERENCES 
 
 to those Heads of the Contents which relate to a Property Tax, distinctly 
 from or more particularly than to an Income Tax. 
 
 FIRST PART. 
 
 SECOND PART. 
 
 Pages 127 
 
 Pages 143 Pages 186 
 
 129 
 
 144 252 
 
 141 
 
 152 254 
 
 
 159 257 
 
 
 162 258 
 
 THIRD PART. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Pages 276 to 306 
 309 to 338 
 
 2 to 6 
 36 
 56 
 59 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 It is particularly requested that the Preface may be read. 
 
 Copies of this Work were printed several Months since, and 
 presented to some of the Members of the two Houses of Parliament, 
 with a prefatory statement as follows ; 
 
 " Although the Writer of the following Pages communicates 
 " them through the Press, yet, as he is desirous to confine the 
 iC distribution of them within a particular limit, so it is his earnest 
 " wish that his production may not be considered as a Publication, 
 Ci seeking general notice, for which he must be sensible it does 
 iC not possess the essential recommendations. 
 
 " As the Writer must also be aware that, from the great length 
 
 " and copiousness, as well as from the nature, of the contents of his 
 
 * c Work, a perusal of it throughout would be a very tedious task, he 
 
 Ct does not solicit more of those individuals to whom it is sub- 
 
 " mitted than their attention to any such parts of it as, on inspecting 
 
 u the prefixed List of its Contents, or on cursorily glancing over 
 
 " them, they may see occasion or be inclined to attend to: he 
 
 " would however beg to observe, that the object of the largest 
 
 iC portion of his Work* necessarily renders it minute and extended, 
 
 " and at the same time avow, that, as it is not calculated to engage 
 
 " attention unless among those in whom there is a disposition, not 
 
 " only to regard favorably the Financial Change which is con- 
 
 " templated in it, but to enter into dry detail, such as he conceives 
 
 u is likely to become the subject of discussion when the proposition 
 
 iC of such a Change shall be brought forward, so it is his wish that 
 
 " his production may be considered as designed solely, or more 
 
 " particularly, for those influential Friends of that measure, in- 
 
 " tending, as well as being able, to promote it, when it shall be 
 
 " expedient to adopt it, who, being desirous of any particulars 
 
 " relating to it, will not object to seek for them amidst a large 
 
 * compilation of matter, though most or much of it may appear 
 
 " # Second and Third Parts and Appendix." 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 " superficial and be unnecessary to them, so that they but find 
 " among it, as he anxiously hopes they will, some return for the 
 " trouble of their search ; the Writer trusts that, in such hands, if 
 tC any parts of his Work be worthy of notice and be capable of 
 " useful application, the purpose of it will be more surely an- 
 " swered, and that in consideration thereof, the whole will be 
 " more kindly received ; also, that inaccuracies in the preparation, 
 " as well as errors of judgment, which, as he has not received 
 iC assistance from any one, he must be the more certain will be 
 " found in it, will be met with every allowance for the peculiar 
 " difficulties of it, and with that indulgence which it stands greatly 
 " in need of." 
 
 It was not the intention of the Writer to circulate his work 
 beyond the particular limit of its late distribution, but the recep- 
 tion which it has met with from those Individuals within that limit 
 to whom he submitted it, and the increasing probability of such a 
 Commutation of Taxes as it has in view, have induced him to 
 to reprint it (with some revisions), and though sensible of its 
 demerits as a Composition, to publish it, trusting that the more ex- 
 tended the circulation of it, the more likely it will be to answer its 
 intended purpose of assisting in the thorough elucidation of the 
 principles and effects, and more especially in the consideration of 
 the necessary practical detail, of the far most important Tax ever 
 imposed, which, as he conceives, has never undergone that fair, 
 dispassionate, and complete investigation which it needs and de- 
 serves, in order to exhibit fully the justice and the various advan- 
 tages of it, and its capability of operating (under a modified form) 
 in an unobjectionable manner: also the practicability of its being 
 applied as the best, if not the only, means of equitably discharging 
 the Public Debt; and of its^eing rendered instrumental to the 
 accomplishment of other National Objects. , 
 
 To any Purchasers of his work, who on observing the nature of 
 its contents, may not be inclined to attend to them generally, 
 the Writer would wish to state, that although the Plans of revised 
 Taxation, and of Reduction of the Public Debt, which are sub- 
 mitted, with multifarious detail, in the Second and Third Parts 
 of it, are mainly founded on the Plan of the late Property 
 Tax, and on the existing plan of Redemption and Purchase of the 
 Land Tax, yet he presumes to hope that among the material varia- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 tions and modifications of those measures suggested by him, 
 there may be found those which would render practicable such 
 improved Plans, as might be most satisfactory in their Operation 
 and Result; and he would take the liberty to refer them to a short 
 Section in the Third Part, (p. 309 — 311) as briefly submitting an 
 expedient course of pursuing those Plans: he would however trust 
 that they will not, on such a slight view of them, form conclusions 
 unfavorable to them from any previously entertained objections to 
 those measures from which they have originated, unless they can so 
 far enter into the contents of the work, as may enable them to 
 judge whether it does not furnish satisfactory answers to, or suf- 
 ficient remedies to meet those objections. 
 
 January , 1833. 
 
ON THE 
 
 ADVANTAGES 
 
 OF 
 
 SUBSTITUTING AN INCOME TAX OR PROPERTY TAX 
 
 FOR THE PRESENT TAXES, 
 
 FIRST PART. 
 
 Preliminary Observation. 
 
 As the following attempt to exhibit the comparative advantages 
 of an Income or Property Tax is made by endeavoring to shew 
 that the evils of Taxation may be diminished by substituting such 
 a Tax for the present Taxes — the Writer is anxious to be under- 
 stood throughout his attempt in the comparative sense only, not as 
 denying that the Income or Property Tax is attended with evils 
 such as arise from other Taxes in general, but as attributing to it 
 a less degree of them ; He would also disclaim any intention to 
 impute to the present system of Taxation more evils or a greater 
 degree of them than really exists ; — on the contrary, while he dis- 
 cusses the nature of those evils without pretending to judge of the 
 extent of them, he would declare his belief that, if the full extent 
 of them could be developed with certainty, it would be found 
 much less than it is generally considered to be ; all he would con- 
 tend for, and on the grounds which he has fully submitted under 
 the several heads of this First Part of his Work, is, that whatever 
 may be the real extent of those evils, it would be diminished by 
 the substitution of an Income or Property Tax. 
 
Contrast of the two Bases of Taxation — Income and Expendi- 
 ture — in respect of the Evils of Taxation. 
 
 Lest it be objected to the following Contrast that it is formed upon 
 the presumption of a plan of Income Tax such as it should be, 
 rather than such as it has been, of a more perfect plan which is as- 
 sumed to be practicable — the Writer thinks it necessary to premise, 
 that having in the Second Part of his Work suggested various modi- 
 fications to meet the objections to the plan of the late Property 
 or Income Tax, he contemplates in his Contrast, such a plan of 
 Income Tax as he conceives would be attained when all those 
 modifications and improvements had been bestowed on it which, 
 after sufficient trial and experience, might be found just and expe- 
 dient, such a plan as he presumes could be gradually brought 
 into operation, and as would justify his Contrast throughout. 
 
 In endeavoring in this Contrast to shew the advantage of Income 
 over Expenditure as a basis of taxation — an Income Tax will be 
 considered as a Tax extended to every description of Income ; at 
 the conclusion of the Contrast an endeavor will be made to shew 
 how far and in what manner a Property Tax, viz. a Tax on In- 
 come derived from Property only, will confer the advantages 
 of a general Income Tax. * 
 
 Evils of Taxation or of the Plans of raising it. 
 
 On a review of the evils of Taxation, or of the Plans of raising 
 it, it may appear that they proceed, 
 1st. From Inequality. 
 2nd. From Procedure. 
 3rd. From Excess. 
 
 * The term Income Tax is more properly applicable to the general Tax ; the late 
 Property Tax was by the Act denominated " A Contribution on the Profits arising 
 " from Property, Trades, and Offices." It was in strict signification, and in effect, a 
 general Tax on Income, though it was commonly called the Property Tax. 
 
 Most of the present Taxes, direct and indirect, may properly be termed Taxes on 
 Expenditure. The present indirect Taxes on articles of Consumption and Use may 
 ,be termed, indifferently, Taxation on Capital, on Produce, on Commodities, or on Ex- 
 penditure; they are Taxes on Capital as regards certain classes as Producers who 
 advance them out of Capital, and they are Taxes on Expenditure as regards all classes 
 as Consumers, by whom they are ultimately paid. They are Taxes of which Ex- 
 penditure is the basis of charge and Prices the means of collection. 
 
viz. Excess: 
 
 1st. In as far as Taxation may deprive the Payers 
 of the Taxes * (the Agricultural, Manu- 
 facturing, Trading, Professional Classes* 
 8fc.) of more than is received by the Re- 
 ceivers of the Taxes (the Public Creditors 
 and Public Servants,^) 
 
 2nd. In as far as Taxation may exact more than 
 the Property, Capital and Industry of the 
 Payers of the Taxes can replace. 
 
 3rd. In as far as Taxation may transfer from the 
 Payers to the Receivers of the Taxes a 
 share of the general Income of the Country 
 greater than is just or necessary. 
 
 4th. In as far as the levy of a Sinking Fund or 
 Surplus Revenue may be unnecessary or 
 of inadequate utility. 
 
 1st. Inequality of Taxation. 
 
 As it affects Individuals considered as Consumers of Commodities 
 or as Owners of Income. 
 
 Considering Equality of Taxation to signify taxation in due 
 proportion to every one's means and ability to pay, that most just 
 principle of taxation, it seems to follow that Income, which con- 
 stitutes and evidences the means to pay, is the surest basis for equal 
 taxation. Though an Income Tax cannot be rendered in prac- 
 tice so perfect as it is in principle, inequality is not natural and 
 inherent to it; if it be framed upon an equitable plan, inequality 
 will arise from wilful evasion only, but it is conceived that Expen- 
 diture is a basis of Taxation of which inequality is, in various ways, 
 a natural consequence, that inequality is an inherent part of it 5 
 that it is increased by evasion, but will inevitably exist without it. 
 
 * Considering that part of Taxation which is taken from the Public Creditors and 
 Public Servants as so much taxation abolished, the Agricultural, Trading and Pro- 
 fessional Classes, &c. may be regarded, for the purpose of this Contrast, as the sole 
 Payers of the Taxes. 
 
 \ This last Class may be considered as including Government in respect of its inci- 
 dental disbursements beyond the sum expended in the personal Compensations, 
 Allowances, &c. of the Public Servants. 
 
As the relative expenditure of individuals is not in proportion to 
 their relative means, Taxation on Expenditure cannot fall on 
 every one in proportion to his ability to pay ; even if the expen- 
 diture of all individuals were in proportion to their means, Tax- 
 ation on Expenditure would still be unequal unless it affected in 
 different and due degrees the prices of articles according to the 
 diversity of their use and importance as necessaries, as comforts 
 or conveniences, and as luxuries, and unless also those degrees va- 
 ried as the prices of articles varied from other causes. 
 
 It may be alleged, that although a Tax of which Expenditure 
 is the basis cannot be a Tax in proportion to every person's in- 
 come or ability of payment because all persons do not wholly or 
 proportionably expend their incomes, yet as to all those persons 
 who do wholly or proportionably expend their incomes it may be 
 an equal Tax— that incomes of £100 or £150 wholly or propor- 
 tionably expended will pay respectively to taxation one-third or 
 one-half of the amount which incomes of £300 wholly or propor- 
 tionably expended will pay ; but the question may be, whether 
 those incomes ought to pay in that ratio. If a gradually increas- 
 ing Scale of Taxation, according to which the rate of it will 
 become higher as the means for contribution increase, be most 
 consonant with justice, Taxation graduated by the rate of indi- 
 vidual Expenditure cannot be most just; but a Tax on Income 
 admits practically of such a gradation. 
 
 A person whose Income, derived from labour and skill, will not 
 survive him for the benefit of his family, and however uncertain 
 in amount or in duration it may be, pays as much out of his ex- 
 penditure to the present Taxes as a person expending to an equal 
 amount whose Income derived from Property descends to his 
 posterity; if this be injustice, a Tax on Income in affording a 
 practicable distinction in that respect is the best remedy for it. 
 
 In the case of a man whose Income has been diminished, but 
 who from his situation in life or from the necessities of a large 
 family cannot reduce his expenditure, or who suffers greatly in 
 necessarily reducing it, Taxes on Expenditure bear with peculiar 
 inequality and hardship; but in such a case how much more 
 equitable and less severe is the operation of an Income Tax, from 
 which relief, in proportion to the diminution of the means, is, in 
 every case, sure to be obtained. 
 
If a man is able to save the more easily can he pay to an In- 
 come Tax and the greater may become his Income and the Tax 
 upon it; what benefits himself benefits the Tax. The more a man 
 can and will save the more does he avoid Taxation on Expendi- 
 ture, and thus the more able he is to contribute to taxation the 
 more he benefits himself at the expence of taxation and of all fair 
 contributors to it. 
 
 It has been stated in answer to an allegation of the just effect of 
 an Income Tax on the Parsimonious, that although such persons 
 do not expend nearly the whole of their Incomes, their savings are 
 applied as Capital in some direction in which it is as beneficial to 
 the general interests of the Community as if parted with in the way 
 of Expenditure, and that it is no recommendation of an Income 
 Tax that it falls more heavily than the present Taxes on that 
 description of persons. It may in reply be stated, that as an In- 
 come Tax will in the aggregate take far less out of the pockets of 
 the Community in general than the present Taxes exact, the means 
 of saving will on the whole be increased: but that as concerns 
 individuals, by substituting the former for the latter, those 
 means will be justly shifted from some to others, and therefore 
 more equally diffused among all; that whichever mode of dispos- 
 ing of Income, whether expending or saving it be most beneficial 
 to the general interests, the case between the parsimonious and 
 other individuals on the point of Taxation may involve a question 
 less as to the general effects, than to the relative individual conse- 
 quences; it is whether it be just that persons of equal means 
 should contribute unequally and suffer unequal deprivation of 
 those means for that protection of the State which they alike enjoy, 
 and for the discharge of a public debt which they alike owe, in 
 respect of both which every man is injustice and fairness indebted, 
 not in proportion to what he expends but in proportion to what he 
 acquires or possesses : whether it be just if a parsimonious person 
 expend one-fourth only of his Income, contributing to Taxation on 
 Expenditure in the same proportion, that the other three-fourths 
 of Taxation, which if he were taxed according to relative ability 
 he would also contribute, should fall on other persons ; and the 
 question may then become whether a direct Tax, in compelling the 
 full contribution out of an Income the greatest part of which the 
 
6 
 
 parsimonious individual has no real need of, and which he would 
 apply only to increase a superfluity, and in relieving proportion- 
 ably by such compulsion those who now expend the whole or nearly 
 the whole of their Incomes, and then enabling them to make some 
 saving out of their Incomes, is not a Tax which in thus operating 
 equally on all individuals, wilLaot be the most beneficial to the 
 general interests. The conclusion in short appears, if a man 
 benefit the community by his savings in the application of them as 
 Capital as much as by increasing his Expenditure, that, under tax- 
 ation on Income, but not under taxation on Expenditure, he may by 
 saving do a benefit in one way — the addition to Capital — without 
 doing an injustice in another — the avoidance of Taxation. 
 
 Some persons are so much disposed to avoid taxation that 
 although they would not wilfully evade it by dishonest or illegal 
 means, they forego the enjoyment or convenience of an article 
 because it is taxed, although the tax may be an inconsiderable 
 part only of the expence of it, but such a disposition is not felt, or it 
 avails not if taxation be raised direct out of Income. 
 
 Taxes on Expenditure, in leaving in many cases the amount of 
 the payment to them within the will and power of the payers, 
 create a degree of voluntary burthen, which is, in the opinion of 
 some, a great recommendation of those Taxes, but it is conceived 
 that such opinion is not founded in justice, for that where there is 
 a very large expence of the State to be defrayed, to which all 
 are proportionably bound to contribute, the contributions of any 
 individuals should not depend so much on themselves. It has 
 been observed that " it is not because a man cannot pay more but 
 " because he will not pay more that Taxes frequently cease to be 
 " productive." This observation is not applicable to Taxation on 
 Income but is justly applied to Taxation on Expenditure; by the 
 former a man may be compelled to pay his full share whether he 
 is willing or not, and most properly so ; but the compulsion to pay 
 Taxation on Expenditure often falls heaviest where it should fall 
 lightest ; as Expenditure depends in some on will and in others on 
 necessity, taxation on it operates often too leniently and often 
 too hardly, and as the greater the individual means of expen- 
 diture the more in general the extent of it depends on will, the 
 rich can escape it in proportion to their means more than those 
 
who are not rich; and as the will or necessity of individuals to 
 expend are variously disproportionate to their respective Incomes, 
 so Taxation on Expenditure is as variously disproportionate to the 
 means of contribution to it, and inequality in every degree is inse- 
 parable from it. 
 
 Taxation on articles of Consumption and Use cannot be im- 
 posed without falling- most heavily on the lower classes, for what- 
 ever must be defrayed out of the price of consumption must be 
 paid mostly by those who form the great bulk of consumers;* 
 but a Tax on Income will fall not only more lightly on those 
 classes taking them in the aggregate, but also more equally 
 among them, taking them in their various denominations and em- 
 ployments relatively to each other ; and this effect will take place 
 whether they pay directly to the Tax by the extension of it to 
 their Wages, or whether they indirectly contribute to it by a reduc- 
 tion in the rates of their Wages consequent on the exemption of 
 them from a direct charge to the Tax and the exclusive taxation 
 of the rest of the community. 
 
 The inequality of Taxation on Expenditure shews itself in a 
 very objectionable light when it favors a class of persons who are 
 of all classes the least entitled to such favor — the Absentees. 
 The Absentee, while he gives to a foreign country the benefit of 
 his Expenditure wholly avoids the Taxation of his own ; but as 
 Absentees would not after the abolition of the present Taxes find 
 living abroad so much cheaper than living at home, and as an 
 Income Tax would reach the incomes of the generality of them, 
 and they could not escape their due payment to the exigencies 
 of their own country by residing out of it, most of them might be 
 induced to return and give it the benefit of their whole expendi- 
 ture. The change would at least prevent the remittance of so 
 much Income to foreign countries as is now expended there. 
 
 * It appears by the Accounts of the Duties of Customs and Excise, that a very 
 large proportion of them is imposed on some of the necessaries of life, and that a great 
 paVt of the rest is paid in respect of conveniences and comforts which approach nearly 
 to necessaries. 
 
s 
 
 Commodities cannot be taxed with equality and with due regard 
 to their relative use and value. 
 
 The inequality of Taxation raised through Expenditure appears 
 of a more complicated nature, and more difficult to be guarded 
 against than the inequality of Taxation raised from Income. Tax- 
 ation on Expenditure is unequal, not only because the Expendi- 
 ture of different individuals is not in proportion to their individual 
 Incomes or ability to bear Taxation, but as the rate of taxation on 
 any particular article of use and consumption should bear a due 
 relation to the rates of Taxation on all other articles considered 
 according to their different natures, as necessaries, as conveniences 
 or as luxuries, and a due regard to all the changes which they 
 undergo in various degrees from other causes than Taxation, so 
 any inequalities of Taxation proceeding from those natural differ- 
 ences and other causes cannot be easily and certainly obviated. 
 Looking at the various articles of Produce now subject to the 
 Customs and Excise Duties, it seems impossible to fix with cer- 
 tainty the relation of rate which in justice and policy each should 
 bear to the rest, and if such a scale of relative taxation could at 
 any time be framed as should be suitable at that time to the vari- 
 ous qualities and uses of commodities, would not political or com- 
 mercial vicissitudes, would not changes in customs and fashions 
 among society, by affecting some interests, some sources of supply 
 more than others, very soon destroy the equity of the relative 
 scale, it not being possessed like the Scale of a Tax on Income 
 of the capability of adapting itself to whatever changes and 
 fluctuations ordinarily occur. " Taxation can never be so equally 
 u applied as to operate in the same proportion on the value of 
 Ci all commodities and still to preserve them at the same re- 
 " lative value — it frequently operates very differently from the in- 
 " tention of the Legislature by its indirect effects."* 
 
 The price of an article through the medium of which Taxation on 
 Expenditure is raised, consists of two parts — the natural part and 
 the artificial part, viz. the natural cost of the production or value 
 of the article, and the artificial part or the excess created by the 
 
 * Ricardo. 
 
9 
 
 Taxes beyond the natural cost or value. Unless the artificial 
 part of the price which is paid, not for the use or enjoyment 
 of the article, but for the Expences of the State, be so exacted that 
 it shall fall on every individual purchaser in proportion to his means, 
 and his interest in the State, the Taxes operate unequally and con- 
 trary to the right maxim of Taxation; and it maybe asked, if an 
 individual could afford to pay the natural price of an article and 
 also the artificial price if the latter were in a just proportion to his 
 means of expenditure, but, if in consequence of the excess of this 
 price beyond that just proportion he cannot afford to purchase, 
 whether that individual is not unjustly deprived by the Tax of the 
 use or enjoyment of an article to which his circumstances and 
 condition in life give him a natural right. 
 
 Taxes on Commodities in prescribing limits to or preventing 
 the use and consumption of them without sufficiently regarding the 
 dissimilarity and diversity in nature and degree of the necessities 
 and inclinations of different individuals (a regard by which it 
 would be impossible to regulate them) precludes that free dis- 
 bursement of Income which the Tax on Income admits of; what- 
 ever be the amount taken directly from an Income in order to raise 
 from it a certain sum for the Revenue, the remaining Income can 
 be freely expended according to the possessor's wants or wishes 
 on any articles whatever the natural cost of which will bring them 
 within the reach of it; but as the artificial parts of prices created 
 by Taxes on Expenditure cannot be made to fall agreeably to the 
 diversity of wants, the expenditure is not left with such full free- 
 dom to the will and discretion of the possessor. 
 
 Individuals considered as Producers of Commodities, and as 
 Advancers of the Taxes on them. 
 
 It is conceived that inequality of Taxation on Commodities does 
 not consist wholly in the inequality of the individual contributions 
 exacted from the expenditure of the several payers, by which the 
 amounts paid by some are more and the amounts paid by others 
 are less than a due equivalent for the public benefits in return for 
 which they are paid, but that it consists also in the partial effects 
 in other ways of such taxation ; the unequal effect of Taxation on 
 
10 
 
 Commodities obtained through Expenditure as heretofore consider-* 
 ed, is more particularly such as concerns the community at large as 
 Consumers ; but there are to be considered also the unequal effects 
 of such Taxes as regards the Producers of Commodities. It appears 
 impossible that the imposition of Taxes on different articles of con- 
 sumption can be so adjusted that the Producers, taking the \ari- 
 ous classes or branches of them relatively to each other, shall be 
 affected by them in exactly due degrees according to the extent 
 and the value of the capital advanced by them respectively, and to 
 the various rates of Cost of producing the different articles taxed ;. 
 that the interest, and profit of the part of the capital advanced 
 shall be in all cases proportionate to that part, and that the pro- 
 fits of the whole of the capitals employed by the Producers 
 respectively in their different trades, &c. shall be affected in 
 equal degrees; also that the weight of the Tax on any one 
 particular article of consumption can be so apportioned that 
 the different individuals concerned in the production of it in 
 all the stages of its progress, and who are in advance of the Tax, 
 shall be compensated or reimbursed by the ultimate payers, the 
 Consumers, proportionably to their respective advances, increasing 
 as the amount of the advance does in every stage of the progress of 
 the article, and adding as this progressive increase does to the risk 
 and uncertainty of trading in it; as Taxation by increasing prices 
 diminishes demand, the advance becomes the more injurious or 
 inconvenient, particularly as whatever may be the profit of a 
 sum of capital laid out on any quantity of a taxed article, or 
 even if no profit arise from it, the Tax thereon is at the same 
 rate or amount, and particularly also as those who advance the 
 Taxes should be repaid not only the sum which they advance but 
 the additional wages paid to their workmen to enable them to 
 bear the Taxes affecting the prices of articles consumed by them. 
 The consideration taken in its several bearings may be, not only 
 whether all the various Articles of consumption and use and the 
 Producers of them can be taxed in degrees having due relation to 
 each other, and whether all the parties concerned as Producers in 
 the production of any one particular taxed article can be affected 
 in their due proportions; but whether also the effects will fall at all 
 times and under all circumstances on the Producers and on the 
 
Consumers respectively with the just relative weight. The Im- 
 porter, the Grower, the Manufacturer, or whatever may be the de- 
 nomination of the Dealer in any taxed article, may, in order to in- 
 crease or keep up the ordinary extent of the sale of it, part with 
 it at less than its fair remunerating" price, and by thus lowering 
 his own profit to the undue advantage of the Consumer suffer un- 
 equally by the Tax, and this may be the effect of the Tax whether 
 the necessity or inducement to such a disadvantageous disposal of 
 the article arises wholly from the Tax or partly from any other 
 cause affecting the production and sale of the article, and not 
 only on the first imposition of the Tax but occasionally afterwards ; 
 such may be the effect at some times and not at others, and thus 
 the Tax may be the frequent cause in some degree of an injurious 
 fluctuation of price between the Producers and Consumers; or, 
 on the contrary, if Dealers in taxed articles profit by their ad- 
 vances and the increased prices, the degree of such profit may 
 be greater than it should be, it may create to the Consumer a 
 greater cost, and may virtually throw on him a larger proportion 
 of the Tax than he should bear ; but Taxation on Income being 
 taken not out of capital, stock or goods, the future profit from 
 which to the respective parties concerned in them may be uncer- 
 tain and unequal, but out of Net Profit after it has been deter- 
 mined, and conforming itself to the amount of Profit which each 
 gainer has acquired, must be attended with a less unequal and 
 with a less uncertain and detrimental operation to the Producers 
 of Income in general ; such a Tax opposes not ordinary contin- 
 gencies but bends to them. Any particular commodity of use 
 and consumption may at one time be a fair objectof taxation, 
 but at other times, by change of circumstances, be the worst sub- 
 ject for it ; but Income is at all times and under all circumstances 
 and whatever changes arise, suitable for taxation ; and for the 
 very reason that changes are constantly arising, it is the most 
 if not the only fair and safe object of taxation for a perma- 
 nency. Whether the Country were in a state of Prosperity or of 
 Decline, and in whatever degree of either, the Income Tax would 
 keep all ranks and conditions more readily and nearly in their 
 proper relative state than any other kind of Taxation will admit 
 of — if any particular interest more than others advanced or retro- 
 graded, the rest, as far as Taxation affected them respectively 
 
12 
 
 would more surely benefit or suffer proportionately as they justly 
 should do. 
 
 Taxes on Luxuries unequal and more injurious than a Tax on 
 
 Income, 
 Some Taxes raised through Expenditure may be less unequal 
 and less injurious than others, but the best of them will not stand 
 the test of comparison with an equal Income Tax. There may be 
 reason for conceiving Luxuries to be objects for Taxation pre- 
 ferable to Necessaries or Conveniences so far as concerns those 
 who consume or use the former, but putting- out of consideration 
 that the habitual use of luxuries renders them necessary, and that 
 the deprivation of them by taxation may be a hardship, it must not 
 be overlooked that the large classes, Capitalists and Laborers, who 
 produce them, and who are equally with other classes of Pro- 
 ducers entitled to regard and protection, suffer from the restric- 
 tions created by Taxation on those productions of their skill and 
 industry, also that there is such a connection between those pro- 
 ductions of different kinds, necessaries and luxuries, and between 
 those classes by whose capital and labor they are respectively ob- 
 tained, that there is such a dependance of them on each other, 
 that Taxation, though, falling directly on some only, will indirectly 
 affect all or many others, and that thus Taxes on luxuries, although 
 they may appear to be Taxes the least oppressive so far as they af- 
 fect those on whom they are intended to fall, that is the higher or 
 richer classes, may fall on the productive and poorer classes in 
 general as injuriously and unequally as Taxes imposed on articles 
 of convenience or necessity. If the Tax on individual Income in 
 leaving less to be expended precludes or diminishes in many cases 
 the attainment of luxuries, it does so in a more equitable and less 
 injurious manner than Taxes imposed directly on them. 
 
 Taxes on Commodities most unequal and oppressive to the lower 
 
 Classes. 
 
 It may be intended that any hard or unequal pressure of Taxa- 
 tion raised through Expenditure should, as far as regards the infe- 
 rior classes, be avoided or lessened by imposing few or no Taxes 
 on the most absolute necessaries of life ; but it has been shewn by 
 
13 
 
 Writers on Taxation that a Tax on one article, by increasing its 
 price, increases indirectly the prices of other articles whether these 
 be taxed or not, and thus all Taxes may affect the condition of the 
 lower classes; also that by diminishing 1 consumption and production, 
 and therewith the employment of labor previously bestowed on the 
 article taxed, it throws some of that labor inconveniently on other 
 sources, or if there be not elsewhere any employment for it, it drives 
 labor wholly out of employ ; Taxes on Commodities then either de- 
 stroy that natural distribution and equilibrium of labor throughout 
 which maintain the greatest number of laborers in the most constant 
 and extensive employ, or they render a proportion of them wholly 
 idle and unproductive. As it thus appears that even if the poorer 
 classes subsisted wholly on commodities not directly taxed, they 
 would nevertheless contribute indirectly to Taxation, that Taxes 
 on numerous articles which the other classes consume or use will 
 indirectly raise the prices of articles which the poorer classes need, 
 so there is no effectual way of relieving the latter in any degree 
 from the effects of Taxes on Commodities than by increasing their 
 Wages, and then the evil is augmented in as far as this increase in 
 the Cost of labor, in still further raising prices, aggravates the un- 
 equal bearing of those Taxes both on Producers and Consumers. 
 Under an Income Tax there is the alternative of taxing Wages or 
 of exempting but reducing them — either mode will operate with 
 equality and without oppressiDn. 
 
 Effects of Taxes on Commodities in unequally increasing the Cost 
 of different Productions. 
 
 As the Expences of Production in different concerns in Trade 
 and in different kinds of Land are, taking them comparatively with 
 each other, disproportionate to the Profits accruing from them re- 
 spectively, so the present Taxes, which form a considerable part 
 of those Expences, contribute largely in that way also to produce 
 inequality, and whenever much expence is requisite may so far in- 
 crease it as wholly to stop production. This may be particularly 
 exemplified in regard to the cultivation of different Lands : As in- 
 ferior Lands cost as much in cultivation as the more fertile, and as 
 Taxes on articles of use and consumption, in raising the prices of 
 them' and also the price of labor add greatly to that cost, so a Farm 
 of poor Land is charged by that addition to the cost of cultivating 
 
14 
 
 it with an amount of Taxes equal to the amount borne by a Farm of 
 superior lands of the same numbar of acres ; but as the poor Farm 
 produces a Profit far less than the Profit of the superior Farm, it is 
 taxed excessively as compared with the other : and this is not an 
 affair of mere inequality affecting the parties more immediately 
 interested, but as the cultivation of poor land cannot be attempted 
 or cannot succeed where the outgoings will exceed or equal the 
 gross receipts, so it may be that the addition of the Taxes will, by 
 rendering that expence excessive, absorb the Profit, which might 
 compensate for the labor and risk of cultivation, and thus the Taxes 
 will have the effect of stopping cultivation. 
 
 It may also be observed that Taxes on Commodities do not pay re- 
 gard to the fluctuation in the natural Cost of producing them. The 
 amount of a Tax on a given quantity of Produce may be the same 
 at all times, although the cost of carrying the Produce through all 
 its stages may at one period much exceed that of another period. 
 But if the Net Profits of Produce be taxed, viz. after all outgoings 
 and expences have been deducted from the Gross Receipts, how 
 comparativety light and innoxious are the consequences of Taxation 
 thus considerately imposed and duly equalized. 
 
 Unequal effects of Taxation on Commodities in case of Alterations 
 in the Value of Money. 
 
 The unequal rates at which alterations in the value of Money 
 will affect the prices of different Commodities when they are 
 taxed are described by Mr. Ricardo as follows : " In a country 
 " where no taxation subsists the alteration in the value of Money, 
 iC arising from scarcity or abundance, will operate in an equal pro- 
 " portion on the prices of all commodities, that if a commodity of 
 " £1,000 value rise to £1,200 or fall to £800, a commodity of 
 * £10,000 value will rise to £12,600 or fall to £8,000; but in a 
 " country where prices are artificially raised by taxation the abun- 
 " dance of Money from an influx or the exportation and conse- 
 " quent scarcity of it from foreign demand will not operate in the 
 iC same proportion on the prices of all commodities, some it will 
 " raise or lower 5, 6 or 12 per Cent, others 3, 4 or 7 per Cent. If 
 " a country were not taxed and Money should fall in value, its 
 4C abundance in every market would not produce similar effects in 
 
15 
 
 tc each; if meat rose 20 per Cent, bread, beer, shoes, labor, &c. 
 u every commodity would also rise 20 per Cent., it is necessary 
 '* they should do so to secure to each trade the same rate of profits. 
 " But this is no longer true when any of these commodities is 
 cc taxed; if in that case they should all rise in proportion to the 
 u fall in the value of Money, profits would be rendered unequal — 
 iC in the case of the commodities taxed profits would be raised 
 Ci above the general level, and capital would be removed from one 
 " employment to another till an equilibrium of profits was restored, 
 " which could only be after the relative prices were altered." If 
 the ultimate and Net Profits of all Trades were taxed to an Income 
 Tax, together with Incomes from all other sources, such unequal 
 effects as are here attributed to alterations in the Money circulation, 
 in case of commodities being taxed, could hardly arise ; Profits 
 would be wholly or more safe from them; whatever effect altera- 
 tions in the Currency or other causes than Taxation produce on 
 any sources of Profit, that effect is concluded before the Profit has 
 accrued, and the Tax laid on Profit would not co-operate with 
 those causes in unequally affecting Profits of different Trades, but 
 the effect is not decided before Taxation operates if it be laid on 
 Capttal, Stock or Goods ; whence it is that the inequalities ad- 
 verted to proceed, which a Tax imposed directly and solely on 
 Profit, and extending to all descriptions of Profit, is more free or 
 wholly free from. 
 
 Conformity of an Income Tax with Mr, Ricardo's opinion as to 
 the Objects fittest for equal Taxation. 
 
 In support of the views herein taken of the comparatively greater 
 inequality of Taxation on Commodities, further extracts from the 
 Work just quoted are offered. In a chapter upon Taxes on Raw 
 Produce Mr. Ricardo observes, 
 
 '< Now the sum required by the Tax must be raised, and the 
 iC question simply is, whether the same amount shall be taken 
 6i from individuals by diminishing their profits, or by raising the 
 u prices of the commodities on which their profits will be expended. 
 
 u Taxation under every form presents but a choice of evils; if it 
 Ci do not act on profit, or other sources of income, it must act on 
 " expenditure; and provided the burthen be equally borne, and do 
 <c not repress re-production, it is indifferent on which it is laid. 
 
16 
 
 <c Taxes on production, or on the profits of stock, whether applied 
 cc immediately to profits, or indirectly, by taxing the land or its 
 " produce, have this advantage over other taxes; that provided all 
 Ci other income be taxed, no class of the community can escape 
 rf them, and each contributes according to his means. 
 
 u From taxes on expenditure a miser may escape ; he may have 
 " an income of £10,000 per annum and expend only £300; but 
 C( from taxes on profits whether direct or indirect, he cannot 
 iC escape; he will contribute to them either by giving up a part or 
 " the value of a part of his produce; or by the advanced prices of 
 " the necessaries essential to production, he will be unable to con- 
 u tinue to accumulate at the same rate. He may, indeed, have an 
 M income of the same value, but he will not have the same com- 
 cc maud of labour, nor of an equal quantity of materials on which 
 " such labour can be exercised. 
 
 iC If a country is insulated from all others, having no commerce 
 iC with any of its neighbours, it can in no way shift any portion of 
 " its taxes from itself. A portion of the produce of its land and 
 " labour will be devoted to the service of the State; and I cannot 
 * but think that unless it presses unequally on that class which 
 " accumulates and saves, it will be of little importance whether the 
 " taxes be levied on profits, on agriculture, or on manufactured 
 " commodities. If my revenue be £1,000 per annum, and I must 
 ct pay taxes to the amount of £100, it is of little importance whe- 
 iC ther I pay it from my revenue, leaving myself only £900, or pay 
 u £100 in addition for my agricultural commodities, or for my 
 u manufactured goods. If £100 is my fair proportion of the ex- 
 tc pences of the country, the virtue of taxation consists in making 
 u sure that I shall pay that £100, neither more nor less ; and that 
 " cannot be effected in any manner so securely as by taxes on 
 " wages, profits, or raw produce." 
 
 The Author's subsequent observation on on this head however is 
 as follows. 
 
 " To simplify the consideration of this subject, I have been sup- 
 " posing that a rise in the value of raw materials would affect, in 
 lC an equal proportion, all home commodities ; that if the effect on 
 iC one were to raise it 10 per cent it would raise all 10 per cent.; 
 " but as the value of commodities is very differently made up of 
 " raw materials and labour ; as some commodities, for instance, all 
 
17 
 
 " those made from the metals, would be unaffected by the rise of 
 " raw produce from the surface of the earth, it is evident that 
 " there would be the greatest variety in the effects produced on 
 " the value of commodities, by a tax on raw produce. As far a« 
 " this effect was produced, it would stimulate or retard the export- 
 66 ation of particular commodities, and would undoubtedly be 
 iC attended with the same inconveniences that attend the taxing 
 a of commodities ; it would destroy the natural relation between 
 rt the value of each. Thus the natural price of a hat, instead of 
 u being the same as a yard and a half of cloth, might only be of 
 " the value of a yard and a quarter, or it might be of the value of a 
 " yard and three quarters, and therefore rather a different direc- 
 " tion miofht be given to foreign trade. All these inconveniences 
 " would probably not interfere with the value of the exports and 
 <; imports ; they would only prevent the very best distribution of 
 " the capital of the whole world, which is never so well regulated, 
 iC as when every commodity is freely allowed to settle at its natural 
 <c price, unfettered by artificial restraints." 
 
 With respect to a Tax on Profits, Mr. Ricardo observes, that " a 
 " partial tax on profits will raise the price of the commodity on 
 t: which it falls; a tax, for example, on the profits of the hatter, 
 " would raise the price of hats ; for if his profits were taxed, and 
 " not those of any other trade, his profits, unless he raised the 
 " price of his hats, would be below the general rate of profits, and 
 " he would quit his employment for another. In the same manner, 
 " a tax on the profits of the farmer would raise the price of corn ; 
 " a tax on the profits of the clothier, the price of cloth ; and if a 
 " tax in proportion to profits were laid on all trades, every com- 
 " modity would be raised in price." After some further remarks 
 Mr. Ricardo comes to the following conclusion. " If it be agreed, 
 " that by taxing the profits of one manufacturer only the price of 
 " his goods would rise, to put him on an equality with all other 
 " manufacturers; and that by taxing the profits of two manufac- 
 " turers, the prices of two descriptions of goods must rise, I do not 
 u see how it can be disputed, that by taxing the profits of all 
 " manufacturers, the prices of all goods would rise, provided the 
 " mine which supplied us with money, were in this country and 
 " continued untaxed. But as Money, or the standard of money, 
 " is a commodity imported from abroad, the price of all goods 
 
 D 
 
18 
 
 " could not rise ; for sucli an effect could not take place without 
 (i an additional quantity of Money, which could not be obtained in 
 " exchange for dear goods. If, however, such a rise could take 
 iC place, it could not be permanent, for it would have a powerful in- 
 " fluence on foreign trade. In return for commodities imported, 
 Ci those dear goods could not be exported, and therefore we should 
 iC for a time continue to buy, although we ceased to sell, and 
 " should export money or bullion, till the relative prices of com- 
 " modities were nearly the same as before. It appears to me ab- 
 " solutely certain, that a well regulated tax on profits, would 
 iC ultimately restore commodities, both of home and foreign manu- 
 " facture, to the same money price which they bore before the tax 
 iC was imposed." 
 
 Mr. Ricardo was of opinion that fair Taxation can be effected in 
 no manner so securely as by Taxes on Wages, Profits, or Raw Pro- 
 duce. To Taxes on Wages, whether direct or indirect, he, and 
 other writers on Taxation, have raised objections ; but such objec- 
 tions apply more to Taxes on Wages imposed on them exclusively, 
 as a medium for diffusing Taxation indirectly over all Classes, than 
 to a Tax on Wages imposed like a general Income Tax, in common 
 on them with all other sources of Income ; from his observations 
 on the two other subjects of taxation, it would appear that he was 
 favorable to Taxation on Profits; but it does not seem that, in 
 speaking of a Tax on the Profits of all Manufactures, he contem- 
 plated a general tax, which as an Income Tax, should include 
 Profits and Incomes of all descriptions ; following however his 
 reasoning, the conclusion appears more decisive in favor of a Tax 
 laid on so comprehensively and equally as should not raise prices 
 or compel one description of Income to seek reimbursement from 
 or shift any part of its Tax on another. 
 
 An opinion has been held, that it is best as a general principle in 
 raising Taxes from Produce, to impose them in the latest possible 
 stage when the commodities and articles manufactured therefrom 
 are in their most finished state, as being then taxable according to 
 their value after all the requisite cost, labor and skill have been be- 
 stowed on them. It may be asked, does not this principle most 
 strongly recommend the Income Tax which defers its operation 
 until the very last stage after the Proceeds of all Articles have been 
 
19 
 
 converted into Rent, Profit and Wages, viz. into Income, that 
 surest standard of the real value of them in the aggregate, that in- 
 fallible evidence of the real value of them to every individual pro- 
 ducer or owner, and therefore the most just basis of Taxation. 
 
 Equality of a Tax on Income not dependant on any other Process 
 ajfecting Income, 
 
 To tax the Profit of one or a few Trades exclusively may be 
 nearly the same in effect as to tax the Commodities themselves 
 from which the profit arises ; in partial taxation, whether Produce 
 or Profits be the exclusive object, Taxes must be considered as ad- 
 vanced by one class in behalf of all classes; and as the Advancers 
 are to be reimbursed, Prices must be the medium ; but when all 
 classes are taxed on their Profits or Incomes, no such advance of 
 taxation exists, every one pays directly for himself, the equality of 
 such taxation does not depend on any other Process through which 
 Income accrues and on the precarious contingency of a level which 
 when advanced by one class it has to create and maintain as well 
 as it can among all classes ; Taxation is divisible in the first in* 
 stance and at once among- the whole community by a just and 
 equal imposition, and any ulterior adjustment among the different 
 classes is not required. Whether the Mine which supplies the 
 Money or the Standard of Money adverted to by Mr. Ricardo, be 
 in this country or abroad is of immaterial import. 
 
 Upon the Fall of Prices of Commodities , to an adequate extent, on 
 the substitution of an Income Tax for Taxes on Commodities, 
 
 Some might entertain apprehensions that if an Income Tax were 
 imposed in lieu of other Taxes prices would not fall in proportion 
 to the Taxes taken off or to the rise which those Taxes have 
 created ; but it appears that the fall would necessarily take place 
 in that degree. Taxation and Prices being then distinguished and 
 separated, and no longer forming parts of the same payment but 
 each being taken directly and distinctly from every payer, prices 
 could not keep up beyond their natural level. As the money paid 
 for a Tax on Income is paid direct to the State by every payer, and 
 is not advanced by the Producers of Commodities, there would not 
 be any necessity on the part of the Producers for an increase of 
 
20 
 
 prices or any means on the part of the Consumers to pay such an 
 increase — the latter could not pay a Tax to the State and again to 
 the Producers ; as then individuals could no longer expend that 
 part of their Income which the Tax would take from them, prices 
 must sink in proportion to the diminution of their aggregate expen- 
 diture ; a Tax on Income would take from them less than taxes on 
 their Expenditure would take, to the amount, 1st. of the difference 
 in the ex pence of Collection, and 2nd. of the Excess of increase of 
 Prices beyond the taxes on Expenditure, to which amounts they would 
 have virtually a greater aggregate Income to expend, and it is not 
 conceived that the Producers would gain any undue advantage over 
 the Consumers in their expenditure of this increase of their Income. 
 Producers in lowering prices would naturally guard against any 
 disadvantage to themselves ; if the change gave at first to the Pro- 
 ducers any advantage, it would soon be levelled ; if the profits of 
 Trade and Agriculture increased, the community at large would 
 quickly participate of the benefit. It is also to be borne in mind 
 that the Producers, taken in the most extended sense as compre- 
 hending the whole of the Trading and Agricultural Classes, and as 
 the Receivers of all those Rents and Profits the amounts of which 
 depend on the rates of Prices, form the principal part, equal pro- 
 bably to four-fifths, of the whole body of Consumers, the ad- 
 vantage gained (if any) would then be chiefly at their own ex- 
 pence. 
 
 Many persons complain that the prices of some articles^ the taxes 
 on which have been repealed or reduced since the war, have not 
 fallen proportionably to the sum of taxes taken off from those arti- 
 cles ; a tax may be removed from any particular branch of trade 
 or agriculture more for the purpose of relieving it in the depression 
 it may be under than for the sake of the community at large, the 
 profit absolutely necessary for maintaining it may not have been 
 attainable, the removal of the tax may then for a time give a greater 
 relief to the Trader than to the Public ; if the full abatement of 
 price expected on the reduction of a tax does not in time take 
 place, the circumstance may be adduced as confirming the opinion 
 before adverted to, of the reciprocal effects of numerous Taxes on 
 Commodities, that when the price of one article is raised by a Tax 
 the prices of other articles are thereby in time increased. If a Tax 
 
21 
 
 on any article be taken off or reduced, the price of it may not fall 
 proportionally ; until a general repeal of such Taxes or a far greater 
 reduction of them be made than has yet taken place, the total re- 
 lief due to the public at large may not be wholly received or Jt 
 may not be fully obvious ; on the reduction of the tax on any ar- 
 ticle the whole relief gained may not arise from a proportionate fall 
 in the price of that particular article, the relief may be partly ob- 
 tained from a consequent fall in the prices of other articles. If 
 the effect be not, as now surmised, but if it be that the evil or 
 benefit produced by an increase or reduction of any one of the pre- 
 sent Taxes is felt more particularly by the class concerned in the 
 production of the article charged with or relieved from the Tax, 
 and that it does not extend beyond that part of the community at 
 large which uses or consumes it, there arises a degree of partiality 
 which would be obviated by a Tax on Income, this Tax would ope- 
 rate, in case of an increase or decrease of its amount, simultaneous* 
 ly and instantly in a due degree throughout the whole community; 
 whatever sum of Taxation were added or repealed, the effects 
 would, by the necessary increase or reduction of the rates of charge 
 on all Incomes, be spread at once and every where proportionably, 
 and no classes or individuals would be burthened or relieved, even 
 temporarily, while others were not similarly and equally af- 
 fected. 
 
 Inequality irremediable under Taxation on Commodities but 
 avoidable under a Tax on Income, 
 
 An important consideration arises from the different qualities of 
 the two systems of Taxation under contrast; an Income Tax may 
 in the course of time, by gradual improvement in its plan, which 
 it is capable of, and which can be applied to it as experience and 
 practical knowledge acquired in the execution of it disclose it in 
 all its bearings, be brought to a great degree of equality in spite of 
 the attempts of wilful evaders ; but any improvements of the plan 
 of Taxation on Expenditure and any methods or regulations to 
 prevent its partial effects cannot advance it to so near a degree of 
 equality : its basis is radically bad, and no remedies can cure 
 its naturally unequal tendency: wilful evasion of it also to a 
 great extent cannot, it seems, be by any measures whatever pre- 
 vented. 
 
22 
 
 A sufficient approximation, under an Income Tax, to any requi- 
 site degree of distinction either between different species or be- 
 tween different amounts of Income (so far as any such distinction 
 shall be considered equitable and expedient) may be attained 
 by Scales of Charge graduated according either to the value or 
 to the amount of individual Income, or to both, which are de- 
 terminable with sufficient precision in general for the purpose, 
 and whatever the scale of charge may be it will conform itself to 
 whatever changes Income may undergo, ever preserving all kinds 
 of Income in their proper relation to each other, thus manifest- 
 ing that flexibility which is a most desirable quality of Taxation, 
 but which a Tax on Income possesses in a much greater degree 
 than Taxation on Expenditure. 
 
 The Difficulties of Taxation much diminished by the Equalization 
 of an Income Tax. 
 
 Considering one of the evils of Taxation to be the difficult and 
 embarrassing situation in which the Legislature and Government 
 are placed by it with the different branches of the Agricultural 
 and Trading Classes of the community, it may be observed that 
 the difficulties appear greatly increased from the impossibility of 
 adjusting the present Taxes in such a manner as to prevent that 
 conflict of interests arising, together with much discontent, as each 
 interest is affected or conceives itself affected by Taxation, beyond 
 the due and expedient degree, placing it in a state of disadvanta- 
 geous competition both in foreign and domestic commerce, that 
 there is therefore the constant necessity of modifying those Taxes 
 and regulating the operation of them with a view to abate the 
 inequality and other bad effects of them. But if Taxation can be 
 made to fall at once equally, and to vary as the means to contri- 
 bute to it vary, not only as respects the Incomes of persons taken 
 individually, but as respects the numerous sources of Income and 
 the numerous classes of persons producing it, taken aggregately, 
 varying of itself in this manner without the necessity of constant 
 legislative adjustment and regulation of it, and if that equality 
 and that variation can be rendered obvious and sensible to all, the 
 difficulty of Taxation in these particular respects would be very 
 
23 
 
 greatly reduced. It is presumed that an Income Tax is not only 
 capable of producing that equality and that variation more gene- 
 rally and effectually, but also of rendering such effects more visible 
 and clear than any other system of Taxation, and as inequality 
 more than any other effect of Taxation provokes dissatisfaction, 
 the embarrassment and responsibility of the Legislature and of 
 Government would be materially diminished. 
 
 Protecting or Prohibitive Duties less necessary under an 
 Income Tax. 
 
 As the difficulties experienced by Government in adjusting 
 equally and satisfactorily the Duties imposed on Foreign Articles 
 of Commerce are increased, in as far as forming part of the public 
 Revenue, it is Taxation carried beyond the degree to which Tax- 
 ation is necessary for the protection of Agriculture and Trade at 
 home, it seems extremely desirable to raise all further Taxation 
 required for the purpose of a Revenue by distinct means, such as 
 an Income Tax would most effectually afford : as some of the Du- 
 ties on Foreign Importations are intended to countervail the effect 
 on similar Home Productions of Taxes raised for the Revenue, it 
 follows, if the Income Tax were imposed, those Duties would no 
 longer be necessary. " Protecting Duties are not to be defended 
 " when taxation is general and equally affects all classes of pro- 
 " ducers. An Income Tax is of this description, it affects equally 
 " all who employ Capital, and it has never yet been suggested by 
 " those most favorable to protecting duties that any would be 
 " necessary on account of an Income Tax. Yet a tax affecting 
 " equally all productions is precisely of the same description as an 
 " Income Tax, because it leaves them after the Tax of the same 
 " relative value to each other as before it was imposed ; they do 
 " not alter the relative value of Goods, and therefore they do not 
 " subject us to any disadvantage in our commerce with Foreign 
 " Countries. We suffer indeed the inconvenience of paying the 
 " Tax, but from that burthen we have no means of freeing our- 
 " selves. A Tax, however, wh ich falls exclusively on the pro- 
 " ducers of a particular commodity tends to raise the price of that 
 " commodity, and if it did not so raise it the producer would be 
 " under a disadvantage, as compared with all other producers; 
 
24 
 
 " he would no longer gain the general ordinary profits by the 
 " Trade; by rising in price, the value of this commodity is altered 
 " as compared with other commodities ; if no protecting duty is 
 " imposed on the importation of a similar commodity from other 
 " countries injustice is done to the producers at home, and not 
 " only to the producer but to the country to which he belongs." * 
 
 Unequal and unsteady effects on Prices are the sure conse- 
 quences of protective Duties. It is impossible to impose pro- 
 tective taxation on various commodities so as to charge them at 
 the rates at which they should be relatively taxed for the specific 
 purpose of protection, or so as to answer that purpose at every 
 period throughout all the vicissitudes of production. " Prohibi- 
 " tions are a premium to mediocrity. They destroy the best in- 
 " centive to excellence, the best stimulus to invention and im- 
 " provement. They condemn the community to suffer, both in 
 " price and quality, all the evils of monopoly, except in as far as 
 " a remedy can be found in the baneful acts of the smuggler. 
 " They have also another of the great evils of monopoly, that of 
 " exposing the consumer as well as the dealer to rapid and incon- 
 " venient fluctuations in price." f 
 
 A Tax on Income is but the transfer of so much Income from 
 some to other classes of the Subjects of this Country. Whether the 
 whole national Income be divisible between a less or greater 
 number of individuals is immaterial to Foreign Countries. 
 The Tax is raised within the Kingdom, among the Inhabitants 
 themselves exclusively, and has no external operation or effect. 
 Foreign Trade and Commerce may be carried on as freely 
 as if there were no taxation whatever in this country. What- 
 ever restrictions on Foreign Commerce may be absolutely necessary 
 for other purposes than those of Public Revenue will become 
 wholly unconnected with the general internal Taxation. 
 
 Inequality of the present Direct Taxes, viz. Assessed Taxes, Land 
 Tax, Stamps and Post Duties. 
 
 The incapability of indirect Taxation on articles of consumption 
 and use, to establish itself on an equal basis, appears also in direct 
 
 * Ricardo. f Huskisson. 
 
25 
 
 Taxation imposed on articles of use. With reference to the scales 
 of charges made to the Assessed Taxes on Houses according- to the 
 number of Windows and amount of Rent, what degree of in- 
 equality may there not be presumed to exist in them when the 
 amounts of the charges are compared with the means of the re- 
 spective Occupiers on whom those Taxes are charged; the scales 
 may be graduated as well as some general rule will admit, but 
 under what rule and by what method, having equality of taxation 
 on the Occupiers in view, can a just gradation be fixed and be 
 durably maintained? Many Houses are not occupied solely for 
 habitation, but in part for the purpose of trade and business; yet 
 however various and fluctuating the state of these may be, the 
 Taxes are exacted without any regard to them. With respect to the 
 Taxes on the other articles of Assessed Taxes, Servants, Male Per- 
 sons employed in Trade, Horses, Carriages, &c. they not only 
 operate unequally, taking different classes or persons relatively, 
 but, though some of them are more voluntarily incurred than in- 
 direct Taxes in general, there are peculiarities which distinguish 
 them for hardship and inequality from the latter Taxes. 1st. The 
 Excise or Custom Duties are paid by every Consumer at the same 
 time that he purchases the article taxed, and as he cannot pay the 
 price of the article without payment also of the Tax, he acquits 
 himself of both together; but the Assessed Taxes on Establish- 
 ments by their retrospective operation frequently fall on those who 
 since their use of the articles rendering them subsequently liable 
 to the Taxes, have become unable or less able to discharge them. 
 This retrospective operation of the Assessed Taxes is contrary to 
 one of the principal maxims of Taxation, " that every Tax should 
 " be levied at the time when it is most likely to be convenient to 
 " the party to pay it:" it may be assumed, generally speaking, 
 that the time which is most convenient to an individual for incur- 
 ing the expence of setting up or increasing an Establishment is 
 most convenient to him for paying the Taxes on it ; but the de- 
 mand of the Assessed Taxes is not coeval with the period of keep- 
 ing the Establishments for which they are charged, therefore they 
 often fall inconveniently on the parties who from change of cir- 
 cumstances have been obliged to lay down or diminish their 
 Establishments. 2nd. The increase of prices of articles of con- 
 
 E 
 
26 
 
 sumption and use, arising from the Excise and other indirect 
 Duties, is paid in proportion to the quantities of the articles used 
 or consumed ; but articles liable to the Assessed Taxes, if used 
 for one month or even a single day, may cost as much in those 
 Taxes as is chargeable for the use of them during the whole year; 
 and if the period of keeping" or using should partly precede and 
 partly follow the commencement of the Tax Year (5 April), how- 
 ever short the period may be, though a month or a week only, the 
 party is liable to the whole of two years Duties. Extreme cases 
 of this nature may not always be pressed, but the liability is de- 
 clared in the Acts and may be enforced, and the Assessed Taxes 
 frequently do operate from the causes now adverted to in an un- 
 equal and hard degree. 
 
 The present Land Tax, though not a Tax expressly on Expen- 
 diture, but which at first was in its nature more of a Tax on In- 
 come, has from the continuance of the same aggregate quotas 
 without variation according to those changes in the relative value 
 of Properties in different Counties and Districts which have oc- 
 curred during its very long duration in its present form (nearly 
 140 years), become one of the most unequal Taxes existing. It 
 may be apprehended that the inequality of the Land Tax has been 
 particularly unfavorable, that in places where Properties have 
 been most improved and multiplied the original rate of charge 
 has been most diminished, and that in places where Properties 
 have been least improved or multiplied the rate has been least 
 reduced ; so that where the greatest relief has been needed the 
 least degree has been experienced. 
 
 The Taxes or Duties under the denomination of Stamps, to 
 which is added the Legacy Tax, do not from the plan of levying 
 them seem capable of being fully regulated on the true principle 
 by which all Taxation should if possible be governed, that is, of 
 proportion to the means of the several Payers. Some of the 
 Stamp Duties however appear to be governed by that principle 
 as nearly as the mode of raising them admits of — being charged by 
 progressive scales — but these scales are necessarily graduated ac- 
 cording to the amount of the pecuniary payments made or of the va- 
 lue of Articles and Matters in respect of which the Duties are paid, 
 and not in proportion to the individual means of the Payers, which 
 
27 
 
 may generally have but little correspondence with the relative 
 extent of their respective payments to those Duties or with the 
 value of the Articles, &c. in respect of which the Duties are paid 
 by them respectively. The Legacy Tax is raised with a conside- 
 rate regard to the nearness in relationship of the Legatee; but 
 the same rates of Duty attach in whatever condition or circum- 
 stances in life the several Legatees of the same relationship may 
 be — the rich and poor pay at the same rate : the Probate Duty is 
 paid in proportion to the total amount of the Property of the de- 
 ceased previous to the division of it, without regard to the res- 
 pective means of the individuals among whom the Property is 
 afterwards to be divided and by whom the Duty is in fact borne. 
 
 With respect to the remaining branch of Public Revenue, the 
 Post Duties, although it is the least objected to, yet it partakes of 
 the imperfection of other Taxes on Expenditure — it cannot be 
 levied with sufficient equality. So far as the charges made for 
 postage are necessary to defray all expences, including the profit 
 and compensation of the capital and labor employed, that is, the 
 natural cost or price of the convenience or accommodation af- 
 forded to the Public, it may be just that all should pay alike for 
 the same degree of it ; but in as far as the charges exceed that 
 natural price, and exact an artificial price, which is so much Tax- 
 ation levied for the State, it is not Taxation levied according to 
 the fundamental maxim of Taxation — the poor and rich pay at the 
 same rate to the taxation of the Post. That the State has taken 
 the management of the whole concern into its hands does not alter 
 the nature of this part of the transaction, it is nearly the same as if 
 it had been carried on for the Public without any further interpo- 
 sition of the State than the levy of a Tax on Letters in proportion 
 to the actual cost and charge of conveying them. Though this 
 branch of the Revenue is unobjectionable in the mode of levy, and 
 the charges for postage may be considered light when compared 
 with the extent and nature of the accommodation afforded, yet it 
 may be said that the Public are taxed at a higher rate in respect 
 of it than of any other necessary or convenience — the part which 
 is Taxation is treble the amount of the part which is the natural 
 price and cost of the convenience. 
 
28 
 
 Equitable Relief to Persons with large Families attainable under 
 an Income Tax. 
 
 It would seem to be a part of equality of Taxation that it should 
 consist of some distinction favorable to persons having* families ; 
 On the principle that Taxation should be exacted in proportion to 
 every one's ability to bear it, and as a man with a family to main- 
 tain is less able to bear Taxation than a man without a family, the 
 former should be less taxed. Under a Tax on Income this dis- 
 tinction can be fully effected. It may be alleged against an In- 
 come Tax, that it takes away that part of an Income which a man 
 would have saved for the maintenance of his children after his 
 death, and against Taxation on Expenditure, that as a family oc- 
 casions greater expence, it may not only take away that part of an 
 Income which a man would have saved for his family, but it takes 
 away more where there is a family than where there is none ; it 
 may be conceived, that the number of those individuals whose 
 Incomes enable them to save a part for the future provision of 
 their families after their death is small in comparison with the 
 number of those who can make no such saving, and who are ob- 
 liged while living to expend all their Income on their families ; 
 and that most of the former as well as all of the latter description 
 would find, even were no abatement from an Income Tax allowed 
 specially on account of Children, that it took less from them than 
 Taxation on Expenditure exacted ; whatever may be the fact in 
 these respects, it is a great recommendation of the Income Tax, 
 that if Taxation ought to be lessened in proportion to the number 
 of individuals who by natural right subsist on one and the same 
 Income, as the Members of the same family, it will easily admit of 
 such a relief; but under Taxation on Expenditure there are no 
 practical means for obtaining it. 
 
 2nd. Procedure of Taxation. 
 
 On the Grounds of objection to the Procedure of Taxation on Ex- 
 
 penditure, and of a Tax on Income respectively. 
 
 The principal reason for selecting " Procedure" as one of the 
 heads in a Contrast of the two different systems of Taxation under 
 consideration is, that the chief objection to the late Property Tax 
 arose out of its manner of proceeding ; but it is conceived that in 
 
29 
 
 making the Contrast it is fair to advert not merely to such pro- 
 ceedings or means and methods as the Acts of Parliament ex- 
 pressly direct or authorize for ascertaining" and levying the sums 
 due to Taxation, but to other processes or operations of the Taxes 
 which affect the interests as well as the personal feelings of the in- 
 dividuals taxed, although any such procedure may not be the 
 subject of legislative enactments, but may arise incidentally in the 
 progress of the Tax itself, and be the indirect rather than the di- 
 rect effects of it.* 
 
 Notwithstanding the prejudice which some part of the proceed- 
 ings of the late Property Tax excited against it, it is conceived, 
 having regard to the modifications of which the former plan of it 
 may be capable in this respect, and which are submitted in the 
 Second Part of this Work, that on comparing the proceedings of 
 an Income Tax with those of Taxation raised through Expendi- 
 ture, not only so far as individuals are personally exposed to them, 
 but as they operate in other ways upon their respective Concerns 
 and means of livelihood, that the procedure of an Income Tax 
 would certainly be upon the whole the least objectionable. When 
 complaints are preferred against the proceedings of Taxation they 
 may not on every occasion be candidly made : the real motive 
 may not always appear ; it may sometimes be attempted to get rid 
 of the burthen of a Tax by decrying the procedure, the real objec- 
 tion may be rather to the payment than to the means used for ob- 
 taining it, though the latter may be the sole subject of complaint. 
 If however the procedure obstructs or lessens the means of acquiring 
 Profit, and operates also in that way partially by falling on some 
 sources of Profit more than on others, the complaints may be pre- 
 ferred on just grounds, in as much as there is a pecuniarv loss oc- 
 casioned by the mode of raising the taxes which is different in kind 
 than Taxation intends and greater in amount than Taxation gains : 
 a sum is not only taken away by Taxation but the means of fully 
 restoring it are obstructed ; such may be the grounds of com- 
 
 * A Tax may operate injuriously in the progress of any Trade, without subjecting 
 the Trader himself personally to any proceeding's of an obnoxious nature, or a Tax 
 may be obnoxious to him personally without affecting his Trade. — Both operations 
 may take place in the same case, or either of them may occur without the other. 
 
30 
 
 plaint against the procedure of some of the present Taxes ; but if 
 as by an Income Tax taxation exacts from clear Profit only, and 
 not until after the Profit has been acquired, and then from each 
 sharer in proportion to his share, and no more directly or indirect- 
 ly than is applied to the purposes for which Taxation is raised, the 
 proceedings may not be a just, and though the avowed, not always 
 the real cause of dissatisfaction ; if they are carried to an ob- 
 noxious length they may most generally be the merited conse- 
 quences of wilful evasion or of non-compliance with indispensable 
 requisitions, and may hardly ever fall on those wholly undeserving 
 of them. Neglect and omission which occasion unpleasant pro- 
 ceedings in Taxation may not in every case arise from determi- 
 nation to commit fraud ; but as the liabilities and requisitions in 
 respect of long established or of plain and intelligible taxation are 
 or should be known and attended to, the intention can be judged by 
 the act only, or be ascertained by the result of proceedings : the 
 plea of ignorance or inadvertence is often unreasonably set up as 
 a sufficient answer to proceedings which are not less unreasonably 
 deprecated in such cases as unnecessary and oppressive. 
 
 If the proceedings of a general and effective Income Tax could 
 not by any alterations of its former plan be rendered much less 
 objectionable than they were alleged to have been under that 
 plan, it may nevertheless be contended that they still would be not 
 only less injurious to the concerns themselves in which individuals 
 are engaged, but on the whole not more obnoxious as regards in- 
 dividuals personally than are the various proceedings by which 
 Taxation is raised from Expenditure. 
 
 The surveys of the quantities and qualities of Stock and Goods, 
 the regulations which by their interference with, impede or divert 
 the operations of Manufactures and Trade,* the numerous checks 
 adopted for the sake of security and prevention, the restrictions, 
 requisitions and forms attending them, the searches made at discre- 
 tion and every where, even in private dwellings and on the person 
 
 * A periodical Publication (Edinburgh Review, June 1829^ has, in the instance of 
 the Malt Tax, fully described such procedure of Taxation on Commodities as inter- 
 feres with the free operations or process of Manufactures and Trade. — Extracts from 
 the Article alluded to are inserted at the end of the Appendix of this Work. 
 
31 
 
 itself after Contraband Goods, and where there is but the bare 
 possibility or slightest suspicion of any concealment of them, are 
 proceeding's of the present mode of taxation which may, when 
 strictly viewed, be regarded as more vexatious apd harrassing 
 than those which in the way of investigation into some kinds of 
 Income may be necessary for obtaining due assessments to a direct 
 Tax thereon, particularly when it is considered that many of the 
 former take place of course and are necessarily unintermitting, 
 that all by whom the Taxes are advanced or directly paid are 
 systematically subjected to them however free from evasive inten- 
 tion or the suspicion of it, but that the latter may be confined to 
 cases of actual fraud or evasion, or to those affording strong and 
 justifiable ground for suspecting it, these do not take place con- 
 stantly and of course, but occasionally only, and though particular 
 cases of obstinate repeated evasion may require the repetition of 
 them, they may but seldom recur in the same case, and under pro- 
 per regulations to prevent abuse of official power and authority 
 they may be avoided by almost every honest individual, very few 
 only may be subjected to them, and scarcely any who have not 
 brought them on themselves, The extent of Profits and the state 
 of Trade, &c. of most individuals can be tolerably well estimated 
 by their neighbours, among whom are those whose duty it is to 
 charge them, and if they make fair Returns scarcely any of them 
 need be apprehensive of undergoing a scrutiny. 
 
 In what a variety of ways also do the present diverse modes of 
 Taxation require attention to them, imposing on the community at 
 large different obligations and duties which are constantly to be 
 repeated and borne in mind, some of which are of an intricate na- 
 ture, and from the non-observance of them persons are frequently 
 involved in unpleasant proceedings : and what a contrast to this 
 multifarious and complicated system does the plain and simple 
 obligation of returning the Amount of Income present ; once a year, 
 or once in a period of years, a fair Return of Income is required, 
 and it is all the trouble which the procedure of the Tax may occa- 
 sion — and even this proceeding may not be requisite with respect 
 to the largest portion of Contributors, from whom the Tax may be 
 deducted without the necessity of any Return from them or of any 
 act on their part. 
 
32 
 
 On the Exposure of Private Affairs attributed to an Income Tax. 
 
 Much stress has been laid by the opponents to an Income Tax 
 on the exposure to which they allege that it subjects the affairs of 
 Trade, but it may be observed that persons who do not carry on 
 trade speculatively but prudently, in a way most sure and advan- 
 tageous to themselves as well as to others connected with them 
 and to the general interests do not dread an exposure of the state 
 of them. But few Concerns in Trade are necessarily hazardous. 
 * Merchants engaged in hazardous projects of trade all tremble 
 " at the thoughts of being obliged at all times to expose the real 
 " state of their circumstances, the ruin of their credit and the 
 " miscarriage of their projects they foresee would too often be 
 " the consequences. A sober parsimonious people who are stran- 
 " gersto all such projects do not feel they have occasion for any 
 " such concealment."* It was asserted that some persons re- 
 turned to the late Property Tax more than their actual Profits, 
 in order to conceal the real state of their concerns, but this was 
 probably a mere assertion ; if there were any such instances they 
 were doubtless very rare, and they might be regarded as artifices 
 to deceive, the self-inflicted cost of which might not have been 
 wholly undeserved. It might be doubted whether the feeling 
 against publicity of Income did not in some cases proceed from 
 the apprehension that when Taxation was to be taken from Income, 
 and proportionately to the amount of it, publicity would prevent 
 or disclose that evasion which there was a disposition in those 
 cases to commit; but few of the persons readily paying their full 
 contributions had reason to fear that any vexatious investigation 
 into and exposure of their affairs would take place. Investigation 
 may, during the course of the late Tax, have been applied to 
 some cases found in the result not to have required it, but it may 
 be surmised that if those to whom the execution of that measure 
 was entrusted had defended it against every complaint, that 
 defence would have involved such recriminations as would have 
 shewn that the feeling expressed against those proceedings was 
 generally excited less by any reasonable objection to them than 
 
 * Adam Smith. 
 
V ^$IT Y I 
 
 
 33 
 
 by their defeat of attempted evasion, less by the means used to 
 ascertain the due sum of contribution, than by a disinclination to 
 the payment of it. Injurious consequences of publicity (if any 
 are actually experienced from it) may be confined principally to 
 concerns in an insolvent or unprosperous state, the concealment 
 of which often enables the parties longer to carry them on, termi- 
 nating* perhaps in worse consequences to themselves and all others 
 connected with them, and though, however desirable it might be 
 in such cases that the real state of them should be sooner made 
 known, the operation of a Tax may not be the proper means for it, 
 yet it does not follow that the proceedings have been or would 
 be attended, in such cases, with a publicity which would not other- 
 wise have taken place. At the same time it may be observed, 
 that in case of an Income Tax limited to an inconsiderable amount, 
 any general inconvenience occasioned by investigation into Profits 
 may not be balanced in degree by the benefit arising to the Re- 
 venue from greater productiveness, and to the Community from 
 equalization, (two most desired effects, the more important as they 
 often assist each other), but if the Scale of the Tax were to be con- 
 siderably raised, the benefit to the Revenue of investigation would 
 be enhanced, though any inconvenience arising from it would not 
 be increased to the parties. The nature and extent of checks 
 against evasion may greatly depend on the magnitude of the Tax — 
 what under a low rate of it may be felt as unnecessarily vex- 
 atious, a high rate may render indispensible and reconcile- 
 able. 
 
 It is however due to the late Property Tax under this head to 
 state, that from the mode in which that Tax was raised, where a 
 person's Income arose from more than one source, or in more than 
 one place, and also in many other cases, there was hardly ever 
 a necessity for an inquiry into its aggregate amount; that the Rent 
 and the probable or usual Profit from Land being generally known, 
 any exposure of the amount of Income of that description could 
 very seldom have been owing solely to the operation of the Tax, 
 more particularly as in respect of the Occupier's Profits the actual 
 amount was not inquired into. Income from the Funds or Public 
 Employments was hardly in any cases exposed by means of the 
 Tax. It was observed, after the cessation of the Income Tax and on 
 
34 
 
 the passing of the first Property Act, (1803) that "the principle of the 
 " Income Tax, as the word Income seems to imply, is an impost on 
 " that portion of Property annually acquired which remains at the 
 " discretionary disposal of the ultimate Proprietor. — On this idea 
 " the Income Tax was formed. — It called upon the ultimate Pro- 
 " prietor to account for that portion of his Property from all and 
 " whatever sources it was derived. The present measure must be 
 " considered as a Tax on the first produce, gradually subsiding 
 " itself into a Tax upon the Income of the ultimate Proprietor, 
 " affecting in its immediate object the hand which acquires, but 
 " extending by direct motion to the hand which converts the 
 " Income so acquired — Instead of the Landlord and the numer- 
 " ous Claimants upon him in succession, it looks to the Occupier 
 " of Lands only — Instead of the Creditor, it looks to the Fund 
 " from which the Debt is answered — In the place of a complicated 
 " account collected from the various sources from which the In- 
 " come of an Individual may be derived, it applies to the source 
 " itself to answer for its increase. By these means its object is 
 " attained with more facility and certainty, and with less intricacy 
 " and disclosure, diminishing the occasions of evasion by the 
 " means of execution." The charge of exposure had a reasonable 
 or colourable ground so far only as it might have applied to the 
 investigation of affairs in Trade; but any disclosure of those affairs 
 was made to the few only who had the authority to investigate, it 
 is not apprehended that it amounted to publicity, or that in any 
 case inconvenience was really experienced from the partial dis- 
 closure made for the purposes of the Tax. All Officers and per- 
 sons taking parts in the execution of the late Property Act were 
 bound by oaths of secrecy, and it is not believed that oaths were 
 violated. If the powers of the Officers in compelling disclosures 
 or in other proceedings were not sufficiently restricted by that 
 Act, they could be so in a future Tax and perhaps without any 
 danger to the Revenue ; the late measure was a temporary one, and 
 therefore did not undergo all the improvement it was capable of. 
 It may however be alleged that the imputation cast against an 
 Income Tax as the cause of exposure of private affairs is fully 
 applicable to the proceedings of some part of the present Tax- 
 ation, which sanctions inquisitions and may occasion exposures 
 
35 
 
 to which the parties subjected to them may be strongly averse, 
 though time and habit may in some degree have quieted opinion 
 and feeling with respect to them. The Surveys under the present 
 system of Revenue for the purpose of ascertaining Stock in Trade' 
 subject, it is conceived, the parties to as much publicity of the state 
 of their respective concerns as investigation into their Profits; and 
 taking the Community at large as unconnected with Trade, in- 
 vestigation to ascertain Income cannot be more inquisitorial than 
 the requisitions of details of Property and private circumstances 
 for the purpose of collecting the Legacy Tax. 
 
 On a particular public Advantage of the Exposure of Income 
 for the purpose of taxation. 
 
 Admitting however the plea of exposure of affairs in case of an 
 Income Tax to be entitled to much regard ; should it wholly pre- 
 dominate against every public consideration ? Should the maxim 
 " that private convenience must yield to public good" on which 
 individuals are constantly being subjected to inconveniences in 
 private life, be regarded as of inadequate weight on this occasion 
 only? Besides the necessity of obtaining a knowledge of individual 
 circumstances where it is indispensible for equalizing a Tax laid 
 on the means to contribute, it may be asked, as complaints are con- 
 stantly being made of excess in the payments to Public Creditors 
 and many Public Servants, and propositions are seriously put forth for 
 greatly reducing them, whether it may not be essential to ascertain 
 what the Public itself can afford to pay. If it be expedient, as at this 
 juncture frequently happens, to reward the services of meritorious 
 Public Servants, less by a regard to their real value than to the 
 public means to compensate them; also if, as some think, the 
 public Creditors are receiving more or that they should be satisfied 
 with less than their full due, and if it be just and expedient under 
 such circumstances that there should be a knowledge of the real 
 extent of the Public Means, such knowledge can be satisfactorily 
 obtained only by ascertaining the amount of all Incomes either 
 from the individual possessors, or, in the manner adopted under 
 the late Property Act, as just described, that is, at the sources of 
 Income : and that knowledge might afford facility and certainty 
 in regulating honorably the Public Expenditure as well as in pro- 
 viding fairly the Revenue to meet it. 
 
36 
 
 On the Disadvantages of Concealment in the operation of Taxes. 
 From the greater difficulty of satisfactorily tracing the intricate 
 procedure and ascertaining the effect of Taxes advanced out of 
 Capital and repaid by Expenditure after numerous ramifications 
 and a progressive increase of expence and risk to those who have 
 advanced and in the interval have borne the weight of them, erro- 
 neous impressions and imputations respecting them arise ; a de- 
 cline in Trade and Agriculture, or in any branches of them, arising 
 wholly or principally from other causes than Taxation, is often im- 
 puted to it solely or in a greater degree than is justly attributable 
 to it; though the injuries or inconveniences arising from Taxation 
 on Commodities to the various concerns and dealings in life may 
 really be great, they are from the complexity of its machinery, 
 from its intermixture with the operations by which Income is pro- 
 duced, often misconceived and exaggerated, and these evils of con- 
 fusion and prejudice are increased from the greater dependance 
 of indirect Taxation on other parts of the general process of af- 
 fairs in Commerce, Trade, &c. ; As then the effects of indirect 
 Taxation, connected as it is with the progress of Production 
 and with the prices of all articles produced, and affected as 
 these are by other causes, become involved in so much com- 
 plication and uncertainty as must render more difficult the due 
 legislation and government not only of Taxation but of what- 
 ever is thus connected therewith, it may be confidently submit- 
 ted whether the simple, plain and direct plan of a Tax on Income, 
 free or more free as the operations and procedure of it are from 
 any complex intermixture with other transactions, would not place 
 Taxation on a more comprehensible basis, and greatly facilitate 
 the management of it. As in the opinion of some, any defects or 
 errors in legislative regulations relating to the Currency, to Agri- 
 culture and to Commerce in general occasion greater evils than 
 any which Taxation can inflict, there appears a stronger urgency 
 for such a plan of Taxation as will more clearly disclose the extent 
 of its own operation and effects and release Taxation from unjust 
 exaggeration in those unqualified imputations cast by many 
 against it of evils which do not altogether proceed from it.* 
 
 * The wide differences of opinions on the effects of Taxation may appear ex- 
 traordinary ; for instance, it has been held by some, that whatever Taxes are im- 
 posed on Wages must in the end fall almost wholly on Rent and Profits j by others, 
 
37 
 
 That the present Taxes are so much involved in the Prices of 
 Commodities is, on the whole, a disadvantage which it seems de- 
 sirable that Taxation should be clear from. As Prices depend in 
 a great degree on the extent of the circulating medium, and as other 
 measures than Taxation affecting the circulating medium will also 
 affect prices, so there appears the greater reason to withdraw Tax- 
 ation from among other causes operating on them, and to leave them 
 to be governed by those effects and circumstances only on which 
 they should more naturally depend; and as there is extreme dif- 
 ficulty of legislating so as to satisfy all classes, of benefiting some 
 without injuring other interests, it seems that one of the advan- 
 tages of withdrawing Taxation from connection with Prices, and 
 of restoring them to their natural course, would be the clearer 
 view gained of the operation on Prices of those other causes 
 which affect them and which it is most important clearly to de- 
 velope.f 
 
 As the value of whatever right to or share of the aggregate 
 Production of every kind each individual possesses or acquires 
 may be most accurately distinguished if resolved into what is ge- 
 nerally known under the term Income — as this share of the general 
 fund or means of subsistence, comfort, and enjoyment, is more 
 perfectly measured and represented by Income than by any other 
 standard, so Income is the only infallible criterion of the relative 
 individual ability to bear taxation. As a principle, it seems right 
 
 that every Tax, however it may shift itself, falls ultimately on Wagos hy diminishing 
 the demand for labour; some are of opinion that a Tax either on the Profits or on the 
 Produce of Land falls ultimately on Rent, that it shifts itself from the Occupiers or 
 Consumers to the Landlord ; others that a Tax on Rent falls wholly on Profits, or 
 the Produce, shifting itself from the Landlord to the Occupiers and Consumers. Many 
 other such differences of opinion may be adduced : — The following quotations are 
 from two most eminent Writers on Taxation. 
 
 «« Taxes upon the Produce of Land are in reality Taxes on the Rent, and though 
 «' they be originally advanced by the Farmer are finally paid by the Landlord." — 
 (A. Smith). 
 
 « A Tax on Raw Produce would not be paid by the Landlord, it would not be paid 
 " hy the Farmer, but it would be paid for in an increased price by the Consumer." — 
 (Ricardo). 
 
 \ Four causes, besides Taxation, of an increase of the price of Articles, may it seems 
 he adduced, viz. — 1st. A deficient supply. — 2nd. An increased demand. — 3rd. In- 
 creased cost of production. — 4th. A fall in the value of money. — The degree to which 
 Taxation on Commodities and any other cause operating together with it, may re- 
 spectively raise the prices of them cannot then possibly be distinguished. 
 
38 
 
 to Tax certain Income rather than the uncertain sources of it j 
 after having been acquired than while in the course of acquisition ; 
 that the end rather than the means should be the guide ; Taxation 
 on Income is simple, it forms but a single object ; Taxation on 
 Income according to its individual amount is justice, clear, intelli- 
 gible and undeniable, but the Articles on which Taxation through 
 Expenditure is imposed, are most numerous and of various kinds, 
 they cannot as before observed constitute a relative standard of 
 taxation uniformly just ; if even the rates of the different Taxes 
 imposed on articles of consumption and use could be so adjusted 
 as to be most impartial in their operations on the respective funds 
 or sources whence the articles are supplied, and also in their effects 
 on the community in general among whom the articles are distri- 
 buted, the impartiality of such adjustment would from the intri- 
 cacy of the process be less demonstrable or indisputable than the 
 fairness of equitable Taxation on Income ; while there is subject 
 of doubt and dispute, complaints of the evils of Taxation whether 
 real or imaginary, will be more sure to arise, they will be less sa- 
 tisfactorily answered and the cause be less easily remedied : the 
 prevention of such a consequence as this, if it were no more 
 than the avoidance of an evil merely imaginary, is a most de- 
 sirable object. 
 
 It is not wished to be understood from these observations that 
 the effects of a Tax on Income will be perfectly distinguishable 
 from those of other causes operating on Income, and that the ef- 
 fects of the latter might never be wrongfully imputed to the Tax-r- 
 the direct effect of an Income Tax, that is, the sum which it takes 
 from each Contributor to be paid over to the State is " clear 
 " and plain to him" and may be made so " to every other per- 
 " son :" every individual may not only know what himself pays, 
 but there is the possibility (which perhaps in strict justice there 
 should be, whatever other motives may adduce to the contrary) 
 of his satisfying himself as to what any other Contributor pays,* 
 the extent of the direct effect on every individual and every class 
 being known, the indirect effects can be judged of with less doubt 
 
 * Adam Smith, lays it down as one of the Rules of Taxation that " the quantity 
 " to be paid ought to be clear and plain to the Contributor and to every oilier 
 " Person^ 
 
39 
 
 and probability of error than under Taxation on Expenditure, 
 where there is hardly any clue for tracing the extent of them. 
 
 The effects of an Income Tax may be indirect, where it may 
 operate as abstraction of Capital in cases of Persons who, though 
 paying to it directly no more than their due shares, would have 
 applied the same or part as productive Capital if the amount had 
 not been taken as a Tax ; then, as other causes than the Tax may 
 be operating at the same time against Capital and Profit the effect 
 of those causes may sometimes erroneously or in an undue degree 
 be imputed to the Tax. 
 
 Though under a Tax on Income, a Tenant pays the Tax for his 
 Landlord and deducts it from him, yet the Income of the Landlord 
 has accrued in the hands of the Tenant before the Tax is paid. 
 The Tenant pays that Tax as a private Agent and in proportion to 
 the amount — he does not advance it as a Producer advances the 
 present Taxes with the uncertainty of being duly reimbursed or 
 compensated for it ; the mode of payment to the Income Tax by 
 one person through the hands of another is not a concealed ope- 
 ration, and it does not recognize any loss or gain therefrom to 
 either party. 
 
 On the Advantages of Concealment in the operation of Taxes. 
 
 It must be candidly admitted that indirect Taxes, being con- 
 cealed in the prices of Articles in respect of which they are col- 
 lected direct from Merchants, Manufactures, &c. who advance 
 them, are obtained from the numerous ultimate payers of them 
 without that degree of feeling and difficulty which sometimes attends 
 the direct collection of a Tax from each Contributor personally. 
 It may however be observed, that if the amount of the indirect 
 Tax and the consequent increased price of the article beyond the 
 Tax could be distinguished from the former price, and a separate 
 demand and payment were made of them on each purchase, the 
 feeling against Taxes thus affecting the supply of constant wants 
 would be under more general and constant excitement than 
 against a Tax which is levied from the Payer, not in proportion to 
 his wants, but in proportion to his means. The payment of an in- 
 direct Tax is an unavoidable consequence of every disbursement, 
 it is an inseparable and an almost imperceptible part of ii ; the 
 direct Tax requires a pecuniary reservation to be made for the 
 
40 
 
 periodical demand of it, though to an amount much less in general 
 than an equal sum of indirect Taxes would during the intervals of 
 such demands have exacted through expenditure ; but under an 
 equitable Income Tax, imposed according to the ability to pay, 
 that reservation should be easily made, particularly as from the 
 abolition of other Taxes the intermediate greater deprivation of 
 pecuniary means would cease, and if the payment of such a Tax 
 were attended with inconvenience, want of prudence would in 
 general be the occasion of it. 
 
 The prejudice against the collection of a direct Tax would not 
 however occasion any difficulty in that part of the Income Tax 
 which would be obtained by deduction, avoiding the personal 
 payment of the Tax to the Collector and the necessity of any re- 
 servation on the part of the individuals from whom the deduction 
 would be made. 
 
 But though the disguised and quiet way in which Taxation 
 through Expenditure can be obtained from the community at 
 large may be generally considered to be the great advantage of 
 it, is it unquestionably the sounder policy that Taxation should 
 be kept out of sight, that there should be no open and direct con- 
 tact between the Tax Payer and the Tax itself, that a person 
 should overpay to Taxation rather than that he should know and 
 see what he pays, or rather than that any one should be called 
 upon personally to settle and distinctly to pay the fair amount 
 due from him; is such a policy founded on any just and well 
 founded apprehension of the disposition or feeling with respect 
 to Taxation of the generality of Tax Payers? If this however be the 
 politic ground for raising Taxation indirectly, may it not be the 
 infliction of a greater evil for the prevention of a less? Can the 
 open proceedings of direct Taxation be more dangerous or mis- 
 chievous than the secret and undermining operation of indirect 
 Taxation? Is not the apprehension of meeting Taxation in the 
 face the cause of its being imagined to be more formidable than it 
 really is?* Is the evil really greater and more to be dreaded 
 
 * How common it is to find lamentations on the partial distresses and depressions 
 which this Country is frequently subject to, terminate in the assertion that there is 
 no remedy or relief for it while " it groans under such a load of Debt and Taxation," at 
 the same time, the Debt and Taxation may occasion but in an inconsiderahle degree 
 the lamented state of circumstances. 
 
41 
 
 because its course is visible, or is the mischief less pernicious be- 
 cause its progress and effects cannot be accurately discerned ? Is 
 not the concealment of the procedure and actual effects of indi- 
 rect Taxation the real cause of more dissatisfaction and complaint 
 than the operation of it, if fully disclosing" its consequences would 
 create among a community well disposed in general to whatever 
 is obviously just and necessary? Does not the concealed operation 
 of indirect Taxation also give a great advantage to the opposition 
 of those who, some from selfish and some from political motives, 
 are hostile either to the payment of Taxation itself, or to the pur- 
 poses of it, or to Government or the Authorities under which it is 
 conducted, and while there is some ground for the statements made 
 by them of the evils of Taxation, does it not preclude the full ex- 
 posure of their exaggerations of those evils? Would not a fair and 
 equitable Tax on Income, taken openly and directly from every 
 one according to his means, remove in a great degree the fallacies 
 and prevent the confusion and prejudices existing under the pre- 
 sent various systems of Taxation, and establish the different classes 
 of society on a fair footing and perfect understanding with each 
 other? Admitting, however, for the sake of pursuing the Contrast, 
 that Taxation on Expenditure possesses, from the indirect mode of 
 obtaining it, an advantage over a direct Tax on Income, so far as 
 regards the ultimate payers of it, it may be observed that the com- 
 parative extent of this advantage may be less than is generally 
 conceived. A great part of the Income Tax has the advantage of 
 that quiet and easy collection which recommends indirect Tax- 
 ation : about three-fifths of the Income Tax is attainable without 
 direct collection, but by way of deduction from the parties from 
 whom it is due, without the requisition of any personal act on their 
 part and as easily as any of the present Taxes are obtained indi- 
 rectly from the ultimate payers of them; the Tax on Incomes 
 derived from the Revenue is attainable with a facility and security, 
 also with a freedom from obnoxious proceeding which no part of 
 the present mode of Taxation is capable of. The Tax on the In- 
 comes of the Occupiers of Land and of Traders, &c. (amounting 
 together to nearly two-fifths of the whole of the Tax) must be 
 obtained direct from the parties from whom it is due; but the 
 mode of proceeding to assess and collect it from the former could 
 
42 
 
 hardly be felt as obnoxious (and it was not complained of as having 
 been so under the late Act,) nor might the proceedings with re- 
 spect to Trades and Professions (the Tax upon which would be 
 about one-fifth of the whole) if restricted in some manner accord- 
 ing to the modifications offered in the Second Part of this Work, 
 be of an obnoxious or vexatious nature ; if attempts at gross, de- 
 termined and constant frauds should render any such proceedings 
 absolutely necessary (and the resort to them might be limited to 
 such palpable cases) they could not reasonably be objected to, 
 particularly when it is considered they would be to protect the 
 honest contributors from the acts of such obstinate, wilful evaders 
 as deserved no lenity. 
 
 Probable Effects on Funded Property and on Trading and other 
 Capital if an Income Tax he substituted for the present Taxes. 
 
 Taking the Agricultural and Trading Classes as Capitalists or 
 Producers, the Contrast between the two systems of Taxation 
 may be tried by the maxim in Taxation that " Taxation falling on 
 a Capital is more injurious than Taxation so imposed that Income 
 (c can satisfy it." If it be imposed, though not expressly and 
 " directly on Capital, yet to such a degree in any other way that 
 Income cannot supply it, it is virtually a Tax on Capital, as in that 
 case Capital must be sacrificed for it. It is conceived there is no 
 maxim more decidedly favorable to a Tax on Income; such a Tax 
 indisputably risks the sacrifice of less Capital than Taxes raised in 
 any other manner. An Income Tax, by its exaction from the In- 
 comes only of the payers of it, kept down as it is to their respective 
 amounts, must occasion a less abstraction from or restriction on 
 Capital than Taxes which first, being advanced directly out of 
 Capital, and next, diminishing in a greater degree by their action 
 on expenditure, the amount of Capital saved, are, in two ways, 
 a greater diversion of it from its natural channel, and by 
 the increase of Prices which they occasion place English Capital 
 in a more disadvantageous competition with Foreign Capital. An 
 Income Tax operates in one way only, both in respect of Capi- 
 tal and of Skill and Industry (the Capital of those possessing them) ; 
 where they are most productive and profitable there only or 
 mostly the weight of the Income Tax falls ; where they less sue- 
 
43 
 
 ceed or become unprofitable the pressure relaxes or is wholly 
 withdrawn. 
 
 Taking the Agricultural and Trade Classes as Consumers as well 
 as Producers, it might seem immaterial to them whether the pro- 
 portion of the total amount of Taxation paid by them be takeir 
 directly from their Incomes, or whether indirectly through their 
 Expenditure. If Expenditure was as fair a basis as Income of 
 deciding* every man's payment to Taxation, if the just [amount of 
 each individual's contribution could be ascertained and determined 
 by the quantity or value of the taxable Commodities and Articles 
 used by him, and that amount coultlbe taken from his pocket dis- 
 tinctly from the Prices of the commodities, in the same open manner 
 as a Tax on Income ; if those Taxes required no advance of Capi- 
 tal, or requiring it, if they occasioned no injurious increase of 
 Prices, no inconveniences in the operations of Trade, if the Profits 
 of Capital so advanced were precisely the same to every one as the 
 natural employment of it would yield, and if the whole Procedure 
 would always terminate between the Producers and the Consumers 
 on as fair and equal an adjustment as .would have ensued had there 
 been no intervention of such Taxation ; if, in short, the effects fell 
 both on the Capitalists or Producers and on the Consumers pro- 
 portionably to their respective Incomes and in no way obstructed 
 re-production of Income, then it might be immaterial to the Agri- 
 cultural 'and Trade Classes whether Taxation were laid, in the 
 gross, and directly on their Capital as Producers, to be afterwards 
 apportioned indirectly among their own and the other classes as 
 Consumers according to individual Expenditure, or whether it were 
 imposed directly on all Profit and Income according to every indi- 
 vidual share of it; but reason and experience prove that Taxation 
 on Capital, will not operate in this desirable manner, that the 
 theory of it is wrong, and that its error in theory cannot be recti- 
 fied in practice. 
 
 About two-thirds of the present Taxes are advanced by the 
 Trade Class only as Producers, paying again as Consumers, out of 
 private Expenditure, an amount which may be estimated to be 
 larger than they would contribute to an Income Tax in respect of 
 their Profits. The^ Taxes annually advanced to the Revenue may 
 be taken at nearly £40 millions ; to what extent this sum may be 
 
44 
 
 progressively increased in the several stages through which the 
 taxed articles pass before the sale of them produces the reimburse- 
 ment to all those who have made or contributed to the advance, it 
 may not be possible to estimate numerically ; but it is conceived 
 that the amount of the direct advance to the Revenue does not form 
 near the aggregate amount of the Capital which is diverted out of 
 its natural course by the process of indirect Taxation. It appears 
 then that of the Agricultural and Trade Classes, the Trade Class 
 stands more immediately affected by Taxation on Expenditure; 
 nearly the whole of such Taxation is advanced by that Class, and 
 as nearly the whole Expenditure of all Classes passes through its 
 hands, it is consequently the channel through which Taxation is 
 spread over the whole community : as it thus happens that the 
 obnoxious procedure of Taxation on Commodities, falls more di- 
 rectly on the individuals of that particular Class which would be 
 subject to that part of the procedure of an Income Tax which is re- 
 garded as the most objectionable, it may be justly held out to them 
 that an Income Tax would relieve them from proceedings as or more 
 obnoxious on the whole than those which would be substituted, 
 also that the latter would operate, not like the former constantly^ 
 but provisionally only, and, as before observed, but very few per- 
 sons, if any, would, in the proper execution of the measure under 
 due restrictions, be undeservedly exposed to any vexation. 
 
 Some think that Traders in general do not gain in return for 
 their advances of Capital for the Taxes any increase of Profit out 
 of the excess of increase of prices charged beyond the Taxes them- 
 selves, but that the disadvantages and risks of Trade are from those 
 advances multiplied and augmented so greatly that interest for the 
 Sums advanced or even bare repayment of them is the utmost 
 which they in general can obtain, while they are subjected to a 
 falling offin their dealings from the diminution of consumption oc- 
 casioned by increased dearness. Whatever the effects may be upon 
 Traders in general, it may be observed that many are seriously in- 
 convenienced by the levy on their Capital of the Duties in advance, 
 and sometimes when Concerns are in an unprosperous and declin- 
 ing state the levy of the Taxes may complete the ruin of them — it 
 seems then that the proceedings of the present Taxes (and the direct 
 as well as the indirect) fall occasionally with extreme severity, not 
 
45 
 
 only the remnant of an individual's capital or effects may be seized 
 for the satisfaction of his debt to the Revenue but his person may 
 be subjected to imprisonment, and his prospect of retrieving- himself 
 be destroyed : such consequences can scarcely ever arise from the 
 operation of an Income Tax, the payment of it will not be requirecT 
 at times and under circumstances when there are not the means of 
 payment, unless in any cases of persons from whom the Tax is not 
 secured by way of deduction, but personally collected, and who 
 have imprudently, and it may perhaps be added dishonestly, dis- 
 posed otherwise of those portions of their Net Income which they 
 could and ought to have reserved for discharging the Tax when 
 demanded.* 
 
 In contrasting the two systems of Taxation as they respectively 
 affect Capital, it may be right to notice the probability of any evil 
 effect of an Income Tax or the probable degree of it with respect to 
 the Capital of the Fundholders. It seems to be generally appre- 
 hended that a very extensive transfer of Property from the British to 
 Foreign Funds would be the consequence of an Income Tax ; on 
 this apprehension it may be observed, that the total Income derived 
 directly from the British Funds would obviously not be lessened by 
 such Transfer, both the Interest and principal Stock would remain 
 of the same numerical amount, however much of the latter might be 
 sold for the sake of transferring the Money Produce; but as the rate 
 of Interest in the Foreign Funds exceeds the rate of Interest in the 
 British Funds, the Interest remitted from abroad to English Pro- 
 prietors would create additional Income mostly expended in this 
 Country. If the transfer of Capital should, in the event of an 
 Income Tax, be to such amount as to lower materially the price of 
 the Funds of this Country and raise the Interest of Money there- 
 after vested in them, opposite effects would be produced in the 
 Funds of the Countries to which the Property might be transferred, 
 and from the small aggregate amount of Public Debts in those 
 Countries, compared with the amount of the British National Debt, 
 
 * The late Tax, as regarded the Profits of Trade, was charged on the amount of 
 the preceding year or average of the three preceding years, but if a party proved at 
 the end of the year that his actual Profit within it had fallen short of the sum esti- 
 mated, he was entitled to abatement. 
 
46 
 
 such effects on the Foreign Funds would, it is presumed, be in a 
 greater ratio ; thus the evil would be quickly followed by a remedy 
 sufficient to prevent its reaching or its continuing to any serious 
 extent. When it is considered that the advantage to be gained by 
 the transfer would soon be lessened, that a preference would for 
 other reasons be felt by most English Proprietors for the Funds of 
 this Country ; that an exemption from the Tax might, if considered 
 on the whole most politic, be granted to Foreigners, encouraging 
 them to continue their investments, and that the British Fund- 
 holder would ultimately be benefited by an increase in the value 
 of his Property, if by improved Taxation the National Debt were 
 put into a course of more certain liquidation, as it may be by 
 means of an Income Tax,* a Tax on the Income of the Funds, not 
 imposed exclusively on it, but as equitably as possible in common 
 with all other Income, is not to be apprehended as a cause of per- 
 manent deterioration or of the removal of much of that species of 
 Property. 
 
 On the advantage of Certainty in Taxation and on the effects in 
 Taxation of the Shifting of Expenditure. 
 
 It has been observed, that " a Tax will entirely put an end to 
 " the production of a Commodity if no one of the Society is dis- 
 " posed to value it at a price equal to the new conditions of its 
 " supply, and on the other hand, commodities will be continually 
 " increased in quantity so long as the numbers of those who are 
 " able and willing to give a value for them equal to this price 
 4C continue to increase."f The consumption of an article, how- 
 ever necessary or convenient and however lightly taxed, must be 
 diminished by a Tax on it — there must be some persons who can 
 no longer afford to purchase it or to purchase so large a quantity 
 of it after the increase of price : if there be an increase of con- 
 sumption notwithstanding the Tax, it must arise from increase of 
 population and of wealth, or from greater cheapness which other 
 causes in spite of the Tax have occasioned. A new or increased 
 Tax on any article doubtless drives some expenditure to other ar- 
 
 * Vide Third Part. t Malthus. 
 
47 
 
 tides not taxed or taxed at less rates ; on the other hand, if a Tax 
 on an article of consumption and use be taken off or abated, addi- 
 tional Expenditure is attracted to it from other more heavily taxed 
 objects ; in either case, Expenditure deserts those objects which 
 most require its aid against the effects of Taxation, and transfers 
 itself where for that purpose it is less wanted. But there would 
 be less necessity or inducement under a Tax on Income to transfer 
 Expenditure from one object to another, the expenditure on any 
 particular articles would not be affected partially by it ; any rise 
 or fall in its rates which the increased or diminished exigencies of 
 the State might require would be regulated so as to affect all 
 Incomes equally or proportionably ; Expenditure would be left 
 more to its natural course and less under the control of Taxation. 
 The shifting of Expenditure under Taxation on Expenditure ren- 
 ders necessary constant changes in Taxation which are not only 
 harassing but produce uncertainty, and render more precarious and 
 fluctuating the state of the various branches of Trade. A shifting 
 of Expenditure, if it did take place under a Tax on Income, (whe- 
 ther in consequence of the Tax or of other causes) would not ren- 
 der any changes in the Tax necessary, for the transfer of Expendi- 
 ture would increase the Profits of those sources into which it went; 
 what the Tax might lose in one source it would gain in another. 
 These considerations shew that ( Certainty which, according to one 
 of the maxims of Taxation, gives to a Tax on Income a great re- 
 commendation both as concerns Individuals and the Public Re- 
 venue ; no one can know for any length of time how and in what 
 degree Taxation on Expenditure may operate on him, but every 
 one may be sure in what manner and degree he will be affected by 
 a Tax on Income ; when a man knows his own Income he knows 
 for a certainty what amount of Tax he has to pay ; if his Tax fluc- 
 tuates it is because his Income does so, but there is nevertheless 
 that kind of certainty which the maxim contemplates. The Re- 
 venue may also be more sure of its total required amount— if one 
 branch of Income fell short in its contribution from the shifting of 
 Expenditure another would make it good. 
 
48 
 
 On the most convenient time of paying Taxes, 
 
 As it is a maxim of taxation that every Tax should be levied at 
 the time when it is most convenient to the Party to pay it, the ad- 
 vantage of an Income Tax in this respect may also be considered. — ■ 
 Wherever the Tax would be obtained by deduction, (and about 
 three-fifths of the whole Tax would be secured in that manner) it must 
 be admitted, as the Tax is paid at the time that Income is received, 
 the maxim is perfectly complied with — with respect to the rest of 
 the Tax, as it would be collected from the Payers by Instalments, 
 such periods of the year for the payment of them might be fixed as 
 would best suit the situations or concerns of thePayers in general; 
 or they might be left to pay the Tax at such time or times and even in 
 such proportions as might be most convenient to them, so that the 
 whole were paid within the year or within a certain time after the 
 expiration of it. 
 
 It may not always be most convenient to the payers of Taxes to 
 take them at the moment of expenditure, adding as they do to the 
 cost of the Articles and the difficulty of obtaining them, unless in 
 respect of Luxuries, the expences of which are voluntarily incurred, 
 and principally by the rich ; the exaction of the Taxes when ne- 
 cessities and wants are to be supplied, and in proportion to those 
 wants, may thus be often made at the most inconvenient time to 
 the largest portion of the community, that is, to those in poor or 
 indifferent circumstances, though it must be observed as regards 
 those Classes, it is not so much the time of payment as the larger 
 exaction of the present Taxes and the making them in any way the me- 
 dium of taxation which constitutes their grievance. As a general rule 
 it would appear that to take a Tax at the time when the Income 
 is being received, which the Income Tax admits of generally, must 
 be more convenient than if taken when Income is being expended. 
 Even if Expenditure did afford the most convenient time and 
 mode of paying the Taxes, the convenience regards only the 
 ultimate payers, the Consumers ; as regards the first payers, the 
 Producers, it must be not only less beneficial to them generally 
 to advance Capital for the Taxes than to apply it at once in 
 the improvement or extension of their own concerns, but it may 
 be asked whether the advances are not required at inconvenient 
 
49 
 
 times, that is, before the Producers have obtained any proceeds 
 from the goods in respect of which the advances are made, and al- 
 though the proceeds of sales of Goods which had been previously 
 taxed may, if the goods have been timely and profitably disposed 
 of, enable the owners to provide the next advances, whether never- 
 theless the most convenient time w T ould not be, in general, after the 
 gross proceeds on the respective Stocks had been realized and the 
 real value of them had been ascertained. 
 
 The various and serious Evils of Contraband Trade prevented by 
 the substitution of an Income Tax, 
 
 Under the head of the ill effects of the procedure of Taxation ob- 
 tained through Expenditure may be comprized the injury to the 
 general interests of the Country, which arises from the misappli- 
 cation of the Capital and Labor of a numerous class of persons who 
 trade illegally, from the open professed Smuggler to the clandestine 
 Dealer, co-operating with and encouraged knowingly or inconsi- 
 derately to a great extent by a large portion of the community in 
 pursuit of dishonest gain or saving, attainable by evasion of Tax- 
 ation on Commodities, — a secret and demoralizing combination 
 which would at once be dissolved by the substitution of a Tax on 
 Income, a Tax which whatever may be the evasion practicable un- 
 der it admits of it in no way attended with such serious conse 
 quences as those now adverted to, aggravated as they are by the 
 nature of the protection which is rendered necessary for the pre- 
 servation of fair Trade, as well as of the Revenue, that is, the 
 maintenance of very large and expensive Civil Establishments sup- 
 ported by armed Forces, forming marked and unpopular classes 
 the execution of whose duties too often excites, justly or not, the ill 
 feelings towards them of the rest of Society and sometimes provokes 
 the commission of the worst of crimes. To these serious consequen- 
 ces of Taxation when laid on articles of consumption is to be added 
 the encouragement it gives to the adulteration of them, which not 
 only imposes on the pockets of the Purchasers, but may injuriously 
 affect their healths. It may also be observed that it is poverty and 
 distress, unfortunate pursuits and habits of life which drive or 
 
50 
 
 tempt many to commit frauds, and the other offences alluded to % 
 under the present system of Revenue, while the desire of gain or 
 saving induces many of better condition to join with or encourage 
 them directly or indirectly ; but a well regulated Income Tax 
 would subject none or but very few in unfortunate circumstances 
 to the necessity or inducement to commit fraud, it holds out no ex- 
 tenuating" plea to excuse the necessitous or satisfy the scrupulous 
 in the commission of it; it may be said too that the temptation it 
 holds out is to fraud only, it offers no excitement to other offences : 
 and if fraud be committed, the criminality of the act rests solely 
 with the real offender. 
 
 The procedure for preventing evasion of Taxation on Expenditure 
 is not only of a more obnoxious and serious nature, but from the ex- 
 tensive ramifications and concealed operations of its evasive system, 
 it is less effectual than the means practicable for preventing evasion 
 of an Income Tax, and considered in the nature of a punishment it 
 also operates more hardly and less justly than the procedure of 
 that Tax. As the evasion of Taxes on Expenditure is, on the part 
 of the great body of evaders, like the process of the Taxes them- 
 selves, indirect and unseen, so evasion may be committed by nu- 
 merous persons without intention or a consciousness of it, and 
 detection is difficult if not impossible ; the dearness, created or in- 
 creased by such taxation, often compels or induces many in search 
 of cheapness unwarily to deal with illegal traders, or if aware of 
 illegal dealing, the improbability of discovery and the too general 
 custom which countenances the practice, encourage and reconcile 
 them to it ; where the wilfulness of evasion does exist, detection is 
 uncertain, and the punishment does not in general fall adequately, 
 if at all, on the most guilty. On the principle that "the receiver 
 " of stolen goods is worse than the thief" the dealer in contraband 
 goods, knowing them to be contraband, may often be more guilty 
 than the professed Smuggler — " a person, who though no doubt 
 " highly blameable for violating the laws of his country, is fre- 
 " quently incapable of violating those of natural justice, and 
 " would have been in every respect an excellent citizen had not 
 " the laws of his country made that a crime which Nature never 
 " meant to be so ;"* illicit trade can be but partially prevented 
 
 * Adam Smith. 
 
51 
 
 while the numerous abettors of it amongthe community at large,the 
 concealed participators in its undue advantages, cannot be reached; 
 these are the real and worst offenders ; the direct Smuggler, whe- 
 ther he ventures capital or personal service, is but as their agent or 
 servant, though against him the preventive means are wholly or 
 mostly directed, and if his attempts be unsuccessful he alone bears 
 the loss and punishment; <3ven the disgrace or discredit seems to 
 attach to the open Smuggler only while the numerous principals, 
 the private dealers in and purchasers of smuggled commodities, 
 who participate in the unlawful gains of successful transactions 
 suffer no punishment, and even if known may incur but little or 
 no discredit. " Not many people are scrupulous about smuggling 
 " when without perjury they can find any easy and safe oppor- 
 " tunity of doing so. To pretend to have any scruples about 
 " buying smuggled goods would in most countries be regarded 
 " as one of those pieces of hypocrisy which instead of gaining 
 " credit with any body serve only to expose the person who 
 " affects to practice them to the suspicion of being a greater 
 " knave than most of his neighbours. By this indulgence of the 
 " public the Smuggler is often encouraged to continue a trade 
 " which he is thus taught to consider as in some measure innocent, 
 " and when the severity of the Revenue Laws is ready to fall upon 
 " him he is frequently disposed to defend with violeuce what he 
 " has been accustomed to regard as his just property;"* but the 
 Tax on Income which is obtained at the very source of Income 
 or from the Contributors themselves, can, in the first place, 
 hardly be evaded without intention and consciousness of the 
 offence, and without the certainty or a great risk of detection, 
 there can be but very seldom any just plea of ignorance, inad- 
 vertence or irresponsibility; and in the next place, when detection 
 takes place it brings forth the real offender, he alone suffers, and 
 he does not induce or involve others in a participation of his 
 offence. 
 
 By abolishing Taxation on Commodities and reducing high 
 Prices that part of our Commerce with Foreign Countries which is 
 fairly and legally carried on would be placed on a more advan- 
 
 * Adam- Smith. 
 
52 
 
 tageous footing — Foreigners would no longer concert with Smug- 
 glers and contraband Dealers in this Country in a traffic so disad- 
 vantageous to all the fair Traders of it and be instrumental in 
 rendering the Taxation of it unproductive and unequal. Taxation 
 may be immaterial so far as concerns Foreign Commerce in our 
 own Markets or our competition in commerce in Foreign Markets; 
 provided it be confined, as an Income Tax may be, to ourselves, 
 that its operation and effects be extended to no objects in which 
 Foreigners would deal with us, and that it in no way or as little as 
 possible discourage their commercial intercourse with us : and this 
 consideration leads to another, which though of less importance 
 may be worthy of mention, that is, the encouragement there would 
 be to Foreigners in person to visit this Country, whether for com- 
 mercial or other pursuits, if their Expenditure were free from the 
 burthen of its Taxation. It may be apprehended that a great 
 number of Foreigners whose Incomes are more on a level with the 
 cheapness of living of their own countries, and who are therefore 
 the less able to bear the dearness which Taxation levied through 
 Expenditure creates in this Kingdom, are deterred from any per- 
 sonal intercourse with it. It seems more politic to encourage a 
 greater number of Foreigners to bring their Expenditure to this 
 Country and those who come to expend more, than to obtain the 
 trifling advantage of a small sum of taxation which may be now 
 obtained from the Expenditure of a far less portion of them.* 
 
 Proceedings of a penal nature far less oppressive under an 
 
 Income Tax. 
 
 Proceedings of a penal nature under the present plan of Revenue 
 should be noticed, such as prosecutions for penalties, forfeitures of 
 property, &c. ; these it is conceived are more numerous and vex- 
 atious than any of a similar nature which may be necessary to 
 punish frauds of an Income Tax. 
 
 Under the operation of the late Property Tax proceedings very 
 
 * Under the late Property Act, it was considered politic to exempt not only the 
 Interest of the Public Debt belonging to Foreigners, but also the Interest of Private 
 Debts payable to them out of the Profits of Trade carried on in this Country. 
 
53 
 
 seldom extended further than the imposition of the full sum of Tax 
 which a person had attempted to evade — in a few gross cases only 
 some additional duty or penalty was inflicted as a punishment — but 
 in case of detected evasion of Taxation on Expenditure the whole of 
 the property or goods attempted to be smuggled is seized, as a 
 forfeit, the offender may be also subjected to imprisonment or 
 other penal consequences, and perhaps be utterly ruined, the pay- 
 ment of the full legal Duty will not expiate the offence ; the open 
 Smuggler or Dealer alone may often be thus punished although 
 not the only or the most culpable offender. " The penalties of 
 " smuggling must rise in proportion to the temptation ; — the law, 
 " contrary to all the ordinary principles of justice, first creates the 
 " temptation and then punishes those who yield to it, and it com- 
 " monly enhances the punishment too in proportion to the very cir- 
 " cumstance which ought certainly to alleviate it, the temptation 
 " to commit the crime/' * Such a visitation may be absolutely 
 necessary for the security of the particular system of Revenue to 
 which it is attached, but in comparison with the penal consequence 
 of evasion of a Tax on Income it may be regarded as a procedure 
 of extreme and partial severity, f 
 
 * Adam Smith, 
 f Surcharges to the late Property Tax, though by some complained of, were hardly 
 ever carried to the extent of a punishment for attempted evasion; the intention and re. 
 suit of them in general were no more than the attainment of the Tax due, that is, the 
 Single Duty only : Overplus and Double Duty or Penalties were very seldom in- 
 flicted; it appears from the Accounts, that the average Annual Amount under this 
 head for 10 years did not much exceed £20,000, on an average Annual Produce of 
 Duty of £13 millions nearly, and this penal infliction was the act, not of Government, 
 but of the Commissioners acting as judges between the State and the Subject, and 
 doubtless in cases only which fully deserved the penalty. It may be observed with 
 regard to Officers of the Revenue under any system of it, but more especially those 
 employed in direct Taxation as the Property or Income Tax, that the opprobrium to 
 which they are often subjected, is not only in general unjust, but it is prejudical to 
 the useful and honorable object of their office as tendiug to deter them from the firm 
 and impartial discharge of it, it is their duty to co-operate in securing payment justly 
 due to Public Creditors and Public Servants for Capital lent and Services performed 
 for the benefit of the Public at large, more particularly to prevent the dishonest from 
 casting their share of the charge on the honest part of Society, and to establish 
 equalization where the Taxes have been rendered unequal, either by the evasions 
 of the Parties or by any laxity of others in the execution of the Acts; their pro- 
 ceedings are not more oppressive than those of Professional Men who enforce the 
 
54 
 
 Procedure of\an Income Tax independent of Government 
 
 As Taxation is indispensable, principally for the purpose of 
 enabling- one part of the community to pay its debt to the other 
 part, the Income Tax has the recommendation that it may be 
 raised in a manner by which the execution may be entrusted 
 wholly to the community itself. The present indirect Taxes are 
 levied under the immediate jurisdiction of and by the hands of 
 persons appointed by Government, but with respect to the Income 
 Tax, the judicial authority, and if the interference of the Govern- 
 ment Officers be withdrawn, as hereafter suggested, the executive 
 powers would be left wholly to those chosen from among the dif- 
 ferent classes of the community at large, and acting independently 
 of Government; such a system may operate with too much leniency 
 rather than with excessive rigour, but in entrusting the charge 
 and levy of Taxation on the community to those selected from and 
 by itself, it is a satisfaction that wherever there may be abuse or 
 irregularity it has the power of redress in its own hands ; as every 
 one who is in such circumstances as to be subjected to the Tax 
 would have his due degree of particular local influence as well as 
 
 Law for the recovery of private Debts, they may be less so, for the compensation of 
 the Revenue Officer is paid out of the Debt which he is instrumental in recovering-, 
 he is seldom remunerated by any charges exacted beyond it, such Penalties being, in 
 direct Taxation, as just observed, very infrequently inflicted $ but the Professional 
 Man is paid by charges borne beyond the private Debt recovered, which however 
 correctly and moderately made, are often heavy Penalties for disputing the Amount 
 or withholding payment of it. The mildness shewn to Offenders, against the late 
 Property Tax, in taking the Rewards for the Officers out of the Single Duty payable 
 to the Revenue, instead of making the Parties contribute additionally for the purpose, 
 may have been a degree of injustice to the honest Payers on whom in effect the 
 expence was thus partly thrown. If the proceedings of Officers are vexatious, the 
 Law subjects them to Dismissal or heavy Penalties, and Government is ever disposed 
 to discourage and punish such conduct, but it is confidently believed, that on inves- 
 tigation of individual complaints, they have been found most generally to be ground- 
 less, that there has scarcely ever been an instance of the interference of the Law, and 
 very few occasions for the iufliction of punishment by Government on its Officers 
 for vexatious proceedings in direct Taxation. When the endeavor to escape a Tax 
 is frustrated, whether it shews itself in obvious wilfulness or apparent inadvertence, 
 a disposition to find fault with the Officers is excited ; and although the blame wholly 
 pays with the individuals, their complaints, if openly but not fairly made, will provoke 
 in others sentiments unjustly inimical to the Officers. 
 
55 
 
 his general legal right, so he might be a propbrtionable check 
 against any improper exercise of authority on the part of those 
 vested with office. 
 
 Comparative usefulness of the general Information attainable 
 under the two Modes of Taxation — Income and Expenditure. 
 
 As not irrelevant or unimportant under the difficulties of ad- 
 justing Taxation as circumstances and times may require, the 
 comparative usefulness of the information obtained by means of 
 the procedure of Taxation on Articles of Consumption and Use 
 and of Taxation on Income respectively may be adverted to. A 
 general Income Tax affords a knowledge of the proportion of 
 Taxation borne by every rank and class, however distinguished ; 
 whether as Upper, Middle, or Lower, in their several gradations, 
 whether as Agricultural, Trading, Professional, &c. in their seve- 
 ral denominations; whether as Productive or Unproductive in 
 their different degrees; whether as Public Creditors or Public 
 Debtors ; whether as Public Officers or Servants^&c. ; also of the 
 proportion paid by every County, District, Town, Parish and 
 Place; and unless secresy and concealment are indispensible with 
 respect to individual Incomes, the proportion borne by every per- 
 son may be ascertained, all which knowledge may be of most 
 important service, not only in regulating the Tax itself, but for 
 other national purposes. Useful information is doubtless obtained 
 under the present system of Taxation from the public accounts 
 given of the quantities and value of the taxable articles of use and 
 consumption, but it would not follow if that taxation were wholly 
 abolished that such information could not be obtained, if neces- 
 sary for the public good; the imposition of mere nominal amount 
 of Duties, as are at this time laid on many articles, some of which 
 have been formerly heavily taxed, may be extended to all other 
 articles to be relieved from taxation ; but it may be observed that 
 the quantities of Goods and Manufactures accounted for under 
 Revenue requisitions and proceedings are not always regarded as 
 a true or precise criterion of the real state and value at any time, 
 or of the comparative state and value at different times, of the Trade 
 and Commerce and of the general state of the Country, for as it is 
 not the quantity of Merchandize and Stock but the amount of Profit 
 
56 
 
 derived from them which is the truest standard of wealth, so it may 
 happen that while the quantities are largest the rate of Profit may 
 be smaller, and the extent of one may seldom fluctuate in a cor- 
 responding ratio with the other; the view afforded is of aggre- 
 gates only, neither distinguishing results as they regard the several 
 classes of society relatively to each other, nor shewing the vary- 
 ing distribution among them of the necessaries and comforts of 
 life. As there are articles of consumption on which taxation is 
 not laid (though indirectly affected by Taxes on other articles) the 
 accounts do not, even in respect of total consumption, afford infor- 
 mation to the utmost desired extent — they lead on the whole 
 therefore to inferences only, and to no decisive conclusions. But 
 the accounts of Profits ascertainable by Returns and proceedings 
 of a general Income Tax, which can be prepared with as much 
 variety and minuteness as the numerous species and ramifications 
 of Income will admit and as political or commercial purposes may 
 require, are certain guides to information of the real Wealth and 
 Income of the Country, either in the aggregate or in any parti- 
 cular source of it, at any time, or of its comparative amount at 
 different periods. The Country in ascertaining under such a Tax 
 the aggregate extent of its wealth and means in every source of it, 
 would know how it stood from year to year relatively to its Debt 
 and to the national Expenditure and its exact power to sustain the 
 burthen they cast on it, also it would accurately perceive how far 
 and in what manner Taxation and other causes acting upon the 
 acquisition of Income affected the classification of it ; whether and 
 where they varied the distribution of the means of subsistence and 
 enjoyment ; which classes of the community benefited and which 
 suffered by any variation in the distribution. 
 
 On the necessity of constant Legislation under Taxation on 
 Commodities. 
 
 Another point of comparison between the two systems of Reve- 
 nue may deserve notice, viz. the extent and nature of the legislation 
 required by them respectively. To establish and maintain the 
 various systems or branches of the present Revenue what a multi- 
 plicity of Acts of Parliament have been passed and put in force, 
 
57 
 
 what constant legislative changes are necessary to regulate the ef- 
 fects of them, in order to accommodate them as much as possible to 
 the various conflicting interests diversely affected by them. But the 
 first Property Act (1803) was nearly sufficient to complete the whole 
 system on which the Property Tax was founded; and though some 
 more modifications of it than were made in subsequent Acts* might 
 have been desirable during the 13 years of the existence of the Tax, 
 all the rules and provisions under which nearly £145 millions were 
 during that time raised were comprized in a single Statute, and 
 a greater compass of legislation may not be necessary if a future 
 Tax be carried, even to the full extent of the present Revenue, and 
 its enactments may remain the same under any change of circum- 
 stances ; the simplicity and generality of its design are strong re- 
 commendations of it, as regards both legislation and execution. 
 
 3rd. Excess of Taxation. 
 
 1st. In as far as Taxation may deprive the Payers of the 
 Taxes (the Agricultural, Manufacturing, Trading 
 and Professional Classes,) of more than is received 
 by the Receivers of the Taxes, — (the Public Creditors 
 and Public Servants.) 
 
 To what extent the sum of loss or injury sustained from Tax- 
 ation by the Agricultural, Trade Classes, &c, may exceed the sum 
 of gain or benefit derived by the Public Creditors and Public 
 Servants, &c. must depend on the nature of the system of Taxation 
 adopted : In proportion as prices are by taxing Commodities in- 
 creased beyond the amount of the Taxes themselves, Taxation oc- 
 casions a greater Cost in individual Expenditure than the public 
 Revenue, for which it is raised, derives from it ; but it is not only 
 
 * The successive Property Acts of 43, 45 and 46 Geo. 3, comprehended mainly the 
 same plan, there having been in that respect no very material variation; the last two 
 Acts were passed principally to increase the rate of the Tax from 5 to 6£ and to 10 
 per Cent. The Act of 50 Geo. 3, was very limited in its object. Certain enactments, 
 designed principally to regulate some of the proceedings were, as they applied also 
 to proceedings under the Assessed Taxes Acts requiring similar enactments, passed 
 in an Act separately from the main Property Act, otherwise they might have been 
 embodied with that Act, of which they were declared to form a part. 
 
 I 
 
58 
 
 as Taxation falls on the expenditure of individuals beyond the 
 amount which the Public Treasury receives for application to the 
 Public Service, but as it affects their means of producing Income, 
 that Taxation injures some Classes more than it benefits others ; in 
 the latter as well as in the former respect, the direct operation of 
 a Tax on Income is decidedly less injurious than the circuitous 
 operation of Taxes imposed on Produce, which are advanced out 
 of Money Capital and indirectly repaid out of Income through ex- 
 penditure by means of increase of Prices ; the latter operate not 
 only as virtually a greater exaction from Income after it is ac- 
 quired, but as a greater obstacle to the future acquisition of In- 
 come, they take away from the funds while they obstruct the full 
 restoration or increase of them, and in that manner the Payers of 
 the Taxes lose more than the Receivers of the Taxes gain ; but in 
 proportion as an individual's means of acquiring Income increase 
 or diminish, a direct Tax on Income the more or less affects them — 
 if his Property, his Capital, if his Skill or his Labor, become, from 
 whatever cause, unproductive or less productive, that Tax dete- 
 riorates them not at all or in a less degree ; in such a case, if it 
 takes away nothing or the less it takes away, it impedes not or it 
 the less impedes their future productiveness, the funds of Income, in 
 whatever state they be, are left more fully and freely to their natural 
 operation, and thus the Payers of the Tax lose or contribute no 
 more or but very little more than the Public Treasury receives. 
 The Receivers of the Taxes are as much interested in this desirable 
 result as the Payers of them, for in proportion as the Incomes of 
 the Payers of the Taxes improve and the greater the amount which 
 they consequently pay to Taxation, the less is paid back or de- 
 ducted from the Receivers of the Taxes, and though the nominal 
 or gross amount of the Incomes of the latter classes may remain 
 the same, the amount of Taxation on them and the amount of their 
 net or real Income are greater or less according as the means of 
 the other Classes to produce Income are affected by Taxation or 
 other causes. 
 
 Although the sum which indirect Taxation costs to each indi- 
 vidual is much greater than the sum which it carries to the Re- 
 venue, he is left in ignorance of both ; this circumstance may be 
 regarded by some to be politic in Taxation, as keeping the effect 
 
59 
 
 more out of sight though in reality more severely felt ; it would 
 seem that the different Classes must not know the actual state of 
 these accounts with each other — the exhibition would not bear the 
 light. This does not appear consonant with the principle of open- 
 ness on which pecuniary transactions in general are conducted : an 
 equal Income Tax has no such concealed termination, every one 
 knows the exact amount of his own Tax, and may know the con- 
 tributions of all Classes, also if necessary, of other individuals. 
 Whatever is paid, is paid direct to the Revenue — it has no pro- 
 gress to make through the pockets or funds of others, its real 
 amount is not dependant on other and precarious processes of a dis- 
 tinct nature, on which, mixed up therewith as are Taxes on Com- 
 modities, the real but unknown amount paid by each payer of 
 those Taxes partly depends. What ever is taken by an Income 
 Tax from each pocket goes to the full amount thereof into the 
 Treasury; it is not, as a Tax on Commodities may be from its mode 
 of operation, the means of profit to one class at a greater ex- 
 pence to another than the latter should incur : the gain of one is 
 not the loss of another beyond the exact amount of the Tax, and 
 this satisfactory result is clear, obvious and certain. An Income 
 Tax, instead of taking from the pockets of the Payers of it more 
 than is due to the Receivers of it, may have rather a contrary ten- 
 dency, for by its more effectual operation on the Income of the 
 Public Creditors and Servants, it may take rather less from the 
 other Classes than might in strict justice be claimed of them. 
 
 Mr. Ricardo's Opinion on the general effect of the Advances of 
 the Taxes on Commodities by the Producers of them. 
 
 Mr. Ricardo in his observations on Taxes paid by the Producer, 
 refers to the opinion expressed by other Writers that an " incon- 
 " venience consequent on the advance of the Tax (by the Pro- 
 " ducer) is th at the profits on the advance also must be charged 
 " to the Consumer, and that this additional Tax is one from which 
 " the Treasury derives no advantage," and he states that to this 
 objection he cannot agree ; he reasons as follows — " The State we 
 " will suppose wants to raise immediately £1,000 and levies it on 
 " a Manufacturer who will not for a twelvemonth be able to 
 
60 
 
 " charge it to the Consumer on his finished commodity. In con- 
 " sequence of such delay he is obliged to charge for his commo- 
 «' dity an additional price not only of £1,000, the amount of the 
 " Tax, but probably of £1,100, £100 being for interest on the 
 " 1,000 advanced. But in return for this additional £100 paid 
 " by the Consumer he has a real benefit, inasmuch as his payment 
 " of the Tax which Government required immediately, and which 
 " he must finally pay, has been postponed, an opportunity there- 
 u fore has been afforded to him of lending to the Manufacturer, 
 " who had occasion for it, the £1,000 at 10 per Cent, or at any 
 " other rate of interest which might be agreed upon ; £1,100 pay- 
 " able at the end of one year when Money is at 10 per Cent, in- 
 " terest, is of no more value than £1,000 to be paid immediately. 
 " If Government delayed receiving the Tax for one year, till the 
 (i manufacture of the Commodity was completed, it would perhaps 
 " be obliged to issue an Exchequer Bill bearing interest, and it 
 " would pay as much for interest as the Consumer would save in 
 " price, excepting indeed that portion of the price which the Ma- 
 " nufacturer might be enabled in consequence of the Tax to add 
 " to his own real gains. If for the interest of the Exchequer Bill 
 " the Government would have paid 5 per Cent., a tax of £50 is 
 " saved by not issuing it. If the Manufacturer borrowed the ad- 
 " ditional Capital at 5 per Cent, and charged the Consumer 10 per 
 " Cent, he also will have gained 5 per Cent, on his advance over 
 " and above his usual profits, so that the Manufacturer and Go- 
 " vernment gain or save precisely the sum which the Consumer 
 " pays." Referring to the calculations of other Writers, from 
 which it would appear " that a Tax of £200 paid originally by a 
 " Manufacturer whose Profits, even at the moderate rate of 10 per 
 " Cent., would, if the commodity manufactured only passed 
 " through the hands of five different persons, be raised to the Con- 
 " sumer to the sum of £322," Mr. Ricardo observes, " This cal- 
 " culation proceeds on the supposition that he who first advances 
 " the Tax would receive from the next Manufacturer £220 and 
 " he again from the next £242, and so that at each step 10 per 
 " Cent, on its value would be added to it. This is to suppose 
 " that the value of the Tax would be accumulating at compound 
 " interest, not at the rate of 10 per Cent, per annum, but at an 
 
61 
 
 * absolute rate of 10 per Cent, at every step of its progress*"* 
 It may be doubted in the first place whether the postponement of 
 the payment of the Tax on ( Commodities by the Consumer, as 
 stated in the above quotation, has been consonant with the fact — 
 whether it has not always or generally happened that on the impo- 
 sition of a new Tax or on the increase of an old Tax on any com- 
 modity, or as soon as the advance of it has been made by the 
 Producers, the price of that commodity has been immediately 
 raised — that the Producers have not waited the termination of a 
 year, or any specific period, before they have increased the prices — 
 on impositions of new or increase of old Taxes on Commodities 
 they may have been levied at once on the Stock in hand ; but, 
 whatever have been the ground of the immediate rise in price, the 
 rise has in general commenced without any such postponement as 
 is here presumed : it may also be doubted in the next place whe- 
 ther it could be decided with perfect justice between the Producer 
 and Consumer at what time the rise of price should begin, and 
 whether the Consumers must not, under such circumstances, be 
 entirely at the discretion of the Producers. 
 
 Supposing however that the payment had always been post- 
 poned for a year, as alleged, it may be questioned whether the 
 advantage or convenience to the Consumers lasted beyond the first 
 year ; they paid the new Tax or increase of the old Tax for the 
 first year, with all its accumulation of price, before the Producers 
 advanced the second year's Tax, and by continuing to pay in every 
 subsequent year that amount of Cost beyond the Tax which might 
 have been avoided by taking from them the amount of the Tax at 
 the commencement of the first year instead of at the end of it, it 
 is borne by them for a permanency in return for a temporary ac- 
 commodation or without the adequate and permanent advantage 
 attributed to it ; it is, at the least, borrowing on terms exceedingly 
 disadvantageous, for considering the Money advanced merely as 
 Money lent (and the transaction is not in its nature of any greater 
 accommodation to the Consumers) they should pay in return no 
 more than the Interest of 5 per Cent, (or whatever the common 
 rate of Interest may be) ; if Government had obtained an advance 
 
 * Ricardo. 
 
62 
 
 of the Money by borrowing it in a direct manner to be repaid at 
 the end of the year when the Tax had been levied on the 
 Consumer, Interest at 5 per Cent only would have fallen on 
 the Consumers in the way of additional Taxation. Although 
 each of the several manufacturing hands through which a taxed 
 commodity passes is entitled to its usual rate of Profit as well as 
 of Interest on the additional advance of Capital made by it for the 
 Tax, yet by this mixture of the Producer's own Profit on the sum 
 advanced with the Interest of it, while the latter should be the sole 
 object of adjustment with the Consumers as being the total equi- 
 valent due from thero, the transaction terminates, after an intricate 
 progress, in an uncertain and unsatisfactory result. For arriving 
 at a knowledge of what is or should be the rate of increase of 
 Prices beyond the Taxes arising from this commixture of Taxes, 
 Interest and Profit, varying also as it should do according to the 
 length of time and the number of hands intervening between the 
 periods when the advance is first made by the Producer and when 
 ultimate payment is obtained from the Consumer, it may be use- 
 less to depend on the ordinary mode of calculation if expe- 
 rience will not accord with the result thereof; it seems unnecessary 
 to inquire whether the Cost accumulates or should accumulate sim- 
 ply according to the whole length of time that the Tax is in ad- 
 vance, or in any ratio increasing as the number of hands neces- 
 sarily making the advances increases; the fact is, that there is an 
 extraordinary accumulation of Cost, however short the periods of 
 the advances or however few the number of hands who successively 
 make the advance, and from whatever causes the Taxes on Com- 
 modities operate in this manner, the Estimate of the progressive 
 increase of the Cost, made by the Writers referred to by Mr. Ri- 
 cardo, though perhaps over calculating it in some degree, may ap- 
 proximate nearer the truth than his own Estimate does: the conclusion 
 of those Writers seems at least borne out by experience that Taxes 
 on Commodities take out of the pockets of the Consumers a very 
 large accumulation beyond the sum received by the Treasury and 
 the Classes subsisting on the Taxes, and though the excess paid by 
 the Consumers goes into the pockets of the Producers, yet it ap- 
 pears that the effect in diminishing consumption, and consequently 
 also re-production, must ultimately tend to a diminution of the 
 
. 
 
 63 
 
 Gain of the Producers ; if even the inereased Expenditure of the 
 State and of the augmented number of the Public Creditors and 
 Public Servants make good in a great degree the loss which the 
 Producers sustain from diminished consumption of the other 
 classes, yet it may be contended that the operation of Taxes on 
 Produce must, from its unequal and uncertain course, taking the 
 various Classes relatively to each other, inflict on some classes loss 
 and injury exceeding in degree the gain or benefit received by 
 other classes. 
 
 " A system of taxation may be defective — more may be raised 
 " from the people than what finds its way into the coffers of the 
 " State, as a part, in consequence of its effect on Prices, may pos- 
 " sibly be received by those who are benefited by the peculiar 
 " mode in which taxes are laid. Such taxes are pernicious and 
 " should not be encouraged."* It may here be asked, what are 
 the particular Taxes on Commodities of which it can be said that 
 the adjustment between the Producers and Consumers is so exactly 
 effected by Prices that neither are losers or gainers by them? Is 
 not every one of them pernicious in this respect? 
 
 The Agricultural and Trading Classes considered relatively to 
 each other, as they are affected by Taxation on Income or 
 Expenditure. 
 
 The Agricultural and Trading Classes, from whom all Income 
 emanates, and who are therefore mainly to be regarded in Tax- 
 ation, have, it is conceived, strong reasons to approve of an Income 
 Tax. In the first place they may be assured that the other classes, 
 viz. the Public Creditors and Public Servants, who derive their 
 Income frnm the Tax exacted from Agricultural and Trading 
 Profit, would contribute in return to the Tax at least their full 
 shares, and in the next place, with respect to other consequences, 
 the Income Tax would affect them less injuriously than Taxes on 
 Articles of Use and Consumption, not only as these lessen the value 
 of their Income as Consumers by raising the cost of whatever it is 
 expended on, but also as in operating on the sources of their Pro- 
 fits as Producers they increase the uncertainty, and diminish the 
 amount of them. 
 
 * Ricardo. 
 
64 
 
 In estimating the effects of a change from the present Taxes to 
 an Income Tax as regards the Agricultural and Trading Classes, 
 taking them relatively to each other, it is to be observed that not 
 more than one-sixth or one-seventh of the present Taxes has an 
 immediate connexion with the produce of Land, but the Income 
 arising from it, is according to the Property Tax Accounts, seven- 
 tenths of the Total Income arising from Land and Trade jointly, 
 that the part of the present Taxes immediately connected with the pro- 
 ducts of Trade is more than one-half of the Total Amount of them,* 
 but the Income arising from Trade, estimated from the Property Tax 
 Accounts, does not much exceed three-tenths of the Total Income 
 from Land and Trade jointly,f it would seem, therefore, that the Com- 
 mercial and Trading Classes in particular have less than any classes 
 ground of objection to an Income Tax, as it would supersede Taxes 
 which, independently of their unequal operation on them in com- 
 mon with other classes as Consumers, affect them as Producers 
 most disproportionably — if it be objected to the change from the 
 present Taxes to an Income Tax that the disproportions would be 
 reversed and rendered unfavorable to the Agricultural Classes, it 
 may be answered that if they possess so far the largest proportion 
 of the whole Income of the Country, it is only just that their con- 
 tribution to the Revenue should be proportionably largest, and 
 though the Tax may not in operation reach the Trading Classes 
 quite so effectually as the Agricultural Classes, it will not fall so 
 disproportionably as the present Taxes bear on the latter, taking- 
 them as Consumers as well as Producers. 
 
 * The remaining Taxes, excluding- the two proportions connected immediately with 
 Agriculture and Trade, bear on the several Classes more as Consumers only than as 
 Producers. 
 
 Millions, 
 ■f Rental of Owners of Lands and Tithes . . . £44 
 Profits of Occupiers of ditto 27f 
 
 ~l 
 Profits of Trade exclusive of Professions . . 32| 
 
 Total Income from Land and Trade . .£104 
 
 It may be estimated that in ordinary times Income from Land would contribute to an 
 Income Tax about two-fifths of the whole Tax and Income from Trade (exclusive of 
 Professions) about one-sixth of it. 
 
65 
 
 The very great Saving in the Expence of collecting the Revenue 
 by substituting an Income Tax. 
 
 Under the 1st head of Excess of taxation may be classed the ex- 
 pence of levying Taxation. A large sum is paid on this account, 
 which though it compensates that portion of the Public Servants who 
 levy the Taxes and defrays other expences incurred in the levy of 
 them, is not received by the Treasury for application to the pur- 
 poses of the State, a less amount is therefore applied to the public 
 service than is taken out of the pockets of the Tax Payers in ge- 
 neral ; in this particular the Income Tax has a very great and an 
 undeniable advantage over Taxation raised through Expenditure : 
 the expence of Collection of the present Taxes exceeds 6 per Cent., 
 but an Income Tax of the same amount might be collected at less 
 than 2 per Cent. ; a Public Revenue of the present amount, raised 
 by indirect Taxes, requires more than £2 millions of additional Tax- 
 ation as the charge for collecting it beyond the sum of expence re- 
 quired to collect an Income Tax of the same amount. Under Taxa- 
 tion on Expenditure the whole of the Income due to the Pnblic 
 Creditors and Public Servants is first paid to them, and then the part 
 due to Taxation is repaid through an expensive as well as an unequal 
 and troublesome process; under a Tax on Income the part of the Tax 
 due from Income derived from Taxation is in fact not paid, and 
 the expence and trouble and any obnoxious proceeding of Taxation 
 are avoided ; it may however be observed that a small part only of 
 the total saving arises from this avoidance of an actual levy of Tax- 
 ation from Income derived from Taxation, for the rate of expence 
 of assessing and collecting that part of the Income Tax which is 
 paid by Income not derived from Taxation does not exceed 2J per 
 Cent. 
 
 Excess of Taxation. 
 
 2nd. In as far as Taxation may exact more than the Property, 
 Capital and Industry of the Payers of the Taxes can 
 replace. 
 
 It appears to be the opinion of some Writers that Taxation if 
 kept within moderate bounds may not on the whole be prejudicial, 
 
66 
 
 that it excites industry and oeconomy, quickens and expands Circu- 
 lation, and thus where full freedom and security in the production 
 and enjoyment of the produce and profits of Property, Capital and 
 Labor exist, it assists the national resources in meeting; its demands 
 and provides much of the remedy against any evils attending it— 
 if however Taxation passes beyond a certain limit (a limit which 
 must vary as the general means fluctuate from other causes as well 
 as from Taxation), it exacts more than the Capital and Industry of 
 the Country can yield, or if once yielded, than they can replace — 
 the several sources of Produce and Profit may not be sufficient to 
 discharge all obligations charged on them of a private as well as of 
 a public nature and be at the same time maintainable in that degree 
 of productiveness which all other causes affecting them will admit 
 of— passing beyond this limit Taxation becomes a cause of its own 
 diminution. 
 
 Whether Taxation has on the whole or how far in respect of any 
 particular articles of it passed this limit it may be difficult to deter- 
 mine, mixed up undistinguishably as Taxation has been with other 
 causes affecting the resources of the Country. As excess of Tax- 
 ation under this head may be occasioned not only by the extreme 
 amount to which Taxation is carried, but by the mode in which it 
 is raised, then the question which can be more easily solved, and 
 which is here more appropriate, may be upon what system Tax- 
 ation can be carried furthest without incurring the danger of such 
 excess. 
 
 The grounds which decide the superiority of an Income Tax 
 when viewed under other heads in comparison with Taxation on 
 Expenditure, determine also the preeminence of it in this point of 
 view. 
 
 On Equalization as increasing the Means of bearing Taxation to 
 the extreme Limit. 
 
 As equalization in respect of any kind of Taxation increases its 
 productiveness, so the more equally all Classes are taxed the larger 
 is the Amount which on the whole they can bear with the least 
 injury to themselves; also the more free the operations or mate- 
 rials of Trade and Agriculture are from the direct procedure of 
 
Taxation the less impediments it will occasion to their productive- 
 ness and consequently to its own—the conclusion may then be that 
 the Tax which takes directly and solely from Profit, affecting all 
 descriptions of it with due equality, and avoiding all interference 
 with it while in the course of acquisition, is Taxation which can be 
 carried to the greatest extent without exceeding the maximum 
 limit. 
 
 Viewing, first, the different effects of Taxation on the different 
 Classes of the Community as Producers it may be stated that 
 Taxation on Articles of Consumption and Use will become exces- 
 sive, and occasion its own diminution in the worst manner and in 
 the greatest degree: by raising Prices it discourages Consump- 
 tion, and consequently Reproduction; by diverting Capital from 
 its natural course it obstructs the most advantageous employment 
 both of Capital and Labor, and in that way also diminishes repro- 
 duction, and as it operates in this manner unequally by falling 
 more on some sources of produce than on others, and more heavily 
 on the same source at one time than at others, not duly varying 
 itself as other causes affect the consumption and production of the 
 articles taxed, the injurious consequences are aggravated; by 
 creating contraband traffic it discourages fair dealing with foreign 
 as well as between native traders ; and Capital in general which is 
 lawfully and honestly employed is subjected to unfair competition 
 and great disadvantage. 
 
 A direct Tax on Profit or Income, if it affected unfavorably Con- 
 sumption and Production, would tend to lessen the magnitude of 
 the general Income and lead to its own diminution: but the ope- 
 ration would be to a much less extent and in a less injurious man- 
 ner than under Taxation laid on Produce and paid out of Capital ; 
 by taking nothing or but little directly from Capital the Tax on 
 Income will not or will less divert it from its natural course ; by 
 taking nothing, or taking less than Taxation would through Ex- 
 penditure exact from Income where Capital and Labor are unpro- 
 ductive or are the least productive, it will not or will less interfere 
 with the free and full employment of them: therefore it will not 
 or will in a less degree, diminish the aggregate amount of Income 
 and its own amount. So far as the part of Income exacted by a direct 
 Tax on Income might, if not exacted, have been saved and applied as 
 
68 
 
 Capital instead of being- expended, it may be alleged that an 
 Income Tax indirectly diverts Capital from its natural course : 
 but if it so operates it not only does so to a much less ex- 
 tent (for a proportion only and probably not a large pro- 
 portion* of the Income so exacted would be applied by its pos- 
 sessors as Capital) but also in a more equal degree ; where in this 
 sense it may be said that Capital is exacted by an Income Tax, the 
 exaction is in proportion to the capacity of the individual fund to 
 bear it, and therefore if even the Tax were an exaction from Capi- 
 tal throughout all Incomes, yet by disturbing least those individual 
 funds of Capital which are least able to bear diminution or diver- 
 sion, it injures the whole in the least possible degree. 
 
 Viewing, secondly, the effects of Taxation on the different 
 Classes as Consumers, it may be observed that as Taxation on Ex- 
 penditure cannot be imposed directly and equally on all Classes, 
 and will not shift itself from one Class to another as their relative 
 means may vary, so Taxation on Expenditure in thus failing to 
 maintain the proper relative proportions of Taxation among the 
 different Classes as Consumers, cannot exact from them the utmost 
 amount which in reality they could bear, and is less sure of pro- 
 ducing- from them any required sum of Taxation ; but as the Tax 
 on Income must shift itself of course from one Class to another as 
 their relative means vary, it not only maintains the due equili- 
 brium in general among the several Classes, whichever of them 
 may rise or whichever may fall in circumstances, but as its exaction 
 from the Public Creditors and Public Servants, the Receivers of 
 the Tax, will be greater or less in proportion as the ability to con- 
 tribute to it on the part of the other Classes diminishes or in- 
 creases, so in effect Taxation will be reduced under its operation 
 in proportion as the Resources of the Country decline, and thus it 
 will more surely and completely maintain that equalization which 
 is best calculated to carry Taxation to its utmost limit and to pre- 
 vent deficiencies of the Revenue whatever its required amount 
 may be. It is very satisfactory thus to know that the more reduced 
 the general Income of the Tax Payers may become, the less will 
 be the real amount of Taxation paid by them to the State, that if 
 the total nominal amount of Taxation remain undiminished, then 
 in as much as the Incomes of the Tax Receivers become propor- 
 
tionably greater than the Incomes of the Tax Payers the former 
 will repay a proportionally larger sum to Taxation : It may be 
 alleged that this diminished payment on the part of the Tax 
 Payers may take place in nearly an equal degree whether their 
 Income or their Expenditure be the immediate object of Taxation; 
 but it is to be observed, that Taxation on Expenditure is in various 
 ways more aggravating to the Tax Payers the more their means 
 are reduced ; while in an adverse state their advances of the Taxes 
 on Commodities, which remain undiminished in amount, become- 
 more inconvenient to them, also those other effects of such Taxes 
 adverted to under preceding heads, which the Tax Payers as Pro- 
 ducers experience, fall then with greater aggravation on them, 
 and therefore, though they may contribute less as Consumers to 
 Taxation when their Incomes are diminished, yet they are on the 
 whole more injured by it under circumstances of depression than 
 at other times. But a Tax on Income would secure to the Tax 
 Payers a mitigation of Taxation in all respects the more they 
 needed it, both as Producers and Consumers. 
 
 As the Public Expenditure must be limited by the aggregate 
 ability of the Country to bear Taxation, and as it may be necessary 
 from the urgency of national measures to extend it even to the ut- 
 most limit of that ability, or from the decline of the national 
 resources to reduce it to the lowest possible ebb, so it seems a 
 great desideratum that a system of Revenue should be adopted 
 which not only will enable the extreme of Taxation (if absolutely 
 necessary) to be attained with the least detriment and difficulty, 
 or which, on the contrary, will render it as light as Taxation can 
 be made if the circumstances of the Country render such relief in- 
 dispensible, but which system will of itself, at the same time, sup- 
 ply the means of ascertaining the extent to which Taxation can 
 and should be carried. It is conceived that such an object would 
 be most nearly accomplished by an Income Tax, as the materials 
 of that measure would best enable a full and correct view to be 
 taken of the exact degree of ability, that is, of the Income (the 
 surest criterion of that ability) of every Class, Rank or Division 
 into which the Community is divisible and of the exact degree of 
 Taxation which every Class or Division, and even (if necessary) 
 which every Individual, can and should contribute, and thus be- 
 come an infallible guide, not only as to the real extent of Taxation 
 
70 
 
 with all the desired minutiae, but as to the proper rates and rules 
 by which it should be charged on the numerous different amounts 
 and various descriptions of Income; under which system also, on 
 any increase or reduction of Taxation, the degree of the simul- 
 taneous change in every direction and quarter would be at once 
 known, and which knowledge would assist materially in regulating 
 and adjusting the change in such a manner, that whether the bur- 
 then be increased or be lightened the means to sustain its future 
 extent would be supported and encouraged as much as possible. 
 
 The Effects and Amount of Taxation on the Productive and 
 Unproductive Classes respectively. 
 
 In adverting to the advantages of a Tax on Income as best 
 maintaining or as least deranging the various Classes in their due 
 relation to each other, that advantage as it regards the two im- 
 portant Divisions of them, the Productive and Unproductive, may 
 be particularly noticed. As the relative numbers and conditions 
 of those two divisions may mainly determine the general state of 
 the Country, and consequently its degree of ability to sustain its 
 Taxation, so, as a Tax on Income will best disclose that relative 
 state, it will better shew in what manner and how far that state is 
 from time to time affected by Taxation or other causes, while it 
 will also tend less than any other mode of raising Taxation to dis- 
 turb that proper relation between the two divisions which keeps 
 the resources of a country at large in the most productive course. 
 To distinguish the productive from the unproductive Classes is 5 it 
 seems, a point of difficulty, there being much diversity of opinion 
 on the subject, the distinction depending on the nature of employ- 
 ment, and some drawing the limits in definitions of productive 
 laborers narrower than others, but considering the direct employ- 
 ment in the production of whatever is absolutely or essentially ne- 
 cessary and useful for human sustenance and convenience as the 
 distinguishing quality of the productive Class, it is important to ob- 
 serve that the mode of taxation which will most lighten and 
 equalize the burthen it imposes — which will the least divert Ca- 
 pital and Labor from their natural channels, which will therefore 
 in the least degree discourage the means of productive employ- 
 
71 
 
 ment, must be the most favorable or the least unfavorable to the 
 maintenance of the productive classes, to that utmost extent and 
 in that best condition which is most conducive to the interests of 
 all classes. 
 
 It has been held that the respective numbers of the productive 
 and unproductive Laborers or Members of the Community should, 
 f«»r the maintenance of it in the best possible state, bear a certain 
 proportion to each other. Whether and in what degree Taxation 
 has created or added to an excess in the proportion of unproductive 
 members seems not to have been determined ; on this question 
 however, so far as it is connected with or relevant to the present 
 Contrast of an Income Tax with other Taxation, it may be ob- 
 served, that as the greatest evil of the large Public Debt and Ex- 
 penditure may be in the excess in the proportion of unproductive 
 members which it may occasion or increase, so to raise the Public 
 Revenue by Taxes directly on Production is to aggravate the evil 
 — to raise it by a Tax on Income is to mitigate it ; — that the latter 
 measure would not only from the substitution of its less injurious 
 mode of operation contribute to the increase and amelioration of 
 the productive Classes, but, by its positive reduction of the Amount 
 of Taxation, it would in that way also diminish the number of the 
 unproductive Classes, and remove a portion of them too which is 
 least favorably regarded, that is — the Revenue Officers of the 
 Crown. But any advantage to be derived in this way from a 
 diminution in a portion of the unproductive Classes is trifling 
 when compared with the vast benefit of an extensive diminution of 
 those Classes which the change in the system of Taxation will oc- 
 casion by loosening the shackles with which the operations of the 
 present mode of Taxation bind productive industry, and thereby 
 bringing into productive employ many of the most lamentable des- 
 cription of the unproductive Classes, viz. the able but unemployed 
 Poor. 
 
 It is conceived that that proportion of the productive to the un- 
 productive Classes which is most beneficial, varies with the vary in o- 
 extent of the Produce and Profit of Agriculture and Trade, and 
 that not only the greatest number of productive members but that 
 most beneficial proportion of them must be sustainable with 
 
72 
 
 the greatest certainty under such system of Taxation as is most 
 equal and innoxious.* 
 
 Real Amount of Taxation and Misconception as to it. 
 
 In attempting a view of the comparative effects of different sys- 
 tems of Taxation, and forming- a judgment therefrom as to that 
 system which will exact the greatest amount of Taxation with the 
 
 * The greatest part of Taxation is Income transferred from some Classes of unpro- 
 ductive Members to other Classes of unproductive Members, and therefore most of 
 the Income distributed to the Public Creditors and Public Servants would have been 
 Income remaining among Landlords and other unproductive Members if Taxation had 
 never been made the medium of distribution, and it may be conceived that the 
 disposable Capital which has formed the Class of Public Creditors would by a different 
 application than the loan of it to the State, and if therefore no public Debt had existed, 
 have added an equal number to the unproductive Classes, in the characters of Land- 
 lords, Mortgagees, or in some character standing altogether to an equal amount as 
 Creditors of the productive Classes. 
 
 It may on a rough calculation be stated that the whole amount of a Tax on Income to be 
 paid by those portions of the Agricultural, Trade Classes, &c. which are productive 
 would not exceed one- ninth part of their portion of the whole Income. Out of the sum 
 of £37§ millions estimated as the total net payment due to the Tax by the Agricultural, 
 Trading Classes, &c, £21 or £22 millions may be taken as the proportion payable by 
 the unproductive Members of those Classes.— Considering the Occupiers of Lands and 
 the Persons actually carrying on or employed in Manufactures, Commerce and Trade, 
 as constituting the productive Classes, it may be estimated that not more than £15 
 or £16 millions would be payable by those Classes to an Income Tax imposed to 
 the extent of £50 millions. If the productive Classes do not pay to a greater amount 
 than £15 or £16 millions through their expenditure to the present Taxes as Con- 
 sumers, then considering the amount of the Income belonging to them out of which 
 it is paid, which may be assumed, including Wages, at about £140 millions ; also 
 that about one-third of the sum paid for Taxation is applied to compensate the Public 
 Servants whose Services are as indispensible in the protection they afford to Industry 
 as is the Labor itself of the Classes more usually denominated productive, is the 
 sum of Taxation exacted from them of such a magnitude as to justify the complaints 
 of " ruinous and destructive consequences of Taxation on productive Industry," 
 unless they arise from the injurious and unequal mode in which Taxation through 
 Expenditure is obtained ? 
 
 It may perhaps be surmised that Landlords will if a Tax on Income be imposed on them 
 seek to indemnify themselves by increasing their Rents, and thus part of the Tax 
 intended to be paid by them will fall on the Tenants, that is, on productive Industry, 
 but is there not an equal probability that the Tenants whose Incomes may also be 
 taxed will seek to ease themselves by a diminution of Rents. An equal and general 
 Income Tax will far more surely than the present Taxes keep the burthen where it 
 may be intended to fall, which is a very desirable end in Taxation. 
 
73 
 
 least general injury, it seems necessary to keep in mind that the total 
 nominal amount of the Public Revenue is much greater than the ac- 
 tual amount of Taxation bearing* on the real Income of the Country, 
 and that the system which will not only require the least degree 
 but will disclose the exact amount of actual Taxation, affords an 
 advantage from which useful results may be gained. Much mis- 
 conception may prevail on this point ; sufficient allowance may 
 not always be made for that part of the total Revenue which, as 
 it were, it repays to itself; the larger the amount of the Revenue 
 the larger is the proportion of it derived from those Classes who 
 receive it, rendering Taxation on the Classes who are the real 
 payers of it so far merely nominal. This result is not so per- 
 ceptible in a Tax on Expenditure as in a Tax on Income : al- 
 though the full nominal amount of every Tax on Expenditure is 
 necessarily and actually raised, the proportion paid by each Class 
 is not distinguished or ascertainable ; but the Tax on Income, 
 so far as it deducts from the Incomes of the Receivers of the 
 Taxes, is a perceptible reduction of Taxation on the real Payers 
 of the Taxes, and the actual sum of Taxation paid by those Classes 
 respectively is seen and known. Some may apprehend that what- 
 ever Taxation takes away from the real Payers of Taxes is a total 
 dead loss to them ; if the sum exacted by Taxation were not paid 
 in return for those productive means of Income, Capital and Se- 
 curity obtained from the Public Creditors and Public Servants, 
 if it were not expended in this Country and among those from 
 whom it had been exacted but were transferred wholly to a Foreign 
 Power, without any benefit in return, there might be ground for 
 that apprehension ; it must not however be forgotten, that although 
 the loss may be greatly alleviated by the Expenditure of Taxation 
 among the real Payers of it, it may be aggravated by the means used 
 for raising that Taxation. The actual amount of Taxation, if taken 
 directly from Income, is assumed at less than one-fifth of the ag- 
 gregate amount of the Incomes of the real Payers of it ;* what the 
 amount of actual loss may be from any indirect effects of it, or 
 how far that loss may be exceeded by the much greater loss arising 
 from all the indirect effects of Taxation on Expenditure, it cannot 
 
 * Estimating this amount at ^£200 millions. 
 L 
 
74 
 
 with any satisfaction be attempted to estimate numerically ; it can 
 only be advanced generally that the one system as compared with 
 the other will defray any required amount of public Expenditure 
 by a much less payment of actual Taxation, and with a much less 
 further loss indirectly occasioned by it. 
 
 Probable Effects if the Public Revenue had been earlier and 
 wholly raised by an Income Tax, 
 
 As in spite of the extraordinary extent to which Taxation has 
 been carried during 1 the last thirty-five years, population and pro- 
 duction have increased in a degree far exceeding that of any former 
 equal period of time, so it might perhaps be inferred that Taxation, 
 taken in the whole, has not ever reached, or if it has reached, that 
 it has not long remained at the excess or extremity contemplated un- 
 der the 2nd Head of Excess of Taxation, whatever may have been 
 the case in respect of any particular articles of it ; but it may cer- 
 tainly be concluded that if a system of Taxation working more 
 equally and less injuriously had always been in operation, such a 
 crisis would not have been arrived at or so nearly approached as it 
 has been, and a still greater augmentation of production and of 
 population would have ensued, with less aggravation from Tax- 
 ation of those occasional distresses and reverses among some classes 
 which originated from other causes than Taxation.* The necessity 
 of resorting to Loans has manifested the arrival at or the approach 
 to the crisis in question, but if direct Taxation on Income had been 
 adopted earlier, and carried to a greater extent, a much larger 
 amount of annual Revenue might have been obtained, with less 
 danger of passing the extreme bounda*v. When it is considered 
 how very large a portion of each year's Taxation has been required 
 to defray the interest of Loans borrowed in previous years, it may not 
 be too much to surmise, taking all the advantages of an Income Tax 
 into consideration, that if that Tax had been adopted at the commence- 
 ment of the late War, and had been raised partly in substitution for 
 other Taxes and partly as additional Taxation instead of resorting to 
 
 * During the time that Taxation in Great Britain was at the greatest height which it 
 ever attained, the Property Tax formed nearly one-fourth of its amount, which doubtless 
 enabled the Country to sustain the whole burthen with less injury to its resources. 
 

 75 
 
 Loans, the resources of the country would have admitted of such 
 a large portion of the necessary supplies of each year being raised 
 within it, and without greater detriment to them than they expe- 
 rienced from the amount of Taxation which, though smaller in 
 amount, was raised in other more injurious ways, as that the greatest 
 part of the Debt which was created during the War would have been 
 avoided. Reverting to one only of the advantages which would have 
 been realized from an Income Tax, viz. ceconomy in expence of col- 
 lection; it is estimated, that if the whole Revenue had been raised 
 by that Tax from the commencement of the late War to the present 
 time, the amount of saving in the expence of collection, or rather of 
 Taxation (as so much less Taxation would have been necessary) 
 might have accumulated by this time to nearly £100 millions, equal 
 to about one-fifth part of the Debt created within that period. 
 
 With reference to the opinion entertained by many that the Na- 
 tional Debt has not on the whole been prejudicial to the Country, 
 the expression of a confident belief will be hazarded (without en- 
 tering into argument on a general question on which most oppo- 
 site sentiments have been formed) that if the Interest of the Debt 
 had been provided for by perfectly equal Taxation, such as an In- 
 come Tax most nearly approximates to, the opinions most favorable 
 to the existence of benefit from a National Debt would have been 
 much better founded, and more demonstrably good. If the Debt has 
 been an evil it has been so from its extreme magnitude and from 
 the excessive amount of Taxation which it has occasioned, but as that 
 amount of Taxation which in a depressed state of the country 
 would fall oppressively and hurtfully might in its prosperous state 
 bear lightly and without harm, so the same amount of Taxation 
 which under an unequal and restrictive system would be felt as ex- 
 cessive,might not be so, or certainly would be much less so, under an 
 opposite system of raising it : the extreme limits to which the two 
 systems of taxation, Expenditure and Income, would respectively 
 carry Taxation are, under any state of circumstances, distant from 
 each other, and in a Country excessively taxed as this Country is 
 stated to be, the advantage of an Income Tax, when considered 
 under this particular head, appears most important. 
 
76 
 
 On the very extraordinary difference between the two Bases of Tax- 
 ation — Income and Expenditure — in respect of the aggregate 
 amount of Money actually levied, and the consequently advan- 
 tageous effects on the Circulation of the Country of substi- 
 tuting the former for the latter. 
 
 What degree of change the substitution of an Income Tax for 
 the present Taxes on Commodities and the consequent reduction 
 of the Prices of them would produce in the extent of the Circu- 
 lating Medium or Monied Capital, and how far that particular 
 change may affect the operations of Capital and Industry and the 
 productiveness of Taxation, are material points to be considered. 
 Mr. Ricardo observes, " It may be doubted whether commodities 
 " raised in price merely by Taxation will require any more money 
 " for their circulation ; I believe they would not." It appears 
 however that the indirect Taxes do require a circulation in Money 
 larger than a direct Tax on Income would require, at least, to 
 the amount to which the prices are increased beyond the sum of 
 the Taxes themselves, added to the amount of the excess in the ex- 
 pence of collecting those Taxes beyond that of collecting the In- 
 come Tax; also, as the Receivers of the Income derived from 
 Taxation do not in case of an Income Tax receive and then pay 
 back in Money their share of Taxation as they do under Taxation 
 on Expenditure, but the payments due to them are lessened by 
 the amount of the Tax, their proportion of Taxation which there- 
 fore would require under an Income Tax no additional circulating 
 medium or Capital for a levy of it, should perhaps be added to 
 the amount of additional circulation to be estimated as now neces- 
 sary for taxation only. 
 
 Supposing the Interest and Charge of the National Debt and 
 the other Public Expenditure of Great Britain required a Net 
 Revenue of £49 millions, exclusive of the Charges of collecting 
 it, then under an Income Tax, producing a nominal net Revenue 
 not exceeding £50 millions (allowing £1 million for the expencc 
 of collecting it), the actual levy of taxation would not exceed 
 three-fourths of it, or £37| millions, viz. the amount of the Tax 
 collected from the Agricultural and Trading Classes; the remain- 
 ing one-fourth contributed by deduction from the Dividends, 
 Pay, &c. of the Public Creditors and Servants, would not be tax- 
 
77 
 
 atlon actually levied : but under taxation raised through Expen- 
 diture, Taxes to the full amount of £52 millions (including £3 mil- 
 lions for the expence of collection), must be actually levied, and 
 superadding thereto the extended amount of Prices beyond the 
 amount of the Taxes themselves, increasing not only all private 
 expenditure but the amount of all other public or local rates, a 
 sum amounting probably to £75 millions, or double the amount 
 actually levied under an Income Tax is taken out of the Pockets 
 of the Public by means of such taxation. — It is conceived that the 
 extrication by the substitution of an Income Tax of nearly the sum 
 of £40 millions of Capital from this absorption of it in the mere 
 levy of taxation, attended as it is with the effects already described, 
 would be a great general benefit, that the real effect of its diffusion 
 by taxation is not such as is supposed by some persons, that is, an 
 employment of Capital tending to increase Trade and Commerce; 
 but that it occasions simply a pecuniary rise of every article with 
 the price of which it is mixed up : that it is a mere addendum to 
 the natural Cost of the article for the purpose of conveying to the 
 advancers of the Taxes their reimbursement, without any such 
 extension of Trade proceeding from the process, as Capital em- 
 ployed directly and independently in Trade and Commerce cre- 
 ates; in short — that it occasions Dearness concomitant with much 
 evil and no benefit. 
 
 It may be added that, supposing that the same proportion of 
 the sum of £75 millions is borne by the Public Creditors and Pub- 
 lic Servants through their expenditure, as an Income Tax would 
 exact from their Incomes, that is about one-fourth — the pro- 
 portion payable by the Agricultural and Trading Classes is 
 more than £55 millions, making a difference between the two 
 systems of Taxation of £17 or £18 millions in the amount exacted 
 from those Classes as Consumers of Commodities or Owners of pri- 
 vate Income, independent of the advance necessarily made by them 
 as Producers of nearly four-fifths of the whole of the Taxes, and 
 if a Sinking Fund or Surplus Revenue be raised, all the conse- 
 quences adverted to are proportionably aggravated. 
 
 If, as Mr. Ricardo believes, Taxes on Commodities have not in- 
 creased the amount of the circulating medium, the removal of them 
 would not diminish it — assuming however that the Advances made 
 for the Taxes on Commodities require additional circulating me- 
 
78 
 
 dium or Money Capita], it would seem to follow, if Taxes on 
 Commodities have forced the employment of Money Capital be- 
 yond the amount required for the necessary and the profit- 
 able use of it in Trade and Agriculture, that there is a super- 
 fluity of circulating Capital which can be dispensed with, and that 
 the disuse of it cannot be felt as a general inconvenience * if a 
 greater extent of circulating medium be, as some persons contend, 
 much required at this period, the portion which would be disen- 
 gaged by an Income Tax from the present diversion of it by Tax- 
 ation on Commodities might soon be absorbed in that way in 
 which, according to their opinion, an extension of circulation 
 would be useful ; and it may be observed, with reference to the 
 objection which might be made by those persons to a diminution 
 in any manner whatever in the amount of the circulating medium, 
 that a direct reduction of it by an alteration in the amount or na- 
 ture of the currency, wholly takes away a portion which, as they 
 conceive, is absolutely necessary for maintaining Commerce and 
 Trade to that full extent to which it can be advantageously carried, 
 but if the cessation of Taxes on Commodities should actually lessen 
 the amount of the circulating medium or Capital, it would be be- 
 cause a portion of it is of no use except for the purpose of such 
 Taxation, for if it would be of use for other purposes, there would 
 of course be the opportunity of employing it solely and indepen- 
 dently for those purposes on the cessation of that Taxation. 
 
 As the extent of the circulating medium has within the last 
 thirty-five years greatly increased, together with the great increase 
 of Taxation which has taken place within that period, and as the 
 amount of Income has at the same time been largely augmented, 
 it might be inferred, if Taxation has been in any degree the cause 
 of increase of the circulating medium, that it has also proportion- 
 ably increased Income, and has provided much of the means to 
 support the burthen it imposes ; but it is to be considered that the 
 increase of Income which has been created by or coincidently with 
 increase of circulating medium has been in a great degree nomi- 
 nal ; much of what it has gained in amount it has lost in value. 
 However, the possibility of a diminution of circulating medium by 
 a reduction in the amount or alteration in the system of Taxation 
 may bring against it one particular objection, strongly urged 
 
79 
 
 against the reduction of the circulating medium and consequent 
 increase on the value of Money by alterations in the Currency, that 
 is, the probability that it would aggravate the evil of Taxation by 
 giving undue value to fixed Incomes derived from taxation and 
 from other sources. If the reduction of circulation, though pro- 
 duced by two different causes, would nevertheless produce the 
 same effect (but which may be doubted), there are great com- 
 pensating advantages to be weighed against that particular evil ? 
 among which is the large actual reduction of taxation which an 
 Income Tax would indisputably occasion — also the diminished Cost 
 of production and the consequent increase of production which 
 the cessation of Taxes on Articles of Consumption would, by lower- 
 ing the prices of them, bring about, and there is the additional 
 satisfaction, that if fixed Incomes derived from Taxation or other 
 sources temporarily gained some advantage from an increase in 
 the value of Money arising from a reduced circulating medium, 
 a Tax on Income, which would operate with more complete effect 
 on such Incomes than on other descriptions of Income, might be a 
 sufficient counterpoise against it. 
 
 On the whole — this conclusion may be formed : that as the evils 
 of any defects or derangements in the Currency, whether arising 
 from errors in legislating on it or other causes, may certainly be 
 aggravated by Taxes on Commodities, inasmuch as they absorb in 
 a pernicious or useless way a large portion of the Circulation, 
 there is great reason to hope that the substitution of an Income 
 Tax will remove or mitigate that aggravation — that at all events it 
 is safest to impose such Taxation as shall operate most inde- 
 pendently of the ordinary process of the Circulation ; for that 
 whether the circulation consisted mostly of Coin or of Paper or of 
 whatever proportions of them, and whether the proportions were 
 wrongly or rightly adjusted to the general wants of them, a direct 
 Tax would less than indirect Taxes oppose the advantages of a 
 right — or less aggravate the evils of a wrong adjustment. 
 
 Probable Effect on the Profits of Producers of the Fall of Prices 
 on abolishing Taxes on Commodities. 
 
 It has been complained that Trade and Agriculture have suffered 
 of late from low Prices and low Profits. Without entering into 
 the question how far low prices arising from the present causes of 
 
80 
 
 them are a grievance (taking the whole Community as Consumers 
 as well as, in part, Producers) it may suffice to observe, lest the 
 reduction of prices on the abolition of Taxes on Commodities 
 should be apprehended as an additional cause of aggravating the 
 grievance, that it does not seem to follow, although the Producers 
 who advance the present Taxes would, after the abolition or reduc- 
 tion of them, receive nothing or receive less in the way of repay- 
 ment on that account, that they would obtain from the Expenditure 
 of all the Consumers a less amount of Gross Receipts or a less 
 amount of Profit. What had before returned to them as a reim- 
 bursement for a certain part of their Capital advanced for Taxation 
 might revert to them with more advantage in return for that same 
 part laid out wholly and directly in the extension or improvement of 
 Trade. If the rise of prices occasioned by Taxes on Commodi- 
 ties diminished Consumption and Production (an effect which has 
 ever been held out as one of the greatest evils of those Taxes), 
 the Producers, on the abolition of the present Taxes, followed as 
 it would be by a fall in the price of Labor and in the general ex- 
 pence of Production, also by a removal of the obstructions which 
 in other ways those Taxes occasion to Trade and Manufacture, 
 would raise Produce at less cost and with more facility ; as Con- 
 sumption increased they would produce still more, and though at 
 lower prices, they would obtain on the whole an undiminished if 
 not an increased amount of Gross Receipts, and the expence of 
 production being reduced, an increase of aggregate Profits. If 
 the Profits of the Producers on the whole were increased, or were 
 not reduced, the total amount of the Income of the Country would 
 be augmented or would be undiminished, while the value of it 
 would be maintained, if not enhanced by the fall of Prices. It 
 may be further observed, as the advance of additional Capital 
 for Taxation adds to the uncertainty and risk of the whole of 
 the Capital employed, and increases that fluctuation of Prices which 
 is also stated to be an evil, a change of Taxation, under which 
 that advance would no longer be required and the Capital now 
 advanced could be employed without the disadvantages attend- 
 ing that advance, would produce much benefit by establ ishing greater 
 uniformity and steadiness of Profit. If the Producers do now gain ? 
 they will cease to gain from advancing Taxes, but the cessation of 
 that precarious and invidious part of their Profit would be more 
 
81 
 
 than compensated to them by various advantages, among which 
 may be included the increased value of their own Incomes on the 
 reduction of Prices, the benefit of which they would enjoy in their 
 expenditure in common with all other Consumers. 
 
 If the cessation of the advance of the Taxes by the Producers 
 and the consequent lowering of Prices should be a general injury 
 in disengaging a large sum of Capital which could not be other- 
 wise employed or be otherwise so profitably employed, it would 
 seem to follow that the Taxes on Commodities are not injurious, 
 but that they should continue undiminished in amount — a con- 
 clusion which is diametrically opposite to the general sentiments 
 entertained of such Taxation, and which if well founded would 
 afford a strong answer to all complaints against it and to the 
 appeals for the reduction of it. 
 
 As the diminution of the circulating medium from alteration on 
 the Currency is attended with a fall of prices, and as Producers 
 therefore complain of it, it is to be observed that there appears to 
 be a material difference between a fall of prices arising from that 
 cause and a fall occasioned by a reduction of Taxes on Commodi- 
 ties. The diminution of the circulating medium by reducing the 
 Currency lowers the prices of all Articles by diminishing the total 
 quantity of Money which had previously existed to be given in 
 exchange for the total quantity of those Articles, so that the neces- 
 sary or desired rates of Profits can no longer be obtained by the 
 Producers — the reduction of Taxation on Articles lowers prices by 
 taking off an addition which has been given to them in order to 
 repay the Advancers of that taxation, which in the end brings no 
 real Profit or Advantage to the Advancers, and which on the cessa- 
 tion of that Taxation will no longer be requisite. 
 
 Taking all probable effects into consideration, there seems no 
 doubt that from the adjustment of Prices which will ensue on the 
 change in the system of Taxation from Expenditure to Income 
 as the basis of it, the several Classes of Producers relatively to 
 each other, and the Producers in general relatively to the Con- 
 sumers in general, would be placed on a footing mutually more 
 advantageous and satisfactory, and that all Classes would be bet- 
 ter enabled to bear Taxation to the utmost. 
 
 M 
 
82 
 
 Comparative View of the Effects produced by the Abolition of the 
 late Property Tax instead of Taxes on Expenditure, 
 
 It lias been stated that Taxes to the amount of £25 millions and 
 upwards have been repealed or reduced since the late War. It 
 appears by the Public Accounts that the quantities and numbers of 
 articles consumed or used in respect of which the repeal or re- 
 duction has taken place, have been in general much increased. 
 Whether the reduction of Taxes on Commodities increases Con- 
 sumption and Production in a lesser or in a greater degree than the 
 imposition of Taxes had diminished them may be a question, but 
 whatever the result may be, other causes than Taxation operating 
 at the same time on production and consumption have probably 
 so far preponderated over, and have certainly rendered so undis- 
 tinguishable the effect or tendency of an increase or reduction of 
 indirect Taxation, confounded as the process of it is with those 
 causes, that any opinion or estimate as to the exact degree in which 
 they respectively have contributed to diminish or to increase the 
 consumption and use of the articles taxed would be incapable of 
 proof and be too vague to be relied on. Although out of that 
 £25 millions and upwards of Taxation repealed since the war £15 
 millions of it was the amount of the Property Tax, the amount of 
 general Income has not increased, but has apparently diminished 
 since that time; but it would be a light conclusion to infer from 
 this circumstance that the effect of reducing Taxation had, in re- 
 spect of a Tax on Income, been contrary to the effect in respect of 
 Taxes on other articles: the alteration in the Currency may have 
 rendered the diminution of Income, in a great degree, nominal; 
 but that alteration and other causes, among which is the reduction 
 of the Slate Expenditure and Establishments, have, it is said, tended 
 to reduce the general rate of nominal Profit or Income, while Con- 
 sumption, and of course Production, have in the aggregate con- 
 tinued to increase. However this may really be, it is clear that 
 although the Agricultural and Tiade Classes, out of whose Incomes 
 the Property Tax was obtained, might nominally have saved, on its 
 repeal, as much as they had previously paid to it, yet their real 
 gain has not been to that extent and it has been far less than the 
 loss which the Receivers of Taxation have sustained by the aboli- 
 tion of that Tax ; the great diminution in the Expenditure of Go- 
 
83 
 
 vernment and of the Revenue Clashes has indirectly, together with 
 other causes, prevented the Agricultural and Trade Classes from 
 gaining or saving- so much as they expected from the repeal of 
 the Tax; it may then, on the whole, be inferred that the degree of 
 general benefit, derived from diminishing the amount of Taxation is 
 not to be measured by the degree of evil which the imposition of 
 it may have created; also an opinion may be formed that after 
 Society has been long fixed in the habitude of a transfer of Income 
 from one part of it to another by means of Taxation, more good may 
 be effected by an improvement in the mode of raising that Taxation 
 than by a diminution in the total amount of it; that when Taxation 
 has been long established, the benefit of any improvement in the 
 system of Taxation will be a certain advantage, that of any reduc- 
 tion of Taxation, or rather of the Public Establishments and of the 
 Incomes of the Public Creditors and Public Servants, may be un- 
 certain and precarious, not only in a political point of view as 
 regards the requisite strength of the Public Establishments and the 
 maintenance of public faith and credit, but as regards the relative 
 conditions of the different Classes of Society or the general state of it, 
 which may not by such reduction be adequately ameliorated. The 
 appropriate question then under this head which the Contrast of 
 two different systems of Taxation suggests is, whether the abolition 
 of £15 millions of Property Tax has diffused so much substantial 
 relief and benefit as would have been produced by the abolition of 
 such amount of other Taxes as the continuance of the Property Tax 
 would have admitted. This question may not be capable of solu- 
 tion in any other way than by considering it as the converse of the 
 particular question under discussion throughout this part of the 
 Work, that is, Which is the least injurious of the two bases for raising 
 Taxation — Income or Expenditure? To enter on it would be to re- 
 peat the arguments and statements applied to that question, the con- 
 clusion must be, whichever mode is least injurious in raising Tax- 
 ation it must have been most beneficial to retain ; that therefore 
 the reduction of such an amount of Taxes on Expenditure as 
 might have been reduced if the Property Tax had been continued 
 would have occasioned a far greater degree of relief to the pro- 
 ductive resources of the Nation than they have experienced from 
 the repeal of that Tax. 
 
84 
 
 Excess of Taxation. 
 
 3rd. In as far as it may transfer from the Payers to the Receiv- 
 ers of the Taxes a share of the general Income which is 
 more than is just or necessary. 
 
 Although any sum of Revenue raised beyond that amount of 
 expence which is necessary to carry on the Public Service and that 
 amount of Annual Interest which is justly due to the Public Cre- 
 ditors may be considered as excess of Expenditure rather than as 
 excess of Taxation, yet, as it is less the effect of excessive Expendi- 
 ture, abstractedly viewed, than that of the increased Taxation 
 created by excess of Expenditure, which is considered an evil, it 
 is deemed proper to treat the injurious effect of such excess as 
 an evil of Taxation. 
 
 Operation and numerical Results of an Income Tax as regards the 
 Payers and the Receivers of Taxation relatively to each 
 other under this head of Excess ; also, 
 
 Whether or how far Taxation, as the Instrument of the Transfer 
 of Income, is, if equitably imposed, a general evil. 
 
 It will be assumed for the present purpose that the average 
 amount of the Public Revenue of Great Britain necessary to de- 
 fray the Interest of the Debt and its Public Expenditure, includ- 
 ing the charges of collecting the Revenue, is £50 millions,* that 
 about one-fourth of that amount (calculating as in case of a gene- 
 ral Income Tax) may be the proportion of it repaid out of the 
 Income of the Public Creditors and Public Servants, by whom the 
 greatest part of it is received,! tnat about three-fourths, viz. £37J 
 millions, is the amount paid out of the Rents and Profits of Lands, 
 
 * Some parts of the public finance Accounts are so complicated to those who are not 
 conversant with them, that there is great probability of misconception of them, therefore 
 in adverting here and in other places to the amount of the present Revenue and to the 
 various applications of it, the Sums stated may not be perfectly correct, but as the nature 
 of this Work does not admit or require precision, the errors may be immaterial. At the 
 period of reprinting this Work (1832), the Revenue of Great Britain is reduced below 
 £50 millions. In the above and in other Estimates allowance must be made for such 
 reduction. 
 
 \ A part is the incidental Expenditure of Government by whom it is disbursed prin- 
 cipally among the Trade Class ; the amount of it would be materially lessened on the 
 abolition of Taxes on Expenditure. 
 
85 
 
 Trade, &c, forming the Gross Income of the Agricultural and 
 Trade Classes and the real Income of the Country, that the 
 amount of this real Income, including the Wages of Labor, is 
 £200 millions,* and that there then remains to those Classes a Net 
 Income amounting to £162J millions and exceeding four-fifths of 
 their Gross or Nominal Income. 
 
 Premising that the greatest share of the part, less than one-fifth, 
 of the aggregate Income exacted by Taxation from the Agricultural 
 and Trade Classes is transferred to the Public Creditors, to which, as 
 their Capital, expended as it has been for the Public Service and 
 diffused among the other Classes, has contributed to the production 
 of that Income, a certain share of it of right belongs, and that the 
 remaining share of the part exacted by Taxation is transferred, 
 with equal right to it, to the Public Servants, without whose 
 aid and protection the Agricultural and Trade Classes could 
 not safely and beneficially employ their Capital and Labor, or 
 fully and freely enjoy the fruits of them, and whereby the Public 
 Servants in reality contribute to the production of the Income of 
 which it receives a part ; considering therefore on these premises 
 that the Capital of one Class and the Services of the other are vir- 
 tually parts of the productive Capital and Industry of the Country, 
 and that Taxation is but the instrument or the channel of distribu- 
 tion of that share of the general Income which is yearly received 
 in return from them, in what way and to what degree is Taxation 
 of £37J millions an evil if that share of the general Income of 
 £200 millions distributed through it be no more than equivalent 
 to the benefits in return for which it is paid? 
 
 Viewing the Public Creditors, on account of their Capital, as 
 standing upon a similar and equal footing with that portion of the 
 Owners of Lands and Houses, Partners in Trade, &c. whose Pro- 
 perty and Capital, without any Labor bodily or mental on their part, 
 are used in producing Income, and the employed Public Servants, 
 on account of their services, as standing on a similar and equal 
 footing with those actually employed in Agriculture and Trade, 
 by whose industry and skill that Property and Capital produce 
 Income, do the different modes by which the shares of that Income 
 are received by the respective Classes alter essentially their relative 
 
 * Vide Appendix for an Estimate of this Amount. 
 
86 
 
 footing? Each individual of the Agricultural and Trade Classes 
 receives his share of the general Income from the Produce of the 
 particular Property, Capital, &c. in which he has a particular 
 right or on which his share is a separate and direct charge, through 
 his own hands or the hands of a private Agent or Servant ap- 
 pointed by or connected with himself. The Public Creditors and 
 Public Servants receive their shares of the general Income from 
 the Produce of all Property, Capital, &c. on which without any 
 particular right in that Property, &c. itself, their shares are a 
 general charge raised by Public Servants or Agents, constitut- 
 ing one general Fund out of which each individual share is paid. 
 If this public collection and division of £37J millions, or less 
 than one-fifth of the general Income be conducted without any 
 greater injury to or interference with the operations of Capital and 
 Labor, by which the whole of that Income is produced, than the 
 mode of receipt or division of £162| millions, or the remain- 
 ing part of the general Income, among the Agricultural and 
 Trade Classes occasions, (and as by means of a direct Tax on In- 
 come it may be) and if there be no excess raised beyond the 
 amount justly and necessarily payable, is Taxation an evil, and if 
 so, in what manner and in what degree ? 
 
 Premising the effects of Taxation to be such as they would 
 have been, or would be under a general Tax on Income, rather 
 than such as they are or have been under Taxation on Expenditure, 
 the following proposition may be submitted — If £37| millions, or 
 nearly one-fifth part, or whatever may be the share of the real 
 annual Income of the country which Taxation may require, were 
 not exacted from the Agricultural and Trade Classes, what pro- 
 portion of it would they apply as Capital in their respective con- 
 cerns *? If they would apply the whole of it as Capital, is it not 
 to be inferred that the remaining four parts are sufficient for their 
 private expenditure, and that Taxation does not subject them to 
 any personal deprivation? or if they would expend it, does Tax- 
 ation deprive them of the use of it as Capital? Is not the sum 
 exacted by Taxation and received back (each exaction before the 
 next takes place) through the expenditure of the Public Creditors 
 and Public Servants, among whom it had been distributed, as fully 
 and as quickly applicable as Capital in the hands of the other 
 Classes, as if it had been expended by the latter directly among 
 
87 
 
 themselves? In so far then as the exaction from the Income of 
 the Agricultural and Trade Classes, is a diminution of their Pri- 
 vate Expenditure only, and if, as in case of an Income Tax, Tax- 
 ation required no advance of Capital to be made by those Classes^ 
 is it such a diversion or application of Capital as lessens the means 
 of producing Income, does it diminish the magnitude of the aggre- 
 gate Capital, of the aggregate Income, or of the aggregate Ex- 
 penditure of the Country? 
 
 Hitherto it has been surmised under this head whether Taxation 
 (raised on the best possible system) so far as it is indispensibly and 
 unquestionably necessary for carrying on the Public Service, that is, 
 for giving to every class and every interest of the Community that full 
 degree of protection and Security without which it can neither pro- 
 duce nor enjoy to the utmost the means of subsistence and comfort, 
 be really an evil, and whether Taxation (raised on the best system) 
 so far as it is applied to discharge the Interest ofthe Public Debt, if 
 it exacts no greater share from the aggregate Income of the Country 
 than is an equivalent return for the benefit received by the Public 
 from the Capital lent to and diffused through the State, and as fully 
 employed in the production of Income as it would have been if it 
 had been diffused directly through the ordinary channels, or than 
 is the fair sum of Interest for the loan of that Capital, be really 
 an evil ; but suppose, for the sake of the question, that the sum 
 disbursed among the Public Servants and for the incidental Ex- 
 pences of Government is greater than the Public Service renders 
 absolutely necessary, also that the sum paid to the Public Cre- 
 ditors is greater than they are justly entitled to, it then becomes 
 most desirable to ascertain in what degrees they respectively are 
 greater ; but it may appear, as the amount of any Excess of Tax- 
 ation proceeding from those causes is fluctuating with the con- 
 stantly varying state of Public Affairs and with the varying value 
 of Money, that it is impossible satisfactorily to determine the 
 amounts.* f Having however supposed that an Excess of Tax- 
 
 * A supposition of any existing excess of payment to the Public Creditors can arise 
 only from the presumption that, in consequence of the increased value of Money occa- 
 sioned by the change in the Currency since the greater part of the Debt was contracted 
 with them, the terms of the contract are fulfilled at a greater real Cost to the Debtors 
 than they should be subjected to. 
 
 f Does not the excess fluctuate, not only with the varying extent of the circulating 
 
88 
 
 ation from these causes does exist, suppose also it be taken at 
 some particular amount, for the sake of forming a judgment of 
 the extent of the evil of it by comparing it with the assumed total 
 amount of the National Income out of which it is exacted ; for 
 that purpose it will be assumed that the nominal Income of the 
 Public Creditors and Public Servants received out of a Revenue 
 of £50 millions is about £45 millions, that Taxation reduces it to 
 a real amount of about £3*2| millions, that the rest of the Revenue 
 is applied to the incidental expences of Government, that the Ex- 
 cess in regard to the Public Creditors is £5 millions, and in regard 
 to the Public Servants and incidental Expenditure £2 millions,* 
 
 medium on which depends the value of the fixed Incomes derived from the Public Debt, 
 but also with the varying: internal condition of the Country in other respects and the 
 varying- relations between this and other Countries, rendering- it always uncertain what 
 the strength of its Public Establishments and consequently what its Public Expenditure 
 must be ? — Is it possible, having regard to these fluctuations, to ascertain, not only 
 what is precisely necessary for the Public Service but also what is exactly equitable 
 to the Public Creditors (supposing it were strictly just to depart from the original 
 engagement with them) ? can therefore the amount of excess of Taxation at any time 
 be so positively determined, and if determinable, is its continuance so certain as to ren- 
 der it expedient and right to attempt the utter removal, or a material reduction of it, 
 and if so, in what manner and by what rules is this " equitable adjustment " as it is 
 termed, with the Public Creditors to be effected ? Is it not both more politic and more 
 just to mitigate the evil of any such excess by adopting the fairest and best system of 
 Taxation, such as the Income Tax affords, than to attempt a remedy by any other 
 means ? 
 
 Excess of Taxation proceeding from the causes in question may not be a greater evil 
 than an insufficiency of it, the opposite extreme in which an endeavor to establish the 
 exact level might terminate : it may be as consistent with true policy that the Establish, 
 ments of the Country should be rather stronger as that they should be weaker than that 
 exact degree which the security of the Country internally and externally may require j it 
 may be as consistent with good faith that the Public Creditors should receive, under 
 some circumstances and at some times, rather more as that they should receive under 
 different circumstances and at other times, less than their due which latter, adopting the 
 ground now taken against the present Fundholders, it may be stated was the case 
 during the late War, when from the depreciation in the value of Money the old 
 Fundholders, Annuitants and most of those with fixed Incomes received less than 
 their just claims. 
 
 * It must be considered that a saving of Public Expenditure to the amount of £2 
 millions could not at once be effected without a reduction in the extent of the Public 
 Establishments much greater in proportion to the whole extent of them than that sum 
 bears to the whole expence of them, as provision for life must be made for those 
 Individuals who are discharged ; although £2 millions may not much exceed one-tenth of 
 
89 
 
 making* a total nominal Excess of £7 millions, and that Taxation 
 reduces the Excess payable to the Public Creditors to £3£ millions 
 and the Excess payable to the Public Servants to £I| millions, 
 making- a total real Excess of £5 millions, then the proportion of 
 the whole real Income (assuming it at £200 millions) distributed to 
 Excess among the Public Creditors and Public Servants is 2£ per 
 Cent, or one-fortieth part of the whole amount of it.* 
 
 If Taxation were from no other cause excessive than as trans- 
 ferring from the Payers of Taxes to the Receivers of Taxes a 
 greater proportion of the general Income than is justly and neces- 
 sarily due and payable by the former to the latter, and if the ex- 
 tent of such excess is approximated by the result of the foregoing 
 supposition of the Amount, it may then be observed, that though 
 it is desirable that the most precise adjustment between those two 
 Divisions of the Community should, if possible, be effected, yet that 
 the degree of Excess, when compared with the total Income sus- 
 taining it, is not so considerable as to be seriously felt or regarded. 
 Some may estimate the amount of the Excess more moderately, 
 others more largely than the foregoing suppositions extend to ; 
 but whatever strict justice and expediency might determine the 
 amount of Excess at any period to be, it may be further observed, 
 in the consideration of Taxation of any kind as of itself a mitigation 
 of this evil of it, and even of an undue distribution of any part of 
 the general Income arising from other causes than Taxation, that 
 
 the amount of the Public Expenditure beyond the charge of the Debt, the extent of the 
 Public Establishment must be reduced in the proportion of nearly perhaps one-fifth 
 of it in order to effect immediately that saving 1 . — With respect to any unmerited 
 sinecure public situations and pensions and allowances, though it must be very desirable to 
 avoid any such Expenditure as affording* some ground or pretext for dissatisfaction with 
 Taxation in general and fixing on it a stigma which it does not deserve, yet the saving to be 
 obtained if all such gifts of Patronage were abolished would be inconsiderable and the 
 benefit of it pecuniarily be hardly felt by any individual. — According to an estimate 
 made some years since by Mr. G. Rose, if all the sinecure places and pensions objected 
 to by the political opponents of Administration at that time had ceased, the saving 
 would not to any Individual paying £50 in Taxes have exceeded the sum of four shil- 
 lings ; the rate of saving at this period would not it is conceived be greater. 
 
 * If the Public Revenue and Expenditure for Great Britain be kept permanently 
 reduced below £50 millions as at present (1832), this estimated Excess should be 
 proportionably less. 
 
 N 
 
90 
 
 the superiority of an Income Tax is evinced, for whatever Excess 
 beyond its right any particular class or individual received of the 
 whole Income, that Tax would be quite sure proportionably to 
 lessen it, and so far to obtain the just redress to other classes and 
 individuals; and this operation would be most complete in case 
 of undue distribution of Income arising from Excess of Taxation, 
 as Income derived therefrom cannot in any degree escape it. 
 
 But the evil of Taxation, in as far as it arises from any Excess in 
 the amount paid to the Public Creditors and Public Servants, may 
 be of but little importance under Taxation on Expenditure when 
 compared with those evils of Taxation which such Taxation in other 
 ways occasions; the mere overpayment to one or two Classes living 
 on Taxation is not the evil from which relief is most seriously to be 
 wished, the real and main redress to be sought for is in that change 
 of the plan of Taxation the object of which shall be, not so much 
 to render lighter the burthen of some by rendering heavier the 
 burthens of others, as to diffuse a general relief and benefit over 
 the whole by the removal of those inequalities, disabilities and im- 
 pediments with which the present mode of Taxation counteracts 
 Production, in short, to lighten Taxation by assisting and extend- 
 ing the general means of bearing it. The evil of Taxation, when 
 levied through Expenditure, not only may consist less in transfer- 
 ring an excessive amount of Income from the Payers to the Re- 
 ceivers of it than in its partial and injurious operation among the 
 former as already described, and if any of the iatter do enjoy from 
 it a greater advantage than they are justly entitled to, it may arise 
 less from any Excess in the amount paid to them than from a 
 Deficiency in the amount received back from them on account of 
 Taxation ; a possible evil which a Tax on Income is the most ef- 
 ficient preventive of. 
 
 Equitable variation of Effects of an Income Tax on the two 
 Classes (the Payers and Receivers of Taxation) as their re- 
 lative Means van/. 
 
 Adverting to opinions which are constantly being held out, that 
 the amount of the present Taxes must be reduced in order to re- 
 move the distress of the Agricultural and Manufacturing Classes, 
 
91 
 
 it may be suggested, as a direct reduction of Taxation cannot be 
 effected to a material amount (with the Expences of Government 
 reduced to the lowest possible limit) without sacrificing the Public 
 Creditors by means which might be dishonorable, and which would 
 aggravate rather than lessen the extent of distress, that a ge- 
 neral Income Tax would in effect create a reduction of Tax- 
 ation operating more beneficially for the distressed classes, and be 
 attended with less detriment to all classes, than a reduction of the 
 present Taxes by depriving the Fundholder exclusively, through 
 Taxation or otherwise, of part of his Income or Property, and be 
 at the same time as fair a maintenance of faith with the Fundholder 
 as any system of Taxation will admit of. 
 
 If it may be supposed that during times when the Agricultural and 
 Trading Classes are not in a state either of unusual depression or 
 prosperity, that the amount of the present Taxes sustained by the 
 Public Creditors and Servants, taken in a body, bear about the 
 same proportion to their aggregate Income as the amount of the 
 Taxes borne by the other Classes bears to their aggregate Income ; 
 yet it is certain that during periods of distress among the other 
 Classes, those Classes discharge the present Taxes with difficulty 
 out of reduced Profits, or by sacrifice of Stock and Goods, while 
 the amount of the Income of the Public Creditors and Servants 
 remains more fixed, and the proportion of the present Taxes 
 borne by them during such periods becomes therefore less than 
 the proportion which their Income bears to the aggregate Income 
 of all classes. During seasons of prosperity the effects may be re- 
 versed, and they become such as were experienced during the late 
 War by Annuitants and persons with fixed Incomes, most of whom 
 suffered disproportionably from the increased price of living cre- 
 ated by the Taxes and other causes, while the state of the other 
 Classes in general was improved in spite of those causes, and their 
 means increased with the Taxes they had to bear. 
 
 As however the relative state of the different Classes of Society sel- 
 dom remains long the same, but is generally in a course of change, a 
 general Income Tax would be sure, by certainly shifting or varying 
 its weight on them as their relative condition might alter, and to 
 the full extent of that alteration, to become a burthen falling more 
 or less on those subsisting on the Revenue as those deriving no In- 
 
92 
 
 come from it became less or more able to contribute to it; and sup- 
 posing such a crisis to the National Debtors, that instead of the means 
 to contribute three-fourths of the whole Tax, or whatever might be 
 their proportion in prosperous or ordinary times, the highest scale 
 at which it could be effectually imposed, would not draw from them 
 more than one-half of the whole required Revenue, it would follow 
 that the Public Creditors and Servants in general must contribute 
 the remaining one-half, or in fact receive no more than one-half 
 of their due Incomes, until, by the improvement of the condition 
 of the Debtors, to which such a temporary apportionment of the 
 Revenue now imagined would very greatly conduce, the Debtors 
 should be enabled to contribute to their former extent. Without 
 however seriously anticipating such an extremity of circumstances, 
 it is a most satisfactory conclusion in favor of an Income Tax, which 
 cannot be too frequently urged, that according to the degree of 
 prosperity or adversity of the Agricultural and Trading Classes, 
 so would the Tax be drawn less or more from that Income which 
 the Tax itself would supply to the other Classes ; in proportion to 
 the inability of the Nation to discharge the Interest of the National 
 Debt, the Interest of the Debt would in effect discharge itself; as the 
 general resources of the Country increased, and the greater its con- 
 sequent payment to the Revenue, the less would be the deduction of 
 the Tax from the Public Creditors, and the greater would conse- 
 quently be their Income ; as the resources of the Country declined, 
 the less would the Creditors receive; thus the relative conditions 
 of the Public Creditors and Public Debtors would, under any cir- 
 cumstances, be kept more uniform, and the burthen of the Debt 
 would be maintained in due ratio to the ability of the Country to 
 bear it. On such grounds it is submitted that the necessary adap- 
 tation of the national means to the great end of discharging the 
 Debt may be effected with less detriment to them, and the division 
 of the whole Income of the Country between the National Debtors 
 and Creditors may be produced more equitably by an Income Tax 
 than by any other system of Taxation. The same operation would 
 take place with respect to the Public Servants, for as the deduction 
 of the Tax from their pay and allowances, and consequently their 
 Net Income would be greater or less according as the contribu- 
 tion to the Tax by the rest of the Contributors might decrease or 
 
93 
 
 increase, so in effect the compensation for their services would vary 
 in proportion to the means of the Public to compensate them. 
 
 With reference to statements that since the alteration in the 
 Currency, the Fundholders, whose Incomes in nominal amount are 
 undiminished and the real value of which is enhanced thereby, are 
 therefore in the receipt of a greater share of the general mass of 
 Income than they are equitably entitled to, that in order to reduce 
 them to their proper level rt an equitable adjustment of contracts" 
 should take place, meaning, it may be supposed, that the amount 
 of their Property or Income should be reduced in proportion to the 
 undue increase in the value of it, it is to be observed that in what 
 manner and at what rate the adjustment is to be effected has not 
 been specifically proposed ; whatever may be the degree of this 
 alleged inequality favorable to the Fundholders, an Income Tax, 
 in proportion to the extent to which it is carried, would re- 
 move it, and would produce the adjustment desired, but in a man- 
 ner more equitable than a reduction of the Rate of Interest or 
 than any other means could effect it. An Income Tax to the 
 full amount of the Public Revenue, operating on the Incomes of the 
 Fundholders more rigidly than on most other Incomes, might nearly 
 level any undue excess of their Income created by the change in 
 the Currency. 
 
 It is said that Traders and Agriculturalists are desirous of high 
 Prices, under an opinion of their tending to high Profits. — Whether, 
 taking all effects of high Prices into consideration, that opinion be 
 correct and that desire, as regards themselves, be prudent, seems 
 very doubtful : one effect in particular of high Prices however is, as 
 bearing on the present question,not to be overlooked : that high Pri- 
 ces, whether created by Taxes on Commodities, by the state of the 
 Currency, or by any other cause which affects the production or value 
 of the Commodities, must lessen the means of the Public Creditors 
 and Servants to contribute to those Taxes, the higher the Prices the 
 less they can consume, and consequently the less they can repay, and 
 the more therefore the other Classes must contribute to Taxes on 
 Commodities. It is also certain that the conflicts of interests, feelings 
 between the Public Creditors and Servants and the other Classes 
 may, as far as Taxation is concerned, be more equitably set at rest 
 by a general Tax on Income than by any other mode of Taxation. 
 
94 
 
 Though the Fundholders and Public Servants might have some 
 reason to apprehend a more effectual operation of the Income Tax 
 upon their respective Incomes, yet, it is submitted with respect to 
 the Fundholders, that the security of their Income depends on the 
 state of the other Classes, from whose Property, Capital, Skill and 
 Labor it is drawn, andthat although the degree of the general burthen 
 borne by these Classes might not be so complete as in strict justice 
 it should be, yet the greater their power to bear it the greater degree 
 of it they assuredly would bear, that these are Considerations which 
 together with the liberal or expedient principle in affairs in general 
 between Creditor and Debtor of conceding somewhat to the latter 
 for the sake of ameliorating his state or preventing its deteri- 
 oration, having in view the greater benefit in the end of the Cre- 
 ditor as well as of the Debtor, may reconcile them to some inequality 
 in the operation of a Tax by which, notwithstanding that inequality, 
 the weight of the general burthen may on the whole be less par- 
 tially and more beneficially adjusted than by any other mode of 
 Taxation; There are also other considerations grounded on the 
 relative state of the several Classes which should have weight. 
 The Fundholder's Property is not, like other Property, subjected 
 directly to local Rates which bear hardly and unequally on the 
 Owners or Occupiers of the latter; also, by the deduction of the 
 Income Tax at the place of payment, the Fundholders might be 
 free from any of those objected proceedings for ascertaining In- 
 come which the other Classes would be subject to. It may be fur- 
 ther observed, that most Owners of Funded Property acquire 
 and retain it voluntarily, they can change the nature and se- 
 curity of their Capital at any time, and though on one hand if 
 any unequal effect of an Income Tax would tend to depreciate the 
 comparative value of Funded Property, yet, on the other hand, 
 the greater security given to it by adopting the fairest system of 
 Taxation which can be resorted to, and the greater certainty which 
 that system will hold out of ultimately diminishing the present ex- 
 cessive amount of that Property by the superior means which 
 it affords of reducing the National Debt, (as shewn in the Third 
 Part of this Work) will tend to raise the comparative value of 
 Funded Property. 
 
95 
 
 Excess of Taxation, 
 
 In as far as the levy of a Sinking Fund or Surplus Revenue 
 may be unnecessary or of inadequate utility. 
 
 By those who are of opinion that a Sinking Fund raised by ad- 
 ditional Taxation for the purpose of reducing- the National Debt 
 is unnecessary or is of inadequate utility as regards its particular 
 object, or that it is so unless it be increased to such an extent and 
 fixed on such a plan as will render it a complete and secure means 
 of accomplishing that object, but that if carried to such an extra- 
 ordinary extent Taxation would pass the extreme limit contemplated 
 under the 2nd Head of Excess of Taxation, and occasion its own 
 diminution, all Surplus Revenue beyond the amount absolutely 
 necessary to discharge the annual Interest of the Debt and defray 
 the annual expence of the Public Establishments must be deemed 
 excess of Taxation, it is therefore now introduced as one of the 
 heads of Excess for the purpose of distinguishing the advantage 
 which the Income Tax offers under it. 
 
 If it be desirable to get rid of the existing amount of the Surplus 
 Revenue, that is of all the annual Taxation which can possibly be 
 dispensed with, and to establish some other and more certain means 
 of reducing the National Debt, an Income or Property Tax affords 
 the most affectual if not the only practicable scheme for that pur- 
 pose : this scheme consists in rendering the Tax on Real Property 
 subject to Redemption and Purchase.* It may be objected that 
 the Consideration required as purchase money for the Redemption 
 of the Tax and exoneration of Property from it would be in fact 
 multiplied Taxation and be tantamount to the accumulation of 
 an annual Sinking Fund of long duration ; with reference however 
 not only to the great advantages which, as hereafter shewn, a re- 
 deemable Income or Property Tax has over a Sinking Fund kept 
 up by annual Taxation on expenditure, and to the experienced dif- 
 ficulty of maintaining a Sinking Fund of large amount, but also to 
 the supposition that any means whatever of wholly discharging or 
 materially reducing the National Debt must be no longer con- 
 templated, and if in that case, it became a question which would 
 be most expedient either as a means of diminishing the National 
 
 * The justice, the advantages and the practicability of this Scheme are fully repre- 
 sented in the Third Part of this Work. 
 
96 
 
 Debt though in an inconsiderable degree, (having* in view prin- 
 cipally the beneficial effect which a regular liquidation of Stock, 
 though small in amount, has with respect to the Funds,) or as a 
 provision in case of a temporary deficiency of Revenue, a small 
 Sinking Fund or Surplus Revenue not exceeding two or three 
 millions (the Amount of the present Surplus) raised by an annual 
 Taxation, or a levy of the same amount raised annually by Re- 
 demption of Income or Property Tax, it may be presumed, that 
 the latter would be found the preferable alternative ; the Sink- 
 ing or Surplus Fund, however small, must be additional Tax- 
 ation pressing on all the resources of the country, and raised 
 with difficulty from many already overburthened by that amount 
 of Taxation which is requisite to discharge the Interest of the 
 Debt and the ordinary public Expenditure, and with all the 
 obnoxious proceedings of Taxation kept in full operation over 
 the whole community ; but in case of a redeemable Income 
 Tax, an amount of Consideration equal to that of such a Sink- 
 ing Fund or Surplus Revenue, might be easily obtained from 
 year to year from those who, having full means in their possession, 
 might as willingly, as they could conveniently, avail themselves of 
 the scheme for exonerating their Property from Taxation : it 
 thus might fall on those particular individual resources only 
 which would be most adequate to meet it, and all individuals would 
 be relieved from the aggravation of that additional yearly burthen 
 with its attendant proceedings, which a Sinking Fund or Surplus 
 Revenue imposes on all. 
 
 The reduction of the National Debt depending on the redemp- 
 tion of Income or Property Tax, might then, if the consideration 
 required to be annually raised thereby did not exceed the amount 
 now supposed, be confidently rested on the contingency of volun- 
 tary offers for the purpose, and the necessity of rendering the 
 measure of a compulsory nature in any degree might not be ap- 
 prehended:* the funds out of which the means could be raised 
 would not be injured by it, while the continuance of a Sinking Fund 
 or Surplus Revenue raised by annual Taxation must depend on an 
 excessive amount of it, forced from many unwilling Contributors 
 by methods more destructive of the funds from which it is levied — 
 
 * This point is more fully discussed in the Third Part. 
 
97 
 
 in the one case the object might be accomplished without incon- 
 venience to those individuals who had the means to pay the price 
 of it, but who on the contrary would receive an immediate and 
 adequate advantage for it ; some would redeem in the first year 
 and others successively in subsequent years as their respective cir- 
 cumstances might incline and enable them to come forward, and 
 while no Individual injury would be inflicted the general interests 
 would not suffer; in the other case, the object cannot be accom- 
 plished without that aggravation of evils falling on all which must 
 accompany an increase of Taxation raised upon a system such as 
 now exists. If the amount of Taxation necessarv to pay the annual 
 Interest of the Public Debt and the Expences of the Public Esta- 
 blishments is excessive, the one alternative offers a certain relief 
 from that excess — the other presents the necessity of increasing it; 
 in the end also it would probably be found, that from the different 
 mode of operation of the two measures, a redeemable Income Tax 
 would discharge the same amount of Debt not only with less ag- 
 gregate cost but in a less period of time. 
 
 On the question of raising a Surplus Revenue or Sinking Fund 
 by an increase of Income Tax to an adequate extent beyond the 
 Amount of the present Revenue, if it were deemed most advisable 
 to depend on a Sinking Fund or Surplus Revenue rather than on 
 any plan for the redemption of the Tax, it may be observed that 
 the Income Tax would supply a Sinking Fund of a much larger 
 amount than now exists without any additional taxation on the 
 Country. The saving in the expence of collecting the whole Re- 
 venue, if the whole were raised by an Income Tax, would be nearly 
 equal to the amount of the present surplus Revenue, taking the 
 average amount at between £2 and £3 mill ions, adding then that sav- 
 ing and the saving in the incidental expences of Government to arise 
 from the reduction of prices on the repeal of the present Taxes, to 
 the present amount of Surplus Revenue, a Sinking Fund of about 
 £6 millions would at once be created without raising a Public Re- 
 venue beyond its present amount. The improvement in the various 
 productive sources of Income which the repeal of the present Taxes 
 would occasion and the consequently augmented produce of the 
 Tax on Income would greatly increase the Surplus Revenue, and 
 ensure a reduction of the National Debt with much less danger of 
 
98 
 
 failure and disappointment than under a Sinking Fund raised upon 
 the present system of Taxation.* 
 
 On the Branches of the present System of Taxation ivhich might 
 be discontinued on the substitution of an Income Tax^ and the 
 consequent great diminution of the Number of Persons subject 
 to Taxation. 
 
 A large proportion of the Revenue is at present raised by di- 
 rect Taxes, and though they do not partake of all the evils which 
 are attributed to Taxation on Commodities, yet, as a great part of 
 them, viz. the Assessed Taxes, are much objected to, not only as 
 unequal but as obnoxious in the procedure of them, it is also wor- 
 thy of notice, that if they were abolished on the revival of an 
 Income Tax, a Tax objectionable in the way of procedure would 
 not be substituted without getting rid of another branch of Tax- 
 ation which is raised in a similar manner, but which falls on many 
 persons more hardly and obnoxiously than the substituted Tax 
 would fall ; and though this part of the change would be the con- 
 tinuance of one of the several existing machineries of Taxation, the 
 rest of them might be discontinued. 
 
 The following branches might cease on the substitution of a 
 sufficient amount of Income Tax, viz. the Excise, Stamps, including 
 Legacy Tax, Assessed Taxes and probably the Customs, — the ma- 
 chinery of the Post would remain as the means of an indispensible 
 Public accommodation, but as it would no longer be instrumental 
 to Taxation the charges for Letters might be reduced to one- 
 fourth of their present amount. 
 
 With respect to the expediency of continuing any part of the 
 Customs as protecting Duties, it may be observed that the diminu- 
 tion in the Cost of Production and in the Prices of Articles to take 
 place on the reduction of the present Taxes would render protect- 
 ing Duties unnecessary or less necessary, and if that kind of Taxa- 
 tion could not be wholly got rid of, it might be so far reduced 
 that the temptation to Smuggling would be removed and with it all 
 the obnoxious part of the machinery now in force for preventing it. 
 If prohibitive Duties could be wholly dispensed with but if it were 
 
 * The levy of a very largely increased Sinking Fund by means of an Income Tax 
 without any additional burthen on the country, is fully entered into in the Third Part. 
 
99 
 
 necessary for the sake of useful public information to ascertain the 
 quantities and value of Imports and Exports, very trifling" and mere 
 nominal Duties would be sufficient to defray the expence of the 
 establishment of Officers to be maintained for that purpose. 
 
 A suggestion will be offered in the Third Part of this Work of 
 the means for equitably repealing the Land Tax unredeemed ; if 
 it were not repealed, it would be raised together with the Income 
 Tax, the same machinery being applicable to both. 
 
 If all the direct and indirect Taxes were abolished and a general 
 Income lax substituted, there would be a much less number of 
 persons than is at present subjected to the direct procedings of 
 Taxation while the number of all those who would pay to the In- 
 come Tax directly or by way of deduction would to the number of 
 all those who directly or indirectly pay to the present taxes, not 
 much exceed the ratio of one to four. 
 
 General Observations on the Advantages and Expediency of an 
 
 Income Tax. 
 
 The Writer of these pages would not deny or extenuate those 
 objections to the late Property Tax which were fairly imputable to 
 it, he would rather expose and add his testimony of them, so far as 
 they occurred to his observation, with a view to the impartial con- 
 sideration, in the Second Part of his Work, of any remedies for 
 them. While he is conscious that this great financial measure 
 merits an advocacy far beyond such as his abilities can give to it, 
 he is nevertheless aware that however ably advocated, it cannot 
 convincingly or justly be held up as amounting under any prac- 
 ticable form to a perfect plan of Taxation, and that it is recom- 
 mendable only in the way of comparison with other modes of Tax- 
 ation; but confident he may safely be, that if it could be advanced 
 in practical operation near to that degree of superiority over them 
 which it holds in principle and theory, it would be advantageous 
 to the Country to renew it, and to carry it to the utmost required 
 extent of the Public Revenue. Whether or to what degree it be 
 capable of such improvement beyond its former operation may 
 be the point for determination, but a further trial on the best 
 practicable modified plan of it, would, he sanguinely trusts, de- 
 cide most satisfactorily in" its favor. 
 
00 
 
 On the grounds for Preference of old to new Taxes, 
 
 In recommending the substitution of an Income Tax for other 
 Taxes, it must be admitted that the system of Taxation which has 
 been long established possesses, in spite of the faults of it, a great 
 advantage over another system which, though superior in prin- 
 ciple and in plan, is comparatively new and strange. The present 
 system has in a great degree become fixed in the habits of the 
 people from its extraordinary duration, and reconcileable from a 
 sense of the inevitable necessity of a large Public Revenue and of 
 the impossibility under any scheme whatever of Taxation of raising 
 it in au unobjectionable manner ; it is however the subject of con- 
 stant complaint as any particular classes or individuals are or con- 
 ceive themselves to be injuriously or unequally affected by it. The 
 late Property Tax, after a disadvantageous trial of it on a plan 
 which may have been imperfect, was not, when the promised time 
 of its cessation arrived put in competition with the present system, 
 as one of two alternatives to be chosen, it was not offered as a sub- 
 stitute and in a modified form* for an existing burthen, but as an 
 addition to it and with a continuance of all its obnoxious proce- 
 dure, and was, it is apprehended, condemned and rejected prin- 
 cipally, if not avowedly, on that account; the Tax had also 
 been under the disadvantage of being raised together with other 
 Taxes in the aggregate of much larger amount, which not only 
 made the weight of it more severe, but prevented the comparatively 
 equitable operation of it from being fairly tried or clearly perceived, 
 and as it had been expressly imposed as a temporary measure by a 
 pledge given in the Act itself for the discontinuance of it at a spe- 
 cified period (the end of the War) the fulfilment of the promise 
 was claimed with a feeling which prevailed over every consider- 
 
 * No material modification was proposed on the attempt to continue the Tax after 
 the War excepting a reduction of the Rate of Charge. The intention, as declared, was 
 to prolong it for two years only, but that intention after the pledge given in the Act it- 
 self that the Tax should cease at the end of the War, was mistrusted, and the declaration 
 ©fit had not the desired effect. 
 

 101 
 
 ation, but which arose probably more from a desire of the riddance 
 of a heavy Tax than from any objection to the principle of it or to 
 those proceedings by which part of it was enforced, and which in 
 language were so warmly deprecated. If there had been no such 
 promise and consequent expectation of the cessation of the mea- 
 sure, if the continuance of it could have been offered, not as an ad- 
 ditional burthen, but as a substitute for an equal or larger amount 
 of other Taxes, and divested of its most objectionable provisions, 
 the Property Tax would in all probability have met with a different 
 fate, and to whatever extent it might have been carried on these 
 terms, the community would by this time have become sensible of 
 its superiority in the various bearings of it as a Tax compared with 
 the present Taxes in general. 
 
 Contemplating then a future Income Tax as an exchange for 
 another burthen, it is just and due to the measure to state that 
 though time and experience, increased knowledge and matured 
 judgment might be necessary for bringing it to as perfect a state of 
 execution as it is practically capable of, yet a far less degree of those 
 requisites than the present system of Taxation has had the benefit of 
 would advance it to that state, and convince the community of the 
 advantages of it. The Excise at its first institution and long after- 
 wards was as much reprobated as the Income Tax has been, "it was 
 " necessary to use the people to it by little and little, and thus by 
 * c d egrees the Excise became perpetuated,"* it was observed ata 
 period when the amount and number of Excise Duties were small 
 compared with their present amount and number, that " its very 
 iC name from its first origin to the present time has been odious to 
 iC the people,* implying a degree of unpopularity which has sub- 
 sequently much abated though the system is still viewed and felt as 
 very obnoxious. When additions have been made to the Excise 
 and to other branches of Revenue they have often been creations 
 of new and strange imposts, not merely increases of old ones, and 
 they have been attended with obnoxious proceedings operating 
 where and in a manner in which such proceedings had never be- 
 fore been felt — but if on a substitution of an Income Tax for the 
 
 * Bluekstone, 
 
present Taxes it were necessary to effect the establishment of it 
 (i by little and little" for the sake of obviating any temporary or 
 partial inconveniences and of gradually reconciling the change 
 where it would be most heavily felt, though justly so, that is, 
 wherever Taxation is now not fairly borne, the successive addi- 
 tions to the first imposition of it would not be the introduction of 
 a novel and unaccustomed procedure— the operations of an Income 
 Tax when carried to the utmost possible extent of it would not, in 
 the way of procedure, act more extensively and objectionably than 
 under the smallest amount of the Tax : an increase from time to 
 time of the rate or rates of charge would be merely an increase in 
 pecuniary payment without any extension of or addition to the pro- 
 ceedings, while every such increase would not only admit of the re- 
 peal of a larger amount of the present Taxes, but would get rid of 
 the more obnoxious and injurious procedure with which that hea- 
 vier exaction is attended. 
 
 Some will however think that whatever has been long settled had, 
 in spite of all its faults, better remain, they will admit the superiority 
 of an Income Tax and regret that the Revenue had not from the 
 beginning been raised by means of it, but will nevertheless con- 
 ceive that the existing Taxes having been so long established are 
 preferable to a new though a lighter burthen, that any great 
 change, though beneficial in the end, will create much dissatis- 
 faction and disturbance for some time at least, as many from various 
 motives will decry and oppose it; this appears to be an opinion 
 founded more on cautious apprehension than on firm reason or 
 sound policy; others may doubt the utility of a change on the 
 ground that it would be only the needless shifting of a burthen or 
 deprivation from some to other persons, that the weight and mag- 
 nitude of the burthen and deprivation would remain nearly the 
 same ; this objection, if of any force, is not more applicable to a 
 change in the plan of raising Taxation than to a reduction in 
 the amount of it, which in fact is the mere shifting of a deprivation 
 from one class to another. By improvement in the mode of Taxation 
 there is a certainty that the Tax Payers in general will pay with 
 more equality, with less inconvenience, and be better preserved 
 from sustaining a loss which the Tax Receivers do not gain ; 
 whether on reduction in the amount of Taxation occasioned by a 
 
103 
 
 diminished Public Ependiture the Tax Payers gain all which the 
 Tax Receivers lose appears very questionable. Though the great 
 object of regard in a change in the system of Taxation may be 
 more the general benefit than the partial consequences to a compa- 
 ratively few, yet the shifting of the burthen from some shoulders 
 to others is important in as much as it is equalization, which is not 
 only an act of individual relative justice but is favorable to pro- 
 ductiveness of Revenue and is therefore a general benefit. Those 
 who only or mostly will suffer by the change to an Income Tax 
 will be Misers, Absentees, and Smugglers ; most of these persons 
 who can and will evade the present Taxes and others who can ob- 
 tain undue saving or profit by the evasion of them will be opposed 
 to the substitution of that Tax in lieu of them. 
 
 On the Popular opinion and feeling with respect to an Income 
 Tax and on the particular Objectors to it. 
 
 Many persons will admit that the levy of an Income Tax would 
 not meet with much difficulty in times of general quiet and content, 
 but there will be an apprehension in their minds that at periods of 
 popular excitement insurmountable or very serious obstructions 
 might arise — but it may be asked whether any general excitement 
 aiming at some such speculative or such necessary Changes, not 
 connected with fiuance, as are the occasional objects of popular 
 feeling or opinion, is to be earnestly regarded in the collection of 
 Taxation at any other times than when real distress and adversity 
 press on the great body of the people, these causes only inclining 
 them to call for such changes as the supposed remedies for their 
 grievances ; whether under those circumstances, as it is in periods 
 of distress that the comparative advantages of an Income Tax 
 are most sensibly to be felt, in as much as the relief from Taxation 
 to every in ividual in proportion to his distress is obvious, and the 
 burthen of it as obviously falls on those most able to bear it, it 
 may not rather be anticipated that the levy of an equal Income 
 Tax would create much less discontent and meet with less dif- 
 ficulty than other modes of Taxation are at such times attended 
 with, more particularly as the great majority of the people, the 
 
104 
 
 lower classes, whose situations are most to be consulted and whose 
 feelings are most to be dreaded at those periods, could be wholly 
 exempted from the Tax. 
 
 If the Receivers of the Taxes had no other dependance for the 
 payments due to them than the clandestine manner in which the 
 amount is exacted from the pockets of the Payers by indirect tax- 
 ation, frail would be their Security: If the honest feeling of the 
 Community at large had not been the surest, if not the only gua- 
 rantee to the Public Creditors for the faithful payment of their In- 
 terest, it may be imagined that they would long ere now have ex- 
 perienced the fallacy of relying on any particular mode of obtain- 
 ing it from their Debtors — if the great body of the Public could 
 desire to defraud its Creditors and Servants, or would carry any 
 popular end by stopping the Revenue, though indirect taxation 
 might oppose some difficulties, those difficulties would be sur- 
 mountable and in a way which would greatly aggravate the ordi- 
 nary consequences of such a stoppage, far more than would the 
 bare refusal to pay direct taxation, unaccompanied as that refusal 
 might be by any other act of violence or mischief. 
 
 Although the constitutional mode of stopping the Supplies as a 
 means of compelling the Crown to yield to popular desire in res- 
 pect of any particular measure is lodged in the Lower House of 
 Parliament, an opinion is speculatively hazarded that it might 
 not be so very impolitic as may be generally apprehended, that 
 the people should also in themselves possess some power of the same 
 nature ; such a mode of manifesting popular power would doubt- 
 less be a great evil, and yet it might be less than that which could 
 be obviated by it ; the people can adopt means more violent and 
 ruinous for the attainment of their ends — the destruction of Pro- 
 perty and Life itself — the annihilation of all order and authority 
 — means which may be attended with lasting and irremediable 
 consequences ; the refusal to pay direct Taxation may be a tempo- 
 rary inconvenience only, and during its existence some settlement 
 of the object of contention may take place without further po- 
 pular acts to aggravate that inconvenience. Such a crisis as 
 a general refusal to pay Taxes for the purpose of coercing 
 the Legislature or the Executive Authorities is not likely to 
 occur, unless under such very imperious circumstances as may 
 
105 
 
 render it on the whole most advisable to concede to popular de- 
 mand, and it mav be the most politic alternative to risk with them 
 such a kind of influence as the power to withhold the Taxes 
 affords, rather than to drive them to resort to more lawless and 
 dreadful proceedings. 
 
 Those who would not concur in these speculative sentiments — 
 who would decidedly object to an Income or Property Tax be- 
 cause of the mode of levying it, also all those who do not approve 
 of Taxation, direct or indirect, as a means of distributing a part of 
 the National Income among those who are entitled to it — may, in 
 case of the adoption of an Income Tax, have the encouraging con- 
 sideration that it will afford, as shewn in the Third Part of this 
 Work, the most just and effectual, and (judging from the repeated 
 failures of attempts to discharge the National Debt by an annual 
 Surplus Revenue and accumulating Sinking Fund), the only prac- 
 ticable plan of honorably liquidating the National Debt and thereby 
 of getting rid altogether of that proportion of annual taxation 
 and at the same time of placing the National Creditors on that se- 
 cure and desirable footing on which Owners of Real Property 
 have ever stood. 
 
 It does not however follow that all those persons who contribute less 
 to Taxation on Expenditure than they would to a Tax on Income 
 would object to the latter, many persons who live parsimoniously, 
 but who are honorably minded, would most willingly contribute 
 the full share of their means which a fair mode of Taxation would 
 require from them, and it is presumed that all who entertain a 
 proper sense of those public obligations, which the application of 
 Taxation fulfils, will readily pay whatever they ought respectively 
 to contribute though demanded and collected openly and dis- 
 tinctly as a Tax, and will cheerfully meet any requisition or pro- 
 ceedings which may be necessary and reasonable for ascertaining 
 and fixing the just amount. 
 
 It is conceived that those from whom it is most difficult to raise 
 direct taxation, if the proceedings for obtaining it depend on 
 themselves, consist of two descriptions; first, those who disre- 
 gard the fulfilment of pecuniary obligations of any kind and 
 who will not scruple to violate them whenever they can; se- 
 condly, those who though they would not neglect or evade pri- 
 
106 
 
 vate obligations are disinclined to the discharge of those of a 
 public nature, either from a want of sufficient sense of or from 
 indifference to the claims which the Public Creditors and Public 
 Servants hold on them, or from not receiving at the particular 
 moment when they pay a direct Tax the supply of any want, in the 
 same manner as when under indirect Taxation they obtain an ar- 
 ticle of consumption on paying the Tax on it which is confounded 
 with the natural price of it — this last Class is probably numerous, 
 but it is confidently believed that the great majority of those who 
 are in such circumstances of life as to become chargeable to an 
 Income Tax are influenced by better feelings, while under that 
 Tax, all, or very nearly all those among whom sentiments unfavor- 
 able to Taxation may most naturally and excusably prevail would 
 or could be exempted from it. 
 
 Some would justify or palliate indifference to, or avoidance of 
 public obligations, by the opinion that they are improperly in- 
 curred, or are carried to an unnecessary extent ; but a consider- 
 ation more appropriate with them might be, whether the share 
 which every one is called on to contribute is neither more nor less 
 than, according to the principle of equality by which Taxation 
 should be governed, he ought to contribute ; that just redress 
 from any excess of Taxation which those Persons would seek, may 
 lay more in the means by which Taxation is raised than in the way 
 in which it may be afterwards expended by the State. To those 
 who will however consider that relief from Taxation is to be ob- 
 tained more by direct reduction in the amount of it than by any al- 
 teration in the mode of raising it, it maybe answered that the sub- 
 stitution of an Income Tax will afford the relief in both ways — if 
 they insist that it is by retrenchment of the Public Expenditure 
 only that relief from Taxation is to be sought, it is contended that 
 in the event of any mitigation of the Public burthens by other means 
 than by improvement in the mode and by saving in the expence of 
 collecting Taxation, the Income Tax will nevertheless stand in the 
 same favorable position of contrast with respect to other Taxes as 
 it does at present ; the advantages and expediency of the change, 
 though they may be in degree less, will ever be important under 
 any reduced amount of the Public C arges. 
 
 Taxation besides its peculiar difficulties has to combat that com- 
 
107 
 
 mon one, which other pecuniary obligations have to contend with — 
 Avarice— this succeeds more easily and quietly, and therefore 
 more extensively, under Taxation on Expenditure than under a 
 Tax on Income ; this Tax is its most formidable foe, and operates 
 so effectually against it as sometimes to excite those feelings which 
 when vented openly are not always attributed to the true cause — 
 the blame which should rest with the Complainant is too often 
 thrown upon the Tax, or, more improperly still, on those whose 
 duty it is to raise it strictly and impartially. 
 
 The principle of an Income Tax is founded on Justice ; it is a 
 maxim that for the attainment and maintenance of Justice in any 
 branch of the Civil Polity some evil must be endured; Why 
 should not this maxim be strictly and fully applied to Taxation? — 
 Justice in Taxation with its undeniable benefits, can never be ob- 
 tained until the Community will submit to pay the price of it. 
 With reference again to that frequent plea (generally made with 
 great exaggeration and much shew of feeling) against an Income 
 Tax — its inquisitorial powers — are not such powers constantly being 
 exercised in a similar manner and for similar objects, where the 
 rights of individuals, or local and public purposes require it? 
 the procedure of an Income Tax, under a properly modified form, 
 would subject the honest part of the Community, in its operation 
 for their protection against the dishonest, to less annoyance than 
 the proceedings for the attainment of Justice in other affairs of a 
 public nature often inflict on them. 
 
 It may however be alleged by some that if human frailty will 
 oppose obstacles to Taxation, the great object should be to levy it 
 in such a manner as would best meet or avoid them ; with refer- 
 ence then to this object, it may be sanguinely hoped that when Tax- 
 ation is established in a more open and direct form, and upon the 
 more equitable and beneficial terms which that form admits, and 
 a conviction of its justice and its advantages prevails, the obstacles 
 which factious, selfish or mistaken feelings or opinions may at first 
 oppose to the change and to the peaceable execution of the mea- 
 sure will for the most part be gradually Overcome, and that in 
 time very few excepting those whose disposition with respect to 
 pecuniary obligations in general is naturally wrong, and who will 
 therefore obstruct Taxation in any form, but who are unworthy of 
 serious regard, will remain the constant or decided enemies to it. 
 
108 
 
 Among 1 the objectors to an Income Tax there must not be over- 
 looked a portion of the numerous Political Opponents of Admi- 
 nistration, some of whom might, for opposition's sake, decry the 
 measure when brought forward by the Government ; the more the 
 Change might promise to relieve Government from its financial 
 difficulties the more vehement might be that opposition ; but as it 
 may be presumed that authentic sources of information sanction 
 the following statement made in a recent publication on " Finan- 
 " cial Reform," it is to be inferred that the general opinion has 
 become of late far more favorable to an Income Tax. " In se- 
 " lecting a new Tax there seems to be but one opinion with respect 
 " to what that Tax ought to be. Persons who hold the most op- 
 " posite doctrines on the subject of Financial, Commercial, and 
 " Agricultural difficulties, in suggesting remedies have made an 
 " Income Tax a part of them."* It may certainly be concluded 
 that longer reflection on and further experience of the present sys- 
 tem of Finance, since the Property Tax was abandoned, has created 
 a change in the minds of many who were formerly opposed to such 
 a Tax. 
 
 That the substitution of an Income Tax would mitigate on the 
 whole the evils of Taxation a doubt need not be entertained, 
 judging from the nature of the evils of the present Taxation, al- 
 though those evils may be much less in extent than they are ge- 
 nerally imagined to be ; but there may be expected some difference 
 of opinion as to the degree of mitigation which will arise from the 
 change, and it must be admitted that the expediency of a revival 
 of the Income Tax will depend not only on the degree of the 
 benefit to be derived from it, (and unless the probable degree be 
 considerable some woul d notbe inclined to make the attempt,) but on 
 the pre-existence of a general expectation and conviction that such 
 benefit will really be experienced. A popular desire and call for 
 the substitution of an Income Tax, so that it may be, as it were, 
 self imposed, must be the strongest inducement and justification 
 for resorting to it, and would be also the most satisfactory answer 
 hereafter to any complaints against its operations, if there should 
 
 * Sir H. Parnell, Bart. M.P. Chairman of the Select Committee on Public Income and 
 Expenditure, 1828, On Financial Reform. 
 
109 
 
 be any such causes of complaint as unavoidably arose out of the 
 system itself and not from any remediable defects in the enact- 
 ments or execution of it. Whether it be, as has been stated, that 
 c ? it was the general voice of the people which stopped the Pro- 
 c< perty Tax/' or whether it be that it was the clamor of, compara- 
 tively, a few, which stopped it, it may be expedient that the res- 
 toration of such a Tax should depend on the iC voice of the people,'* 
 and until that voice be unequivocally expressed or the sense of the 
 community at large be known to be generally in favor of the change, 
 that it should not be adopted. 
 
 Adaptation of an Income Tax, to the peculiar Difficulties 
 produced by the National Debt. 
 
 The immense Amount of the National Debt seems to place this 
 Country in a situation of peculiar difficulty from the apparent 
 impossibility of a right adjustment of it; it is contended that an 
 Income Tax offers the best if not the sole expedient for that pur- 
 pose, whether as a means of equitably discharging annually the 
 Interest or of equitably liquidating the Principal of the Debt. 
 
 An Article on " Taxation and Expenditure" in a periodical 
 publication* contains the following remarks: 
 
 " The effect, after all, of the National Debt on the general in- 
 " ternal circumstances of the Country, and on the intercourse 
 " between man and man involved in all the transactions of busi- 
 " ness, is not, perhaps, as correctly understood as might be ex- 
 " pected, in a Country where a National Debt has so long existed. 
 " If an individual has a rental of £5,000 per annum, and pays in 
 " direct or indirect Taxes £1,000 per annum, which he would 
 " not pay but for the existence of the National Debt, he is in 
 " point of fact, not the possessor of £5,000 per annum, but of 
 " £4,000. If a servant receives £20 wages, and pays, in direct 
 " or indirect taxation, 20 per Cent., in point of fact his real wages 
 Ci are only £16 instead of £20. If this illustration were pursued, 
 iC it would be found that every person, the payer of direct or in- 
 " direct Taxes, must be so much the poorer in consequence of this 
 
 * Quarterly Review, December 1826. 
 
110 
 
 " National Debt ; but nevertheless that — admitting for the sake of 
 " argument that the Debt could be so adjusted that every man 
 " should only pay a certain amount, which should be exactly 20 
 " per Cent. — all parties would remain in the same relative posi- 
 " tions to each other as if no Debt existed. Now let the case be 
 " supposed, that in a Country where no Taxes exist a Proprietor of 
 " Land has a rental of £5,000 a year, and a mortage of £20,000 
 " at 5 per Cent, upon his Property, he would be precisely in the 
 " same situation as an English Landlord whose real Income would 
 " be £4,000 and not £5,000 per annum. The effect therefore of 
 " the National Debt, if it could be duly adjusted, would be to 
 " make every member of the community nominally poorer, as to 
 " real Income, but yet to keep all of them equally rich with re- 
 " spect to each other ; and this most important condition must be 
 " remembered, that the Debt would exclusively fall on those par- 
 " ties who paid Taxes directly or indirectly. If population were 
 " not redundant, if the demand for the services of the labouring 
 " classes were proportioned to the supply of labour, those classes 
 " would suffer the least from the operation of the National Debt, 
 " because they would secure themselves by an adequate rate of 
 " Wages from any burden of the Debt which could fall on them 
 " beyond their fair share as direct or indirect payers of Taxes. 
 " But when population is redundant, they have no compensating 
 " remedy of this sort. 
 
 " The main inconvenience arising from the National Debt con- 
 " sists in the utter impossibility, with any ingenuity of legislation, 
 " of adjusting the different proportions of that Debt which parti- 
 " cular classes should in equity contribute so permanently as not 
 " to admit of occasional dislocations of such contributions ; for, of 
 " course, when from such dislocation, in itself unavoidable, any 
 " one class is called on to pay more in point of fact of the gene- 
 " ral Debt than its own fair share, the distress and injury of all 
 " who belong to it must be the result. It is perfectly well known 
 " that every human being sustains a weight of air of great magni- 
 ° tude, but that from the equality of the pressure on every part of 
 " his body he moves about as if the pressure did not exist. The 
 " moment however that that uniform and balanced pressure is 
 " removed from any one part, then it is that the weight of the 
 
Ill 
 
 " atmosphere is felt, and, as every person conversant with the ele- 
 " ments of natural philosophy knows, would, if suffered long-, in- 
 " jure if not destroy the human frame. This analogy would be 
 " applicable at all points to the National Debt if that Debt were 
 " not in its essence an evil ; for if the Debt could be adjusted to 
 " every person with that mathematical accuracy with which Na- 
 " ture has adjusted the pressure of the air, it is not a paradox to 
 " say that much of the inconvenience of the Debt would cease to 
 " be felt. But the main and the essential evil lies behind, it is 
 " this, that under a system of National Debt a thousand circum- 
 " stances require to be directed by legislation, which would find 
 " their own level without legislation but for the existence of this 
 " universal mortgage ; and nothing is more to be regretted than 
 " that the speculative remedies suggested by ingenious men for 
 Ci the annihilation of the Debt by a concurrent sacrifice on the part 
 " of all classes of the community, involve measures infinitely more 
 " complicated even than those which are necessary for adjusting 
 " the practical inconvenience inseparable from its existence." 
 
 It is presumed to hope that it has been shewn under the preced- 
 ing heads of this Work that the National, Debt could, by means of 
 an Income Tax equitably planned and effectually executed, be so 
 adjusted as to leave the several members of the community nomi- 
 nally poorer as to real Income, and yet keep them equally rich 
 with respect to each other, as contemplated in the above Article, 
 or that this important object could be attained more nearly by an 
 Income Tax, though in some degree imperfect in plan and execu- 
 tion, than it is by the present mode of Taxation; that considering 
 the National Debt as a Mortgage on the Property and Income of 
 the Country at large, an Income Tax would more uniformly and 
 more equally than the present Taxes, collect from each member 
 the fair share due from him to the Interest of it, and leave him, 
 whether he were one of the Public Creditors or one of the Public 
 Debtors, or whether he stood in both characters, with that amount 
 of Income which there should justly remain to him ; and as it ap- 
 pears that at periods when Wages are reduced, the Laboriug 
 Classes of the population cannot prevent the burden of the Debt 
 falling on them beyond their fair share as payers of the present 
 Taxes, and that although, under any system of Taxation, occasional 
 
112 
 
 redundancy of population and the distress arising from excess of 
 supply of labor beyond the demand cannot be prevented, an In- 
 come Tax borne almost exclusively by the upper and middle 
 classes in proportion to their respective means, would occasion to 
 the Laboring Classes less aggravation of the distress, or be a less 
 obstacle to the removal or mitigation of it, than Taxes on Expendi- 
 ture, which render their reduced means still more inadequate to 
 supply their wants, and which laid on articles of consumption and 
 use, make more difficult the restoration of Trade and Manufacture 
 from a state of depression. 
 
 If the charge of the National Debt and of the Expenditure of 
 the State were to be sustained by a general Income Tax, those 
 occasional dislocations of equitable contributions on the part of 
 particular classes adverted to in the Article just quoted, would 
 not take place or they would be much less in degree and less in- 
 convenient if they occured than under the present system of Taxa- 
 tion. An uniform and balanced pressure on the different classes 
 would be maintained with more exactness and with less difficulty ; 
 and as the many circumstances alluded to which are now required 
 to be frequently directed by legislation, would, in case of an In- 
 come Tax, find their own level gradually and easily, without the 
 frequent interference of the Legislature, and as there would be 
 less complexity in the means used and less partiality in the effect, 
 the National Debt would in its essence be a less evil and the incon- 
 venience of it be less felt. On an increase of Taxation to a great 
 amount, in case of a war or other emergency, every thing would 
 retain or quickly resume its proper or former relative state, there 
 would be no such injurious revulsions among particular classes as 
 arise from sudden and large impositions of Taxes laid on the Materials 
 and Produce of their Trades, and raised out of their Capital; and 
 whether an augmentation or a reduction of Revenue should take 
 place, the requisite increase or decrease of rate of Income Tax 
 would not only more equally but would simultaneously diffuse the 
 additional burthen or the relief over all classes; some interests 
 would not, as on similar occasions under the present plan of Re- 
 venue, be permanently or even temporarily more buthened or relieved 
 than others ; the effects on the Laboring Classes, whether taxed 
 or untaxed, would be correspondent with those on their Employers, 
 
113 
 
 the multifarious supplies of labor would be less variously affected 
 than by the present Taxes, Taxation would add less to those fluc- 
 tuations in them which originate from other causes, and the aggre- 
 gate quantity of employment and number employed would be 
 augmented.* 
 
 As the principle of a perfect Tax on Income is equality, and as 
 it is wilful evasion among- those subjected to it which only renders 
 it in practice unequal, so that consideration becomes the more im- 
 portant, if, as observed in the article just adverted to, " for the 
 " payment of the National Debt Government has no individual 
 " character of responsibility ; to provide for that payment is the 
 " business of the Nation at large ; its amount is not regulated 
 " by discretion, which is the case in Establishments, or in the cur- 
 " rent Expenditure for which Government is responsible, the 
 " extent of which Expenditure is less than one-third of the whole." 
 If the Legislature offers a plan of equal Taxation to enable the 
 Nation to provide equitably within itself for that payment which it 
 is its business to make, if the Creditors and Debtors be furnished 
 with the fair means of adjusting their concerns with each other, 
 with such powers of prevention against fraud as are consistent with 
 those general opinions and feelings of the Community itself on that 
 head to which the Legislature must have regard, blame cannot 
 justly be imputed to the Legislature or to the Government if dis- 
 honesty among those subject to the Tax renders it unequal and 
 increases in some degree the burthen of the fair contributor.! 
 
 * It is also hoped that in the Third Part of this Work it is shewn that an Income Tax 
 affords such means of annihilating or redncing the Principal of the National Debt as are 
 neither " speculative" nor " complicated." 
 
 -f- It may be the duty of the Legislature and the Government to effect whatever shall 
 be in their power in order to establish and maintain equal and just Taxation, but they 
 cannot accomplish every thing-; much must depend on the Nation itself, and whatever 
 imperfection in theory or defect in execution there may be in the system of an Income 
 Tax, though as well framed and executed as human wisdom and exertion will admit 
 any unequal effects of it may be far more imputable to causes existing among the 
 community itself, which the legislative or executive powers cannot adequately control. 
 It may appear an inconsistency that persons defrauding others by evasion of Taxation 
 constantly escape the merited penalty of the law, and lose not their credit or footing in 
 society j while persons committing frauds by other means than Taxation, suffer not 
 only the punishment of the law but wholly forfeit their private character; the latter 
 
 Q 
 
114 
 
 On the Principle of the mode of levy of a Tax on Income. 
 
 Some Persons may be averse to direct Taxation upon the plan 
 of an Income Tax on account of that very principle of it for which 
 others most approve of it — that the people should be taxed by them- 
 selves ; some will condemn it as imposing an invidious task often 
 unwillingly undertaken and sometimes executed in an obnoxious 
 and partial manner, others will commend it as the most free and 
 constitutional mode of Taxation, delegating- the powers to men 
 independent of the Crown, on whom a sense of public duty calls 
 to execute them, and which powers are less likely in their hands 
 to operate obnoxiously or partially than when vested in the Officers 
 of Government independent of the people, particularly when it is 
 made the interest of the Officers to execute those powers with rigor 
 and severity. All County, Parochial and other local Rates are raised 
 by the people themselves without the interference of Government ; 
 that interference in the levy of those Taxes would not be tolerated; 
 it may be alleged that local Rates often create local strife, but it 
 may be observed that the Expenditure as well as the Levy of the 
 Monies is placed under the local Authorities, and dissatisfaction 
 and dispute are more generally occasioned by the former than by 
 the latter abstractedly, or by the amount than by the mode of col- 
 lection; these Rates or Taxes are in general it is conceived 
 levied in a fair and unobnoxious manner, though they may be in some 
 places unsatisfactorily expended. It was not the powers given by 
 the late Property Tax to the local Authorities or the mode of 
 exercising them, but those intrusted to the discretion of Crown 
 Officers which were most objected to — against the conduct of the 
 Commissioners, of their Clerks, of the Parochial Assessors and 
 
 only is considered a disgraceful offence, and the guilty individual is driven from 
 respectable society ; the former, pretendedly considered as merely cheating the Reve- 
 nue or Government, is scarcely treated as a disreputable transaction, and the offender 
 may continue in society as if he had committed an act with which it had no concern. — 
 Obloquy is too often cast on the public officer whose proceedings in discharge of his 
 duty prevent fraud and pi-otect society, and too seldom on the fraudulent individual 
 whose selfish disregard of the injury he commits against others has occasioned those 
 proceedings. That fraud is committed by one in self defence against the effects of the 
 frauds of others can be no greater palliation of it in Taxation than in other affairs of 
 life, and in a moral point of view it cannot be doubted that offences of either description 
 are equally culpable. 
 
115 
 
 Collectors, but few or no complaints were preferred ; it was that 
 part of the procedure entrusted to the Crown Officers, wherein 
 some would consider that the constitutional principle was de- 
 parted from, which was most deprecated, and though that kind 
 and degree of vigilance and check against evasion, which are 
 best kept up by reward proportioned to the discovery and pre- 
 vention of it, may be essential to protect the Revenue and main- 
 tain equality of Taxation to the utmost possible extent, it may be 
 necessary in a future measure so far to circumscribe the powers 
 given to interested men specially employed for these purposes, 
 that the good they can do shall not be overbalanced or approxi- 
 mated in degree by any evil they can occasion. 
 
 On the Objections against the Continuance of the late Property 
 Tax, which were contained in the Petitions presented to Parlia- 
 ment, and otherwise promulgated. 
 
 As most of the modifications of the late plan of Property Tax, 
 submitted in the Second Part of this Work, have been offered for 
 consideration with a view to meet the objections expressed in the 
 numerous Petitions presented at the termination of the late War to 
 the House of Commons and through other channels, against that 
 Tax, so far as they applied to the plan of it, it may be desirable to 
 advert to the objections in general offered therein against its con- 
 tinuance.* It must be premised that nearly all the Petitions, as 
 well as most other published statements of that time, conveyed 
 sentiments of the measure in very general terms ; they were for 
 the most part such as were applicable to Taxation in general as 
 well as to the particular Tax which they were more expressly aimed 
 
 * It was observed during- the discussions in Parliament on the Property Tax, that the 
 Petitions, though numerous, did not represent the general sense of the People, for that 
 much the largest proportion of the whole Country prosecuted no Petitions. 
 The following Scale was exhibited. 
 
 Total number in Number from which Proportion from which 
 
 Great Britain. Petitions were received. Petitions were not received. 
 
 Counties 84 14 § 
 
 Districts 791 98 £. 
 
 Cities, Towns Boroughs,? 11M 56 ^ 
 
 and principal Places . . ^ 20 
 
 37 Parishes distinctly presented Petitions. 
 
116 
 
 at ; it may not be presuming too much to infer from them that 
 relief from any other part of Taxation to the same extent would 
 have been equally acceptable and satisfactory to most of the Peti- 
 tioners; but the pledge given in the Property Act itself of the 
 discontinuance of it at the end of the War, marked out that Tax 
 more especially as the object of repeal, and gave the particular 
 enemies of the Tax itself and the opposers in general of Govern- 
 ment a great advantage over it. Most of the Petitions did not 
 enter into the grounds of the objections which they in general terms 
 expressed against the Tax ; so whether there was a general concur- 
 rence in those particular grounds of objection which were more fully 
 stated in a few Petitions, and whether those grounds were just and 
 reasonable, may be a question ; the proposed modifications have 
 however been submitted on the supposition that they were so. 
 The objections of most importance, which applied to the plan of 
 the late Tax, are stated under the 2nd. and 3rd. of the following 
 heads of the principal objections offered against the continuance 
 of the Tax. 
 
 1st. Distresses among the Agricultural and Manufacturing 
 Classes. 
 
 2nd. Inequality. 
 
 1. As sufficient distinction was not made between uncer- 
 
 tain Income dependent on Labor and on Life or 
 Health, and secure and perpetual Income derived 
 from Property. 
 
 2. As Incomes of whatever amount were, with an insuf- 
 
 ficient exception, charged by the same general Rate, 
 instead of a graduated Scale. 
 
 3. As all Income from occupation of Lands was charged 
 
 at the same assumed proportion of the Rent instead 
 of at the actual Profits. 
 3rd. Exposure and inquisitorial procedure aggravated by an 
 interested and arbitrary exercise of discretionary powers given to 
 the Crown Officers. 
 
 4th. Breach of faith in violation of a pledge given by Parlia- 
 ment that the Tax should cease at the end of the War. 
 
 As the objection most generally and most strongly urged against 
 the continuance of the Tax was the great distress prevailing at 
 
117 
 
 the period when it was attempted by Government, it cannot 
 but be observed that the reasonableness of this objection de- 
 pended on the endeavor which was made to prolong the Tax 
 (though at a reduced rate) as an addition to other existing" Taxes 
 without holding out expectation of any adequate abatement of 
 those Taxes. If the continuance of the Tax had been proposed as 
 a compromise for the repeal of an equal amount of other Taxes, 
 (or of more than an equal amount as would have been practicable 
 without any decrease in the total amount of the Revenue) then the 
 plea of distress would have stood on a totally different footing. 
 The distresses of the times would have then afforded the most 
 forcible and just reason for the continuance of the Tax in as far as 
 it would have pressed most lightly, or not in any degree, where 
 distress mostly prevailed, and therefore the greater the distress 
 and the further the extent to which the Tax had been carried as a 
 substitute for other Taxes the stronger would have been the ex- 
 pediency and justice of its continuance, and such may be the 
 answer to the same objection if in consequence of the distress of 
 any subsequent period it be raised against the revival of the In- 
 come Tax at such a period. 
 
 With respect to the alleged inequality of the late Tax on the 
 grounds adverted to in some of the Petitions it is to be considered 
 that there may be great difference of opinion as to the fairness as 
 well as the policy of any or of much distinction between Incomes 
 of different denominations and also Incomes of different amounts.* 
 If however such distinction be proper in one or both respects, a 
 future Income Tax may be framed accordingly ; any distinction 
 governed by the denomination of Income may be carried into effect 
 easily and completely ; a distinction regulated by the amount of 
 Income, if extended to all classes, may particularly in cases of 
 mixed Incomes meet with some difficulty in the procedure. The 
 rule under the late Act of charging all Lands at the same pro- 
 portion of Rent in respect of the profits of occupation may be ca- 
 pable of some satisfactory modification. 
 
 If the Petitions which deprecated, and a few of them with extreme 
 virulence of language, inquisitorial proceeding and exposure of 
 private affairs as arising out of the measure, did truly state actual 
 
 * This point is fully discussed in the Second Part. 
 
118 
 
 consequences experienced and did candidly disclose the real ob- 
 jections entertained by all the Petitioners, it appears surprising 
 that a great number of Persons did not avail themselves of the 
 option offered by the Act of being assessed by Referees chosen by 
 themselves, by which they might have avoided the proceedings 
 they so warmly condemned and on which they so much relied in 
 their opposition to the Tax. The Crown and Parochial Officers 
 had no interference in cases of Assessment by Referees, the Com- 
 missioners were bound by the sum determined on by them and 
 had only the power of rejecting improper persons as Referees. 
 The Assessments and Payments in those cases were or might have 
 been made in such manner that the amounts could have been 
 known only to the Referees and Commissioners — and yet the whole 
 number of Persons who availed themselves of this proffered se- 
 curity against vexatious proceedings and exposure of affairs and 
 who were assessed by Referees did not exceed twenty! 
 
 An apprehension was expressed in a few of the Petitions to Par- 
 liament and through other channels, and it was an apprehension 
 which in all probability influenced many who objected to and re- 
 sisted a continuance of the late Property Tax, that Government was 
 not in earnest for that degree of Retrenchment which appeared to 
 the objectors absolutely necessary, that it desired the assistance of 
 the Tax to enable it to maintain too largely the extraordinary Es- 
 tablishments which the War had rendered unavoidable, it was con- , 
 eluded by them that the abolition of the Tax would compel that 
 degree of Retrenchment which would not otherwise take place. 
 This was a political objection, which it is not necessary to enter into 
 in this place, though it is worthy of mention as exhibiting one 
 among other considerations of a mere political nature which ope- 
 rated against the Tax, but which did not imply any real objection 
 to or affect the character of the Tax itself. 
 
 It was alleged as another reason for not continuing the late Pro- 
 perty Tax that it is a Tax which it is advisable to reserve for a pe- 
 riod of War only; this reason may be founded on an opinion, that 
 in times of emergency greater inconveniences and sacrifices not 
 only in the amount of fiscal exactions, but in the mode of raising 
 them must be submitted to ; but if the fact be that the ordinary 
 Peace Revenue, as well as any additional War Imposts, can be 
 
119 
 
 provided by an Income Duty indisputably at a less aggregate sa- 
 crifice in pecuniary amount, by means less injurious to the general 
 Interests, and by proceedings not individually more obnoxious 
 on the whole than those for raising other Taxes, if so much so, 
 the reason is founded on false premises, and no ground for reject- 
 ing at one period and acquiescing at another in a measure which is 
 best for all periods can be started, which is not inconsistent — be- 
 sides — the difficulties of such an emergency as a War should not 
 be increased by resorting suddenly at that particular juncture to 
 a Tax against which a general prejudice (well founded or not) 
 may be existing ; as the transition from Peace to War creates 
 much derangement in Commercial and in other affairs, it may be 
 most politic to avoid any aggravation of that derangement by a 
 change then suddenly made in the mode of Taxation in order to raise 
 the additional supplies requisite for the emergency ; though a Tax 
 on Income is of all Taxes the most fair in principle and the least 
 injurious in general effect, yet as it would affect more seriously at 
 such a time, if then commenced, and in all probability at the most 
 inconvenient time, many of those on whom Taxation had not before 
 sufficiently fallen, particularly if it were raised to a large amount, 
 it seems desirable that the change should be gradually accom- 
 plished during the quiet and less embarrassing period of Peace, 
 and that on the commencement of the War the requisite additional 
 supplies should be obtained not by any new Taxes creating sudden 
 and great revulsions in Commerce, Trade, &c. which are at such 
 a period more deeply felt, other causes then combining to render 
 them so, but by an augmentation of the Rates of Taxation already 
 established which would operate equally over all classes with the 
 least possible disturbance. The same reasoning in a great degree 
 applies to that change in the state of circumstances which arises 
 on the transition from War to Peace from the sudden and large 
 reduction of Taxation which may then take place. u In order 
 " to carry into effect an attempt to avoid the necessity of hav- 
 " ing recourse to loans in a new War, with any chance of suc- 
 " cess, some preparation is indispensible while we are in a state 
 " of Peace. In the first place, a moderate Income Tax should be 
 " imposed, as has already been suggested, as a foundation to raise 
 " in the first year of War, a full year's produce at an increased 
 
120 
 
 " per centage; for, if no preparation be made, when War should 
 " happen, every thing will be in confusion, and all money matters 
 " under great embarrassment. There will be no time for deli- 
 beration, every thing will be done in a hurry, every kind of ex- 
 " pedient will be adopted that promises the means of overcoming 
 " the difficulties of the moment ; and as the raising of money by 
 " loans will appear to divest the War of its chief privations and 
 " hardships, this will be in all probability, under such circum- 
 " stances, the course adopted."* 
 
 A more general Diffusion of the burthen of the Poor Rates by 
 means of an Income Tax, 
 
 Without entering into the question of the justice or policy of 
 converting the Poor Rates from a local into a general Tax, but 
 assuming that if such a change has been desirable, the difficulty of 
 effecting it is one reason that it has not taken place, it is suggested 
 that an Income Tax would furnish a fair and effectual means for 
 the purpose. 
 
 It might be impolitic to cast the whole of the charge of the Poor 
 Rates over the community at large by means of a general Tax ; 
 such a complete diffusion of it might require the direct interference 
 of Government in or some objectionable control over the affairs 
 of Parishes, it might lessen the inducement in each place to keep 
 down the expence of its poor and thereby encourage pauperism ; 
 it might therefore be advisable that some part of the burthen 
 created by each Parish should be sustained exclusively by itself, 
 and that it should always have the entire management of its own 
 poor and of the expenditure of the sum laid out upon them. 
 
 Having these considerations in view, it is suggested, not that a 
 distinct Assessment should be made to an Income Tax for the pur- 
 pose of being applied expressly to defray the expences of the Poor, 
 but that the Poor Rates should be continued to be charged and raised 
 as at the present period, and that a certain proportion of the sum 
 paid to the Poor Rate by each Contributor to it should be taken in 
 satisfaction of so much Tncome Tax due from him. 
 
 Sir H. Parnell, Bart. M.P. on Financial Reform. 
 
121 
 
 Suppose the Poor Rates amount annually to £7 millions, and that 
 one-half of that amount (or any other proportion which may be 
 more just or expedient) be allowed to the Payers of it out of their 
 Income Tax ; in that case sufficient might be retained for local 
 taxation to constitute that greater degree of the burthen whieh 
 each Parish should bear on account of its own Poor ; and as the 
 total amount of the Income Tax must, if one Moiety of the Poor 
 Rates be deducted out of it, be increased in that amount, viz. £3J 
 millions, in order to maintain the full required Public Revenue, a 
 sufficient proportion of the Poor Rates would be thrown upon the 
 Community at large to render the expence of the Poor as much a 
 general burthen as it ought to be. 
 
 Those relieved from one moiety of the Poor Rates would never- 
 theless pay to it their proportion of the general addition to the 
 Income Tax, and their Property which is depreciated at this time 
 by excessive payment to the Poor, would, in consequence of the 
 improved value of it, contribute proportionally more to the Income 
 Tax. 
 
 As the Poor Rates fall mostly on that source of Profit from 
 which the greater part of the Income Tax would be drawn, viz. 
 Land, the arrangement now suggested might be the more just and 
 expedient; it might however be a condition that in proportion as 
 in any case the Wages of Laborers were paid out of the Poor Rates, 
 the benefit of it should be withheld. 
 
 It is not conceived there would be much difficulty in the adjust- 
 ment of the accounts with the Parishes or the individual Payers; it 
 might be effected either by collecting the full sum of the Poor 
 Rates from the latter and making the due allowance to them di- 
 rectly out of the Income Tax to which each would be charged in 
 the same Parish and in respect of the same Property as he would 
 be charged to the Poor Rates, or by collecting the full sum of In- 
 come Tax and one-half only or other fixed proportion of the Poor 
 Rates, in which case the other moiety or proportion might be paid 
 in the aggregate by the Collector or Receiver of the Income Tax 
 to the proper Officers of the Poor Rates, 
 
122 
 
 Just and benevolent Effects in periods of Distress of the mode of 
 relieving the Poor just suggested. 
 
 It may be surmised that in pursuing the course just suggested 
 of raising funds for the relief of the Poor in general, more effect 
 tual and equitable means will be attained of relieving also 
 the severe distresses arising among the Laboring Classes from 
 those depressions of Agriculture, Trade, and Manufacture which 
 occasionally happen. It may be asked, whether those Classes have 
 not, under such extreme circumstances, a just demand for such a 
 distribution of the general Income as will provide for them the 
 means of subsistence (of which there may be full plenty for all) 
 instead of becoming dependant on the precarious and insufficient 
 funds such as are sometimes raised in their behalf through charity 
 and compassion, more particularly as the Community at large, at 
 periods when the supply of labor much exceeds the demand for it 
 and the Wages of it are very low, obtain the produce of it at much 
 cheaper rates, and therefore benefit by what occasions severe 
 suffering to the operative Classes ; whether also those Employers 
 of the laboring Poor on whom the increased local burthens now 
 mostly fall, and at times when they also, suffering from the same 
 causes of depression, are less able to bear them, have not strong 
 claims with the Poor themselves for some degree of assistance from 
 the Community at large out of the general fund of Income : and 
 whether, finally, there is any other mode of Taxation so fair and 
 practicable as the Income Tax for carrying such a measure of 
 justice or of benevolence into effect in proportion and as often as 
 the necessity for it arises. 
 
 On the applicability of an Income Tax to a more equitable and 
 less injurious mode of fcvying Tithes, and to other National 
 Objects, 
 
 As it is a general complaint (justly or not made) that the mode 
 of raising Tithes on or in proportion to the Gross Produce of 
 Lands adds greatly to the burthen they inflict, and exacts it with 
 
123 
 
 much inequality, it is submitted for consideration whether the 
 mode of raising an Income Tax does not suggest, if it might not 
 also be made instrumental to a more equal and less injurious plan 
 of taking Tithes. 
 
 If Tithes could be converted from an Occupier's to an Owner's 
 Tax and be paid out of and in some proportion to the Rent, the 
 amount of Tithe might be made payable by the Landlord, and 
 in the manner of the Income Tax, it might be collected from the 
 Tenant with the power of deduction out of the Rent, observing 
 the same rules of charge and recovery as apply to the Income 
 Tax. Under this arrangement all Lands of the same quality, 
 whether titheable or tithe-free, would entitle the Owners of them 
 to the same amount of Rent, and in case of an Income Tax, as the 
 Owners of titheable land would be liable thereto for the increase 
 of Rent which they would of course receive, they or the Tenants 
 for them would deduct that Tax proportionably from the Tithe 
 Owners, in respect of the Tithes. 
 
 Tithes are now in effect a diminution of the Rent of the Land- 
 lord, but from the mode of levying them, it is said, they inflict a 
 loss also on the Occupier and an injury on Lands by preventing 
 or discouraging the improvement of and cultivation of them to the 
 utmost, and if so, the result on the whole is, that the loss is greater 
 to the Payers than the Gain is to the Receivers. The conversion of 
 Tithe into a direct burthen on the Landlord would be a mere no- 
 minal change so far as he would be affected — he would either 
 receive a larger Rent and pay the stipulated amount or rate of 
 Tithe to the Owner of it or receive a less amount of Rent, and the 
 Tenant would pay the stipulated Tithe for him. Lands of different 
 qualities would be more equally charged than when Produce is the 
 basis of charge, and the Tenant would be relieved from an obnoxi- 
 ous procedure. Tenants would adjust in respect of the Tithes 
 with their Landlords on the commencement of their Leases, and, 
 as is extremely desirable, whatever difficulties the adjustment of 
 Tithes might give rise to would take place between Owners and 
 Tenants instead of between the Clergy and their Parishioners. 
 
 To other National Objects, the expences of which now fall alto- 
 gether locally, an Income Tax might be instrumental as a means, 
 in the same manner as in respect of the Poor Rates, of distribut- 
 
124 
 
 ing parts of the burthen of those expences generally over the 
 whole community, such as those necessary for assisting Emigra- 
 tion or Colonization, and others which may be considered as in- 
 curred though principally yet not solely for local benefits. 
 
 An Income Tax might also be more equitable than the Assessed 
 Taxes in regulating the Rights of Counties and Boroughs to send 
 Members to Parliament, or the number to be chosen by them re- 
 spectively. Whether an Income Tax might be constituted the da- 
 tum to determine the right on the part of Individuals to vote for 
 Members of Parliament, (it having been held that the right of 
 every Individual to such vote should depend on his payment to 
 the burthens of the State) is a question involving considerations ir- 
 relevant in this place ; but if a general Income Tax, as providing 
 for the whole or greatest part the expence of the State, would be a 
 fair and expedient datum for regulating this very important Right, 
 it could be rendered an easy and sure practical means for that 
 purpose. 
 
 Patronage of Government diminished by the substitution of an 
 Income Tax for other Taxes. 
 
 However just in principle and important in utility the Property 
 Tax was generally admitted to be during its former existence, it 
 was at the close of it represented by some as objectionable in 
 another point of view than its mode of operation and its burthen as 
 a tax ; it was held out as a means of power with which it was dan- 
 gerous to entrust a Government. Without entering into the 
 ground of this political objection, it may be observed that in one 
 essential respect an Income Tax would diminish the power of 
 Government, for its Patronage would be lessened by the great 
 reduction in the charges of management and collection of the 
 Revenue, and by the different system of raising an Income Tax 
 under which the number of persons employed who would hold 
 offices under Government would be very small compared with 
 the number of Crown Officers employed under the present sys- 
 tem of Revenue ; the greatest portion of the persons engaged in 
 the assessment and collection of the Income Tax would be inde- 
 pendent of Government. The select and limited number of Com- 
 
125 
 
 missioners of the different Counties and Districts, Gentlemen of 
 independence and of the highest respectability, possessed of a 
 certain amount of property to be qualified for executing the office, 
 and chosen periodically by a General Meeting" from among the 
 great body of Commissioners of the respective Counties, &c. 
 would render their services gratuitously, their honorable and 
 impartial line of conduct might be relied on, their Clerks, an- 
 nually appointed by them, would be men of great respectability, 
 whose office would not be under the control of Government, they 
 would be paid for their services by a poundage fixed by the Act 
 of Parliament ; the Assessors and Collectors would be Parochial 
 Officers in whose appointment Government would not have the 
 smallest interference, they also would be allowed a poundage 
 fixed by the Act, but which, in most cases, would be an inadequate 
 compensation for their trouble, risk, loss of time, and expences, 
 yet, inconsiderable as would be the amount of the whole charge 
 of managing and levying the Income Tax, it may be estimated 
 that at least two-thirds of the amount would be the sum of the 
 poundages paid to the classes of individuals above-mentioned, so 
 that after deducting from the remainder the expences of printing 
 Forms, Stationery, and other incidental and necessary disburse- 
 ments, not of the nature of personal compensation, there would 
 remain a very small proportion for rewarding the services of Offi- 
 cers appointed by Government. 
 
 The total number of persons holding Revenue Offices conferred 
 by and under the immediate control of Government upon the sys- 
 tem adopted for an Income Tax would not probably amount to 
 one-twentieth part of the whole number of such persons employed 
 upon the present system.* 
 
 # By an Account published some time since, it appeared that the Number of 
 
 Officers employed in the Customs, was 8,506 
 
 Ditto Excise.. „ 7,386 
 
 Ditto Taxes .. „ 385 
 
 Ditto Stamps.. „ 187 
 
 Ditto Post .. „ 843 
 
 Total .. 17,307 
 
126 
 
 Application to an Income Tax of the four Maxims or funda- 
 mental Rules of Taxation. 
 
 The foregoing- Contrast of two Bases of Taxation, Income, and 
 Expenditure, has been divided into such heads as it is conceived 
 are best calculated to exhibit it in the most essential points of view. 
 A division might have been made according to the four funda- 
 mental Rules and Maxims of Taxation, " the evident justice and 
 C6 utility of which," as one of the ablest Writers* observes, " have 
 " recommended them more or less to the attention of all Nations." 
 These Maxims, as stated by that Writer, are as follows. 
 
 1st. " The subjects of every State ought to contribute towards 
 " the support of the Government as nearly as possible in propor- 
 " tion to their respective abilities, that is, in proportion to the 
 C( Revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of 
 6C the State. — In the observation or neglect of this maxim consists 
 " what is called the equality or inequality of Taxation. 
 
 2nd. " The Tax which each individual is bound to pay ought 
 " to be certain and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the man- 
 " ner of payment, and the quantity to be paid, ought all to be 
 iC clear and plain to the contributor and to every other person. 
 
 3rd. " Every Tax ought to be levied at the time or in the 
 " manner in which it is most likely to be convenient for the con- 
 " tributor to pay it. 
 
 4th. " Every Tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out 
 " and to keep out of the pockets of the People as little as possible 
 " over and above what it brings into the public Treasury of the 
 " State. 
 
 " A Tax may either take out or keep out of the pockets of the 
 " People a great deal more than it brings into the public Trea- 
 " sury in the four following ways : — 
 
 " First, The levying of it may require a greater number of 
 " Officers, whose salaries may eat up the greater part of the pro- 
 " duce of the Tax and whose perquisites may impose another 
 " additional Tax upon the People. Secondly, It may obstruct 
 
 * Adam Smith. 
 

 127 
 
 the industry of the people, and discourage them from applying 
 to certain branches of business which might give maintenance 
 and employment to great multitudes. While it obliges the 
 People to pay, it may thus diminish or perhaps destroy some of 
 " the funds which might enable them more easily to do so. 
 " Thirdly, By the Forfeitures and other Penalties which those un- 
 " fortunate individuals incur who attempt unsuccessfully to evade 
 Ci the Tax it may frequently ruin them, and thereby put an end to 
 " the benefit which the Community might have received from the 
 " employment of their Capitals. Fourthly, By subjecting the 
 " People to the frequent visits and the odious examination of the 
 " Taxgatherers* it may expose them to much unnecessary trouble, 
 " vexation and oppression ; and though vexation is not strictly 
 " speaking expence, it is certainly equivalent to the expence at 
 u which every man would be willing to redeem himself from it." 
 
 It may with satisfaction be affirmed, that there is not one of 
 these excellent Maxims taken in the whole, or scarcely a part of 
 any one of them taken distinctly, to which a Tax on Income does 
 not more fully conform than Taxes on Commodities levied through 
 Expenditure, and it is hoped that the foregoing Contrast, though 
 not divided in the order of these Rules, may assist to shew that an 
 Income Tax does possess those recommendations which, according 
 to these Rules or Maxims, the best system of Taxation should pos- 
 sess, in a greater degree than any other mode of Taxation whatever 
 which could be devised. 
 
 On a Property Tax, viz, a Tax on Income derived from Pro- 
 perty only. 
 
 If in respect of Procedure or in other respects an Income Tax, 
 however modified, would in reality be more objectionable than the 
 present mode of Taxation, and so far so that it could not confidently 
 be expected that the Country in general would ever be reconciled 
 to it, there remains the alternative of a Property Tax, properly 
 so called, that is a Tax on the Income derived from Property 
 only, which though not perhaps likely to confer to the full extent 
 
 * Alluding- to the Officers of the Excise, which branch of the Revenue had been the 
 particular object of reprobation for a long* time before these observations were written. 
 
128 
 
 on the Community at large the advantages which, as contended 
 under the preceding Contrast, are to be derived from an Income 
 Tax extending to all descriptions of Income, is, it will be supposed, 
 more free from certain objections to that general Tax; and as 
 the public opinion and feeling, whether justly entertained or not, 
 have appeared to be less favorable to an Income Tax than to a 
 Property Tax it may be very essential to discuss the Justice and 
 the Expediency of the latter, and to consider how far and in what 
 manner the adoption of the limited Tax may afford the advantages 
 of the more general Tax. 
 
 On the Justice, abstractedly considered, of directly taxing the 
 Incomes of Persons in Trade and Profession and other Incomes 
 not derived from Property, there may not be entertained a differ- 
 ence of opinion — such Incomes derive protection from the State 
 and should indisputably contribute to the expence of the State in 
 proportion to that protection, and this argument may hold whe- 
 ther an Income or a Property Tax be a substitute for or an addition 
 to the present Taxes ; but as in case any kind of a Tax on In- 
 come be imposed, Taxes on Expenditure may be repealed, and as 
 Income from Trade, &c. has in the expenditure of it, ever con- 
 tributed to those Taxes without a doubt of the justice of such 
 Contribution, there appears no just reason why Persons in Trade, 
 &c. should be relieved by the imposition of a Property Tax at the 
 expence of Owners of Property. 
 
 The superior nature of Property as a more secure and perma- 
 nent source of Income may justly subject it to a Tax on Income 
 at a higher rate than other Income ; and unless upon that prin- 
 ciple, a Tax, if confined to a small amount, may be justly laid on 
 Property exclusively, it is on the ground of the Expediency of 
 confining the Tax to Income accruing from Property that the 
 adoption of such a Tax is to be defended. 
 
 Proceeding then at once to the question of the expediency of a 
 Property Tax it may be premised that if a Property Tax be substi- 
 tuted for Taxation on Expenditure there will certainly be derived 
 much of the advantage which would be gained by substituting 
 an Income Tax as the mere abolition of Taxes on Commodities 
 would lessen evils created in a greater degree by the Process of 
 such Taxation. 
 
129 
 
 The difficulty of ascertaining in a satisfactory and unobjection- 
 able manner the amount of uncertain Income as Income from 
 Trade and Profession, maybe the most, if not the only, expedient 
 ground for a Property Tax. 
 
 The objection on the score of expediency to a Tax on Pro- 
 perty may be the injury which besides a disproportionate exaction 
 of the Tax, might be sustained by the particular Class or Classes 
 exclusively subjected to it, and that the injury and loss would be 
 greater on the whole to the Community at large than a general 
 Tax would inflict. This objection may, perhaps, be best consi- 
 dered by endeavoring to trace the effects likely to arise from 
 exempting from a Tax on Income those descriptions of Income 
 which would not be chargeable to a Property Tax. 
 
 On the probable effect of exempting from an Income Tax Profits 
 of Trades and Professions, also Wages, and other Incomes de- 
 rived wholly or principally from Labor. 
 
 It has been the opinion of some persons that the burthen of 
 Taxation cannot be equally spread over all Classes and Individuals 
 of the Community through the channel of Expenditure, unless 
 every article of consumption and use, whether of luxury, conve- 
 nience or necessity which is the object of Expenditure be taxed — 
 it is however conceived that equality or generality of Taxation 
 would not through Expenditure be more nearly attained by giv- 
 ing to Taxation that universal direct application, while it may be 
 apprehended that the difficulties of so graduating such a very 
 comprehensive scale of Taxation that every article should be 
 taxed at its due rate according to its relative utility and impor- 
 tance would be insurmountable, and that other effects of Taxes 
 on Commodities, before adverted to, would be aggravated ; this 
 opinion may be more confidently held on reference to the best 
 authority for it, where it is stated that " in order that the greater 
 " part of the Members of any Society should contribute to the 
 " Public Revenue in proportion to their respective expence, it 
 " does not seem necessary that every single article of that expence 
 " should be taxed. 5 '* An extension of Taxation to all Articles 
 
 * Adam Smith. 
 S 
 
130 
 
 without exception may be less necessary if the increase of prices 
 of Articles already taxed increases the prices of Articles not taxed, 
 and if Taxes thus indirectly fall on Articles not directly taxed ; 
 there appears no doubt that Taxes on Commodities necessarily 
 shift themselves in this manner, though, as it may be apprehended, 
 in very unequal degrees and through a very injurious process, 
 and that " many Taxes are not finally paid from the Fund or 
 " source of Revenue upon which it wasintended they should fall." 
 After these analogous remarks there mav be stronger reason to 
 consider, if Taxation on Commodities does not operate more un- 
 equally or in any way more injuriously because some Commo- 
 dities are not taxed, whether or how far direct Taxation on Income 
 would operate less equally or more injuriously, if some descriptions 
 of Income were exempted from it. It may be most expedient that 
 the operation of Taxation on some Incomes should in the one sys- 
 tem, as well as that Taxation on some Commodities should in the 
 other system be mediate rather than immediate, it being held as 
 certain that Incomes as well as Commodities not directly taxed 
 will by intermediate means be made to bear the burthen in some 
 if not their full degree, more particularly if such Incomes be not 
 of a fixed nature but capable of being varied from time to time as 
 other circumstances affect them. 
 
 The descriptions of Income which may fall more particularly 
 under this consideration are — 1st. Wages and other Incomes de- 
 rived wholly or principally from Labor : — 2nd. Profits from Trades 
 and Professions. 
 
 1. On the question of inequality or other effects to be produced 
 by exempting Wages — that is, daily or weekly Wages of manual 
 Labor : it may be observed that all Income is derived from Land, 
 Capital, or Labor, and consists of Rent, Profits, or Wages : that 
 the conclusion to be drawn from the maxims and rules laid down 
 by Writers with respect to Taxation, is that it is expedient to con- 
 fine Taxation, direct or indirect, to Rent and Profit, and to keep 
 Wages as free therefrom as possible, that a Tax affecting Wages, 
 whether laid on Wages directly or on the necessaries of life which 
 the Laborer must consume or use must in general raise Wages, 
 that it is in fact a Tax on the Profits of the Employers, or on the 
 
131 
 
 Expenditure of the Consumers, or on both ; the Laborers must 
 have the necessary means of subsistence, and though there may 
 be periods during which the rates of Wages rise above the ordi- 
 nary rate or means of subsistence, they soon from natural causes 
 decline to their usual level and often fall below it, and it may be 
 worse than useless to take from those that can have very little or 
 nothing whatever to spare. " From the effect of the principle of 
 " population on the increase of mankind, Wages of the lowest 
 «' kind never continue much above that rate which nature and 
 u habit demand for the support of the Laborer"* — " While the 
 " demand for Labor and the price of Provisions remain the same 
 " a direct Tax on Wages of Labor can have no other effect than 
 " to raise them somewhat higher than the Tax ; not only the Tax 
 " but something more than the Tax would in reality be advanced 
 " by the Person who immediately employed the Laborer and who 
 " must get back the Tax with a profit for the advance of it, the 
 " final payment would in different cases fall on different persons." f 
 By repealing Taxes laid on the produce out of which Wages are 
 paid or Taxes laid on the articles on which Wages are expended 
 and taxing the Profit of every branch of Agriculture, Trade, &c. 
 whether Wages be also taxed or be wholly exempted, it seems 
 probable that the Rates of Wages will be liable to less fluctuation, 
 not only as regards one branch of Labor relatively to another, 
 but as regards one period of time with another ; whatever the 
 probability in this respect may be, a certain advantage of the di- 
 rect Tax on Income is that the application of Taxation to Wages 
 and to other small Incomes derived wholly from Labor can there- 
 by be avoided if expedient, or it can be applied in whatever degree 
 it may be deemed advisable to impose it on them. It however 
 seems most desirable and partly for the sake of avoiding a trou- 
 blesome and difficult procedure, to exempt all Incomes derived 
 from weekly or daily Wages, and to compensate to other In- 
 comes for the exclusive Taxation on them by the more natural and 
 easy method of reducing the rates of Wages to whatever level the 
 ordinary or just value of Labor, or the condition of the Laboring 
 Classes may then prescribe ; but whether Wages were directly 
 
 * Ricardo. f Adam Smith. 
 
132 
 
 taxed or not, all descriptions of Labor would be placed, so far as 
 regards taxation or the effects of it, on the due relative footing best 
 calculated to maintain that free employment of it in its various 
 sources which will tend most to their common benefit, for though 
 if an Income Tax were extended to Wa^es the collection of it 
 would be troublesome and difficult, it would not be attended with 
 that inequality of effects among the numerous Classes of Laborers 
 which Taxes on Commodities introduce among them, when consi- 
 dered in the characters both of Producers and Consumers; if 
 Wages were not taxed, yet as the Tax would fall most on the 
 Profits of those branches of Trade and Agriculture which were 
 most successful and profitable, and least or not at all on those 
 which were in a reverse state, so the Workmen and Laborers of 
 different Trades and Concerns would by the equality in the ope- 
 ration of the Tax on their respective sources of employment be in- 
 directly affected by the Tax in proportion to their relative means. 
 " It is of importance to distinguish clearly between gross Re- 
 " venue and net Revenue, for it is from the net Revenue of a So- 
 " ciety that all Taxes must be paid. Suppose that all the Com- 
 " modifies in the Country, all the Corn, raw Produce, manufac- 
 * c tured Goods, &c. which could be brought to Market in the 
 «' course of the year were of the value of £20 millions, and that 
 " in order to obtain this value the labor of a certain number of 
 " men was necessary, and that the absolute necessaries of these La- 
 " borers required an expenditure of £10 millions, I should say 
 " that the gross Revenue of such Society was £20 millions, and its 
 " net Revenue £10 millions. It does not follow from thissuppo- 
 " sition that the Laborers should receive only £10 millions for 
 " their labor, they might receive £12, £14, or £15 millions, and in 
 " that case they would have £2, £4, or £5 millions of the net In- 
 " come. The rest would be divided between the Landlords and 
 " Capitalists ; but the whole net Income would not exceed £10 
 " millions. Suppose such a Society paid £2 millions in Taxes 
 " its net Income would be reduced to £8 millions."* This defi- 
 nition of gross and net Income is adverted to principally for the 
 sake of the further view it offers of the convenience of Taxation 
 
 * Ricardo. 
 
133 
 
 on Income in the respect now under consideration ; to no other 
 kind of Taxation can gross Income present itself, so that no other 
 than that part of it (Net Income) out of which only it must finally be 
 paid shall be directly and solely subjected to it. However expe ; 
 dient it might be to exempt wages from the operation of taxation, 
 taxes on expenditure will not admit of it. If it be the sure result 
 that on whatever objects Taxes be laid they must ultimately fall on 
 Net Income, that is, on Rent and Profits exclusive of Wages, does it not 
 strengthen the various other considerations for which it is best to im- 
 pose Taxation in such a way that it shall fall at once on net Income 
 instead of transmitting it through the circuitous channel which the 
 distribution of Commodities affords, and depending on the unequal 
 division of the burthen which expenditure creates ? The Laboring 
 Classes are doubtless injured by their Wages being constituted the 
 means through which a large portion of the present Taxes are obtained ; 
 and this injury takes place without giving proportionate ease to net 
 Income — it may even aggravate rather than lessen the ultimate bur- 
 then on that Income ; all these are unnecessary and avoidable evils 
 of Taxation, for not only a direct Tax on Income can be so imposed 
 as to fall directly on no other than net Income, but Wages after un- 
 dergoing that degree of reduction which a relief from all other Taxes 
 and the limitation of Taxation to net Income might render indispen- 
 sible and just, would no longer suffer unnecessarily and unequally by 
 Taxation, but whatever degree of the burthen they indirectly bore 
 would not be greater than that which, from the ulterior effects of Tax- 
 ation imposed directly and exclusively on other Income, should of ab- 
 solute necessity and in strict fairness be borne by them, and Wages 
 of all descriptions of labor would endure those indirect effects of Tax- 
 ation with perfect relative equality. If any part of the Wages of 
 Laborers were rendered liable to the Income Tax, it might be that 
 portion which they received of the Net Income, on the ground that 
 out of what they were paid beyond the expence of absolute neces- 
 saries they could spare a part* — but as it must be very difficult 
 to decide whether there were any such excess or as it might exist in 
 but very few cases and be inconsiderable in amount, and as, if taxed 
 
 * On this principle it would seem that the late Property Tax proceeded in taxing 
 the highest rate of Wages only, viz, those exceeding 30s. per week. 
 
134 
 
 it most be assessed at very low rates, it is conceived that the other 
 Classes living on the rest of the net Income could hardly wish for 
 the trifling relief which the Tax extended to such cases might afford 
 to them. 
 
 The Incomes of Occupiers of Lands may be comprehended under 
 the present head, but the effect of exemption with respect to them 
 may be anticipated with certainty ; an exclusive Tax on the Land- 
 lords would surely lead to a proportional increase of Rents, and 
 thus the Occupiers would be indirectly taxed in the proportion due 
 from them. 
 
 Other Incomes derived wholly from Labor are principally those 
 of the Public Servants under Government. In case of a Tax on 
 Property this Class could not consistently be charged — but as 
 the substitution of such a Tax for Taxes on Commodities would 
 in some degree reduce the price of living- — their Salaries, Pay. &c. 
 might be somewhat reduced which might bring the same gain to 
 the Public as a direct tax on them. 
 
 Incomes derived wholly from Labor by the Servants of Com- 
 mercial and Trading Companies and of private Individuals in Trade 
 and Profession, may be considered as comprehended under the fol- 
 lowing head of Income derived from Trade and Professions. 
 
 2nd. As the Assessments to the late Property Tax on Profits of 
 Commerce, Manufactures, Trades, Professions, Vocations and Em- 
 ployments in the way of Trade, were more unequal and deficient 
 than those on other descriptions of Incomes, and as the most serious 
 objection to that measure was founded on the proceedings for tax- 
 ing those Profits, it appears the more advisable, if that objection 
 would not admit of sufficient remedy in a modified general Income 
 Tax, to consider the probable effects of a total exemption also of that 
 description of Income. Suppose therefore that the Trading, Pro- 
 fessional Classes, &c. were wholly exempted from the Tax, and 
 that a substitute Tax could not be imposed on them exclusively, 
 (such as is suggested under a subsequent head) then the question 
 might be whether the subsequent dealings between those and other 
 Classes would produce to the latter a compensating effect for the 
 exclusive taxation of them. It is to be concluded that the Trading 
 and Professional Classes must in that case part with the products 
 
135 
 
 of their Capital and of their labor and skill at cheaper rates, and 
 that in this manner a large proportion of the Tax would be in- 
 directly cast on them, probably not much less than they would re- 
 turn and pay if charged directly to it. If Property be exclusively 
 taxed the proportion of its Income otherwise expended will of 
 course be less. Commodities must then of necessity be sold cheaper 
 in some proportionate degree, and the Owners of Property 
 will be partly compensated by that consequent cheapness. When 
 Taxes on Commodities, are paid or advanced direct to the Re- 
 venue by any one Class exclusively, they are necessarily, how- 
 ever unequally or imperfectly, and however injurious the pro- 
 cess, shifted on the other Classes in the course of mutual dealings 
 between them, so if any Class be left untaxed, or be unequally 
 taxed by a Tax on Income, the subsequent dealings and engage- 
 ments between it and other Classes would tend to the due equi- 
 librium. 
 
 Though Taxation should be imposed in proportion to the benefit 
 which each person receives from the protection of the State and to 
 the interest he possesses in the Country, yet, as has been remarked 
 the trading part of the people are not so much interested in the 
 Country from any value possessed by them which is fixed in it, as 
 the Country is interested in the trading part of the people, the 
 value is more with themselves; if it were not for kindred, manners 
 and language, Traders might become the inhabitants of other 
 Countries, and many, notwithstanding, often do transfer themselves. 
 The trading individual labors under disadvantages much greater 
 than those which the man of acquired property is subjected to — 
 the man of acquired property possesses an interest which is not 
 only fixed in the Country and permanent* but which is also less 
 exposed togreatar risk and uncertainty than the interest possessed by 
 the Trader; besides these considerations, Property owes much of its 
 extension and improvement to Trade and Commerce, the more free 
 from the weight and < perations of Taxation Trade and Commerce 
 may be, the greater are the means of that extension and improve- 
 ment, and a large proportion of the Profits of Trade,&c. if not taken 
 away by taxation, may be converted into Property and thus pro- 
 duce Income contributing to Taxation. 
 
 With respect to a Tax on the Incomes of the different Profes- 
 
136 
 
 sions in particular, it has been argued in a periodical Review* 
 that there is no ground for the objection so much relied upon, that 
 an Income Tax would fall with disproportionate severity on Profes- 
 sional Incomes, that its injustice to them is apparent, not real, that 
 the condition of Professional men must be affected by every Tax laid 
 exclusively on Landlords and Capitalists to the same extent as if 
 it had been extended to the Professional men, that it is immaterial 
 to them, when a Tax is laid on Income, whether they pay their full 
 share or obtain a total exemption, that the situation of Professional 
 men must bear some certain relation to the situation of those among 
 whom they reside or practice ; if the condition of Landlords and 
 Capitalists be improved or depressed, the precarious situation of 
 Professional men must be maintained, their interests are insepa- 
 rably and indissolubly connected with those of other Classes, they 
 must rise and fall together, that as an exemption of the Profes- 
 sional Classes might at first improve the condition of them, num- 
 bers would be soon attracted to them and the competition would 
 reduce the advantage, that if they were to be exclusively taxed, 
 the effect would be reversed, the competition for their services and 
 the improved means of other Classes to pay them would bring 
 them to the same relative state as if the Tax had been laid equally 
 on all Classes. If the principle maintained by the Reviewer would 
 shew itself practically good, if it would be in real effect indifferent 
 whether the Profits of Professional men were taxed or not taxed, if 
 they would ba rewarded in the same degree whether exclusively 
 charged or exclusively exempted, it is a principle which would 
 appear applicable in a great degree to Incomes derived from In- 
 dustry and Labor of all kinds, bodily or mental, it might be carried 
 to the extent either of throwing all Taxation on Rent and the bare 
 Interest of Capital and of charging Landlords and Capitalists ex- 
 clusively, (a system for which there have been able advocates,) or 
 of throwing Taxation wholly on Labor, (a system which has 
 not been without its proposers), A difficulty is started with the 
 proposition in the Review, that the adjustment or equalization of 
 effects contended for cannot be immediate, and in the mean while 
 
 Edinburgh Review, October 1823. 
 
137 
 
 the hardship and injustice of inequality are experienced till they 
 have gradually subsided ; but it is observed, at the same time by 
 the Reviewer, that though, if the Tax be temporary, as during a 
 War, there is not sufficient time for completing the adjustment, the 
 probability of such an event as a War should prepare the Profes- 
 sional Classes for Taxation, and the rate of their natural or neces- 
 sary Profits would be regulated accordingly; if the Tax be* per- 
 manent, as during Peace, time will equalize the effects to them, 
 and iC therefore whether the Tax is made one of the ordinary re- 
 u sources of Revenue or is only resorted to on extraordinary emer- 
 *• gencies, Professional Incomes ought to be taxed to the same 
 C( extent as others. To give abatements in their favor seems only 
 u to introduce an apparent inequality into the Tax and to render 
 Ci its collection more difficult without doing them any real service — 
 " if you give them an abatement their fees will be diminished, and 
 u if you do not give it they will be raised, so that in either case they 
 a will preserve the same relative situation with respect to other 
 *' Classes in Society." 
 
 It may be conceived that the inequality which proceeds from 
 legislative limitations in the imposition of Taxation is levelled in 
 some degree in the course of time though not without intervening 
 loss or inconvenience to those partially subjected to it — but making 
 use of this consideration in a Contrast of the two different bases of 
 Taxation — Expenditure and Income — it may be observed that the 
 inequality arising from Taxation obtained through Expenditure is 
 not so far remediable, and so easily so from time to time, as 
 would be the inequality arising from a Tax on Income, and for the 
 reason before stated that Taxes on Commodities do not yield to the 
 operation of other causes which occasionally affect the demand and 
 supply of them so completely and readily as the flexible nature of 
 an Income Tax allows it to yield to the changes as they arise from 
 other causes in the Incomes of different Classes and different Indi- 
 viduals. If the Professional and Trading Classes were exempted 
 from the Income Tax it might be anticipated that dependant on or 
 connected as they are with the other Classes, any possible degree 
 of an equalizing and compensating adjustment between them would 
 quickly and fully take place. 
 
138 
 
 If the Profits of Trade, Commerce and Manufacture, &c. were 
 exclusively exempted from the Tax on Income, the effects of 
 the Tax, so far as they would be indirect, would be the reverse of 
 those of Taxation on Expenditure; all the Taxes on Commo- 
 dities are advanced by Traders, &c. they fall indirectly ou the 
 Community at large, and Traders are reimbursed by means of 
 increase of Prices — if the other Classes were exclusively taxed to 
 the Income Tax they might be considered as advancing part of the 
 Tax in behalf of Traders, it would fall on Traders by a decrease 
 of Prices and of Profits, and the other Classes would thereby be re- 
 imbursed, but the extent of the advance would be much smaller in 
 the latter than in the former case. If the whole Revenue of £50 
 millions were raised by an Income Tax, and if the amount indi- 
 rectly falling on Traders in consequence of the whole of the Tax 
 being directly paid by the other Classes were equal to the pro- 
 portion of the Tax which it is estimated would be paid by them if 
 the Tax were directly charged on them in common with other 
 Classes, that is about £10 millions, the advance made by the other 
 Classes in behalf of the Trading Classes, if these were not taxed, 
 would not much exceed one-fourth of the amount (nearly £40 
 millions) advanced by Traders on account of the present Taxes. 
 This reverse would in its effect on prices and cost of production be 
 very beneficial, and there would be further important advantages, 
 — the advance would be made not, as now, out of Capital but out 
 of Income ; Trading Capital, out of which the present Taxes are 
 advanced, would be left freely to its natural circulation, the ad- 
 vance would be made not out of Capital in disproportion to and 
 before it could be decided what were the relative means and abi- 
 lity which Capital of various description and application would 
 give to its several Possessors, but out of acquired Income in due 
 proportion to and after it had been ascertained what were the re- 
 lative means of the several Possessors of it. 
 
 Viewing however a Tax on Income not as excepting altogether 
 Profits from Trade, &c. but as applying itself to them in the mild- 
 est possible manner both in rule and in practice, not only because 
 the amount of those Profits is uncertain and fluctuating; but be- 
 cause the very existence of the sources of them are precarious and 
 perishable, it may be agreed that there are considerations which 
 
139 
 
 may reconcile other classes, living" on more permanent sources of 
 Income, to the less effectual operation on Profits from Trade, &c* 
 of a direct Tax on all Incomes ; but they may not be the only 
 considerations, for as in the event of an entire exemption from the 
 Tax of Profits of Trade, &c. so in case of. any less degree of escape 
 or relief from it, however effected, other classes would not lose in 
 proportion to the advantage gained by Traders, &c. though it may 
 be an advantage in most instances rather unlawfully taken than 
 legally given, and may also be unequally enjoyed among the 
 Traders themselves, according as they may be more or less con- 
 scientiously disposed. If the Profits and Incomes of Traders, 
 &c. became from their partial avoidance of the Tax, dispropor- 
 tionably and unduly larger than those of the other Classes, com- 
 petition arising therefrom among Traders as well as the more 
 reduced means of expenditure of the other Classes would soon 
 diminish the undue advantage ; and it is to be observed that 
 a Trader might not obtain a greater advantage compared with 
 others, either in or out of Trade, by a defective Assessment on his 
 Profits, whether arising from his concealment of the real amount, 
 or whether from indulgent rules of charge, or a lenient execution 
 of them, than he may obtain in case of Taxes on Expenditure, 
 either as a Consumer by keeping his Expenditure below his In- 
 come, or as a Producer by illegally evading them. Under either 
 mode of taxation it may be hardly possible to prevent the means 
 of evasion on the part of persons of Trade ; but where they stand 
 affected by taxation in two characters, first as Producers and 
 then as Consumers— the means of evasion are doubtless much 
 multiplied to them. 
 
 It is also to be considered that where advantages are illegally ob- 
 tained under Taxation on Expenditure, as in contraband Trade 
 which such Taxation creates, contraband Traders gain more of 
 Profit than their Customers save of Expence, particularly as such 
 dishonest Trade often leads to the practice of gross impositions on 
 the latter, in respect of the nature as well as the price of the Articles 
 sold — honest Traders and the more conscientious part of the com- 
 munity (the most deserving of protection) suffer from the advan- 
 tages obtained by others through illicit Trade, to an extent be- 
 yond the mere amount of Taxation evaded, and whether the Trad* 
 
140 
 
 ing Classes were wholly exempted in respect of their Profits in 
 case of an Income Tax or not — yet, if taxation on produce and 
 consumption were abolished, they would soon be found, both rela- 
 tively to each other and to (he community at large, on a much more 
 fair and equal footing than they stand under the operation of that 
 description of Taxation when fully viewed in all its bearings. 
 
 Where the Profits of Trades, &c. depended less on Capital, 
 Stock, Goods, &c. (which afford a more ostensible means of as- 
 certaining- the amount of them,) than on Industry and Skill, (the 
 Profits of which are less easily ascertained,) the greater might be 
 the advantage just adverted to in case of an Income Tax embracing 
 all Profits, and if so, the more it might be reconcileable as favoring 
 Labor more than Property and Capital. As the cost of Labor 
 mainly determines the price and value of whatever it is bestowed 
 on, so any advantage obtained by it in Taxation would be parti- 
 cipated by all Classes— for if labor be not fully taxed to the com- 
 mon burthen, it can and must be bestowed at a cheaper rate. 
 
 It is meant by these observations, not that an undue advantage 
 in case of any Tax whatever is defensible in principle, but that it 
 may be less regarded if there should be effects attending it which 
 might in some degree compensate for the unfairness of it, neither 
 by the advantage adverted to is more intended, in the considera- 
 tion of the practical operation of a general Income Tax, than that 
 where a Person in Trade, &c. offers such a contribution to the Tax 
 as, judging with a disposition to reasonable concession, mav be 
 considered, though a moderate, yet an admissible Return of his 
 Profits, it should not be tried by the rules and proceedings of 
 rigid scrutiny, with the view to exact something more which might 
 in strictness be due from him. Referring to the modifications 
 of the former measure, proposed in the Second Part of this 
 Work, it may be sanguinely hoped that the general observance 
 of a conciliatory and mild course of proceeding as there sug- 
 gested, with however a discriminating and firm severity towards 
 those who persevered in grossly and wilfully abusing it, would in 
 time bring the Contributions in general on Profits of Trade and 
 Professions, if the Tax were extended to them, to a near equa- 
 lity with those on other Incomes without creating dissatisfaction 
 unless in those pertinaciously desirous but unable to evade, and 
 
141 
 
 whose unfounded discontent need not be much regarded — it is 
 evident from the Assessments on Trade during the several years of 
 the late Property A ct, that the course of proceeding adopted under 
 the harsh provisions of that Act was not attended with those de- 
 sirable results ; but more applicable and considerate Regulations 
 with a line of conduct suitable to the feelings of individuals in 
 general, such as the modified procedure offered for consideration 
 would admit of, and such as independent and honorable men like 
 the Commissioners* selected for carrying the Act into effect in 
 the different Districts would be most disposed to adopt, might 
 reconcile the Trading and Professional Classes to the measure 
 without risking much if any loss to the Revenue and inequality 
 in the individual charges. Such a course would at least deserve 
 a trial in case of a new Income Tax — if inadequately successful 
 it might then be the time to consider whether a different system or 
 practice should be resorted to. 
 
 To what extent a Property Tax may be carried. 
 
 The ultimate question in the consideration of the expedi- 
 ency of a Property Tax may be to what extent Property can and 
 should be subjected to such a Tax exclusively, on the principle 
 that Property from its qualities of permanency and certainty may 
 justly be expected to make a greater sacrifice and be higher taxed 
 than mere Income. Under the late Property Act the proportion 
 levied from Occupiers of Land, Trade, Professions, and Offices, was 
 about £6 millions or two-fifths of the total amount of the Tax, viz. 
 £15 millions Gross Recipt. Supposing a Property Tax were im- 
 posed to the same amount as before, but not including Trade, Pro- 
 fession, Profits of Land and Offices, and that the compensatory re- 
 sults just discussed should not exceed one half of that proportion 
 which would have been levied from Trade, &c. if the Tax had been 
 extended to them, Property viz. Real and Funded Property, 
 would then exclusively bear the other half. Whether this would 
 
 * If strict impartiality is departed from by these Gentlemen, it is in manifesting- a 
 bias rather towards the taxed Individuals than to the Revenue, in taking the lenient 
 side, when doubt of liability or great hardship may under peculiar circumstances 
 appear. 
 
142 
 
 be too great a burthen to be thrown on Property, in addition 
 to its own proportion of the Tax, if the Tax were a substitu- 
 tion for other Taxes from which Property would derive pro- 
 portionate means to bear the whole Burthen, and whether to any 
 and to what further extent the Tax could be carried with no 
 greater rate of compensating effect may be the main point to de- 
 cide : the most important consideration is that by exclusive, if it 
 be also excessive taxation the Cultivation of Lands may be 
 checked and thereby great injury be inflicted on the general In- 
 terests ; it must be extremely desirable but not less difficult to 
 foresee how far to proceed in exclusive taxation on Property 
 without producing such excess, without creating a much greater 
 evil than it is intended to avoid ; the limit must principally depend 
 on the proportion which Income from Property bears to other In- 
 come ; it may however be surmised that the exclusive amount falling 
 on Property would not be the full amount of the Tax imposed on it, 
 but that proportion of the Tax which would have fallen on other In- 
 comes if it had been extended to them, and therefore in case of 
 a Property Tax to the extent of £15 millions, the exclusive amount 
 falling eventually on Property might not be more than £2 or 
 3 millions, 
 
 From all considerations arising at length on the question whe- 
 ther a Property Tax or an Income Tax should be imposed, the 
 conclusion in most minds may be, that although there are some 
 strong objections to a Tax on Property exclusively, and that the 
 great desideratum is a Tax on Income in general, yet if a Tax 
 on the Income of Property to a small or moderate extent only be 
 imposed, such a limited Tax may for the present and as a com- 
 mencement of the desired more extensive financial change be the 
 most expedient alternative. 
 
 An Estimate is offered in the following Part of this Work of the 
 probable Produce of a Property Tax at various Rates ; and as in 
 case that Tax be resorted to there are points of difficulty in the 
 enactments of its rules which require special consideration in 
 order to attain a just practical plan, these are also submitted in 
 that Part of the Work. 
 
143 
 
 SECOND PART. 
 
 Modifications of the former Plan of Property or Income Tax 
 suggested. * 
 
 In this Part are submitted such materials as it is hoped will be 
 useful in the consideration of any modifications of the Plan of the late 
 Property or Income Tax which may be deemed necessary to meet the 
 various objections entertained against it in case the revival of the 
 measure shall be expedient, and which will also assist in estimating 
 the probable produce of it under different scales and plans of 
 charge. The modifications are suggested without presuming to 
 decide whether any or which of them should be adopted, the in- 
 tention is to point out probable remedies for real or supposed de- 
 fects in a former scheme but without pronouncing on the necessity 
 of resorting to them. Whether the various objections made to 
 the plan of the late Tax, or any of them were just and well founded, 
 is not in this place considered — the present object is only to de- 
 vise means for removing or lessening the cause of them, lest any 
 of them were so. 
 
 Schedules A. and B. — Rules in respect of the Rents and Profits of 
 Lands, Houses, Tenements, $*c. 
 
 After some experience obtained in carrying into effect the Acts 
 prior to the last Property Act which was passed in 1806, (46 
 Geo. 3, Cap. 65,) of the inconvenience of Annual Returns and 
 Assessments under Schedules A. and B. on Lands, Houses, &c. 
 
 * The term Property Tax on mention of the late Tax, is generally used in these 
 Pages more in compliance with common usage than with due regard to the proper deno- 
 mination of the measure (vide note page 2.) 
 
144 
 
 the period of making Returns and Assessments was limited by that 
 Act to alternate years, with power to abate the duties in certain 
 cases, on the appeal of the parties, but not to increase them, in 
 the intervening* year ; It is suggested with reference to one of the 
 objections made to the late Property Tax, viz. the frequency and 
 trouble of its requisitions, that it might be desirable in any future 
 measure to prolong this interval ; As during the time of the late 
 Tax, Rents and Profits from Lands, Houses, &c. were in an ex- 
 traordinary course of increase the provision was unfavorable to the 
 Revenue, and the term prescribed by it was necessarily short ; but 
 during a different or a more settled state of rents and profits, a 
 prolongation of the interval of making Returns and Assessments 
 might be admitted with less risk of loss to the Revenue and of 
 inequality among the properties charged in different Counties 
 and Districts. 
 
 Schedule A. — Landlords' Duty. 
 
 As the sum on which the Property Tax was required to be com- 
 puted, both in respect of Landlord's Duty and Tenant's Duty, was 
 the Annual Value, the following explanation, contained in an 
 Official Publication, of the ground of that rule may be useful : — 
 
 " The Annual Value is to be understood to be the rack rent, at 
 " which Lands have been let, if the commencement of the letting 
 " be within seven years ; if not so let, then it is to be understood 
 " to be the rack rent at which they are worth to be let." 
 
 " The object of the Act is to charge all Lands at the present 
 " value, but as recent lettings at rack rent may be supposed to 
 " give that value, it has been thought proper to consider all let- 
 " tings at rack rent within seven years as being made at the pre- 
 " sent annual value. It is obvious that in this case will be in- 
 " eluded all lettings from year to year, or at will, although there 
 " may not have been any new agreement entered into within 
 " seven years ; for in such letting every year's continuance is im- 
 " plied on a new contract between the Landlord and Tenant, each 
 " of them having the power of determining the contract on due 
 " notice. 
 
 " By the Act, rack rent must be understood to be the full conside- 
 
145 
 
 " ration reserved upon a demise of the property as estimated be- 
 " tween the Landlord and Tenant, or as would be estimated 
 " between them if the Lands were now to be let at a reserved rent 
 " only ; and whenever the rent reserved forms the whole consi- 
 " deration for the exclusive enjoyment of the thing demised, such 
 " demise or letting is considered as at rack rent. Fn those cases 
 " where the tenant has given, or contracted to give, any other 
 " consideration for the Lease, or has covenanted to expend a sum 
 " in improvements, the reserved rent can afford no just criterion of 
 " the value ; and it is therefore provided, that the Commissioners 
 " shall not be bound by any lease or agreement which doth not 
 " express the full consideration, or the rent bona fide reserved, or 
 " which is made with a view to conceal or diminish the annual 
 " value. 
 
 " This consideration of a Lease at rack rent does not in all cases 
 " require that the Lands should have been let at the full rent, which 
 " miofht have been obtained. It will be sufficient if the Lessor has 
 " let his lands at the rent which he has estimated them to be worth, 
 " at a reserved rent only, without other consideration, which 
 " might diminish in his estimate the amount of the rent reserved, 
 " although he should have under-rated its value ; and in this sense 
 " the Act must be construed. 
 
 " In all other cases, either where the Lease or Agreement is of a 
 " more ancient date than seven years, or where any other consider- 
 " ation than the rent reserved appears in the Lease or Agreement; 
 " and in all cases where the Owner is also the Occupier, or the 
 " Lands are not let, the value of the Lands is to be estimated at 
 Ci the rent which the same are worth to be let by the year ; thus 
 " reducing all those cases to what would be the rack rent of 
 " a recent Lease, where the best improved rent has been or may 
 " be obtained." 
 
 According to the above Rules, the Rent reserved was consi- 
 dered as the Annual Income of the owner in respect of every 
 property let by him ; if the annual value, estimated according to 
 those rules exceeded the Rent reserved, the occupier became 
 chargeable in the character of owner for the excess. 
 
 Lands and Houses were chargeable under the late Property Act 
 according to the rent or annual value, at the same rate, with- 
 
 u 
 
146 
 
 out any distinction in favor of property in which the present pos- 
 sessors had an interest for life only ; if it should be deemed right, 
 with a view to this objection made to the plan of the late Tax, 
 to charge to a new Income or Property Tax, the holders of 
 property for life or lives in some degree less than owners of ab- 
 solute property, it might be desirable to fix such rates of charge 
 on Income derived from it that they should in every case be ex- 
 actly proportionate to the probable duration of the interest there- 
 in, for which purpose tables of reference might be adopted which 
 should apply to every age.* If such a scale would occasion in- 
 convenient operation or unnecessary minuteness, the modification 
 might be simplified by using a less graduated scale, and the com- 
 putation might be made according to the ages of the parties in 
 possession, taking large intervals. Suppose that to the age of 30 
 the income of a life estate should for the purpose of assessment be 
 taken at four-fifths of the annual value, from 30 to 40 years of age 
 at three-quarters, from 45 to 60 at two-thirds, and from 60 and 
 upwards at one-half of the annual value ; the proportion of the 
 annual value taken on the first occasion might remain during the 
 present life, or be lessened according to the scale as the party in- 
 creased in age. If a scale of any gradation would be objection- 
 able, there might be one general but less rate for estimating the 
 Incomes of the present holders of estates under limited interests 
 and the Income of all such estates, whatever the ages of the parties 
 were, might be taken at three-fourths of the annual value, or at 
 any such proportion of it as should be deemed to afford a suffi- 
 cient abatement in favor of limited estates in general.f 
 
 * Such Tables were used under the first Property Act (1803), for the purpose of 
 giving the probable duration of a life or lives, according to which the annual value of Fines 
 paid on the renewal of Leases was computed and charged. Mention is made of this cir- 
 cumstance, not that it is necessary to point out the mode of computation, but to infer from 
 experience, that for this particular purpose such a very graduated scale of charge would 
 not be impracticable, and probably not inconvenient in practice. 
 
 f The annual value in the classification of Income hereafter offered is set down as 
 equivalent to Income of the same amount •, but if modified as above proposed, it would of 
 course become Income of proportionably less amount, and should be classed accordingly. 
 If the extent of limited Property be known or can be estimated, the general effect of the 
 modification may be readily computed— the highest class of Income comprising such Pro- 
 perty would lose a proportion of its present estimated amount — the second class would 
 
147 
 
 It may be doubtful whether the rules in the late Property Act 
 for estimating" the Rents or Annual Value of Lands and Tenements 
 by means of the Poor Rates were beneficial to the Revenue and 
 just to all parties; whether they did not tend to deficient estimates 
 of rental, and to inequalities between different districts or places, 
 if not between properties situate in the same districts or places. 
 Although it was required by those rules, if the value as rated for 
 the relief of the poor was a proportion only of the real amount, 
 that the deficient proportion should be added for the purpose of 
 the assessment to the Property Tax, yet it is apprehended that 
 deficiency was not in general fully supplied, the relative propor- 
 tions of the Rents charged to the Property Tax in the same dis- 
 trict or place were sometimes regarded more than the full amount 
 liable to charge. It may be immaterial to the object of a local 
 tax like the Poor Rates (as also in case of a fixed Quota like the 
 present Land Tax), on what proportion of the rent or annual value 
 a certain fixed sum is raised so that all persons in the same place 
 pay at the necessary rate of charge on the same proportion of their 
 rents, but the consequence on a general Tax of indefinite amount 
 is widely different. To make the Poor Rates the basis of esti- 
 mating the value of Property for the charge of an Income Tax on 
 it, is to create temptation to charge the Poor Rates on sums below 
 the real value of Property : with that evasive view, it is preferable 
 in case of Rent of £100 to fix it in the Poor Rates at £50 and charge 
 it at 2s. than to enter it at its full value and charge it at Is. then as 
 the Poor Rates are charged in different places at various propor- 
 tions of the Rents, all degrees of inequality may arise therefrom 
 in pursuing them as a basis. It is therefore suggested for consider- 
 ation, whether those rules should on a future Tax be adopted, 
 and whether it may not be more advisable to depend for the ascer- 
 tainment of rents on the returns of the occupiers, on the production 
 of the leases or agreements, on survey or valuations, and on such 
 
 receive the whole or the greatest part of that loss, equal probably to the proportion it 
 would lose of its own present amount— the third class and each inferior class would sus- 
 tain a loss which might be supplied by its next superior class, and thus as most of the 
 classes are not very different in amount, it may be conceived that the modification would 
 not much affect the present estimated proportions of them, excepting that of the highest 
 class, and therefore by deducting from that class the estimated proportion of limited pro- 
 perty now comprised in it, the total deficiency of the produce of Duty arising from the 
 modification may be estimated. 
 
148 
 
 other means of ascertaining- the annua] value as the late Act au- 
 thorized. The Poor Rates in any place may, if equally imposed, 
 be sometimes usefully resorted to forjudging of the relative value 
 of properties in that place ; it is the adoption of them as a general 
 positive basis which appears un advisable. 
 
 Objection was made to the rule commenced under the Property 
 Act of 45 Geo. 3, for charging fines received by the owners in con- 
 sideration of demises of Lands or Tenements (not being parcel of 
 a Manor or Royalty demisable by custom) on the amount so re- 
 ceived within the year preceding, with a power to discharge such 
 part as was proved to have been applied as productive capital on 
 which a profit had arisen otherwise chargeable for the same year. 
 The rule was complained of as fixing a charge on Capital instead 
 of Income. Under the previous Act, 43 Geo. 3, such fines were 
 charged as forehand rents, an average amount having been taken 
 by computing it according to the probable duration of the life or 
 lives for which the estates were leased ; it was observed as a ground 
 for the alteration in the rule, that " public policy interfered so far 
 Ci as to charge the party receiving the fine for that part of it which 
 " he does not apply as productive capital, for that so applied he 
 " is discharged, for that used as Income he comes within the 
 " general principle of the Act professing to charge every source 
 " of profit however arising. Fines constitute so large a part of 
 " the Income of Ecclesiastical and Collegiate Bodies, and also of 
 " some individuals, that not to have adopted this mode would 
 " have left a defect in the generality of the measure itself, in which 
 " consists its claim to equality and correctness."* It is appre- 
 hended that the rule did not prove to be disadvantageous or unfair 
 in operation to the parties, lhat in fact the fines were in general 
 expended as Income, and that but a small proportion only was dis- 
 charged as being applied as productive capital, scarcely any claims 
 having been made for relief on that gronnd. The condition of dis- 
 charge might have been insecure to the Revenue, for the fines, after 
 investment as Capital and allowance of the Tax, could have been re- 
 converted and expended as Income. If a future Tax were perma- 
 nent, or of long continuance, it might be immaterial whether each 
 fine were chargeable during the given number of years on a certain 
 
 * " Guide to the Property Act" (an Official Publication.) 
 
149 
 
 annual average proportion of it as so much Rent, or whether the 
 whole of it were chargeable at once as the Income of the year in 
 which it was received ; but it may be advisable to fix one rule of 
 charge only, and if the rule of charging the fines when received be 
 adopted, then to discontinue the discharge from the Tax of any 
 part applied as productive Capital. 
 
 There was much difference of opinion on the commencement of 
 the Property Tax as to the proper mode of charging Woodlands, 
 whether on an Annual Value as other Lands, or on the actual 
 Profits as they accrued. The rule adopted created some difficulty 
 in the first instance, but experience did not prove it to be unjust or 
 impolitic, and as objections to it ceased, it may be presumed that 
 the proprietors found that it operated in the end more favorably to 
 them than they anticipated. As in cases of Fines just adverted 
 to, it might be less important, if the Income or Property Tax were 
 revived for a permanency, whether the Tax were charged yearlv 
 on an average annual value, or periodically on the profits as they 
 arose on the felling of timber. The rule of charge on an esti- 
 mated annual value may in general be both fair and convenient, 
 but it seems to have been adopted during the late Tax partlv on 
 the ground of expediency, under the circumstances of its being a 
 temporary measure, and during a war, when the felling of timber 
 was not to be discouraged.* 
 
 * The following- observations on the rule were made on the passing- of the Act of 
 46 Geo. 3. 
 
 " Wood is part of the superficial produce of the Lands, spontaneous or cultivated; 
 " the profit arising from it is not annual, though its improvement is so ; it may not be 
 " periodical, so as to be capable of a fixed average; it may be the accumulated pro- 
 ** duce of centuries, and may be considered in some sort as belonging to the inherit- 
 " ance rather than the possession, and is certainly capable of limitation in such man- 
 " ner as to deprive the possessor of profit: but in an Act of this sort, which seeks to 
 " obtain a revenue from every visible properly, no limitations are admissible to di- 
 " rniuish the Assessment. The occupier is considered as the absolute proprietor, the 
 " property itself is charged in his hands, and whatever rent the property is capable 
 " of producing the occupier is charged with, whatever use the present proprietor 
 " may put it to, or under whatever restraint or limitation he or any former proprietor 
 « may have placed it. On one side it has been argued, that Woodlands are so circum- 
 " stanced as not to be the object of occupation in the same manner as Arable, Meadow, 
 " or Pasture Land ; that in consequence an annual rent cannot be affixed to them, 
 " that the profits are all confined to the property, and are not divisible in their nature 
 
150 
 
 It was a matter of complaint on behalf of Landlords that under 
 the last Act, 46 Geo. 3, they were not allowed Expences of Re- 
 
 " between the owner and a tenant, and consequently not the subject of charge in 
 " respect of the occupation, however they may be subject to a charge in respect of the 
 " property. That the profits are casual or personal, and cannot be the subject of an 
 " annual Assessment. To these objections it has been answered, that it is competent 
 *' for the Legislature to assign to each kind of property peculiar regulations for esti- 
 '* mating the value, that the exercise of such power is peculiarly conspicuous in this 
 " Act. That admitting the general object of the Act to be an Assessment on annual 
 " profits, yet it may depart from that rule on principles of general policy ; and where 
 
 * profits exist that are not annual, it may, in pursuit of its general object, adopt an 
 n average as the Ground of such Assessment, and is not bound to resort to the profits. 
 M That all Lands, Meadow, Arable and Pasture, are estimated on an average taken 
 " from the quality and fecundity of the Land, and not on actual profits. That Land, 
 " however cultivated or neglected, or reserved for particular uses, does not part with 
 " its quality, but that in proportion to that quality, its capability is increased or 
 " diminished: that it cannot be denied, that Underwoods cut periodically are usually 
 i( let to tenants, and that the Act not having distinguished between the one and the 
 " other, must be governed as to both by the same rule of construction, and that it is 
 " only on this principle of convenience, that Woods of all descriptions are not usually 
 *' let, for in their nature, they are as capable of being let for a term sufficient to secure 
 " to the lessee a certain share of profit, and under covenants to secure the permanency 
 <l of the owners' interest, as Lands of any other description, producing an annual 
 " profit, are capable of being let [by the year. That under these circumstances, it was 
 " competent to the Legislature, in assessing Woods of all descriptions, to resort to that 
 " criterion, which would give an average value ; and that in so doing they have ap- 
 " plied the same rule as is applied to other Lands, as affording the best average of 
 " the annual profit. That when the value is taken from the quality of the Land with- 
 " out reference to the natural produce, the value of Land covered with Wood is as ca- 
 " pable of being estimated by the general rule, as Land covered with Grass or Corn, 
 " from its intrinsic quality. That public policy requires that the supply of Timber for 
 " public or private purposes, but more particularly the former, should not be stopped by 
 " the operation of any Tax. Under a temporary Tax, as this is, a duty estimated on the 
 " actual produce of any period ad valorem, must of necessity retard the falling of Timber 
 " which might be of injurious consequences in the prosecution of the war; but a certain 
 " rule drawn from the annual value of the Lands, year after year, could have no such in- 
 " jurious consequences. Although such a rule might in certain cases produce a revenue 
 " inadequate to an ad valorem duty, it would in time produce a fair average charge. In 
 " considering the division of the duty, into two parts, the one as applies to the property, 
 " the other to the occupation, it has been answered, that in letting Lands, the rent is as- 
 " certained by the fecundity of the Land, and its capacity to produce a crop, leaving to 
 " the tenant a living profit thereon ; which, in general cases, and so considered by the 
 
 * Act, is equivalent to the rent. That in estimating Lands covered with Wood the same 
 " rule is to be adopted. What would the Land in question let for in the ordinary course 
 ** of cultivation, leaving the tenant a profit after payment of expences to subsist upon 
 
151 
 
 pairs, or of managing their Estates and collecting their Rents, or 
 for losses of Rent by the insolvency of Tenants. Allowance was 
 granted for Repairs under the Acts of 43 and 45 Geo. 3, (unless 
 the Tenant was bound to repair) at the rate in respect of Dwelling 
 Houses not exceeding 5 per Cent, and in respect of Houses and 
 Buildings on Farms not exceeding 2 per Cent. The total amount 
 of deductions appears to have been about £1 million. The al- 
 lowance was withdrawn by the Act of 46 Geo. 3., it was then stated 
 " to have been found so inadequate, to have operated so un- 
 " equally, and to have been demanded in many instances where 
 " repairs were done by Tenants, that the Legislature had wisely 
 " determined to omit it, not only for the reasons mentioned, but 
 " because the Capital invested in Land exceeds so much the Ca- 
 " pital invested in any other property producing the same benefit, 
 " that the Tax is rendered more equitable by the omission, and 
 " imposes the burthen more equally on the superior interest ac- 
 " quired by landed property. These observations may also furnish 
 in part the reasons that no allowance was made for the expences 
 of management and collection ; the justice of the complaints on 
 this head and the expediency of conceding to them were also 
 questionable on other grounds; the indulgence might have been be- 
 stowed in the greatest degree where it was least merited or needed; 
 for the more the Owners of large Estates neglected them and en- 
 trusted them to others, the more the Tax on them might have been 
 abated ; on the whole it appears to have been right to refuse as 
 deductions the amount of allowances paid by individuals to others 
 for superintending their Estates or collecting their Incomes for 
 them.* Provision was made in the Act renewing the Tax for one 
 year (1815) for deductions in cases of abatements of Rents, and 
 
 " and defray the occupier's burthens charged upon the Land ? Whatever the result of 
 " this question is, that sum will be charged at the full Duty under Schedule A. and at 
 " three-fourths under Schedule B ; a mode more beneficial to the owner than by charging 
 " the whole value of the profits at full Duty." — Guide to the Property Act. 
 
 * The Employers were not entitled to deduct the Duty on payment of these Allow- 
 ances, and the Stewards or Agents were bound to make returns of them separately 
 in their own behalf as personal Income, and were chargeable themselves in respect of 
 them. 
 
152 
 
 such a provision in case of a future Tax would be proper, but 
 Agriculture was during the late Property Act, until that latter pe- 
 riod of it, in such a generally prosperous state, that the cases of 
 loss of Rents by insolvent Tenants were too infrequent to excite 
 attention, the omission in that Act of any provision for such cases 
 was probably intentional though the grounds do not appear to 
 have been declared; there would have been strong objections to 
 yield to every claim of such description, but as the taxing a man 
 for an Income he never received is a hardship which it would seem 
 should of course be expressly provided against, it is to be ob- 
 served that the charge was made on the Occupier, and recoverable 
 from him ; if he paid no Rent, the Landlord consequently paid no 
 Tax by way of deduction ; and though the Tax might be levied 
 by distress on the premises, yet, as the Landlord had the preference 
 in the process for recovery of his rent, it is conceived that hardly 
 any cases occurred of the Tax being enforced in respect of Rent 
 not recovered or recoverable : it might also have been considered 
 that though from negligence or improvidence Land or its Produce 
 had been unprofitably managed, or the Profits had been squan- 
 dered and the Rent had been dishonestly withheld by or had not 
 been enforced as it might have been from the Tenants, the Revenue 
 was nevertheless entitled to its due ; if however express provision 
 were to be made on a future Tax for losses of Rent, it should 
 be admitted under particular restrictions which would guard against 
 abuse. 
 
 On the Opinions and Suggestions of Dr. Adam Smith as to a Tax 
 on Rent — and on the practical Operation of them. 
 
 Rent of Lands. 
 
 The following Extract from Dr. A. Smith's Work on the Wealth 
 of Nations contains, not only his opinion respecting a Tax on the 
 Rent of Land varying with the variation of Rent, but some sug- 
 gestions for regulating the charges of such a Tax according 
 to the nature of the terms on which Lands are held and culti- 
 vated. 
 
 Some of the Notes now subjoined explain whether or how far 
 the provisions of the late Property Act conformed to, or those of 
 
153 
 
 a future Act might be framed agreeably to the recommendations 
 of that Writer. 
 
 " A Land Tax of this kind (varying with the Rent) is certainly 
 " more equal than the present Land Tax. It might not perhaps 
 " be altogether so certain, and the assessment of the Tax might 
 " frequently occasion a good deal more trouble to the Landlord. 
 " It might too be a great deal more expensive in the levying*." 
 
 " Such a system of administration however might be contrived 
 ,c as would, in a great measure, both prevent this uncertainty and 
 " moderate this expence."* 
 
 u The Landlord and Tenant, for example, might justly be ob- 
 " liged to record their Lease in a Public Register. Proper pe- 
 " nalties might be enacted against concealing or misrepresenting 
 " any of the conditions, and if part of those penalties were to be 
 " paid to either of the two parties who informed against and con- 
 u victed the other of such concealment or misrepresentation, it 
 " would effectually deter them from combining* together in order 
 " to defraud the Public Revenue. All the conditions of the Lease 
 " might be sufficiently known from such a record."f 
 
 * That Tax which is kept at the same fixed proportion of the Rent, and the amount 
 of which would rise or fall with the rent may be considered in comparison with that Tax 
 which is of a fixed unvarying amount, as affording a kind of certainty which is more 
 beneficial. 
 
 The late Property Tax on Lands, which was variable in amount every alternate 
 year, Tenancies at Will, and in Leases exceeding seven years, was not attended with a 
 greater rate of expence than that at which the present Land Tax, which is unvaried in 
 amount, is assessed and levied ; and it occasioned no trouble to Landlords who let their 
 Lands. 
 
 •f Under the late Property Act the ascertainment of Rents or Annual Value depended 
 on the Returns of the parties made according to forms distributed for the purpose ; on re- 
 ference to the Poor and other Public or Local rates; on estimates of parochial Assessors 
 checked by the Crown Officers, and decided, if appealed against, by the District Com- 
 missioners ; also if specially required, on production of Leases or on Valuations and 
 Surveys. A Registry might be desirably substituted instead of the requisition of Re- 
 turns from Tenants, and it might be made a condition of relief to them from all other 
 proceedings. The proceedings would then be limited to those Persons occupying their 
 own Estates, from whom, as no Registry would exist in those cases, such particulars 
 must be obtained as would be necessary to ascertain the chargeable annual value. A 
 power to compel production of Leases in such cases as might render it necessary 
 appears, however, sufficient ; a Registry might be a general inconveuience with very 
 inadequate benefit. 
 
 Surveys, though authorized by the late Property Act, were hardly ever resorted to. 
 One general survey on the commencement of a new Tax might however be advisable • 
 or as the expence is a great objection to it, surveys might be conSned to cases of dis- 
 
 X 
 
154 
 
 " Some States instead of the simple and obvious expedient of a 
 register of Leases have had recourse to the laborious and ex- 
 pensive one of an actual survey and valuation of all the Lands in 
 the County. They have suspected probably that the Lessor and 
 Lessee, in order to defraud the Public Revenue, might com- 
 bine to conceal the real terms of the Lease.* Doomsday Book 
 seems to have been the result of a very accurate survey of this 
 kind." 
 
 " Some Landlords, instead of raising the rent, take a Fine for 
 the renewal of the Lease. This practice is in most cases the ex- 
 pedient of a spendthrift, who for a sum of ready money sells a 
 future Revenue of much greater value. It is in most cases 
 therefore, hurtful to the Landlord. It is frequently hurtful to the 
 Tenant, and it is always hurtful to the community. It frequently 
 takes from the Tenant so great a part of his capital and thereby 
 diminishes so much his ability to cultivate the land, that he finds 
 it more difficult to pay a small rent than it would otherwisehave 
 been to pay a great one. Whatever diminishes his ability to cul- 
 tivate necessarily keeps down, below what it would otherwise 
 have been, the most important part of the Revenue of the com- 
 munity. By rendering the Tax upon such Fines a good deal 
 heavier than upon the ordinary rent, this hurtful practice might 
 be discouraged to the no small advantage of all the different 
 parties concerned, of the Landlord, of the Tenant, of the Sove- 
 reign, and of the whole community. f 
 
 " Some Leases prescribe to the Tenant a certain mode of culti- 
 vation, and a certain succession of crops during the whole con- 
 tinuance of the Lease. This condition, which is generally the 
 
 p U te — it would seem necessary, as a check against concealment and fraud, to give the 
 power of making surveys, and also just to throw the expence, as under the late Act, on 
 the private individual, if his conduct occasioned it. In other cases the costs should fall 
 on the Revenue as that Act authorized. 
 
 It may be observed that a general Register of Leases might be useful for other pur- 
 poses than that of Public and Local Taxation. 
 
 * This is more probable than that they would inform against each other. 
 
 f It has been previously made a question whether it is best to tax fines annually on 
 an average amount as so much forehand rent, or on the gross amount in that year in 
 which they are received— whichever mode would most discourage the practice of fines 
 is, it seems, most advisable. 
 
155 
 
 u effect of the Landlord's conceit of his own superior knowledge, 
 * (a conceit in most cases very ill founded,) ought always to be con- 
 " sidered as an additional rent, as a rent in service instead of a 
 u rent in money. In order to discourage the practice, which is 
 " generally a foolish one, this species of rent might be valued 
 " rather high, and consequently taxed somewhat higher than 
 " common money rents.* 
 
 Ci Some Landlords instead of a rent in money require a rent in 
 " kind, in corn, cattle, poultry, wine, oil, &c. others again require 
 " a rent in service. Such rents are always more hurtful to the 
 " Tenant than beneficial to the Landlord. They either take more 
 iC or keep more out of the pocket of the former than they put into 
 " that of the latter. In every country where they take place the 
 c< Tenants are poor and beggarly, pretty much according to 
 iC the degree in which they take place. By valuing in the same 
 6i manner such rents rather high and consequently taxing them 
 " somewhat higher than common rents, a practice which is hurt- 
 <c ful to the whole community might perhaps be sufficiently dis- 
 " couraged."f 
 
 u When the Landlord chose to occupy himself a part of his own 
 " Lands, the rent might be valued according to an equitable ar- 
 " bitration of the Farmers and Landlords in the neighbourhood, 
 " and a moderate abatement of the Tax might be granted to him, 
 " provided the rent of the Lands which he occupied did not exceed 
 ct a certain sum. It is of importance that the Landlord should be 
 a encouraged to cultivate a part of his own Land. His capital is 
 
 * If the Tenants in such cases do not pay at Rack Rent, it may be appropriataly observed 
 that the late Property Act directed that when the rent was not the sole consideration in the 
 agreement between Landlord and Tenant, the charge should be made on such a sum as 
 might be the full rent at which the Land was worth to be let, if leased under ordinary 
 terms and conditions • in a case under the restrictions above mentioned, it might seem 
 fair to give a discretion to charge beyond the aetual rent, but such excess might be in- 
 justice to the Tenant, if falling wholly on him — it should fall, in part at least, on the 
 Landlord. 
 
 ■f Rents payable in corn, grain, &c. were by the rules of the late Property Act 
 chargeable according to the quantities delivered, and the average of the prices in the 
 year preceding the year of assessment. As that mode of charge was inconvenient in 
 practice, and it is expedient to discourage such a system of letting, the rule of charging 
 on the sum considered to be the full average annual value might be adopted, with a power 
 given to the Tenant to recover the Tax on that full amount from the Landlord. 
 
156 
 
 " generally greater than that of the Tenant, and with less skill he 
 " can frequently raise a greater produce. The Landlord can af- 
 " ford to try experiments and is generally disposed to do so. His 
 Ci unsuccessful experiments occasion only a moderate loss to him- 
 " self. His successful ones contribute to the improvement and 
 " better cultivation of the whole country. It might be of impor- 
 " tance however that the abatement of the Tax should encourage 
 " him to cultivate to a certain extent only. If the Landlords 
 " should 3 the greater part of them, be tempted to farm the whole 
 iC of their own Lands, the country (instead of sober and indus- 
 " trious Tenants who are bound by their own interest to culti- 
 " vate as well as their capital and skill will allow them) would be 
 iC filled with idle and profligate Bailiffs, whose abusive manage- 
 " ment would soon degrade the cultivation and reduce the annual 
 " produce of the Land, to the diminution, not only of the Revenue 
 " of their master, but of the most important part of that of the 
 " whole society."* 
 
 6C Such a system of administration might, perhaps, free a Tax of 
 iC this kind from any degree of uncertainty which could occasion 
 " either oppression or inconveniency to the contributor, and might 
 " at the same time serve to introduce into the common manage- 
 iC ment of Land such a plan or policy, as might contribute a good 
 <c deal to the general improvement and good cultivation of the 
 " country." 
 
 " The expence of levying a Land Tax, which varied with every 
 iC variation of the rent, would no doubt be somewhat greater than 
 " that of levying one which was always rated according to a fixed 
 " valuation. Some additional expence would necessarily be in- 
 iC curred both by the different Register Offices which it would be 
 " proper to establish in the different districts of the country, and 
 " by the different valuations which might occasionally be made of 
 « the Lands which the Proprietor chose to occupy himself. The 
 
 * Under the Income Act of 1799 Estates occupied by the Owners were charged at a 
 less rate than Estates leased : this indulgence to Owners was not expressly continued 
 under the Property Act, though it is possible that where there was not a positive sum 
 of rent to govern the amount of the charge, the estimates of annual value under that Act 
 may have been made rather favorably to the Owners. It certainly afforded the means 
 of such favor, whether desirable or not. 
 
157 
 
 ;C expences of this however might be very moderate and much 
 '' beJovv what is incurred in the levying of many other Taxes 
 u which afford a very inconsiderable Revenue in comparison of 
 w what might easily be drawn from a Tax of this kind."* 
 
 " The discouragement which a variable Land Tax of this kind 
 u might give to the improvement of Land seems to be the most 
 " important objection which can be made to it. The Landlord 
 ' would certainly be less disposed to improve when the Sovereign 
 " who contributed nothing to the expence was to share in the pro- 
 " fit of the improvement. Even this objection might perhaps be 
 " obviated by allowing the Landlord before he began his im- 
 " provements to ascertain, in conjunction with the Officers of the 
 " Revenue, the actual value of his Lands according to the equi- 
 " table arbitration of a certain number of Landlords and Farmers 
 " in the neighbourhood, equally chosen by both parties, and by 
 " rating him according to this valuation for such a number of years 
 " as might be fully sufficient for his complete indemnification. 
 " To draw the attention of the Sovereign towards the improve-* 
 " ment of the Land, from a regard to the increase of his own Re- 
 " venue, is one of the principal advantages proposed by this 
 " species of Land Tax.f The term therefore allowed for the in- 
 " demnification of the Landlord ought not to be a great deal 
 " longer than what was necessary for that purpose, lest the re- 
 " moteness of the interest should discourage too much this atten- 
 " tion. It had better however be somewhat too long than in any 
 " respect too short. J No incitement to the attention of the Sove- 
 
 * On the plan of raising the Income or Property Tax by fixed quotas, as hereafter 
 proposed in the manner of the present Land Tax, any establishment of Revenue Officers 
 of the Crown would be unnecessary, and it is not conceived that the- rate of expence on 
 whatever plan the Tax were raised, would exceed that of the present Land Tax • if a 
 high scale of Tax were adopted the rate of expence might be less. 
 
 \ This recommendation is capable of full adoption in practice. Those executing the 
 Act would be generally favorable to it In the Country the Commissioners and Assessors 
 of Taxes are in general Landlords and Farmers. The Inhabitants of every parish might 
 have an influence in the choice and appointment of the Assessors, and there might not 
 be any difficulty or objection to giving the Inhabitants of every district an interference 
 in selecting for it the limited number of Commissioners from the Lists contained in the 
 Act of Parliament in which they are named for the different Counties^ &c. 
 
 J The general quotas and also the individual assessments might in a future Tax be 
 fixed for such Terms as would be best adapted to meet this object. 
 
158 
 
 " reign can ever counterbalance the smallest discouragement to 
 " that of the Landlord. The attention of the Sovereign can be 
 " at best but a very general and vag e consideration of what is 
 " likely to con f r bute to the better cultivation of the greater part 
 " of his dominions. The attention of the Landlord is a particu- 
 " Iar and minute consideration of what is likely to be the most 
 " advantageous application of every inch of ground upon his 
 " estate. The principal attention of the Sovereign ought to be 
 " to encourage, by every means in his power, the attention both 
 " of the Landlord and of the Farmer, by allowing both to pursue 
 " their own interest in their own way, and according to their own 
 " judgment, by giving to both the most perfect security that they 
 " shall enjoy the full recompence of their own industry, and by 
 " procuring to both the most extensive market for every part of 
 " their produce, in consequence of establishing the easiest and 
 " safest communication both by land and by water through every 
 " part of his own dominions, as well as the most unbounded free- 
 " dom of exportation to the dominions of all other Princes/' 
 
 " If by such a system of administration a Tax of this kind could 
 " be so managed as to give, not only no discouragement, but on 
 Ci the contrary some encouragement to the improvement of Land, 
 " it does not appear likely to occasion any other inconveniency to 
 " the Landlord except always the unavoidable one of being 
 " obliged to pay the Tax." 
 
 " In all the variations of the state of society, in the improve- 
 " ment and in the declension of agriculture, in all the variations in 
 " the value of silver and in all those in the standard of the coin, 
 " a Tax of this kind would of its own accord and without any at- 
 " tention of Government readily put itself to the actual situation of 
 " things, and would be equally just and equitable in all their dif- 
 " ferent charges. It would therefore be much more proper to be 
 " established as a perpetual and unalterable regulation, or as 
 " what is called a fundamental law of the commonwealth, than any 
 " Tax which was always to be levied according to a certain valua- 
 " tion."* 
 
 * In an Income Tax which professes to take from every one according- to his ex- 
 act Income, strict regard should be had to that particular object — it may be expedient, 
 as a national advantage, to discourage some and promote other modes of letting and cul- 
 
159 
 
 Rent of Houses, 
 
 The observations of Dr. Smith upon a Tax on the Rent of 
 Houses, or that part of it which he calls the Building Rent, are not 
 here quoted although they are favorable to such a Tax, as he dis- 
 cusses it more as a Tax on the Occupier in respect of his Expen- 
 diture than as a Tax on the Owner in respect of his Income. 
 
 The Owners and Occupiers of Houses may be relatively placed 
 by a Tax on Houses in a different situation than the Owners and 
 Occupiers of Lands, Houses or the Ground they stand upon not 
 being* productive of profit to the Occupiers. As the object of the 
 Tax under present consideration would be the Income derived 
 from the Houses to the Owners of them, either the Tax being more 
 conveniently charged on and collected from the Occupiers, would 
 be deducted by them from the Rents, under powers given by the 
 Act, or, if no such powers were given, and the Owners and Occu- 
 piers were to be left to their own adjustment, the Occupiers would 
 probably pay less Rent.* Whether any or what portion of the Tax 
 would in effect fall on the Occupiers might depend on whether their 
 own Incomes were taxed — they might be in Trade, Office, or Pro- 
 fession and the Tax might not extend to the profits thereof; the 
 more other sources of Income were left untaxed the greater amounts 
 of Rent could those other Incomes afford to pay and the more 
 the Owners of Houses would be reimbursed their payment of the 
 Tax. If Incomes of all descriptions were taxed the Owners of 
 Houses must bear the whole Tax charged upon them, they must 
 either suffer the deduction of it from their Rents or lower their 
 Rents proportionably. In the event of other Incomes not beino- 
 taxed, the possessors of them might either pay the increased amount 
 of Rents for Houses which they could in that case afford to pay, 
 or they might agree to pay the Tax, but this would be a matter of 
 
 tivating Lands, but it may not always be individual justice or politic to render a tax 
 so far instrumental to such a purpose as Dr. Smith appears from some of his sug- 
 gestions to desire. 
 
 * It would however be necessary to give the power of deduction during the re- 
 maining years of Leases commenced previous to the time of the imposition of the Tax. 
 
160 
 
 private adjustment between the Parties ; it is, however, necessary 
 to advert to such a transaction, as according to the rules of the late 
 Property Act, if the rent were not the sole consideration the charge 
 was made bevond it, viz. at the rent at which the house was worth 
 to be let. If the Occupier agreed to pay a public Tax or Rate 
 which by law was chargeable on the Owner, the amount was 
 charged as so much additional rent. 
 
 There is not the same difficulty in accurately taxing Houses as 
 in taxing Lands — the Rent, the only Income obtained from the 
 former, being the sole object of ascertainment. Houses occupied 
 by the Owners may be taxed at the amounts at which they are 
 worth to be let — some difficulty may be experienced with respect 
 to such Houses, as under the present Inhabited House Tax, (which 
 is made chargeable by that rule) in cases of large Country Man- 
 sions and Seats which are not worth to be let and will not let at 
 Rents proportionate to their size and cost.* Such Houses though 
 not taxed to the present House Tax proportionably to their di- 
 mensions are heavily rated to the Window Tax, being charged to 
 
 * The difficulty is increased under the present House Tax by the distinction in the 
 rates of charge made between small houses and large houses. Houses above £40 rent are 
 chargeable at nearly double the rate at which houses under =£20 rent are chargeable — 
 the latter being chargeable at Is. 6d. and the former at 2s. lOd. in the pound. If the 
 rates of charge were the same on all houses, the large-sized houses now alluded to would 
 bear to be charged at a greater annual value or nominal rent. 
 
 The present Inhabited House Duty is a Tax on the Occupier's Expenditure and not 
 on the Owner's Income, though chargeable according to the rent or annual value : 
 this is the great fault of it. It is however sometimes complained of in a greater de- 
 gree than it deserves. In instances where the full rental is charged while in others 
 it is not, the Tax may be justly complained of; but in places where the full rents 
 or exactly the same proportions of them are assessed in respect of all the houses 
 therein, any grievance of Occupiers is not wholly imputable to the Tax: if on esti- 
 mating the fair annual value of a house, whether occupied for trade or residence, ac- 
 cording to its size, its situation and other circumstances, the Occupier appears exces- 
 sively taxed it may arise solely from excess of rent. If the Tax is charged on an amount 
 which is beyond the fair annual value, so must be the rent exacted beyond it — if the 
 Tax bears hard, the Landlord bears much harder, the excess of Tax is but small com- 
 pared with the excess of Rent ; therefore while the Occupier agrees to and pays the 
 Rent, it appears unreasonable to complain of the Tax which is founded on it ; if redress 
 is due it should be obtained first from the Landlord — if the Rent be reduced, the re- 
 duction of the Tax follows of course ; to reduce the Tax on any other ground would be 
 merely to assist the Tenant to pay an excessive Rent, and in fact to put the Tax into the 
 Landlord's Pocket ; as, however, in making bargains for the occupation of houses, the 
 
161 
 
 the full number of windows. The great amount on the whole of 
 those Taxes is an impediment to any profitable letting of very large 
 Houses, particularly in the Country — the repeal of them would add 
 to the annual value of such Houses — they would then be worth 
 higher Rents ; if let, the Rents would, as being the Income derived 
 from them, be the Sums for which the Owners would be charged — 
 if not let, the Owners might be charged at the amount of such 
 Rents as it might be estimated that Persons in the same circum- 
 stances of life and to whose rank and fortune the Houses are 
 suitable, would^ if they had hired them free of the Assessed Taxes now 
 falling on the Occupiers, have given for them; or estimating the 
 probable amount of the purchase money of them if they were sold, 
 the Owners might be charged on Sums computed at 5 or any 
 other fair rate per Cent, of that amount, as shewing the amount of 
 Income which might be considered as saved by the possession of 
 them Rent free, and as therefore the fairly assumable amount of 
 their taxable Annual Value. If the Tenants of those or any other 
 Houses were charged beyond the Rents paid by them as not 
 being the sole consideration in the agreement, the excess would 
 fill on themselves. It may however be observed that the num- 
 ber of such large Mansions or Houses is comparatively very small, 
 and the amount of Income depending on them is not a very 
 important object. Of nearly one million of Houses in Great Britain 
 containing 6 windows and upwards, not more than 1800 have 
 been returned to the Assessed Taxes as, containing 80 windows and 
 upwards. If the whole of these Houses, considering them to be 
 of the description now adverted to, were valued in proportion to 
 their full dimensions, the aggregate annual value of them might 
 be considerably less than £1 million. 
 
 amount of the Taxes to which they are liable form in general a consideration, and the 
 amount of the rent is governed by it, and as the Taxes may therefore fall wholly or in 
 part on the Landlord by a diminution of Rent, there is less reason on the part of the 
 Occupier to complain of the Tax. 
 
 Dr. Smith observes, " In general there is not perhaps any one article of expence or 
 " consumption by which the liberality or narrowness of a man's whole expence can be 
 <c better judged of than by his House Rent." Though House Rent may be a tolerable 
 criterion in general of each Occupier's Expence, it is not an equal test of the Incomes 
 of different Occupiers. The Tax to fall justly should fall on R?nt, as Income, not as Ex- 
 pence. 
 
 Y 
 
162 
 
 Ground Rents. 
 
 The Rent of a House is distinguished into two parts, of which 
 the one is the Building Rent (the Rent hitherto considered) and 
 the other the Ground Rent. 
 
 The Tax on the Ground Rent would be included in the Tax on 
 the general Rent of the House, and similarly to it be the subject 
 of deduction or of adjustment between the Ground Owner and the 
 Owner or Occupier of the House. 
 
 Dr. Smith observes that * c Ground Rents are a still more pro- 
 c * per subject of Taxation than the Rent of Houses. A Tax upon 
 cc Ground Rents would not raise the Rents of Houses, It would 
 ' c fall altogether upon the Owner of the Ground Rent, who acts 
 " always as a monopolist and exacts the greatest Rent which can 
 Ci be got for the use of his ground. More or less can be got for 
 tC it according as the Competitors happen to be richer or poorer, 
 " or can afford to gratify their fancy for a particular spot of Ground 
 <c at a greater or smaller expence. In every country the greatest 
 " number of rich Competitors is in the Capital, and it is there ac- 
 iC cordingly that the highest Ground Rents are always to be 
 " found. As the wealth of those Competitors would in no respect 
 " be increased by a Tax upon Ground Rents they would not pro- 
 u bably be disposed to pay more for the use of the Ground. Whe- 
 " ther the Tax was to be advanced by the Inhabitant or by the 
 li Owner of the Ground would be of little importance. The more 
 " the Inhabitant was obliged to pay for the Tax the less he would 
 Ci incline to pay for the Ground, so that the final payment of the 
 " Tax would fall altogether upon the Owner of the Ground Rent. 
 " The Ground Rents of uninhabited Houses ought to pay no Tax.* 
 
 <c Both Ground Rents and the ordinary Rent of Land are a 
 iC species of Revenue which the owner, in many cases, enjoys 
 " without any care or attention of his own. Though a part of 
 c< this Revenue should be taken from him in order to defray the 
 Ci expences of the State, no discouragement will thereby be given 
 " to any sort of industry. The annual produce of the Land and 
 " Labor of the Society, the real wealth and Revenue of the great 
 
 * Unoccupied Houses were not charged to the late Property Tax. 
 
163 
 
 M body of the People, might be the same after such a Tax as 
 " before. Ground Rents and the ordinary Rent of Land are 
 " therefore, perhaps, the species of Revenue which can best bear 
 " to have a peculiar Tax imposed upon them. 
 
 " Ground Rents seems in this respect a more proper subject of 
 " peculiar Taxation than even the ordinary Rent of Land. The 
 " ordinary Rent of Land is, in many cases, owing, partly at least, 
 " to the attention and good management of the Landlord. Avery 
 " heavy Tax might discourage too much this attention and good 
 <: management. Ground Rents, so far as they exceed the ordi- 
 " nary Rent of Land, are altogether owing to the good govern- 
 u ment of the Sovereign, which, by protecting the industry either 
 " of the whole People or of the Inhabitants of some particular 
 " place, enables them to pay so much more than its real value for 
 " the Ground which they build their Houses upon, or to make to 
 " its Owner so much more than compensation for the loss which 
 " he might sustain by this use of it. Nothing can be more rea- 
 " sonable than that a Fund which owes its existence to the good 
 " government of the State should be taxed peculiarly, or should 
 " contribute something more than the greater part of other Funds 
 " towards the support of that government." 
 
 It is to be observed that Dr. Adam Smith, though very favorable 
 to a Tax on Rents, discusses it rather as a Tax imposed on them ex- 
 clusively as Rents, not as a Tax on the Income derived from them 
 in common with all other descriptions of Income, which generality 
 removes or reconciles any objection to a Tax on Rent. 
 
 Schedule B. — Rules in respect of the Profits of Occupation of 
 Lands, and the Occupiers 9 Duty, 
 
 Under the Property Act the Profits of Occupiers of Land in 
 England and Wales charged under Schedule B, were estimated 
 in England and Wales at three-fourths of the Rent or Annual Va- 
 lue, with a deduction of one-eighth for Tithe-free Lands, and in 
 Scotland at one-half the Rent or Value. These Rates which were 
 doubtless moderate even for the period in which they were first 
 imposed, soon became from the improvement of landed property 
 which took place during the time coeval with the Property Act 
 
164 
 
 (from 1803 to 1815) very deficient estimates of the Income de- 
 rived to the Occupiers in general. If the opinion at that time 
 generally entertained* that the Profit of the Occupiers did not 
 amount to less than one Rent, clear of all expences and outgoings, 
 was well founded, and if the amount of the deficiency in the Re- 
 turns of Rent or Annual Value, on which the Occupier's Rate of 
 Profit was taken be considered, it follows that the Occupiers of 
 Lands did not contribute near to the amount of Duty payable on 
 their actual Incomes. f 
 
 Nursery and Hop Grounds were charged under Schedule B, 
 not on a proportion of the Rents, but on Returns of the actual 
 Profits computed upon the average of three preceding years. 
 
 On the passing of the Act of 46 Geo. 3, the deduction of one- 
 eighth on Tithe-free Lands which had been also allowed under 
 the previous Act, was considered as less than the just proportion, 
 and to remedy the consequent inequality between Tithe-free and 
 Titheable Lands, the duty of 6d. in the pound on the amount of Com- 
 positions of Tithes was imposed under Schedule B ; the profit to 
 the Compounder being considered equal to one-fourth of the Com- 
 position paid. This adjustment was objected to by some on the 
 ground that the equality should have been produced by increas- 
 ing the rate of deduction for Tithe-free Lands. If Tithe Owners 
 had received their full due of one-tenth of the produce of Tithe- 
 able Lands, the amount would, it is conceived, have much ex- 
 ceeded one-eighth of the Rent, and on that supposition the increase 
 of Rent paid by the Occupier of Tithe-free Lands might be re- 
 garded as greater than one-eighth, and the deduction allowed to 
 him under Schedule B of the Property Act should in that case 
 have been larger, but if the rate of deduction was fixed with re- 
 ference to the proportion which in general the sum actually paid 
 for Tithes bore to the Rent of Titheable Lands, it was probably 
 sufficient. Whether the objection to the mode of equalization 
 was just or not, the compounders of Tithes were doubtless charged 
 moderately for the profits of their Compositions. Lessees of 
 
 * The Select Committee on Agriculture, stated in their Report (1821) that " for a 
 " considerable period during- the War the returns of Farming Capital exceeded the 
 " ordinary rate of profits." 
 
 f An Estimate of the amount of the deficiency is contained in the Appendix. 
 
165 
 
 Tithes were also moderately charged at the same rate on the 
 amount of the Rents paid by them. 
 
 In case any change in the rules adopted under the last Property 
 Act (1806) for estimating and charging the Profits of occupation 
 of Land should be expedient, it may be useful to refer to those 
 which had been previously in use as likely to suggest some desir- 
 able modification. 
 
 Under the Income Act (1799) Parochial and other Taxes charged 
 on the Occupier in respect of the Land and also Tithes were added 
 to the Rent, then one-fourth of the aggregate was deducted there- 
 from, and the remainder was the annual value upon which the In- 
 come of the Occupier was estimated. This rule was adopted from 
 an opinion then held, that the real rent was not so just a criterion of 
 the annual value ; it was observed in an official Publication issued 
 at that time, that " the Rent is necessarily lower in a place where 
 u the Rates, &c. are high, and higher in a place when those charges 
 " are light. By the Rate, whatever variation may arise in the actual 
 " Rent of different Lands of equally productive value, from the dif- 
 " ferent amounts of Rates and other outgoings to be borne by the 
 <c respective tenants, an average is obtained as the fair estimate of 
 " value, it being considered generally, that the amount of Taxes, &c. 
 " upon an average throughout the Kingdom, is equal to one-fourth 
 Ci of the outgoings, the remainder therefore forms the average of 
 c: what would be the Rent in all cases were the outgoings uni- 
 u form, and this average therefore forms the annual value." A 
 different rule was however resorted to under the first Property Act 
 (1803) and was continued in the subsequent Acts, it was then ob- 
 served, cc that by subtracting the fluctuating outgoings such as 
 "■' Tithes and Parochial Rates from the Rent," (a deduction of 
 one-fourth of the Rent being allowed) u a rule more favorable to 
 H the tenant is introduced, than by adding those sums and then 
 " taking an arbitrary portion of the aggregate amount, for although 
 " in settling the Rent all the outgoings are considered, yet it does 
 " not follow that the profit of the tenant is to be calculated with 
 " more certainty from the aggregate of those outgoings than from 
 iC the Rent alone ; if the Rent be governed by the amount of the 
 " other outgoings incidental to the Farm, leaving a certain profit 
 " to the tenant, in each case that profit must afterwards be consi- 
 u dered as fixed, and not fluctuating or depending on payments of 
 
166 
 
 " an uncertain amount in each year; that there is no component 
 " part of the aggregate that can be fixed in different years but the 
 " Rent, that affords the only fixed rule during the lease, and there- 
 " fore the most convenient to be established, and one of the in- 
 M inducements for the alteration arises from that consideration, 
 " the certainty, the convenience and the favorable result to the 
 " party must be taken to be the principle of the alteration and 
 " must be set against the defects which may appear in the inac- 
 " curacy whatever that may be." 
 
 The first Income Act (1799) fixed maximum and minimum 
 Rates of estimating the Profits of Occupation, and made distinction 
 between Farms of high and low value, Occupiers of the former 
 being considered capable of carrying on a course of cultivation so 
 as to increase their Income in a greater degree than Occupiers 
 of the latter. If the Annual Value, as estimated by the rules of 
 that Act, of Land occupied by a Tenant at Rack Rent was under 
 £300, the Income was taken at not less than one-half or more than 
 two-thirds of the value, if the annual value was £300 and up- 
 wards, then at not less than three-fifths or more than three-fourths 
 of it. The precise sum to be taken, not passing those limits, de- 
 pended on the discretion of the Commissioners, governed by a 
 consideration of the actual Profits and the circumstances of the 
 case ; in case of Lands occupied bv the Owners, the Profit in re- 
 spect of occupation was taken at not less than one-quarter or more 
 than one-half of the Annual Value, and where Lands had come 
 into occupation of the Owners within 18 months past, on the ex- 
 piration of a Lease or on the death or failure of the Tenant, then 
 no duty was charged in respect of the occupation. By the Income 
 Act (1800) the Income of the Tenant at Rack Rent was taken at 
 one-half of the Annual Value if under £300, and at three-fifths of 
 it if £300 and upwards, and the Profits of Occupation of the Owner 
 occupying his own Lands, if under £300 Annual Value, was taken 
 at two-fifths thereof, and if £300 and upwards, at one-half thereof, 
 with a power to reduce the amount if proved to exceed the real 
 Profit. 
 
 A desire was expressed in some Places during the late Property 
 Tax that the Assessments on Occupiers of Land might be made on 
 their actual Profits, alleging that it was the most equal mode of 
 charge and that the Occupiers' Returns of the amount of their 
 
167 
 
 Profits might be depended on. On this question it is to be con- 
 sidered whether the Returns of Profits if defective would be open to 
 easy detection and revision, whether material evasions could with- 
 out much difficulty or vexatious proceeding be prevented. Some 
 assistance might certainly be derived by comparing the various 
 Returns with each other — the quantity and quality of Land, the 
 course of cultivation, &c. in most occupations being known or easily 
 ascertainable, such a comparison might aid in deciding on unsatisfac- 
 tory Returns. If the actual Profits were the general rule of charge, 
 then in order to prevent the frequency of Returns of Profits and of 
 proceedings thereon the Returns made for the first year, if they 
 gave satisfactory amounts, might be taken for two or more years, or 
 the average of the three preceding years might be required to be 
 returned in the first instance as the amount of a permanent charge 
 throughout the term of a Lease, It might be understood that after 
 Returns had been accepted, further Returns were not to be made 
 unless specially called for, and which might be unnecessary unless 
 any extraordinary rise or fall of Agricultural Produce, or a great 
 improvement or depreciation of Land took place— on this plan there 
 might not be a necessity of any Returns or of any investigation 
 into pastactual or probable future Profits except on the commence- 
 ment of a new Lease or once during a Lease. 
 
 As the rules of the last Property Act (1806) for charging Hop- 
 Grounds and Nursery-Grounds on the actual Profits, also the rules 
 for estimating the Annual Value of Lands where the Rents were 
 reserved in Corn or Grain or depended on the price or quantity of 
 them or on the actual Produce* were carried into effect, it would 
 seem, judging from this partial operation of Rules which might 
 have led to an easy ascertainment of the actual Profits, that 
 
 * It was directed by the late Act that where the amount of Rent reserved in Money 
 depended on the pince of Corn or Grain, the estimate of the annual value should be 
 made on the amount payable, according- to the average prices paid in the year pre- 
 ceding* the year of Assessment, and in the same maimer by which the Rents had usu- 
 ally been ascertained between the Landlord and Tenant • also where the Rent was re- 
 served in Corn or Grain, that the estimate should be made on the quantity of Corn or 
 Grain delivered in the year of Assessment on the like average price • also where the 
 amount of Rent depended on the actual produce, either in respect of the price or quan- 
 tity, that the estimate should be made on the amount or value of such produce according 
 to the price fixed in the preceding year, and according to the quantity delivered in the 
 year of Assessment. 
 
168 
 
 it would be practicable to charge the Occupiers of Lands in ge- 
 neral nearly upon the amount of their actual Profits by other 
 means than by compelling Returns of them. From a know- 
 ledge of the average prices of Corn and Grain, and of the quan- 
 tities produced or in general producible from any given number 
 of acres of Land, also of the expences usually incurred in the culti- 
 vation of Farms of any given extent, rules might be adopted 
 by which a fair approximation to the actual Profits would be at- 
 tainable without such a strict investigation as might be necessary 
 to ascertain the precise amount. Each County or District might 
 be governed by the average price of Corn of the several markets 
 within it. If in too many instances Occupiers cannot be relied on 
 for delivering fair Returns of Profits, artificial rules may be resorted 
 to for estimating nearly their recei pts and outgoings . The materials for 
 the operation of these rules might be obtained from the Leases, or 
 from a general registry of them, or by survey and valuation, or the 
 Occupiers might be required in their periodical Returns of Rents, 
 or on every change of occupation, or once in every seven years in 
 cases of the same persons being Occupiers during the whole of that 
 period, to return the number of Acres rented and cultivated by 
 them, distinguishing the proportions of Arable, Pasture, Marsh- 
 land, Woodland, Hopland, &c. and whatever other particulars 
 mio-ht be essential for making the rules for estimating the Profits 
 operate accurately. 
 
 A fixed genera! Rate of Charge on Occupiers <jf Lands may how- 
 ever, on the whole, be not only most expedient, as most easy to be 
 carried into effect and as attended with less trouble and vexatious 
 proceedings, but it may not in the end occasion more inequality 
 than the attempt to ascertain and charge the actual Profits, for 
 though a fixed rate may, in order to avoid hardship or excess as 
 much as possible, be so moderate as in general to be short of the 
 Net Gains, it may give the individual amounts as fairly when com- 
 pared with each other, as the parties themselves would disclose 
 them in their own Returns, or as any artificial rules might attain 
 them. If one general Rate be fixed as affording a fair Estimate of 
 the Incomes of Occupation on the average, and it should be found 
 in some parts of the country to be excessive from any peculiar local 
 circumstances, such as inundations, disorders in cattle^ or any ex- 
 
169 
 
 traordinary accidents of the like kind,* relief could be provided for 
 any such causes of falling off of Income, to be granted in every 
 case in which they might occur, or only in those parts of the Country 
 where they might prevail to a general extent, and Assessments ac- 
 cording to actual Profits, to be ascertained by such mode of inves- 
 tigation as the Commissioners should judge most proper, might be 
 confined to those cases. 
 
 Though during the time of the late Properly Tax the Profits of 
 Occupiers of Lands were generally in a course of great increase, 
 yet a short time previous to its cessation (1815) such a sudden and 
 extraordinary reverse took place in the value of Agricultural Pro- 
 duce that the Rate of Charge on the Profit of Occupation, three- 
 fourths of the Rent, which had previously been too moderate 
 an estimate of them, was complained of as too high. Whether 
 after the reduction of Rents which ensued it would have been ex- 
 cessive, if the Tax had been continued, may be doubtful ; consider- 
 ing however the fluctuating value of the Produce of Land and that 
 the proportion which the amount of the ordinary or average Profit 
 of the Occupier bears or should bear to the Rent of the Owner, 
 may, from extraordinary circumstancesf affecting all Lands, not be 
 realized, it may be necessary to vary occasionally as such circum- 
 stances require, any general Rate which assumes the Profits at a 
 certain proportion of the Rent in case that mode of charge be 
 adopted in a future Tax. If the former Rates of three-fourths of 
 the Rent for England and Wales and one-half for Scotland would 
 be generally excessive, although computed on reduced amounts 
 of Rents, it would be necessary to commence the operation of the 
 measure at a less Rate of Charge, and it may be submitted that 
 one-half or two-fifths of the Rent or Annual Value for England and 
 two- fifths or one-third for Scotland J might form a moderate Esti- 
 
 * By the supplementary Act of 50 Geo. 3, Cap. 106, the general rule in the principal Act 
 of 46 Geo. 3, was modified by giving authority for abatements in such cases. 
 
 f Such circumstances as a transition from Peace to War and vice versa, or any other 
 events and changes in public affairs which derange the natural or usual course of Agricul- 
 ture and affect the value of produce and the cost of production, so that the ordinary or 
 average rate of Profit calculated upon during the period of a Lease, may greatly exceed 
 or fall short of the actual rate of Profit. 
 
 X It may perhaps be questionable, on a consideration of the very impr ved state of 
 
 z 
 
170 
 
 mate of the Profits on the general average ; or the Rates of Estimate 
 of Profits of Occupation pursued under the Income Act in 1799 or 
 1800 might be revived, adopting also, or without adopting, its rule 
 of forming the Annual Value. If low Rates were at first taken, they 
 might afterwards be raised on any general amelioration of the 
 state of Agriculture. It may also be a matter of consideration, 
 whether there should be one and the same proportion for all 
 descriptions of Lands as under the late Property Act, or whether 
 the proportion taken should differ according to the differences in 
 the qualities of Soils, in the nature of the terms or in other cir- 
 cumstances of variance, that is, if the Rents themselves are not con- 
 sidered sufficient criteria thereof; also whether the Assessment 
 made by that general Rate should be subject to reduction on 
 appeal, in cases where they could be proved to exceed the actual 
 amount of the Profits. 
 
 It would seem that it cannot be ascertained satisfactorily what 
 the rate of Profits of Occupiers of Land in general is or has been — 
 the opinions on it have been various; vague and inconclusive 
 statements have been offered. In a Work published in 1816* in 
 which it was desirable to give such information on that head as 
 might be depended on, are the following observations, which may 
 be appropriately offered here as shewing the causes of the difficulty 
 of obtaining from Farmers satisfactory returns of actual Profits, 
 and the obstacles opposed to attempts to procure in any way deci- 
 sive and certain information on the subject. 
 
 " In the County Agricultural Reports, a chapter is set apart for 
 " the consideration of expence and profit. But it is well observed 
 " in one of them, * that there is very great difficulty in obtaining 
 ' the truth on this head : Farmers, like other people in business, 
 
 * are shy in laying open their affairs to any one, and now more so 
 ' than ever. In the first place, for fear their Landlords should get 
 
 * hold of it, and thus be the means of an advance in their rent the 
 1 first opportunity ; and in the second place, for fear the Com- 
 
 Agriculture in Scotland, whether there should be any distinction in the Rates between 
 that part of Great Britain and the rest of it. 
 
 * The Rev. Dr. Cove's Essay on the Revenues of the Church of England. 
 
171 
 
 missioners of the Income Tax should be made acquainted with 
 ' it, and raise the duty on them. Farmers in general keep no 
 ' books in a minute or regular manner ; it is not therefore in their 
 ' power to give particulars of expence and profit correctly, only 
 ' in a rough way.'* " And in another Report," * few Farmers 
 
 * keep accurate accounts ; and such the Surveyor has not been 
 c able to meet with, as might shew the precise expences and profits 
 
 * of a well cultivated farm in his district : Ideal calculation he has 
 4 avoided, as tending to mislead the judgment, not establish facts. 
 
 * He therefore attempts no statement of that kindo'f " Accord- 
 c< ingly this subject has been either unnoticed by the writers in 
 " general of the reports, or has been considered by them very su- 
 " perficially. ,, 
 
 From the above statement it would appear that the Farmers 
 may be under strong inducements to conceal their real Profits. 
 The less they can make their Profits appear, the greater apparent 
 reason there may be to keep down their Rents, Tithes, Public 
 Taxes, and Parochial Rates. At the period adverted to, Farmers 
 in general were in very prosperous circumstances which probably 
 made them more reluctant for the reasons just assigned to disclose 
 the full amount of their real Profits, but although that state of 
 circumstances has since been reversed, or become much altered, 
 there seems no alternative in taxing them but to form the best 
 judgment which the difficulties of obtaining positive information 
 will admit : to take the Rent as the basis, with such a rate of de- 
 duction from the amount of it as may leave a moderate estimate 
 of Profit, will be to follow the judgment of the Landlord, who in 
 settling the Rent, may be supposed to be best acquainted with the 
 capability of his own property, and whose best interest it is not to 
 act hardly or unfairly with his Tenant. 
 
 In justification then of the mode of Charge on an Occupier of 
 Lands by an assumed proportion of the Rent or Annual Value, it 
 may be observed that the Legislature in charging the Tax on him 
 in that way as a fair mode of estimating his average and ordinary 
 Profit may be considered as governed by the same principle as the 
 
 * Warwick Agricultural Report, 1813, p. 43. 
 
 + York North Riding- Agricultural Report, 1800, p. 77. 
 
172 
 
 Landlord himself in fixing the amount of the Rent; it may be rea- 
 sonably presumed that the Landlord having a due regard to the pro- 
 per cultivation of his Estate and to the condition of his Tenant, has, 
 after taking the nature of the Soil, the probable amount of the out- 
 goings and any peculiar circumstances into consideration, fixed 
 the Rent at an amount which will enable the Tenant during all 
 the years for which the Lease is granted to realize on an average 
 such an amount of Profit as will bear its fair and ordinary pro- 
 portion to the Rent ; it may be assumed that the Tax, like the 
 Rent, though it might in one year be excessive would in another 
 year be deficient in its due proportion to the actual Profit of the 
 Occupier, and thus taking the whole term, the average Profit cal- 
 culated on might be realized; on this consideration, the late 
 Property Act did not provide for cases of reduction of Rents if 
 they occurred during a Lease not exceeding seven years ; al- 
 though from the progressive improvement of Lands in general 
 during the time of that Act till nearly the close of it, any provision 
 for that purpose was not generally necessary, it may have happened 
 that the absence of it occasioned inconvenience in some cases. 
 " By reason of the great depreciation in the price of Grain and 
 Ci other Agricultural Produce" which suddenly took place at the 
 close of the War, an Act was then passed to authorize the Com- 
 missioners to abate the assessments for the last year (1815) on 
 proof that the Land Owners had bona fide reduced their rents. 
 In a future Act it may be made an established rule that on an ac- 
 tual abatement of Rent, whether it be allowed for the current year 
 only or throughout the remaining term of a Lease (and it may be 
 assumed that Rent will be in general reduced in cases entitling the 
 Tenants to such relief) a proportional reduction of the Tax 
 shall be made. 
 
 In considering the question which is the best mode of taxing the 
 Profits of the Occupiers of Land, it seems that the great object in a 
 Tax on Lands is to charge all of them in proportion to the total Net 
 Income derived from them — that the Net Income is the aggregate 
 net Profit after deducting all outgoings, including both Landlords' 
 and Tenants' proportions of it ; taking the Rent as on the whole 
 the best criterion of the total Net Income of most Lands, it may 
 be considered that if any particular Land be charged beyond its 
 
173 
 
 Net Income, and the Occupier thereby is rated excessively for his 
 proportion, the cause will be that the Rent paid to the Owner 
 is excessive, that the Tax, distinctly charged on the Occupier's 
 Profit, will not be an excessive proportion of it if the Rent be 
 not an excessive proportion of the whole Profit of the Land, the 
 remedy in cases of excess is then obvious, relief must first be claimed 
 by the Tenant from the Owner, when granted, the abatement of 
 the Tax both on Rent and Profit will follow of course. It may 
 become a question whether in any cases where the Landlord does 
 not reduce his Rent there shall be a reduction of the Tax on the 
 Occupier on the plea of a bad season or other cause in any par- 
 ticular year or years on the Occupier claiming it and proving- his 
 actual Profit of that year— to allow it may be admitting a claim 
 which, assuming that the Landlord has in his Lease dealt conside- 
 rately and fairly with his Tenant, taking into account the Rent and 
 Profit throughout the whole Term, is not reasonably founded — 
 to refuse it, may on one hand, be aggravating a severe hardship 
 which the Landlord inflicts, and be detrimental to cultivation — 
 while on the other hand to accede to it in such a case may, in 
 effect, be to assist the Tenant in paying an exorbitant Rent and 
 to put the fair and necessary demands of Taxation into the pocket 
 of an avaricious Owner. On the whole the conclusion may be, that 
 it is most fair and safe never to depart from the Rent as the Stan- 
 dard of Charge. 
 
 The rule of the late Act which limited the charge by the Rent 
 to cases where the amount had been fixed by agreement, com- 
 mencing within a period of the preceding seven years, and which 
 required after that period the then increased Annual Value to be 
 taken, was objected to in some places as not equitable ; it was 
 alleged that the rate of charge, if fixed at a proportion of the Rent 
 should continue throughout the whole term of the Lease, though 
 extending to fourteen or twenty-one years, on the ground that it 
 is on the average of all the years of a Lease that a fair Income is 
 obtained, and that it is during the latter years of possession under 
 a long term that the then more valuable Produce of Lands will 
 compensate for the deficiency of the first years of it— yielding 
 credit to this allegation it may be surmised that whatever sum 
 the Owner of the Property, (naturally inclined to obtain his full 
 
174 
 
 right) may deem the fair Rent during a long term, the State may 
 be satisfied with as a basis for taxing the Occupier's average 
 Annual Profit throughout the whole term, provided the Rent be 
 the sole consideration. 
 
 On the rule of estimating the Tenant's Profit on a fixed pro- 
 portion of the Rent or Annual Value, it was observed in an Official 
 Publication circulated in 1803 on the commencement of the Pro- 
 perty Tax, 
 
 " The Profit of a Tenant is variable, depending on Seasons, on 
 " skilful cultivation, on local advantages, on the increase and de- 
 " crease of incidental expences — Some of these may and others 
 " cannot be the subject of previous computation — The rule for 
 " letting Lands is drawn from experience, not from mere calcula- 
 " tions, the Rent is the result, and that Rent must be fixed after 
 " a due allowance to the Tenant for the maintenance of himself 
 " and family, on general rules and not on the accuracy of indi- 
 " vidual calculations. On these and other considerations, which 
 " might be more minutely disclosed, the Rent has been fixed as 
 " the best possible criterion, though open to some objections, of 
 " the Tenant's Profit. It has been taken at so low a rate as not 
 " to injure any one, although from nicety of calculation, it may 
 " be discovered not to apply itself equally to all cases. Where 
 " it will fall heaviest the Parties will be free from the usual risks. 
 " It is drawn from a comparison of places subject to the same or 
 " nearly the same average of Parochial Rates. When Lands are 
 " not subject to the usual contingencies of Arable cultivation, 
 " when they are not subject to the risks and casualties of a nu- 
 " merous Poor, there the Tax being proportionate to an increased 
 " Rent will also be increased ; but the ability of the Tenant to 
 " pay will by his freedom from those risks and casualties be also 
 " the greater. The increase of Tax whenever that may be made 
 " apparent will then fall on increased ability. 
 
 " It has been thought proper to offer these arguments in favor 
 * of the present mode of assessing the Tenant's profits : A crite- 
 " rion is admitted by all to be necessary, where it is impossible to 
 " arrive at the actual profits. Whatever criterion is fixed must 
 " necessarily introduce some inequality ; the most simple is the 
 " most convenient ; the most general is the easiest to be under- 
 

 175 
 
 " stood and pursued. The simplicity and convenience will be 
 iC admitted in its favour; and if its operation in the instances 
 " where it produces inequality should be in favour of the Tenant, 
 " who can least sustain the burthen, it will be admitted to be an 
 " improvement, though not perfect where perfection cannot be 
 " obtained/' 
 
 As it has been held that Farms are affected by the variations in 
 the prices of Corn differently according" to the quality of the Lands 
 attached to them, inferior Land being thrown sooner out of culti- 
 vation, or rendered more than proportionably unproductive of 
 Profit on the fall of prices, and as therefore a Farm with Land of 
 inferior quality let at a Rent equal to a Farm of superior Land 
 with a less number of acres, may be disproportionably charged in 
 being always assessed at the same amount as if productive at all 
 times of the same Profit as the Farm of superior Land, it might be 
 a consideration whether the Rent per Acre would not afford a 
 better permanent criterion of the Profit of the Tenant than the 
 Rent of the whole Farm, by taking the amount of the Annual 
 Value of inferior Lands for the purpose of the Tax on it to be to 
 the amount of the Rent of them as the Rent per Acre of these 
 Lands is to the Rent per Acre of Lands of superior quality, the 
 average Rent per Acre of superior Lands, being the basis of Esti- 
 mate, to be declared by Authority from time to time as changes in 
 it might require. Suppose a Farm of 300 Acres of inferior Land 
 let at £225 Rent, that is, at 15s. per Acre, while the average Rent 
 per Acre of Land of superior quality is 25s. or 20s. per Acre, (as 
 it may be declared to be) the Annual Value of the former, for the 
 purpose of the Tax on it, should be taken at three-fifths or three- 
 fourths of the Rent; the Annual Value being settled, the propor- 
 tion of it to be taken as the Occupier's Profit would be the same 
 in both cases. Any trouble of computing the Annual Value and 
 Profit might be obviated by Tables formed for the purpose. 
 
 Preferable mode of levying the Duty in respect of Lands by 
 Charging in one Sum the Landlord's Rent and Tenant's Profit. 
 
 Incomes derived from Lands might be charged without that dis- 
 tinction of Landlord's Duty and Tenant's Duty, which was ob- 
 
176 
 
 served under the late Property Act, but in one total amount to be 
 considered as comprehending both Rent and Occupation Profit ; 
 the charge to be made at the same pound rate on all Properties 
 according to their annual value, such annual value to be deter- 
 mined by the Rents or by such methods and rules of ascertaining 
 or estimating the same as may be best adapted to the different de- 
 nominations of Property. The Landlord and Tenant might be 
 left to adjust between themselves the proportion to be borne by 
 each — that adjustment might in general be more equitable and 
 satisfactory than such as any legislative enactments fixing the re- 
 spective proportions could effect. If this plan should be regarded 
 as falling, like the present Land Tax, (taken according to the 
 letter of the Act, not to its real effect) into a Tax on Rent or on 
 the Landlord only, it is to be observed, that if a certain Revenue 
 must be raised from Real Property, it may be immaterial whether 
 there be raised distinctly, for instance, 2s. in the pound on Rent 
 as the Landlord's Income, and Is. 6d. on the Rent as the rate of 
 the Occupier's profit, or whether 3s. 6d. be raised on the Estate 
 without distinction of Landlord or Tenant : — Whether the present 
 Land Tax had been raised like the late Properly Tax, by two dis- 
 tinct charges, or the late Property Tax had been raised like the 
 Land Tax, by one charge only, the effects on the respective interests 
 of Landlord and Tenant would by mutual adjustment have soon 
 become the same; whatever one had paid beyond the just propor- 
 tion which his due share of the whole Income of the Estate de- 
 manded, the other would have been made to bear by an increase 
 or by a diminution of rent, as the case required. To tax Land- 
 lord and Tenant, or rather the whole Profit of the Estate, by one 
 charge would get rid of some complexity which that part of the 
 late Property Tax was subject to, it would simplify its proceedings 
 and render them less troublesome and inconvenient. 
 
 As the object should be to obtain the Tax from the aggregate of 
 the Profit of every landed Estate in just proportion to that aggre- 
 gate, whatever the division of it between Landlord and Tenant 
 might be, and as it is extremely difficult to attain a knowledge 
 of the actual amounts of the respective shares of that aggregate pro- 
 fit, it may be most expedient to determine on the plan now proposed 
 of a single charge on the Rent without any apportionment of the 
 
177 
 
 large between the Landlord and Tenant. This is an interference 
 
 'hich it appears most just and politic to avoid. Whatever may 
 
 be the circumstances of variance between differeut occupations of 
 
 Land (under which a general rule assuming the same rate of profit 
 
 n all is not truly applicable to all) the burthen will be divided 
 
 Jtween the parties more nearly as it ought to be borne if depend- 
 ing on their mutual agreement rather than on any compulsory 
 
 (iieral rule prescribing the same division of it in all cases. It 
 
 light however be necessary to make legislative provision for the 
 ipportionment of the total charge during the unexpired term of 
 Leases existing at the time of the imposition of the Tax. The ex- 
 pediency of the more simple and equal, the far less difficult and 
 troublesome mode of charge now recommended appears the 
 greater when it is considered that after a division of the whole Tax 
 had been made by separation of it into two parts as under the late Tax, 
 by which the Occupiers' share will in some cases be rendered an ex- 
 cessive and in others a deficient proportion of his real Profit, the 
 necessity of some adjustment between the Landlords and Tenants 
 in those cases for the purpose of equalizing the total burthen of 
 the Tax may not ultimately be avoided or the difference be more 
 easily settled between them ; the Rents must in the end be in- 
 creased or diminished according as the preponderance of the 
 apportioned Tax may fall on the Landlord or on the Tenant. 
 
 The consolidated rate of charge on Landlords and Tenants of 
 Lands, should of course, as embracing the united Incomes of two 
 Classes of persons, be doubly or in the due proportion, greater 
 than the rate of charge on the Income of any other Class taken 
 distinctly. 
 
 The general rate of charge on Houses would be proportionably 
 lower than the rate of charge on Lands, the former not vielding 
 an occupation Profit ; the respective rates might be determined 
 with a due regard not only to that, but, if necessary, to other cir- 
 cumstances of difference arising from the different natures of the 
 two Properties. The Profit of occupation of Land being taken 
 under the late Property Act at three-fourths of the Rent, the 
 Landlord was charged at four-sevenths and the Occupier at 
 three-sevenths of the total Tax charged in respect of both — ac- 
 cording to this rule the Owner of Houses should be charged on 
 
 2 A 
 
178 
 
 his Rent at four-sevenths of the consolidated rate of charge on 
 Lands, but the late Property Tax was a temporary one, and con- 
 sidering the difference in favor of Land in that essential quality of 
 Property — durability, — it might seem that the ratio of charge on 
 Houses shonld be somewhat lower. 
 
 Suppose it were required to raise an Income or Property Tax 
 to the Annual Amount of £15 or £16 millions on Lands, Houses, 
 &c. then assuming the same aggregate amounts of Rent or An- 
 nual Value of Lands, Houses, &c. respectively as were attained 
 for charge under the late Property Act in 1814, the required 
 amount of the Tax might on a rough Estimate be taken to be 
 nearly as follows : — 
 
 Amount. Rate of Charge. Amount of Tax. 
 Millions. s. d. Millions. 
 
 Annual Value of Lands, includ- 
 ing Mines, Quarries, &c 
 
 £41 .... 6 .... £12 T V 
 
 Annual Value of Houses £16| 3 6 £ 2£ 
 
 Profits of Tithes £ 2f . . . . „ .... £ | 
 
 £60 £15f 
 
 If to the sum of £41 millions Rent of Land, on which only the 
 charge would nominally be made, there were added the Profit of 
 Occupation, the actual rate of charge would be proportionably 
 less than 6s. 
 
 According as the rate of charge on Houses should be equal to or 
 lower than four-sevenths of the total rate of charge on Lands in 
 order to put the Proprietors of Lands and the Proprietors of Houses 
 on a fair relative footing, the Tax to be paid on Houses would in its 
 rate be equal to or lower than 3s. 6d. in the Pound, and in its 
 total amount than £2£ millions. The nominal rates of 6s. and 
 3s. 6d. would be higher or lower than the real rates of charge 
 according as the Annual Value assessed in 1814, taken as the 
 basis, would be lower or higher than the real Annual Value at the 
 future period of Assessment. 
 
 The amount of Tithes for which the Impropriators were charged 
 to the late Property Tax was £2f millions ; though the Sums paid 
 to the Impropriators for Tithes is doubtless far short of the Sum due 
 to them, (taken at one-tenth of the gross Produce) yet as the Com- 
 
179 
 
 I pounders or Lessees derive from that circumstance a very consi- 
 derable Profit, much greater than one-fourth of the amount of 
 the Compositions or Rent paid for the Tithes, (at which rate they 
 were chargeable under Schedule B. to the late Tax) some addi- 
 tion might perhaps be made to the general rate of 3s. 6d, on the 
 amount of Compositions or Rents received by the Impropriators 
 compounding for or letting their Tithes, leaving the proportions of 
 the Impropriators and of the Compounders or Lessees respectively 
 to be adjusted between themselves in settling the terms of the 
 Compositions or Leases — if the Duty on the amount of Composi- 
 tions or Rents for Tithes were increased to 4s. 6d. it would infer a 
 Profit to the Compounders or Lessees rather exceeding one-fourth 
 of the Sum paid by them respectively to the Tithe Owners. 
 
 On raising the Duties on Lands, Houses , fyc. by fixed Quotas, as 
 under the present Land Tax Act. 
 
 If such an alteration of the plan of the late Property Tax as 
 suggested under the preceding head be adopted, it might, after a 
 fair general Assessment completed according to it had been fully 
 established, appear also advisable to raise the aggregate amount 
 of the Tax required from the whole Kingdom by dividing it into 
 fixed Quotas, among the several Counties, Hundreds, &c. as under 
 the present Land Tax Act, more particularly if it should be 
 deemed expedient to render the Tax subject to Redemption and 
 Purchase as proposed in the Third Part of this Work. The ob- 
 jection to fixed Quotas has been that as properties in different 
 parts of the Kingdom undergo improvement or deterioration in 
 different degrees, the Quotas become in the course of time un- 
 equal, taking Counties or Districts relatively to each other; but 
 this objection might be remedied by rendering the Quotas varia- 
 ble periodically, and fixing them for a certain term only. A new 
 general Assessment might take place every seven, fourteen or 
 twenty-one years, (with reference to the general duration of 
 Leases held for terms of years) ; the interval might be longer or 
 shorter as circumstances should render just and expedient; or a 
 new Assessment might take place only in any particular County, 
 Dictrict or Place, in which a certain proportion of those liable to 
 
180 
 
 charge should, in some prescribed manner, and form apply for it, 
 or in which on a general review of any alteration of circumstances 
 in any particular County, &c. it might appear to the Commis- 
 sioners at large of that County to be necessary. 
 
 Fixed Quotas render certain the amount of the Revenue of the 
 State on which it has prospectively to depend ; but another advan- 
 tage of fixed Quotas has been considered to be that they render 
 unnecessary the interference of Government or its Officers in as- 
 certaining and determining the individual amounts, these would 
 be settled by and among the Parties themselves vested with legal 
 powers and means for the purpose ; each County and District 
 being bound to pay a certain specified sum, the obligation of 
 check would fall where perhaps the obligation of check in respect 
 of Taxation more properly should fall and where it would be most 
 effectual, that is on the Tax Payers themselves ; it is they who 
 are most interested in the establishment and maintenance of fair- 
 ness and equality of Taxation — they would then become the ne- 
 cessary and a strong restraint on each other,* and Government 
 would avoid such odium as it incurred under the late Property 
 Tax by its constant interference and exercise of powers through its 
 Officers, carried to vexatious minutiae with many of the individuals 
 subject to the Tax ; there might not be a nececssity for the em- 
 ployment in any District of a single Revenue Officer appointed by 
 or under the control of Government, the Assessment and Collec- 
 tion would rest wholly with individuals independent of it, even the 
 remittance of the monies to the Exchequer might be made without 
 the interference of any Crown Officers,! and much expence, 
 
 * Any person disposed to commit evasion would be made more sensible by the ope- 
 ration of this plan that a Tax is an obligation as binding- on him as any other obligation 
 of a pecuniary nature, that a fraud on the Revenue is not a mere cheat on Government 
 but that it is a real private injury which every neighbour is interested and justified in 
 preventing — there would be less of that feeling and opinion, just or not, against Tax- 
 ation which the proceedings of the Crown Officers too often excite, not only in those 
 attempting to evade, but in those disinclined to it-, the attention of the honest contri- 
 butors would be more immediately directed where it should be, to the attempts of 
 those who would defraud them, and to the defeat of them. 
 
 f The monies might be remitted by Country Bankers, by whom it could be received 
 from the Parochial Collectors. Those Bankers who would remit it on the lowest and 
 secure terms should be preferred. 
 
181 
 
 which the permanent employment of them occasions, would be 
 avoided. 
 
 If fixed Quotas should be deemed most advisable, a general 
 Survey and Valuation might be made, as upon the first establish- 
 ment of the present Land Tax, of the Real Property of the whole 
 Kingdom for the purpose of ascertaining and determining the 
 amount of the several Quotas, or Assessments might be made on 
 individual Returns and Parochial Estimates as under the late 
 Property Act, or, as it would be known that those Returns and Es- 
 timates were required for the purpose of forming Quotas for a per- 
 manency or for a long term, and therefore greater deficiencies and 
 inequalities might be the consequence, it might be more advisable 
 to resort to the last Assessment made to the late Property Tax, 
 under Schedules A and B* in the year 1814, for a basis of charge ; 
 though those Assessments were deficient in the aggregate of the ac- 
 tual amount of the Rental of Lands, &c. of that period, yet as the 
 deficiency, whether it arose from individual evasion or from the 
 defective rules of estimate prescribed by the Act, may, taking 
 large aggregates, be assumed to have prevailed in nearly the same 
 degree in the different parts of the Kingdom, the aggregate 
 amounts of the several Counties, if not also the amounts of the 
 several Districts and even of Parishes generally, might be found 
 to approximate sufficiently their due relative proportions to each 
 other; the fixed amount of the Quota of the Tax for each County 
 might be declared in the Act itself as with respect to the Quotas of 
 Land Tax which have always been declared in the Land Tax Act, 
 and in that case the Quotas of the several Hundreds and Parishes 
 might be afterwards fixed by the Commissioners of each County 
 at a General Meeting of them : Or, as the Quotas of the several 
 Counties declared in the Land Tax Act are required to be ap- 
 portioned among the several Hundreds or Divisions according to 
 the sums assessed on them respectively in the first year of the Land 
 
 * The amount of the Property Tax as assessed on Real Property for the year 1814, 
 in every County, District, Parish and Place is attainable from documents which contain 
 the charges extracted from the original Assessments, and which have been printed by 
 order of the House of Commons. This information has been preserved notwithstanding 
 the destruction of the original Assessments and Returns. 
 
182 
 
 Tax, (1692) and as the Quotas of Parishes have seldom, if ever, 
 been varied, so the Quotas of the new Tax in the several Hundreds 
 and Parishes might be required to be apportioned according" to 
 their respective amounts of Rental as charged in the last year of 
 the late Property Tax, (1814) and in that case the Amounts of the 
 Parishes only would have to be afterwards apportioned among 
 the respective inhabitants thereof; although the more minute the 
 subdivisions of the fixed Quotas, the greater the probability of their 
 becoming in time unequal, yet there might not be any great ine- 
 quality arising from the Quotas of Parishes or even from the indi- 
 vidual Assessments being fixed at the same amounts, if for a short 
 term of years only. If any County, District or Parish should be 
 dissatisfied with its declared Quota as taken from the last Assess- 
 ments to the late Property Tax, it might claim to be subjected to 
 a new Assessment which should be its Quota ; for this purpose it 
 would be necessary that a claim by notice to the Commissioners 
 should be made by a certain proportion of the individuals liable 
 to charge — and then the necessary proceedings should be re- 
 sorted to for ascertaining the value of and re-charging every in- 
 dividual occupation and forming from the aggregate of all the 
 changes the new required Quota. 
 
 The aggregate amount of the Income or Property Tax to be 
 raised on Real Property throughout the whole Kingdom being de- 
 termined in the first instance by the Legislature according to the 
 pecuniary exigencies of the State, if the Assessments of the year 
 1814 were declared the basis of apportionment* the fixed Quota of 
 each County, District or Parish would be the same proportion of 
 that aggregate amount as its charge to the late Property Tax was 
 of the aggregate charge to that Tax on Real Property in the whole 
 Kingdom.* 
 
 On subdividing the Quotas of Districts or Parishes among the 
 several individuals according to the amount of their Returns of 
 Rents or Annual Value, or of the Estimates made thereof by the 
 Parochial Officers, the real Rates of charge would appear, and a 
 
 * The accounts at the end of the Appendix are data for estimating the proportions 
 of the Tax to be raised in this manner from the respective Counties. 
 
183 
 
 general compare of the effect throughout all Parishes and Places 
 would shew whether the basis taken from the late Property Tax 
 Assessments had produced due equality, or whether a new Valua- 
 tion or Assessment, generally or partially, would be necessary. 
 
 Dr. Adam Smith's Opinion on the plan of fixed Quotas. 
 
 On a suggestion of raising an Income Tax, so far as concerns 
 Lands and Houses, by fixed Quotas in the manner of the present 
 Land Tax, but supposing as in that Tax, they were made un variable 
 and declared to be perpetual,* it may be satisfactory to know how 
 far such a plan conforms to the fundamental maxims of Taxation 
 as stated by the able Writer before quoted ;f he observes, " A 
 " Tax upon the Rent of Land may either be imposed according to 
 " a certain canon, every District being valued at a certain Rent, 
 " which valuation is not afterwards to be altered, or it may be im- 
 " posed in such a manner as to vary with every variation in the 
 " real Rent of the Land, and to rise or fall with the improvement 
 Ci or declension of its cultivation. 
 
 iC A Land Tax which like that of Great Britain is assessed upon 
 " each District according to a certain invariable canon, though it 
 " should be equal at the time of its first establishment necessarily 
 " becomes unequal in the process of time, according to the un- 
 " equal degrees of improvement or neglect in the cultivation of 
 iC the different parts of the Country. Tn England the valuation, 
 " according to which the different Counties and Parishes were as- 
 " sessed to the Land Tax by the 4th of William and Mary, was 
 <c very unequal even at its first establishment. This Tax therefore 
 " so far offends against the first of the four maxims above-men- 
 " tioned4 It is perfectly agreeable to the other three. It is 
 
 * The Land Tax was renewed every year by an Act of Parliament until 1798, when 
 it was made " perpetual, subject to Redemption and Purchase." 
 
 f Dr. A. Smith. 
 
 I The maxim referred to is, that " every one should be taxed in proportion to his 
 " means." The four maxims are given in page 126. 
 
184 
 
 c< perfectly certain. The time of payment for the Tax being the 
 " same as that for the Rent is as convenient as it can be to the con- 
 " tributor. Though the Landlord is in all cases the real contri- 
 " butor, the Tax is commonly advanced by the Tenant, to whom 
 " the Landlord is obliged to allow it in the payment of the Rent. 
 * c This Tax is levied by a much smaller number of Officers than 
 Ci any other which affords nearly the same Revenue. As the Tax 
 <f upon each District does not rise with the rise of Rent, the 
 " Sovereign does not share in the Profits of the Landlord's im- 
 " provements. Those improvements sometimes contribute, in- 
 " deed, to the discharge of the other Landlords of the District. 
 " But the aggravation of the Tax which this may sometimes oc- 
 iC casion upon a particular Estate is always so very small that it 
 u never can discourage those improvements, nor keep down the 
 €i Produce of the Land below what it would otherwise rise to. 
 " As it has no tendency to diminish the quantity, it can have none 
 " to raise the price of that Produce. It does not obstruct the 
 " industry of the People. It subjects the Landlord to no 
 <* other inconveniency besides the unavoidable one of paying the 
 « Tax. 
 
 " The advantage however which the Landlord has derived from 
 " the invariable constancy of the valuation by which all the Lands 
 u of Great Britain are rated to the Land Tax has been principally 
 *' owing to some circumstances altogether extraneous to the nature 
 « of the Tax. 
 
 " It has been owing in part to the great prosperity of almost 
 " every part of the Country, the Rents of almost all the Estates of 
 iC Great Britain since the time when the Valuation was first esta- 
 " blished having been continually rising and scarce any of them hav- 
 " ing fallen. The Landlords therefore have almost all gained the 
 (i difference between the Tax which they would have paid accord- 
 <• ing to the present Rent of their Estates, and that which they 
 " actually pay according to the ancient Valuation. Had the state 
 ** of the Country been different, had Rents been gradually Killing 
 u in consequence of the declension of cultivation, the Landlords 
 " would almost all have lost this difference. In the state of things 
 " which has happened to take place since the Revolution, the 
 
185 
 
 ft constancy of the Valuation has been advantageous to the Land- 
 " lord and hurtful to the Sovereign. In a different state of things 
 " it might liave been advantageous to the Sovereign and hurtful 
 " to the Landlord." 
 
 But as that ' c different state of things" which is contemplated in the 
 above concluding- remark may perhaps be considered as having 
 for some years past existed in this Country — it may be more expe- 
 dient that the Canon or Quota of the new Tax should, as before 
 suggested, be made periodically variable ; the length of the inter- 
 vals depending on circumstances, the occurrence of which or the 
 period of it, it may not be possible to foresee. Such a modification 
 might allow the Agriculturists as much of the advantage held 
 out to them by a fixed Canon as would be compatible with that 
 equality which concerns them, not only relatively to each other, 
 but relatively to the other classes who would contribute to the Tax, 
 and might thereby render that part of the Tax more conformable 
 to the first of the four maxims, which a permanently fixed canon 
 offends against, without rendering it materially less conformable 
 to the other three maxims. In reference to Dr. Smith's remarks on 
 the difference of effect which alterations in the value of money may 
 have where the Quota remains constantly the same, it may be added 
 that if, when Money rises in value, the constancy of the charge 
 to the Tax is hurtful to the Landlords, and if when it falls in value 
 that circumstance is injurious to the Revenue, or rather to the other 
 Classes who must then contribute to it in a greater degree, it is 
 obvious that the fluctuations in the value of money are an additional 
 ground for making occasional changes in the Quotas as variations 
 of any moment in the value of Lands take place, particularly as 
 these variations may be unequal, in as far as they may arise in 
 some cases more and in some less from alterations in the value of 
 money, or in the total quantity of it in circulation, than from any 
 real increase or diminution in the value of the Lands themselves 
 from other causes. 
 
 2 B 
 
186 
 
 Schedules C. and E. 
 
 Schedule C. — Rules in respect of the Dividends of Funded Pro- 
 perty and Interest of Public Securities. 
 
 Schedule E — Ditto. — Salaries, Pay and Pensions of Public 
 Officers under Government, Sec 
 
 The late plan of stopping the Tax from Income at its place 
 of payment not only prevented the possibility of escaping it, but 
 it obviated much of the necessity of resorting to any trouble- 
 some and unpleasant proceedings for ascertaining the amount of 
 Income and was doubtless on the whole more satisfactory to all 
 parties. 
 
 It is not conceived that any material modification can be made 
 in the Rules of the late Act, which applied exclusively to the As- 
 sessment, Collection or Stoppage of the Duties under Schedules C. 
 and E., and therefore no other alterations are offered for consi- 
 deration with respect to them than those of a general nature, such 
 as may be necessary in case it should be determined to admit of 
 graduated scales of charge according to the description or aggre- 
 gate amount of Income, as hereafter submitted, instead of adopting 
 a general Rate of Assessment. Whatever relief it may be deemed 
 just and practicable to give to persons possessed of Incomes for 
 life or terms of years would be particularly due to the Annuitants 
 in the Funds and to the Public Servants, on whom the operation 
 of the Tax would be most effectual. The severity of the late 
 Property Tax in making no distinction in favor of Annuitants was 
 remarkable in taxing the Short Annuities which had only a very 
 few years to run, at the same rate as Annuities for life, or the 
 Dividends of permanent Property. Receivers of terminable An- 
 nuities are perhaps the only description of persons which cannot, 
 if excessively taxed, reimburse themselves, they cannot increase 
 the amount of their fixed Incomes, or shift the burthen from them 
 in any degree upon other Incomes, and as they may be under 
 the further disadvantage, that a direct Tax can more effectually 
 reach their Incomes than other Incomes in general, they seem most 
 
187 
 
 justly entitled, whether exclusively or not, to the relief which a 
 graduated scale of charge will afford. 
 
 It was a proposition during the late Property Act, that in order 
 to estimate the difference to be made in favour of individuals 
 having temporary or life Incomes only, such as Annuitants in the 
 Funds, the value of the Income of the Annuitant, &c. should be 
 calculated, and on a supposition that the ascertained value is worth 
 5 per cent, in perpetuity, the amount resulting from that rate should 
 be considered as giving a real means of contribution equal to those 
 of a permanent Income of the same amount. It was also proposed 
 as a life Annuitant may by Insurance secure to his family at his death 
 the value of his annuity, and consequently an equal Income of the 
 same nature, that therefore the remainder of his Income after de- 
 ducting the Premium for Insurance should be the sum assessed as 
 his real Income. 
 
 The late Property Tax fell with as great if not greater severity 
 on Public Servants in respect of their pay, &c. than on any de- 
 scription of Persons whatever, even than on most of those living on 
 the Public Securities, for not only in common with them Public 
 Servants could not avoid the Tax in any degree, but, unlike them 
 for the most part, their Incomes were for life only. Persons de- 
 riving Incomes from the Public Funds, though there be many 
 Life Annuitants among them, are in general, entitled to the Pro- 
 perty as well as the Income derived from it. 
 
 Other persons than Public Servants, holding employments of a 
 public nature not directly under Government, who were chargeable 
 under Schedule E. could in a few cases escape the Tax in some 
 degree, as the Tax was not deducted from them, and the amount 
 charged on them depended on their own Returns of Profits. 
 
 In case of an Income or Property Tax upon a high scale, it mi^ht 
 become a question whether the Funded Property of Foreigners, also 
 the Property of Charitable Institutions, &c. should be exempted. 
 The exemption of Foreigners was objected to during the late Pro- 
 perty Tax as unjust, it was however conceived to have been politic 
 as encouraging the investment of Capital in this Country, but as the 
 Income drawn from it was remitted abroad, the policy of it might 
 also in some degree be questionable. The exemption was not 
 granted if the Parties were resideut in Great Britain ; but in order 
 
188 
 
 not to discourage the expenditure of the Income in this Country, 
 the exemption, if granted at all on a future Tax, might be ex- 
 tended to resident Foreigners, who are during Peace far more 
 numerous. If the total amount is now, as supposed, inconsiderable, 
 the objection to any exemption may be important in principle only, 
 and the indulgence can with justice and also without impolicy be 
 withheld. If the exemption were admitted it should not perhaps be 
 extended to any resident Foreigners enjoying- so far the protection 
 of this Country as to be deriving Income from any other source 
 within it than the Public Funds. 
 
 With respect to Charitable Institutions, Hospitals, &c. it may be 
 alleged on one hand, as their Expenditure is subject to the present 
 Taxes, that the abolition of them to a large amount might be a 
 ground for rendering their Property liable in some degree to a 
 substituted Income or Property Tax; on the other hand, it might be 
 the greatest satisfaction that such an Impost existed as admitted the 
 possibility of relieving their Funds wholly from Taxation. 
 
 No provision was made by the late Property Tax in favor of Pro- 
 perty in Savings Banks vested in the Public Funds, the formation 
 of them having at that time hardly commenced. It might be con- 
 sidered very desirable to exempt the Income of those Banks as an 
 encouragement to the Laboring Classes to resort to them ; but it 
 is conceived that many Persons avail themselves of the benefit of 
 them who though in very moderate circumstances are uot of a 
 description to need or be entitled to a total exemption, and the in- 
 dulgence if extended indiscriminately, might give rise to abuse by 
 increasing exceedingly the introduction of such and even a higher 
 description of Persons into Savings Banks; it might be necessary 
 to reserve a power to charge individually those who possessed other 
 Income and were not of the description of Persons intended for 
 relief. In case of an Income or Property Tax on a very high 
 scale, and the consequent abolition of other Taxes giving much 
 relief to the lower Classes, the Dividends of Savings Banks might 
 be subjected to some rate of deduction but lower than the rate 
 on Dividends of Funded Property in general. 
 
189 
 
 Schedule D. — Rules in respect of Income from Commerce, 
 Manufacture, Trade, Professions, Vocations, Employments 7 * 
 
 The strongest objection urged against the late Property Act was 
 that which was founded on its " inquisitorial powers," which were 
 comprehended principally in the provisions of Schedule D. As 
 those powers were given for the purpose of obtaining security to the 
 Revenue and equality of Taxation, it may be to consider whether, 
 with due regard to those essential objects on the one hand and to 
 the particular interests and feelings of the Parties concerned on 
 the other hand, the measure can be so far modified that the most 
 objectionable of the provisions in question may be dispensed with 
 or be adequately mitigated. For this purpose it is proposed, in 
 the first place, that for the sake of avoiding frequency of proceed- 
 ings, the Returns and Assessments under Schedule D. shall be 
 made in alternate years, or triennially only, with power to grant 
 relief in the intervening years in certain cases of Diminution of 
 Profits. It may be sanguinely hoped that this modification would 
 not be attended with so great a sacrifice of Revenue as to render 
 it inadmissible ; but, though frequency of proceedings may safely 
 be dispensed with, yet it cannot perhaps be expected that the 
 mode of proceeding can be so far modified as to render it wholly 
 unobjectionable without risking too much Loss of Revenue and 
 Inequality of Taxation. For the sake however of considering 
 such an extensive modification, less with the expectation that it 
 would be safe in its result and admissible in all its details than 
 with the hope that the consideration of it may suggest some de- 
 gree of alteration of the late Act which would be feasible and 
 satisfactory, it is proposed, in the next place, that there shall not 
 be granted, as under the late Act, any authority to compel, on pain 
 of Penalties or of discretionary Assessments, the disclosure of pri- 
 
 * The charge under Schedule D. on employments extended to every service by re- 
 tainer in any character whatever, whether such retainer were annual or for a long-er or 
 shorter period. 
 
190 
 
 vate Affairs of Trade and of concerns of the nature of it, or to examine 
 or question the Parties, or an)' Persons in their employ upon the par- 
 ticulars of those affairs, or to demand the production of any Books, 
 Papers, Schedules or Accounts whatever ; and that no other parti- 
 culars than the Returns of the total Amount of Profits and Gains shall 
 be required ; that there shall be no power given to make Sur- 
 charges ; that in order to impose on all Parties in the most sacred 
 and obligatory manner the duty and necessity of making just and 
 fair Returns, and to render it as difficult as possible to avoid the 
 due and conscientious fulfilment thereof, the clearest and fullest 
 rules and directions which can be prepared shall be prescribed to 
 and circulated among them, according to which they must be 
 bound to make out the Total Amount of Net Profits, these rules and 
 directions not to be of a general nature, but to be varied as far as 
 possible so as to meet every description of concern ; that the 
 Parties shall make declarations on their Returns that they have 
 truly and conscientiously, to the best of their ability and under- 
 standing, conformed to those rules and directions in making their 
 Returns, without having, upon any pretence whatever, withheld 
 or diminished the amount which according to the said rules they 
 ought to return. It might not be necessary to circulate the Rules 
 and Instructions on every requisition of Returns ; once distributed, 
 it would be the duty of individuals concerned to make themselves 
 acquainted with them. If the Income Tax should be raised to a 
 great extent, it would be more important for every Contributor to 
 be fully and correctly informed in whatever part of it related to 
 himself. If the amount of the Returns be not satisfactory to the 
 Commissioners, they may be empowered to call on the Parties to 
 revise them, or to make oath to the truth of their declarations ; 
 the Parties shall, if required, attend the Commissioners for that 
 purpose, when the rules may be explained to them in any parti- 
 culars which the Commissioners may conceive they have not 
 rightly comprehended ; on which attendance however the Parties 
 shall not be obliged to answer any question to which they may 
 object, or to give the smallest information on the subject of their 
 Trades or Concerns, but having revised their Returns, and having 
 sworn to the truth of the revised Returns, if required so to do, or 
 
191 
 
 of the Declarations on their Returns if not revised, the Returns 
 must be accepted without further proceedings therein.* 
 
 If it should not be advisable to circulate among the Parties 
 rules varied in detail so as to meet the various natures of their 
 several concerns, and to require declarations of course in all cases 
 in the manner proposed of their conformity thereto, the requisi- 
 tions for their Returns might contain very general instructions 
 only ; but in cases of unsatisfactory Returns, the Commissioners 
 should call the Parties before them, when, instead of investigating 
 their affairs as under the late Act, they should explain to them 
 most fully the rules applicable to them, and require the revisal of 
 their Returns accordingly, and, if necessary, declarations on oath 
 of their conformity thereto. To supply in some degree the want 
 of that aid which investigation would afford, the Parties might be 
 furnished with examples, as prepared in the Guide to the last Pro- 
 perty Act published by Authority in the year 1806, for the pur- 
 pose of illustrating the rules of it. It is believed that this publi- 
 cation was intended for and had a limited circulation only, ex- 
 tending but littte beyond the Commissioners and Crown Officers, 
 but the circulation and utility of such examples might be rendered 
 more extensive and from subsequent experience under that Act of 
 several years, as also from the knowledge of the affairs of Trades 
 in general they might be rendered more completely applicable ; 
 Examples might be prepared so various that each Party should be 
 sure of finding his own case among them, and be left without 
 doubt or pretext as to the return he had to make. A return 
 made simply of the sum which in the Party's own estimation or 
 assumption is the amount of his Income may be very different, 
 (and in many cases without any wish or intention to evade) from the 
 
 * It was objected to the Forms circulated under the late Property Act that they 
 were too diffuse, that they contained a great deal of matter among which it was diffi- 
 cult for every one to find such as applied to his own case ; that the same Forms were 
 distributed indiscriminately among all descriptions and classes of persons, many of 
 whom were incapable of understanding them. It may however be surmised, that the 
 nature of the requisitions did not dispose all Persons to give them that degree of atten- 
 tion which was necessary for a sufficient comprehension of them. 
 
192 
 
 amount of a Return made in strict conformity to certain rules for 
 taxing" it. Ignorance and misconception of the Rules for return- 
 ing Profits may have been in many cases the pretence, but they 
 were, it is conceived, in numerous instances, the real cause of defi- 
 cient Returns under the late Act. The Parties may often not 
 have been fully aware of the extent of their deficiencies, or con- 
 struing the Rules favorably, may have been less scrupulous in 
 making short Returns. Much of the deficiency which arose under 
 Schedule D. was therefore, from the cause of it, not imputable to 
 any fraudulent or evasive intention of the Parties.* 
 
 If a modification of the former course of operation would be 
 admissible, to the extent and in the manner just suggested, an 
 Income Tax could no longer be accused of possessing iC inquisi- 
 " torial powers," and as an encouragement to the adoption of it, it 
 may be observed that the Rules for making Returns contained in 
 the late Act which were less conscientiously binding and less 
 applicable than those contemplated in that modification, produced 
 results in produce of Duty indicating the advantage which a ju- 
 dicious and mild course of proceeding might have obtained, 
 
 * Various were the causes of short returns of Profits to the late Tax ; some believed 
 that the Profit to be returned was the excess above the legal interest of Capital em- 
 ployed, others that it was the Net Receipt after deducting- all monies laid out in im- 
 provements and extension of Trade, some deducted Debts whether recoverable or not 
 others made deductions for Expenditure not strictly connected with or arising- out of 
 the Trade carried on. The deficiency of Returns arose therefore in some degree from 
 ignorance or misconception of the allowed and of the prohibited deductions, or the pro- 
 hibition of some of the deductions enumerated was so contrary to the view of some In- 
 dividuals, as to what fairly constituted Amount of Net Profit, ordain, or the Cost of 
 producing it, that they less scrupulously disregarded it ; the prohibited deductions 
 more particularly alluded to, were contained in the following rule, viz. that no sum 
 should be deducted " on account of loss not connected with or arising- out of such Trade, 
 " Manufacture, Adventure, or Concern; nor on account of any Capital withdrawn 
 " therefrom •, nor for any suras employed or intended to be employed as Capital in 
 " such Trade, Manufacture, Adventure, or Concern ; nor for any Capital employed in 
 " improvement of premises occupied for the purposes of such Trade, Manufacture, Ad- 
 " venture, or Concern ; nor on account or under pretence of any Interest which might 
 " have been made on such Sums if laid out at Interest ; nor for any Debts except 
 ** such Debts or such parts thereof as shall be proved to the satisfaction of the Com- 
 " missioners respectively to be irrecoverable and desperate ; nor for any average loss 
 " beyond the actual amount of loss after adjustment ; nor for any Snm recoverable 
 " under an Insurance or Contract of Indemnity." 
 
193 
 
 or at least proving the inefficacy of the scrutinizing and harsh 
 course of procedure which ensued on the very great number of un- 
 satisfactory Returns arising from inefficacious Rules. It will be seen— 
 by the Accounts* of Income returned under Schedule D. durinng 
 the 11 years of the late Tax (1803 — 1814) a period of Commercial 
 and Trading Prosperity, that the Amount of Profits obtained for 
 Charge in the last year exceeded the amount of the first year by 
 about one-twelfth of it or £3 millions only, and that during any 
 of the intervening years there was no increase whatever" obtained, 
 while the amounts of the taxed Income from Lands and Houses 
 (Schedules A. and B.) were increased within that period in the 
 proportion of nearly three-fifths or £33 millions. If the proceed- 
 ings under Schedule D. had been less inquisitorial and vexatious 
 the Sum (probably inconsiderable) which might thereby have been 
 lost to the Revenue would have been a sacrifice well worth making 
 for the sake of conciliation, while the forbearance of them would 
 have weakened the opposition which prevailed against the mea- 
 sure, and might eventually have been the preservation of it. 
 
 If it should, however, be considered that the modification under 
 Schedule D. just proposed would be too extensive, as relying over- 
 much on the Parties themselves, and on a kind of check which 
 would be ineffectual with too many of them, and that investiga- 
 tion into their profits and the power of charging beyond their Re- 
 turns should not be wholly dispensed with, a more limited modifi- 
 cation may be considered. As the objections to the proceedings 
 under Schedule D. of the late Act were much increased by the 
 Surcharges of the Crown Officers, who were stimulated by re- 
 ward made proportionate to the amount of their successful charges, 
 it may be proposed that the power of investigation and also of 
 increase should be confined to the Commissioners, whose disin- 
 terested exercise of the authority and discretion entrusted to them, 
 would render the proceedings as conciliatory and unobjectionable 
 as the nature of them would admit. If the assistance of the Crown 
 Officers should be necessary in the proceedings it might be re- 
 quired without any provision for emolument in respect of increase 
 of Duty arising from it, and they might be rewarded wholly by 
 
 * Vide Appendix. 
 
 2 c 
 
194 
 
 fixed salaries to an amount according to the extent of their duties 
 in general.* When it is known that a Revenue Officer receives a 
 reward proportionate to the amount of the Taxes which he reco- 
 vers, the feeling excited by his proceedings in those against whom 
 they are directed, is greatly aggravated. — If Revenue Officers were 
 wholly rewarded by liberal fixed Incomes, then in order to ensure a 
 due attention to cases of evasion they might be subjected to punish- 
 ment for neglect if they overlooked any such palpable instances 
 of fraud as by ordinary pains and care they could have discovered 
 and brought forward. The infliction of punishment for gross 
 neg'ect in lieu of a reward for superior vigilance may appear 
 harsh, but it is confidently believed that so great is the repug- 
 nance of most Revenue Officers, who now from necess : ty (their 
 salaries being very low and insufficient for their maintenance) 
 depend on their Surcharges for a livelihood, to such a course of 
 procedure and means of compensation, that they would gladly 
 submit to the alteration. If however it should be apprehended 
 that evasions to an excessive degree might be attempted unless 
 there was an equivalent interest existing somewhere in the detec- 
 tion and prevention of them, the Crown Officers might be admitted 
 to that service with limited powers. They should in that case 
 not be permitted to make charges on the Parties at their discre- 
 tion, as under the late Property Act, th" Commissioners having 
 then only the power to decide on appeal between them, but the 
 Officers should in the first instance, previous to any notice to the 
 Parties, bring forward their proposed cases of charge before the 
 Commissioners, who, after hearing the particulars of the informa- 
 tion and of the evidence to be adduced in support of the proposed 
 charges should determine whether there was sufficient ground 
 for proceeding against the Parties, and in what manner or to 
 what extent they should be pursued, or whether the proposed 
 charges should be at once rejected. The degree of compensa- 
 tion to the Crown Officers might depend on the Certificates of the 
 
 * The Income Act, 1799, did not contain any provision for remunerating the Crown 
 Officers in proportion to the increase of duty occasioned by them, but it directed that 
 reward should not be given to any of them for their services under that Act, unless the 
 District Commissioners granted them Certificates of good conduct, nor to any greater 
 amount than the Commissioners represented them to be entitled to. 
 
195 
 
 Commissioners, having reference not only to the extent of the in- 
 crease of Revenue from Iheir services, but to the judgment and 
 moderation manifested by them in their proceedings. Such a 
 precautionary course would be a guard against unfounded or 
 vexatious charges. Considering the nature of the office of Dis- 
 trict Commissioners of Taxes and the description of men who 
 execute it, every confidence might and should be placed in 
 them — but if it were deemed expedient to guard against the pos- 
 sibility on their part of partiality or of excessive indulgence to 
 individuals, it might be provided that a Crown Officer having as 
 he conceives full grounds for further charges which the Commis- 
 sioners of the District would not sanction his makin«\ should have 
 an appeal to his superior Boards in London — at the Treasury or 
 the Tax Office, by which if, after hearing the reasons for refusal 
 of the sanction of the District Commissioners, the cases should be 
 deemed proper for further charges, he should be authorized to 
 make them; the appeals of the individuals if dissatisfied with the 
 charges, would be decided by Commissioners of Appeal in the 
 District, forming in that case a Board distinct from those who had 
 refused their sanction. As there is no quarter in which there is a 
 stronger feeling against hard and vexatious charges of the Crown 
 Officers of the Revenue than in those superior Departments there 
 is no reason to fear that the Officers would be encouraged or al- 
 lowed to make groundless or rigorous charges. It is conceived 
 however if such a precautionary provision were made that there 
 would be but very few cases in which there would be a necessity 
 for resorting: to it. 
 
 The complaints of " inquisitorial and vexatious powers" under 
 Schedule D. of the late Property Act were well-founded so far 
 as they were unreasonably and unnecessarily so, that is, so far as 
 honest contributors, though making full and fair Returns, but 
 which were not so according to the suspicions or conjectures of 
 others too anxious for, as being interested in, detecting evasion, and 
 too ready to proceed on slight grounds, were subjected to their 
 scrutinizing proceedings; so far as intentional fraud felt the seve- 
 rity of those proceedings the consequences were rather self-in- 
 flicted than imputable to the use of improperly vested power. 
 The check against evasion of a future Tax should then be in the 
 
196 
 
 exercise of power in such a degree and in such a manner as shall 
 effectually operate against gross and notorious fraud on the 
 one side, and against the misapplication of the power on the 
 other side, such as may secure all honest Individuals against unme- 
 rited and unneceessary procedure ; it is conceived that this de- 
 sirable limitation of power may be obtained in the greatest degree 
 by a course of proceeding restricted in the way proposed in 
 the last suggested Modification. 
 
 The first Property Act (1803) provided a mode of Assessment 
 on Persons in Trade, through Referees, but it appeared that 
 hardly any Persons availed themselves of it,* from which it might 
 be inferred either that secresy was never violated or that it was 
 not generally necessary or desired, and the provision was there- 
 fore discontinued in the subsequent Acts ; but as risk of exposure 
 of the state of individual Trades was afterwards raised as an ob- 
 jection to the Tax, the provision might be again tried, or Persons 
 in Trade might elect out of the general list of Commissioners one 
 or two of them by whom only they would prefer being assessed 
 according to the rules of the Act ; but lest partiality, and not se- 
 cresy, should be found to be the object of reference in any case, 
 there should be a power to refuse the continuance of it, or to 
 require a change of the Referees or an addition to the number of 
 them. 
 
 The late Property Act authorized the appointment under 
 Schedule D. of additional or assessing Commissioners, or a divi- 
 sion of the Commissioners for the General Purposes of the Act, 
 into such Commissioners. u The jurisdiction was given," as 
 " explained in the Guide to the Act (1806) that there may be 
 " a review of each statement by persons in the neighbour- 
 Ci hood of the party who may have a competent knowledge of 
 " the nature and extent of the business carried on by him, 
 " they are to carry on the enquiry in concert with the Officers 
 " of the Crown, and may receive from others any information 
 " that is offered, but they have no judicial powers of enquiry, 
 " they cannot summon the party or witnesses nor examine them, 
 
 • About 20 persons only took advantage of the offered indulgence. 
 
197 
 
 " they cannot administer an oath, but are merely to pass their 
 " judgment on the sufficiency or insufficiency of the party's 
 " Return, and to make an assessment according 1 to their judg- 
 " ment. In this light they are Assessors chosen from a more 
 " respectable class of the community. It is much to be lamented 
 " that it has not been usual to nominate additional Commissioners 
 " from eacli extensive Parish, and from several smaller adjoin- 
 Ci ing Parishes united, by which the Commissioners for General 
 Ci Purposes would be greatly assisted in their enquiries, especially 
 " in the lower classes of Traders ; but it is believed to have been 
 fc ' the universal practice to divide the Commissioners for General 
 u Purposes, who are of a class of life removed from a knowledge 
 " of the transactions of their inferior neighbours." The truth of 
 these observations and the effects of the practice lamented in them 
 were more fully demonstrated in the several subsequent years of 
 the operation of the Tax. It might be desirable, if the measure 
 were revived, not only to obtain for every large Parish or Place 
 or for a certain number of small Parishes united, the services of 
 such local Assistants as the additional Commissioners under the 
 late Act were intended to be, but to vest them with fuller powers, 
 leaving to the General Commissioners no other jurisdiction than 
 of deciding Appeals against the charges of the Assessing or Local 
 Commissioners ; Appeals against the charges of the Crown Offi- 
 cers, if allowed to make any, being to be preferred to the Local 
 Commissioners, or to the General Commissioners as the parties 
 themselves might prefer. 
 
 Besides the advantage to the Revenue, these multifarious local 
 jurisdictions would render the proceedings less objectionable to 
 the Parties, who could then avoid the loss of time and the in- 
 convenience and expence they were formerly subject to of at- 
 tending the General Commissioners at places distant from the 
 residences or places of trade and occupation of the former, when 
 they were often detained a considerable time before their Cases 
 could be heard and determined. 
 
198 
 
 On the Rules for charging or exempting Wages and Small jn« 
 comes connected with Labor, and other small incomes. 
 
 By the Property Act, the Income of any Person arising wholly 
 from Labor at daily or weekly wages as a Laborer, Artisan, 
 Handicraftsman, Mechanic or Manufacturer, if not exceeding 30s. 
 in any one week, or other greater wages from employment in 
 Husbandry at harvest time, was judged to be under £50, and was 
 exempted from Duty, in case the Party was not in the receipt of 
 Income from any other source (other than Property not exceed- 
 ing the Annual Value of £5.) Although wages during the late War 
 were in many employments at a higher rate than 30s. per week, the 
 Tax was raised scarcely from any other persons, the rates of whose 
 wages rendered them liable to it than those in the immediate em- 
 ploy of Government at the Public Dock Yards, and other places 
 where the necessary steps were taken for stopping the Tax from 
 wages exceeding the limited rate. The hardship of exacting 
 from Wages above 30s. per week (or £78 per annum) a Tax 
 exceeding £4. 4s. Od. viz. the charge on an Income of £78, 
 while Wages between 20s. and 30s. per week, were not, like 
 other Incomes between £50 and £78 subject to a gradation of 
 charge but were totally exempt, and the apprehended difficulty of 
 obtaining lists of the Workmen and of the rates of Wages from 
 their Employers prevented in a great degree a compliance with 
 the rules of the Act for charging high Wages. 
 
 If other Taxes to a very considerable amount were abolished, 
 and persons receiving Wages were proportionably benefited by 
 the consequent fall of prices of the necessaries of life, then manv 
 of them paid at high rates of wages, and not having large families, 
 might be enabled to contribute to the substituted Income Tax ; 
 but if the repeal of other Taxes were inconsiderable, and as the 
 wages of Workmen and Artisans should be kept at a sufficient 
 rate for their subsistence and comfort, and in proportion to the 
 degree and nature of their work, a Tax upon their W'ages might 
 render necessary an increase of them, and consequently an in- 
 crease of price to the Public at large of whatever it obtained 
 from labor. Abolition of other Taxes to a great amount, in much 
 
199 
 
 diminishing the expence of living, would be a just ground for 
 lowering the rates of Wages where they had been sufficiently high 
 for the previous cost of the necessaries of life, and a reduction of 
 Wages in such cases would probably effect as great, if not a 
 greater, saving to other Incomes than a diminution of their pay- 
 ment to the Tax by extending it to Wages. To obtain Returns 
 and collect the Tax direct from such very numerous classes would 
 be almost impracticable, and there would appear no other means 
 for obtaining the Duty than to render the Employers answerable 
 by requiring from them not only Returns of all Wages but also 
 their stoppage of the Duty and payment of it to the Collectors; 
 but this might be a far too difficult and responsible task to be im- 
 posed on the Employers, and place them on a very unpleasant 
 footing with their Workmen. On the whole it may be most ex- 
 pedient to exempt Wages of whatever rate, and however high the 
 Scale of the Tax on other Incomes, but in order to prevent abuse, 
 the exemption should be strictly confined to the Classes enume- 
 rated in the A t, so that any other description of Persons not en- 
 titled to exemption could not obtain it on the pretence that their 
 Incomes were derived from Wages. Some evasions of this kind 
 occurred under the late Property Act in cases of persons with In- 
 comes exceeding £50 but below the chargeable amount of Wages. 
 
 Whatever might be the risk to the Revenue and the difficulty 
 of proceeding, it seems necessary also to grant exemptions in fa- 
 vor of all Incomes below a certain amount, say £50, if connected 
 with Labor, although not derived from daily or weekly Wages. 
 The Parties would be principally small Farmers, Shopkeepers, 
 &c. 
 
 The exemption of Wages and other small Incomes derived from 
 Labor will appear a very important point in devising such a mode 
 of raising a Tax on Income as shall render the procedure of it as 
 limited as possible, when it is considered that about three-fourths 
 of the whole number of Persons possessed of Incomes consist of 
 Laborers at daily and weekly Wages, and of others with Incomes 
 of an inferior amount derived from Labor, or from Labor con- 
 nected with very trifling Capitals. 
 
 From the great number of Persons with Incomes under £50 de- 
 rived wholly or partly from Property (Schedules A. and C.) which 
 
200 
 
 under the late Property Tax formed a very large proportion of the 
 whole number of Persons charged to that Tax,* and the compara- 
 tively small amount of Net Duty to be produced therefrom, it might 
 appear desirable also to exempt the whole of that class of Persons, 
 whatever Scale of charge were adopted ; if however it should be 
 considered most just to charge them as having Income with the 
 superior advantage of possession in general of the Property from 
 which it is derived, it is to be observed that the Tax can be ascer- 
 tained and collected from such Income with far less difficulty than 
 from small Incomes derived from other sources ; it is certain that 
 the proceedings for settling exemptions under Schedule C. would 
 be more troublesome and difficult than those for stopping the Tax.f 
 
 An exemption in favor of the Dividends of Stock belonging to 
 Savings Banks would however be an easy means of relieving 
 many poor Persons among the Laboring Classes and any others 
 vesting their Savings in those Banks to whom it might be deemed 
 proper to extend it. 
 
 Under the late Act Persons having small Incomes charged un- 
 derWillor Deed (to which they were. not Parties) on the Property 
 of others were entitled to exemption or abatement. The proceed- 
 ings for obtaining the allowances were inconvenient, as reference, 
 (attended with trouble, expence, and delay) to the general Board 
 in London was required for their legal opinion ; these proceedings 
 might be facilitated in a future Tax, if similar allowances were 
 again granted, by vesting the decisions on the claims, as they 
 safely might be, in the Commissioners of Districts solely. 
 
 The interference of Parochial Authorities to enquire into and 
 certify to the Commissioners as to the Incomes of persons entitled 
 to exemption may be very useful, as preventing much difficulty 
 and trouble to the Commissioners, and expence and loss of time 
 to the parties, they being also more competent to the task from 
 
 * Vide Estimate in the Appendix. 
 . -f Cottages not exceeding the annual value of 40s. belonging to and occupied by per- 
 sons not having Incomes otherwise chargeable, were exempted under the late Act ; but 
 it is conceived that the proceedings (under Schedule A.) for that purpose were attended 
 with less trouble and difficulty than the assessment and collection of the Tax would 
 have occasioned. 
 
201 
 
 their knowledge of the circumstances of the several individuals 
 residing near them. Such interference was admitted under 
 the first Property Act, but discontinued under the subsequent 
 Act. It might perhaps have been found that the Parochial 
 Authorities were too inclined for the exemption of the lower 
 classes from Taxation in order to keep them from the dan- 
 ger of wanting relief from the Poor Rates or in a better state 
 to contribute to them. It was observed, on passing the Act 
 of 46 Geo. 3, " that the great abuse of parochial inquiry into 
 ' Incomes which were entitled to be exempt, prevailing in al- 
 " most every District in the Kingdom, has induced the Le- 
 " gislature to determine that power, and to invest the Com- 
 iQ missioners with it. Proof has shewn that however desirable it 
 iC might be that small Incomes should have been ascertained by a 
 " Jury of Neighbours, the power cannot safely be entrusted below 
 " a certain rank and condition of life." Notwithstanding- this ob- 
 jection, if an Income Tax should be imposed on a high scale, it 
 might be indispensibly necessary to resort for assistance to the Pa- 
 rochial Authorities, unless assessing or local Commissioners were 
 appointed to a sufficient extent ; or the Parochial Certificates might 
 be considered merely auxiliary to and not as binding on the Com- 
 missioners. 
 
 The following observations made at the same time, which shewed 
 the danger of granting exemptions, and the degree to which 
 evasion was carried where the means for it were afforded, should 
 not be withheld. 
 
 " By the former Act an exemption was granted on the whole 
 ci of every person's Income under £60 per annum. So baneful is 
 " indulgence, that this Regulation, intended to have a strict and 
 Ci limited operation, has been productive of the greatest frauds on 
 Ci the Public. It is notorious, that persons living in easy circum- 
 " stances, nay even in apparent affluence, have returned their In- 
 " comes under £200, although their annual expenditure has been 
 " treble that sum, and on whom there was no ground of imputing 
 '' extravagance. The Incomes of whole Parishes have been swept 
 * away by this fraud, such persons generally bringing their Tu- 
 ft comes to a fraction below £t>0 ; hence it is that the Legislature 
 " found the necessity of confining the exceptions to £50, that their 
 
 2 D 
 
202 
 
 c ' former returns may be made use of^ and should the fraudulent 
 <c practice continue it may hereafter become necessary still further 
 " to restrain it." 
 
 It is conceived that the improved Regulations of the subsequent 
 Act of 1806, were so far a security against evasion as to render less 
 necessary any further guard against it, although it continued in 
 some degree where the Assessments depended principally on the 
 Returns of the parties. 
 
 Appointment of Commissioners, Assessors, and Collectors, 
 
 Some more general and popular mode of appointing the Com- 
 missioners and the Parochial Assessors and Collectors than existed 
 under the late Property Act might perhaps be politic under a fu- 
 ture Act. The Commissioners of each District, not exceeding 
 seven in number, were chosen under the late Act at a General 
 Meeting of the Commissioners of Land Tax of the Counties at 
 large from among themselves. In Cities, Towns, &c. which were 
 Counties of themselves, the Appointment rested in the Commis- 
 sioners of Land Tax separately named for them. The Inhabitants 
 of Parishes were vested with an occasional limited right of in- 
 terference in the appointment of Assessors and Collectors, but it 
 was scarcely ever exercised and probably not known to exist. 
 In a future Tax, the selection of the Commissioners for each Dis- 
 trict (consisting, as before, of Gentlemen, whether Commissioners 
 of Land Tax or not, who shall be qualified in a certain amount of 
 Property) might be made at fixed periods by the general body of 
 the persons chargeable to the Tax within it; and the Assessors 
 and Collectors of Parishes might be similarly appointed, either 
 annually as formerly or for longer terms. 
 
 Improvement might be made by consolidating many small 
 Parishes or Places and nominating the same Persons as Assessors 
 and Collectors for the whole of them — the increased amount 
 of the Compensation of Poundage would obtain a more efficient 
 description of men to the exclusion of many uneducated persons 
 in inferior circumstances, such as in small Parishes were formerly 
 employed, greatly to their own inconvenience as well as to the 
 imperfect execution of the Duties entrusted to them. Security 
 
203 
 
 was too generally omitted to be taken from Collectors of the late 
 Tax, many of whom could hardly have procured Sureties; 
 losses by their failures occurred, and Parishes were subjected to 
 Re-assessments to make them good, by diminishing the number 
 of Collectors, and making a judicious selection of competent 
 Persons at adequate Allowances, without however increasing; but 
 probably rather lessening the aggregate amount of Expence, Se- 
 curity from such consequences would be attainable, and the 
 Duties in general would be more satisfactorily performed. If 
 full security were required and given the legal responsibility of 
 Parishes for their Collectors would no longer be necessary. 
 
 Scale of Charge graduated according to the Amount and 
 Description of Income. 
 
 The late Property Act made a distinction between Income de- 
 rived from Property and Income derived from other sources,* by 
 granting abatements of the full duty to the latter, and, except in 
 a few cases,f excluding the former therefrom, but it limited them 
 to Incomes under £150. As a modification which was generally 
 and urgently called for during the late Tax, it is proposed to 
 submit for consideration whether in a future Tax the graduated 
 Scale of Charge should and could be extended to all classes be- 
 low the highest class of Income, and whether a distinction be- 
 tween the two descriptions of Income should not to a certain de- 
 
 # In stating in general terms " Income from Property" and " Income from other 
 " sources," it should be explained that by the former is to be understood Income de- 
 rived from Property real or personal, and not connected with labour, viz. Rent of Lands 
 Houses, Interest of Funded Property, and Securities of every kind bearing Interest [ 
 and by the latter, Income acquired by Labor whether of the head or hand, though con- 
 nected with Capital, as in cases of Farmers, Manufacturers, Merchants, Traders, of per- 
 sons in the Professsions, and in all Offices and Employments whether of a public or a 
 private nature. 
 
 -j- The abatements under the Property Act extended to some cases of Income 
 under £150 derived from Property if connected with Labor, as Ecclesiastical In- 
 comes derived from Tithes, Profits of Mines, Quarries, &c. and to one not connected 
 with Labor, viz. an Annuity charged on Property over which the Annuitant had no 
 control. 
 
204 
 
 gree be maintained throughout all classes, and to estimate the 
 effect on the Produce of Duty which such an alteration and ex- 
 tension of the Scale would be likely to create; for this purpose it 
 will ben e cessary to form the whole Income into two divisions of 
 the above denominations, and to arrange it in classes according to 
 the amounts of the aggregate Income of the several Possessors, 
 proceeding upon the following basis of estimate which is offered 
 as a safe one. 
 
 Basis of Estimate of t lie Produce of a future Income or Property 
 
 Tax. 
 
 The year 1814, ending 5th April, 1815, was the last year for 
 which Returns and Assessments were made under the late Pro- 
 perty Act, and the following are the most material particulars of 
 them. 
 
 Schedule A. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Amount of Rent, or Annual Value of Lands *£39 J 
 
 Ditto of Houses and Buildings 16J 
 
 Ditto of Profits of Tithes 2|- 
 
 Ditto of Profits of Manors, Fines, Quarries, Mines, Iron- Works, 1 
 
 Tolls, Canals, and other Profits arising from Lands not before > If 
 
 enumerated S 
 
 (a) £601 
 
 * To avoid a multiplicity of figures and unnecessary precision, fractions are given 
 instead of the exact sums stated in the accounts. The fractions used sometimes ex- 
 press rather more, sometimes rather less, than the stated amounts. This note also ap- 
 plies to all the sums hereafter given in fractions or in round numbers. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 (a) Including Scotland, Lands 5 
 
 Houses 1§ 
 
 Other Profits \ 
 
 «* 
 
205 
 
 Schedule B. 
 
 Millions!, 
 Amount of Profits from occupation of Lands, computed on the total ) £072^ 
 
 Rent or annual Value thereof, at the rate fixed by the Act $ * 
 
 Amount of Profits from Composition for Tithes and Tithes leased. . . J 
 
 {b) £27% 
 Schedule C. 
 
 Amount of Annuities and Dividends of Stock, including Bank, East 1 
 India, South-Sea and Carnatic Stocks, also Interest of Exchequer > £30 
 Navy and Victualling Bills, Irish Tontine Annuities, &c 3 
 
 Schedule D. 
 
 Amount of Profits of Commerce, Manufactures, Trades, Professions, 2 , ««». 
 Employments, and casual Profits not included in other Schedules \ v )* "!- 
 
 Schedule E. 
 
 Amount of Profits of Public Offices and Appointments under Govern- ) 
 
 ment \ tl2 i 
 
 Amount of Profits of other Offices and Employments of a Public > 
 nature $ 
 
 Deductions, Exemptions and Allowances, 
 
 Schedule A. 
 
 Millions. 
 Amount of Deductions for Land Tax, Drainage, small Cottages, &c -^ 
 
 Amount of Rents and Profits of Lands exempted as belonging to Charities f 
 
 Rent or Value. Rate of Estimate Rate of Deductions Amount 
 
 of Profits. for Tithe-free Lands, of Profits. 
 
 Millions. MiUions. 
 
 (b) England and Wales.. 34| f of Rent £ 24| 
 
 Scotland 5 fofDitto 2| 
 
 £39| £27$ 
 
 The rate of Profit to the Compounder or Lessee of Tithes charged under Schedule B. was 
 taken at one-fourth of the amount of the Composition or Rents. 
 
 (c) Including- Scotland, £2f millions. 
 
206 
 
 Schedule B. 
 
 Millions. 
 Amount of Deduction for Tithe-free Lands in England and Wales .... £1 ^ 
 
 Schedule C. 
 
 Amount of Dividends of Funded Property exempted as belonging to > « 
 
 Charities and Friendly Societies \ * 
 
 Amount of Ditto as belonging to Foreigners c . . . 
 
 Allowances on the ground of Income. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Amount of Income not exceeding £50 exempted £7 
 
 Amount of Income exceeding £50 and under £150 on which allowances ) -, « g 
 of Duty were granted ) * 
 
 £25f 
 
 Total Amount of Gross Duty £ 16^% 
 
 Amount of Exemptions and allowances of Duty on Incomes not ex- f 
 
 ceeding £50 T ^ m. > 1 J 
 
 Ditto exceeding £50 and under £150 £ m. 3 
 
 Total Amount of Net Duty , £15f 
 
 Total Amount of Income and of Net Duty charged thereon under 
 
 each Schedule. 
 
 Schedules 
 
 Amount of Income. 
 
 Gross Duty 
 after certain 
 Deductions. 
 Millions. Millions. 
 
 ■ £601 £ 5 A . 
 
 27| 
 30 
 
 2* 
 3 
 
 If 
 
 Amount of Net Duty 
 after Exemptions and 
 
 Allowances on 
 Incomes under £150. 
 Millions. 
 
 3 
 
 1* 
 
 £170 
 
 «e* 
 
 £15| 
 
207 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Allowance of Duty to Foreigners, Charities and Friendly > . 
 Societies , $ * 
 
 Amount of Duty discharged, or Duty irrecoverable on 
 account of Insolvencies, Losses in Trade, &c. and other J> £ 
 causes 
 
 * 
 
 Total Gross Produce of Duty, or Amount paid by the Public £15 
 
 Allowances for Children granted out of the Assessed Taxes ) t 
 
 and replaced at the Exchequer out of the Property Tax \ * 
 
 Charges of Management ■§- 
 
 2 
 
 Total Net Produce, or Amount applied to the Public Service £ 14 \ 
 
 Other Particulars. 
 
 Millions. 
 Amount of Annual Value of Lands and Houses occupied by the Owners. .£11 
 Amount of Rent or Annual Value of Ditto occupied by Tenants 44§ 
 
 £55| 
 
 Amount of Rent or Annual Value of Lands Tithe-free (including ) n in 
 
 Scotland) .\ £U i 
 
 Amount of Ditto Titheable 23§ 
 
 A—ofD.tto rtSioM^us?:} »* 
 
 £39J 
 
 Amount of Tithes compounded for or leased £2\ 
 
 Amount of Tithes taken in Kind £ 
 
 ~£2f 
 
 The augmentation of Income in general, during the period 
 of theProperty Act, was so considerable, that the produce of the 
 Tax annually increased to a very great extent ; and if the mea- 
 sure had been continued in force, and at the same rates of charge, 
 it is not apprehended that the produce of it would have become 
 much less than the amount which it yielded within the last year 
 
208 
 
 of its existence, for, although a considerable diminution may in 
 some sources have taken place, yet it is conceived there was a 
 large amount of Income chargeable, or which should have been 
 rendered chargeable, beyond the amount brought into Assessment, 
 and that a great part of it would have been attained for charge 
 under the improving operation of the measure.* 
 
 For the undermentioned reasons,f the Estimates of the produce 
 of a future Income Tax are founded on the amount of Income 
 charged under the several Schedules of the Property Act for the 
 
 * The Tax ceased on 5th April 1815, but was revived for one year more (1815 ending 
 5th April 1816) in consequence of the renewal of the War. The Assessments charged 
 for 1814 were continued without fresh returns, and without the power of increasing them, 
 except in respect of the Dividends of Funded Property and Interest of Government Se- 
 curities and of the Profits of Offices and Appointments under Government, Schedules 
 C. and E ; but in consequence of the great distress among the Agricultural and other 
 Classes at that time, provision was made for abatement of the Duties in certain cases 
 of diminution of Rents or Profits under Schedules A. B. and D. The aggregate produce 
 of the Duty for 1815 exceeded by a small amount the produce of the preceding year in 
 consequence of extraordinary Loans, the Interest of which increased the amount 
 charged under Schedule C. to £33 Millions; but the Excess was probably much less 
 than it would have been if the authority for making increase had been extended to 
 all the Schedules. 
 
 f Although the Income of the Country may in the aggregate have undergone such 
 great diminution in nominal amount since the period of the Property Act, that in 
 forming an estimate for a subsequent period upon the amount before brought into 
 charge, without regard to the diminution in those sources the amount of which cannot 
 be satisfactorily estimated, it should be excessive with respect to those particular 
 sources, yet such an estimate is conceived to be on the whole better adapted for the ob- 
 ject of this part of the Work than if formed upon any less certain standard; for, what- 
 ever shall be the Income of the Country when an Income or Property Tax may be again 
 deemed expedient, any materials relating to it may be more safely referred to if founded 
 upon a state of Income ascertained, so far as the same could be, for the like purpose of a 
 Tax upon it, and authenticated by public documents, than if prepared upon some pre- 
 sumed state of Income without any authentic data for it. 
 
 Without venturing in this place upon the complicated subject of the various causes 
 which have affected the Income of the Country, some tending to diminish and others to 
 increase it, but considering how wide from each other are the opinions of different per- 
 sons on those points, there appears additional reason for rejecting any mode of estimate 
 founded on data varying with the fluctuating circumstances of the times and open to such 
 great differences of opinion. 
 
 The presumption which will appear in some of the estimates hereafter introduced, that 
 nearly the amount of Income before charged may be again attained for charge must be 
 taken with reference to the reason just given for proceeding on such a basis, and not as 
 arising from any very confident anticipation of such an event. 
 
209 
 
 year J 81 4, with variation in the amount of those descriptions of 
 Income only of which it is known there was but little or no defici- 
 ency remaining to be charged, and the subsequent diminution in 
 which may be approximated sufficiently for the purpose, viz. In- 
 come from Funded Property and Public Securities (Sch. C), and 
 Income derived from Public Offices and Appointments under Go- 
 vernment (Sch. E.) 
 
 Division of Income according to its Denomination. 
 
 The Property Tax Accounts distinguish the proportions of the 
 two divisions or denominations of Income sufficiently for the 
 purpose of estimating the amount of each. The Income under 
 Schedules A. and C. may be considered as derived in general 
 from Property, and the Income under Schedules B. D. and E. as 
 derived in general from other sources. 
 
 In forming the divisions in this manner one division may con- 
 tain some proportion of Income which in the operation of the 
 Tax with the proposed modifications would probably fall within 
 the other division ; but it is conceived if such proportions could 
 be ascertained, and the amounts of the two divisions were varied 
 on account of them, that the difference in the total estimated re- 
 sult of each would be inconsiderable. 
 
 The amounts of the Income of the two divisions, taken from 
 the Property Tax accounts of the year 1814, appear as follows: — 
 
 Millions. Millions. 
 
 Schedule A., £60J Schedule B. . £27 J 
 
 C 30 D.. 37f 
 
 E.. l4 
 
 £90| 
 
 79J 
 
 Schedules A. and C. . . 90± 
 
 Total Amount brought into charge. . . .£170 
 
 2 E 
 
210 
 
 The Estimate of the two divisions is for the present purpose as 
 follows : — 
 
 Millions. Millions. 
 
 Schedule A.. £60 J Schedule B. .. £27f 
 
 C. 29 * D.. 37f 
 
 E.. 11 £* 
 
 Estimated Amount of Income > 89 J 
 
 derived from Property . . \ Estimated Amount of Income ) 7 g 3 
 
 derived from other sources . . $ 
 
 Schedules A. and C... 89± 
 
 Total estimated Amount. . . .£166 
 
 Classification of Income according to individual Amount. 
 
 As the Property Act charged all profit at its source, without 
 regard to the subsequent destination of it, the total Incomes of the 
 respective parties (excepting of those under £150 who claimed 
 abatements of the Duty) were not known, the accounts do not 
 therefore furnish the means of a satisfactory classification of In- 
 come according to individual amount ; but it is conceived that it 
 may be approximated by forming it from the classification of Tn- 
 
 * After taking the Incomes under Schedules A. B. and D. at their amounts in 1814, it 
 seems unnecessary to aim at precision in estimating the reduced amounts under Sche- 
 dules C. and E. It is very difficult to compute from the Public Accounts the probable 
 amount chargeable to the Tax of the private Income derived from the various Public- 
 Stocks and Securities, or the chargeable amount of the Pay, Salaries, &c. of Public Em- 
 ployments. Though in the last year of the War, 1815, there was a considerable increase of 
 the Funded Debt, and an extraordinary large payment of Interest on Government Bills, 
 which raised the amount charged under Schedule C. for that year to upwards of £33 mil- 
 lions ; yet, from the subsequent reduction of Interest on the Funded Deht, and the pre- 
 sent comparatively small issue of Government Bills, a great diminution, as compared 
 with that year (1815), must be assumed, and the amount now taken under Schedule C. 
 appears on reference to the public accounts to be justifiable. It may seem that the 
 amount of Income under Schedule E. in respect of Appointments and Offices under Go- 
 vernment, has not been sufficiently reduced in the estimate ; but it is to be considered, 
 that although the number of persons discharged from the public service since the War 
 is considerable, the major part of them are in receipt of retired pay or pensions amounting 
 in general to more than half their former Income, and that the reduction is therefore not 
 immediately so great as it may hereafter become ; the Sum taken includes also Profits of 
 Offices of a public nature not under Government. 
 
211 
 
 come given in the accounts of the Income Tax of the year 1801. 
 If the Income of the Country has, in consequence of depreciation 
 of Agricultural Property, depression of Manufactures and Trade, 
 change of Currency, or other causes, been diminished in real or in 
 nominal amount so far as to have reverted to the state or amount 
 of it at a distant former period, it may be more satisfactory to re- 
 sort to accounts obtained of it so many years since for the basis of 
 a classification of it. 
 
 Under the Income Act every person was charged by one assess- 
 ment made on him for the whole of his Income from all sources, 
 and though the aggregate amount of all the Incomes charged was 
 more deficient than the aggregate amount charged under the 
 Property Act, the relative proportions of the several classes will 
 be assumed to have been nearly the same under both Acts. If 
 that assumption be erroneous, the error will not occasion excess in 
 the proportions estimated for the higher classees, for if Incomes 
 had been assessed under the Income Act as near to their actual 
 amount as they were assessed under the Property Act, and the 
 sums assessed had been classed accordingly, the amounts in the 
 higher classes would have been greater than they appear in the 
 accounts, and the estimates now made therefrom would be pro- 
 tionably increased in those classes. 
 
 The Total Income charged under the Income Act (1801) did 
 not exceed £80,600,000 ; the total amount of Income estimated 
 to be attainable for charge to a future Tax, after deducting 
 Incomes exempted as not exceeding £50, also exemptions in be- 
 half of Foreigners, Charities, &c. as shewn in the note,* is taken 
 
 * In order to frame the Estimate in Classes, deductions must be made of that part of 
 the Income contained in the Property Tax accounts which is not contained in the Jncome 
 Tax accounts, as being- charged under the former, though afterwards discharged, (being- 
 the mode of granting exemptions from the Property Tax,) and not chargeable or re- 
 quired to be accounted for under the latter. The following statement will shew the 
 nature and amount of the deductions to be made, and the net Income after making the 
 same. 
 
212 
 
 at £153,000,000. Upon these two aggregate amounts the re- 
 quired classification of Income is made, and is as follows, viz. 
 
 Total Amount of Estimated Amount of 
 
 Classes. Classes in the Income Classes of Income charge- 
 
 Tax Accounts. able to a future Tax. 
 
 £50 and under £100 
 
 £11,150,000 
 
 .. £21,160,000 
 
 100 and under 150 
 
 8,640,000 .... 
 
 . . 16,400,000 
 
 150 and under 200 
 
 5,820,000 
 
 ., 11,050,000 
 
 200 and under 500 
 
 ... c .. 13,180,000 
 
 . . 25,010,000 
 
 500 and under 1000 
 
 10,240,000 .... 
 
 . . 19,440,000 
 
 1000 and under 2000 
 
 9,370,000 .... 
 
 . 17,790,000 
 
 2000 and under 5000 
 
 11,490,000 .... 
 
 .. 21,820,000 
 
 5000 and upwards 
 
 10,710,000 .... 
 
 Total.. £80,600,000 
 
 . . 20,330,000 
 
 
 £153,000,000 
 
 
 
 
 SCHEDULE A. 
 
 Millions. 
 Gross Amount of Rent or Annual Value £60| 
 
 DEDUCTIONS. 
 
 ' Millions. 
 
 For Land Tax, Drainage, &c ^ 
 
 Rent or Value of Lands, &c. belonging) s 
 to Charitable Institutions y * 
 
 Net Amount chargeable . . £58§ 
 
 SCHEDULE C. 
 
 Millions. 
 Estimated Gross Amount of Dividends of Public Stocks,? „ 
 Interest of Exchequer Bills, &c \ i29 
 
 DEDUCTIONS. 
 
 In 1814. Millions. 
 
 Total amount of Dividends, &c £30 
 
 Deduct Dividends payable to Charities, ? 
 
 Friendly Societies and Foreigners § £1£ proportionate amt. 14 
 
 Net Amount chargeable . . £27§ 
 
 The Income Tax Accounts do not contain any amount of Income less than £60, (the 
 lowest amount chargeable to that Tax) ; the proportion of Income not exceeding £50 
 charged and afterwards discharged under the Property Act, was nearly £7 millions ; 
 this amount was principally under Schedules B. D. and E. a trifling part only of the Income 
 less than £50 under the other Schedules (A. and C.) having been exempted ; and as the 
 whole amount of Income charged under all the Schedules, not exceeding £50, is not 
 
 
213 
 
 Total esthnated Amount arranged in Divisions, 
 
 Sch. A. and C. Sch. B. D. and E, 
 
 Income derived Income from 
 
 from Property. other sources. 
 
 £50 and under £100 £11,210,000 £9,950,000 
 
 100 and under 150 8,680,000 7,720,000 
 
 200 5,850,000 5,200,000 
 
 500 13,240,000 11,770,000 
 
 1000 10,290,000 9,150,000 
 
 2000 9,420,000 8,370,000 
 
 2000 and under 5000 11,550,000 10,270,000 
 
 5000 and upwards 10,760,000 9,570,000 
 
 150 and under 
 
 200 and under 
 
 500 and under 
 
 1000 and under 
 
 £81,000,000 £72,000,000 
 Sc. A.&C.81,000,000 
 
 Total.. £153,000,000 
 
 stated in the accounts, the same is estimated at upwards of £10 millions, exclusive of 
 the Wages of Mechanics, Laborers, &c. which, excepting a very small proportion charged 
 to the Property Tax, are not included in either the Property Tax or the Income Tax ac- 
 counts. After subtracting this amount of £10 millions and upwards, and the amount 
 of the Income exempted as belonging to Charities and Foreigners, the total amount of 
 Incomes exceeding £50 to be arranged in classes is £153 millions, as will appear by the 
 following Summary. 
 
 Schedule A 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 D 
 
 Millions. 
 ...£58f 
 ... 27f 
 ... 27f 
 . .. 37£ 
 
 . . in 
 
 Total Net Income, after deducting 5 
 Incomes exempted on Special £ 163£ 
 Grounds under Sch. A. & c J 
 
 Incomes not exceeding £50 £l°i 
 
 SCHEDULES A. & C. Millions. 
 
 Total Income £86^ 
 
 Income not exceeding £50 5^ 
 
 Total Net Income exceeding £50 £81 
 
 SCHEDULES, B, D, & E. 
 
 Total Income £7 
 
 Income not exceeding £50 
 
 Total Income exceeding £50 £72 
 
 Ditto Sch. a. &c £81 
 
 Total Net Income exceeding £50 . £153 
 
 Total Net chargeable Income ex- > 
 ceeding £50 $ 
 
 £153 
 
 It is proposed to charge all Incomes of not less amount than £50, but as the propor- 
 tion from that amount to £60, the lowest chargeable Income under the Income Act, can- 
 not be estimated from the Income Tax accounts, the computation made therefrom for 
 the lowest class, is necessarily less complete, than if that class had extended under 
 both Acts to the same limits. 
 
'214 
 
 The total amount of the two lowest chargeable classes, £50 and un- 
 der £100 and £100 and under £150, under Schedules B. D. and E. 
 as estimated from the Income Tax Accounts, is £17| millions, and 
 the total amount of the Income of those classes stated in the Property 
 Tax Accounts is £18} millions ; the latter includes a small propor- 
 tion of Income exempted under Schedules A. and C, also of the 
 amount deducted for subsequent diminution under Schedule C, 
 which being subtracted, the amount estimated from the Income Tax 
 Accounts would nearly correspond with it.* 
 
 * The total amount of the several classes of Income exceeding £50 and under £150, 
 may also be estimated from an account which shews the allowances of duty granted 
 under the Property Act to Income of those classes under Schedules B. D. and E., ex- 
 clusive of Public Offices under Government. The allowances of Duty were granted 
 at the rate of 1*. for every 20*. by which the total Income from all Sources was less 
 than £150. 
 
 Classes. 
 
 £ £ 
 
 50 and under 60 
 
 60 
 
 70 
 
 80 
 
 90 
 
 100 
 
 110 
 
 120 
 
 130 
 
 140 
 
 70 
 80 
 90 
 100 
 110 
 120 
 130 
 140 
 150 
 
 Total Amount of 
 Allowance of Duties. 
 
 £ 
 
 266,352 
 
 115,171 
 
 96,666 
 
 60,484 
 
 60,116 
 
 29,964 
 
 22,051 
 
 12,199 
 
 6,930 
 
 2,409 
 
 672.342 
 
 Rate of Allowances. 
 
 Shillings. 
 
 Shillings 
 
 100 and under 90 
 
 90 .... 
 
 80 
 
 80 
 
 70 
 
 70 .... 
 
 60 
 
 60 
 
 .. . 50 
 
 50 .... 
 
 40 
 
 40 
 
 .... 30 
 
 30 
 
 20 
 
 20 .... 
 
 .... 10 
 
 Computed Income of 
 each Class. 
 
 10 and under 
 
 £ 
 3,084,075 
 1,761,438 
 1,933,320 
 1,581,889 
 2,076,734 
 1,398,320 
 1,449,065 
 1,219,900 
 1,247,400 
 1,397,220 
 
 17,149,361 
 
 Mean Rate of 
 Allowance. 
 
 Shillings. 
 95 
 
 Rule of Computation. 
 
 Mean 
 Income. 
 
 £ 
 55 
 &c. 
 
 Total Amount of 
 Income of £50 and 
 under £100 
 
 Total Amount 
 Income of £100 and 
 under £150 , 
 
 i 
 
 According to the 
 above Computation. 
 
 10,437,456 
 
 6,711,905 
 
 Total .. £17,149,361f 
 
 Total Amount of 
 Allowance. 
 
 £ 
 266,352 
 &c. 
 
 Estimate from Income 
 Tax Accounts. 
 
 Sch. B. D. & E. 
 
 £9,950,000 
 
 7,720,000 
 
 £17,670,000 
 
 Income. 
 
 ~£~ 
 . . 3,084,075 
 
 Amount in Property 
 Tax Accounts. 
 
 Excluding 
 
 the estimated 
 
 Proportions 
 
 under 
 
 Sch. A. & C. 
 
 above mentioned. 
 
 Millions. 
 17# 
 
 + If the proportion of Income from Government Offices of £50 and under £150, were added to this 
 amount, it would more nearly correspond with the other two aggregate amounts. 
 
215 
 
 The only Account of Profit or Income in classes under the Pro- 
 perty Act is of the amount under Schedule D», but as it classes the 
 sums according to the amount of the Profits under that Schedule 
 only, and not according to the aggregate amount of the Incomes of 
 the Parties from all sources, and as the Returns under that Sche- 
 dule were more deficient in amount than under the other Sche- 
 dules, it is not considered safe for an estimate in classes of the total 
 Income from all sources. A classification of the total estimated 
 Income having however been formed by computing the amount 
 in the proportions given under Schedule D. for the sake of com- 
 paring it with the other classification, it is offered, and appears as 
 follows : 
 
 under £100 
 under 150 
 
 £50 and 
 
 100 and 
 
 150 and 
 
 200 and 
 
 500 and 
 1000 and 
 2000 and 
 5000 and upwards 
 
 under 
 under 
 under 
 under 
 under 
 
 200 
 
 500 
 
 1000 
 
 2000 
 
 5000 
 
 Amount of 
 
 Profits under 
 
 Schedule D. 
 
 .£7,361,000. 
 
 . 3,482,000 
 . 1,800,090 , 
 . 5,670,000 
 . 3,750,000 
 . 3,243,000 
 . 3,850,000 
 . 5,610,000 
 
 Amount of Income under 
 
 all the Schedules, esti- 
 mated on the Proportions 
 under Schedule D. 
 
 ...£32,400,000... 
 .... 15,320,000 .. 
 . . . . 7,920,000 . . 
 . . . . 24,950,000 . . 
 . . . . 16,510,000 . . 
 
 ... 14,270,000 .. 
 
 16,940,000 .. 
 
 . . . . 24,690,000 . . 
 
 Estimated 
 
 Amount as formed 
 
 from the Income 
 
 Tax Accounts. 
 
 .£21,160,000 
 .. 16,400,000 
 . . 11,050,000 
 .. 25,010,000 
 .. 19,440,000 
 .. 17,790,000 
 .. 21,820,000 
 . . 20,330,000 
 
 £34,766,000 £153,000,000 £153,000,000 
 Not exceeding £50 . . 3,034,000 — ! 
 
 Total.. £37,8000,000 
 
 £50 and under £200 £55,640,000, 
 
 200 and under 2000 55,730,000 
 
 2000 and upwards .... 41,630,000 
 
 £48,610,000 
 . 62,240,000 
 . 42,150,000 
 
 Total. .£153,000,000 £153,000,000 
 
 The two Estimates correspond as nearly as may be expected, 
 the most material difference is in the lowest class, viz. £50. and 
 under £100. On this difference it may be observed, that if the sums 
 chargeable under Schedule D. of the late Property Tax had been 
 more fully returned, and had also been classed according to the 
 
216 
 
 total Incomes of the Parties from all sources, a great proportion of 
 the Profits appearing- in the lowest class would have been trans- 
 ferred into higher classes. The greater comparative amount in the 
 highest class £5000 and upwards, is attributable to the large returns 
 under Schedule D. of some public Corporations and Companies, 
 which, if the same had been classed according to the respective 
 shares of the Proprietors, would have been divided among the lower 
 classes. If the excesses of the two extreme classes were duly ap- 
 portioned among the intervening classes, the two estimates would 
 correspond more nearly in every class. 
 
 As it is proved by the Property Tax Accounts that the estimate 
 made from the Income Tax Accounts gives a near approximation to 
 the total amount of Income of the two lowest classes charged to the 
 Property Tax, it follows that the total amount of the Income of the 
 middle and highest classes is as nearly approximated by it ; and it 
 is presumed, as the estimate is thus confirmed where the Property 
 Tax Accounts afford the means of trying the accuracy of it, that it 
 may be more confidently relied on where such means in the latter 
 are wanting. 
 
 Estimates of the Gross amount of Duty distinguished in Classes 
 and computed according to graduated Rates of Charge, which 
 are founded on the foregoing Divisions and Classifications of In- 
 come, have been prepared and are inserted in the Appendix. 
 
 Though it is not to be expected that the classification of any 
 particular source of Income taken separately will correspond with 
 the classification of Income from all sources taken aggregately, 
 yet, where means are afforded, further trial may be made for the 
 sake of the comparison. The following account of the Bank of 
 England is resorted to as admitting of a classification of that part 
 of the Income under Schedule C. which consists of the Dividends 
 payable at the Bank. 
 
217 
 
 Number of Dividends payable at the Bank of England on the 
 10th October, 1829, and Uh January, 1830. 
 
 Number of Dividends. 
 
 Not exceeding £5 83,609 
 
 10 42,227 
 
 50 97,307 
 
 100 26,316 
 
 200 15,209 
 
 300 4,912 
 
 500 3,077 
 
 1000 1,555 
 
 2000 450 
 
 exceeding 2000 161 
 
 Total.. 274,823 
 
 The preceding account admits of the following classification of 
 the Yearly Amounts of the Dividends, presuming that the Bank ac- 
 count gives the Rate of the Half yearly Dividend of each Class, 
 and that the numbers of Dividends of the Classes for the Half-years 
 ending 5th April and 5th July 1830 respectively were the same as 
 for the two preceding Half-years. 
 
 Not exceedii 
 
 £10 and not 
 
 20 
 
 Yearly 
 Dividend. 
 
 rig £10 
 
 exceeding 20 . . . , 
 100 ... 
 
 Mean Dividend. 
 
 £5 .... 
 15 .... 
 60 .... 
 
 150 .... 
 
 300 .... 
 
 500 .... 
 
 800 .... 
 
 1500 .... 
 
 3000 .... 
 
 10,000 .... 
 
 Total., i 
 
 Total Amount of 
 Dividends. 
 £418,045 
 
 633,405 
 5,838,420 
 3,947,400 
 4,562,700 
 2,456,000 
 
 100 
 
 
 . . . . 200 
 
 200 ... . 
 
 
 400 .. . 
 
 400 
 
 
 600 . 
 
 600 
 
 
 1000 ... 
 
 2,461,600 
 
 1000 
 
 
 2000 . . . 
 
 2,332,500 
 
 2000 
 
 
 4000 
 
 1,350,000 
 
 exceeding. . 
 
 
 .... 4000 .... 
 
 1,610,000 
 
 
 25,610,070 
 
 2 F 
 
218 
 
 As the computation approximates in total amount to the sum of 
 the Dividends of Stock paid to the public Creditors within the year 
 in which the Bank Account was made up, it may be presumed to 
 shew nearly the proportions of the different classes. The following 
 is a comparison of it with a classification made of the same total 
 amount classed according to the proportions in the Income Tax 
 Accounts, with a view to shew the probable classification of it when 
 taken in conjunction with the other parts of the Incomes of the In- 
 dividuals receiving it. 
 
 According to According to 
 
 Bank Account. Income Tax Accounts, 
 
 Under £100 £6,889,870 £3,515,507 
 
 £100 and under 200 3,947,400...... 4,621,895 
 
 200 and under 1000 9,480,300 7,441,533 
 
 1000 and under 2000 2,332,500 2,977,248 
 
 2000 and upwards 2,960,000 7,053,887 
 
 £25,610,070 £25,610,070 
 
 If the Dividends in the Bank Account were classed according to 
 the aggregate Incomes of the Parties from all sources, the result 
 might approximate the other classification. In the foregoing clas- 
 sification made from the account under Schedule D. of the Property 
 Tax the amount of the highest class considerably exceeds, for the 
 reason there assigned, the amount of the corresponding class of 
 the general classification made from the Income Tax Accounts ; in 
 the above classification under Schedule C. the highest class falls 
 considerably short of it, the cause of which may be that the Property 
 of many of the largest Fundholders being in various Stocks, and 
 the Dividends payable on them respectively not being aggregated 
 in the Bank account, they are in that account inserted among classes 
 inferior to that into which the aggregate amount thereof would 
 bring them. 
 
 Observations on the Justice and expediency of a Graduated Scale 
 
 of Charge. 
 
 The consideration of extending to the middle and higher Classes 
 of Income the graduated Scale of Charge is suggested on a sup- 
 
219 
 
 position that the principle of it is most equitable, and should be 
 acted upon to the utmost possible extent. The simplification of 
 proceedings and avoidance of the multiplicity of them appear as 
 desiderata opposed to a graduated Scale of Charge; justice may 
 be in favor of it ; whether it can be carried into effect so as to 
 be fully as just in operation as it may be in principle and design, 
 and also without such a system of procedure as will raise objections 
 to it greater than the justice of it could reconcile, may be the 
 points for consideration ; but as during the late Tax, when one-ninth 
 only of the whole Income which contributed to it was charged be- 
 low the maximum rate of 10 per Cent., there appeared a general 
 strong desire for an extension of the graduated Scale, and for a 
 wider distinction between Incomes of different descriptions, it may 
 be wished that some modifications in those respects of the former 
 measure should be considered, though perhaps, for the satisfaction 
 only of more decidedly ascertaining the impracticability or the inex- 
 pediency of them. 
 
 It has been argued against a general rate of charge that the de- 
 duction which it makes from inferior Incomes occasions a depri- 
 vation of the necessaries of life, while the deduction from large 
 Incomes deprives of luxuries only, or of such conveniences or en- 
 joymeuts as can be spared without so much personal distress and 
 suffering as the want of absolute necessaries occasions. It is alleged 
 against the graduated Scale of Charge that the greater ratio of 
 deduction which it makes from large Incomes lessens proportion- 
 ably that expenditure of the higher Classes by which inferior In- 
 comes are in a great degree created and maintained ; also that it is 
 not just that a large Income should pay at a higher ratio to a Tax 
 than for any other part of its expenditure, that the proportionate 
 amount of Tax which a general rate of charge takes from a large 
 Income is all which justice or policy demand. The question in 
 principle may be whether all Incomes should after Taxation bear 
 the same relative proportion to each other as before Taxation, which 
 is the effect of a general rate of charge, or whether the higher In- 
 comes should after Taxation bear to lower Incomes a less relative 
 proportion than before Taxation, which is the effect of a graduated 
 Scale of Charge. As the graduated Scale of Charge and the ge- 
 
220 
 
 neral Rate of Charge affect the middle classes of Income in nearly 
 the same degree, the question becomes whether the lower Classes 
 should be eased at the expence of the higher Classes. It might 
 perhaps partly depend on the difference of the effects which the 
 abolition of the present Taxes would produce on the respective 
 Classes. If the lower classes of Income contribute to the present 
 Taxes more than the higher classes in proportion to their respective 
 amounts of Incomes, then as the abolition of those Taxes would 
 bring to the lower Classes the greatest proportion of relief, and a 
 substituted Income Tax, if imposed in lieu of them at the same ge- 
 neral rate on all Classes, would have the effect of increasing Tax- 
 ation on the higher Classes of Income, it might be unjust to the 
 latter to charge them in a still greater ratio by a graduated Scale 
 to that Tax, but if the higher classes of Income contribute more 
 than the lower Classes to the present Taxes in proportion to their 
 amounts, then, as the former would obtain the greatest proportion 
 of relief from the abolition of them, it might be right they should 
 continue to bear the greater degree of Taxation which a graduated 
 Scale of Income Tax would impose on them. The graduated 
 Scale of Charge, though it might have been most just and ap- 
 propriate on the first imposition of an Income Tax if that Tax had 
 from the commencement of Taxation been the sole or principal 
 means of raising the Revenue, might not be so after other and dif- 
 ferent means of raising Taxation had for a very long course of 
 time prevailed and the diffusion of its burthen among the various 
 Classes, in proportions different from those which a graduated In- 
 come Tax would have effected, had been so long settled and fixed. 
 It might appear that there would be a stronger justice in and ne- 
 cessity for a graduated Scale in case that the individual amounts of 
 Incomes derived from the Revenue became much greater in propor- 
 tion to those of other Incomes — that is, in case that the General In- 
 come of the Country declined from other causes than Taxation, and 
 that the total Amount of Taxation and the respective numbers of the 
 Tax Payers and Tax Receivers remained the same. If the same 
 general rate of charge were imposed on Incomes of all descriptions 
 and amounts, the proportion which Incomes derived from the Re- 
 venue bore to the other Incomes would not be changed by Tax- 
 ation, but in case the Incomes of the Agricultural, Trade Classes, &c 
 
221 
 
 were reduced by other causes, while the Incomes of the Revenue 
 Classes continued undiminished, it might seem just that Taxation 
 should alter the proportions in favor of the former, and this al- 
 teration would be effected by the graduated Scale.* If the gra- 
 duated Scale were not under these circumstances adopted, then 
 the Agricultural and Trading Classes, &c. could relieve them- 
 selves only by such increase of Prices as the excessive proportion 
 of the general Income transferred to the Revenue Classes would 
 enable those Classes to meet, and in that less prompt and perhaps 
 less expedient manner the latter might in effect make good any 
 deficiency in their contributions to the Tax. The more effectual 
 operation of an Income Tax on Revenue Incomes, in the impossi- 
 bility of their escape therefrom in any degree, should however not 
 be lost sight of. 
 
 On a comparison of the Scale graduated according to the 
 Amount of Income and extended to the highest Classes with the 
 plan of a general rate of charge, the effect might be, if the whole 
 Public Revenue were raised by an Income Tax, that about £6 mil- 
 lionsf would be shifted from the lower classes to the highest classes 
 of Income, but the real saving or gain to the former and the real 
 loss to the latter might ultimately be far from that amount ; the 
 principle which recommends a graduated Scale may shew itself 
 fallacious in practice, it may be less fair in result than it may ap- 
 pear in theory ; if the Tax should when first imposed bear with 
 undue partiality on some Incomes, there will arise indirect effects 
 which will in time level such inequality in a great degree, parti- 
 cularly where Incomes are not fixed, it may therefore be less 
 material whether the graduated Scale be adopted or not if the 
 measure be rendered permanent; fixed Incomes seem to hold a 
 strong claim to abatement as having no means of relieving them- 
 selves, but if it were granted to them exclusively, it should pro- 
 bably be limited to such Incomes as are fixed at the time of the 
 imposition of the Tax; if no distinction were made in favor of 
 fixed Incomes commencing after the Tax had commenced, due 
 regard could be had to that circumstance by all parties in their 
 future engagements, as in cases of new Leases of Lands and of 
 
 *f Vide Estimates under subsequent Heads, illustrating the probable effects. 
 
222 
 
 other obligatory contracts for payment of fixed annual amounts, 
 a general rate of charge would not then operate partially or 
 hardly, and it may therefore not be expedient to provide any mo- 
 difications of the general rate of charge beyond the period when 
 new engagements will take place. 
 
 The late Property Act did not perhaps extend relief suffi- 
 ciently in confining abatements in favor of fixed Incomes to An- 
 nuities charged by Will or Deed on Property over which the An- 
 nuitants had no control, and also in limiting the relief to Incomes 
 connected with Labor to those cases where the aggregate In- 
 comes of the parties did not exceed £150. The late Act pro- 
 ceeded on the principle that it was just and expedient to make 
 distinction in favor of Incomes, but more particularly inferior In- 
 comes, derived wholly or principally from bodily or mental labor, 
 and it did not deviate from that principle but on special grounds. 
 The following observations appear on the subject in the In- 
 troduction to the Official Guide to the Act 46 Geo. 3. " Con- 
 " siderable alleviation is given to those of small Income who 
 " derive any part of it from personal Labor, and in one instance 
 " where it is not derived from personal Labor, viz. an Annuity 
 «' charged on the Profit of another, over which property the An- 
 " nuitant has no control, and who can under no circumstances 
 " improve it. Great allowances are also made to those who 
 " carry on hazardous concerns in Trade, by enabling them to 
 " make deductions not allowed in other cases. Indeed the whole 
 " tenor of the Act shews the indulgence given to the more labo- 
 " rious classes. When the necessities of Government require so 
 " large a contribution from the annual Profits, it was wise to 
 " poise the sale in favor of Labor, and of that activity which is 
 " employed in the support of a family, or the acquirement of a 
 " future subsistence in the event of misfortune or bodily infirmity. 
 " Hence it is that on all Property the same rate of Duty is ex- 
 " acted. The Yeoman of £100 and the Cottager of £5 per 
 " annum pay the same rate of Duty as the person of larger pro- 
 " perty. The same rule obtains in all cases of Funded Pro- 
 u perty, on all Mortgages and Debts of every kind bearing an- 
 " nual Interest ; but for that Property which is acquired within 
 " the year by Labor, whether of the head or hand, as in the case 
 
223 
 
 " of Farmers, Traders, in Professions, in Employments by re- 
 " tainer, in Offices Civil and Ecclesiastic, an allowance is granted, 
 " gradually increasing as the whole Income departs from £150 
 " per annum till it arrives at £50, when a total Exemption takes 
 " place from those Duties, still leaving the Duty charged on 
 " Property in full force. 
 
 " Charitable Institutions are also wholly exempted from the 
 " Duty on their landed and funded Property ; but with these ex- 
 " ceptions, Property and Profits of every description are charged 
 " according to its stability and the interest there is in the te- 
 " nure."* 
 
 Of the " Justice and Policy of the regulations of the Tax," (of 
 which a conviction is expressed with the foregoing observations) 
 there may be much difference of opinion, but the error, on which- 
 ever side it lays, may arise not from any indisposition to what is 
 most just and fair, but from mistaking the proper mode of effect- 
 ing it, and in not foreseeing future consequences correctly or suffi- 
 ciently. Error may arise in looking more to the present and im- 
 mediate than to the ultimate consequences. Whether it be just or 
 not, in principle, that in Taxation the rich should be burthened 
 and the poor be spared, that the larger the Income the higher the 
 ratio at which Taxation should be exacted from it, the main con- 
 sideration may be whether the poor will in the end be benefited by 
 carrying such a principle into practice : and whether if the inferior 
 Classes derived at first an advantage at the expence of the supe- 
 rior Classes they would continue to enjoy it; if they would not, 
 then it may be doubted, if a consequence will not naturally follow 
 from, or endure under regulations intended to produce and con- 
 tinue it, whether there is either wisdom or justice in them — popu- 
 lar notions may have been opposed to the general rate of charge 
 of the late Property Tax, the graduated Scale may have been a 
 favorite theory, but as experience often shews the fallacy of 
 theory, so it might happen if the scale of the late Tax were widely 
 departed from in a future Tax, there would be great disappoint- 
 
 * Other allowed exceptions might have been here noticed, viz. the Funded Property 
 of Foreigners and Interest payable to them out of the Profits of Trade; also Cottages 
 not exceeding 40s. occupied by the Owners, if their Incomes did not exceed £50. 
 
224 
 
 ment in the result. If it be alleged on one side, under some ab- 
 stract opinion of what appears most just, that the graduated Scale is 
 the only right principle of charge it may be answered on the other 
 side, that the right principle is in that mode of charge only which 
 in practice will be found most generally beneficial, that mode 
 which in the end will realize most for the public good, or, as it 
 may more properly be observed in speaking of Taxation, that 
 which will inflict the least ultimate injury on the Public in general. 
 Without entering further into the arguments on the question, 
 it will be observed, that after weighing all the reasons which can 
 be adduced on either side, it must probably be determined not 
 altogether by a consideration of which mode is most just in prin- 
 ciple, but partly of which is most practicable and unobjectionable 
 in its procedure, or of the degree to which each mode will be able 
 to carry its principle into effect. Whether it be most just that 
 Incomes should be charged at rates increasing as the amount of 
 Incomes increases, or that all Incomes should be charged at one 
 and the same general rate, it may be apprehended that the gra- 
 duated scale of charge might render evasion more practicable and 
 easy, and as those who would evade might do so in various de- 
 grees, its effect might be attended with much of that improper 
 disproportion in individual contributions which its intention would 
 be to prevent; that though the graduated Scale may be most 
 equitable in theory, yet, if on one hand, it offers temptation and 
 facility to fraud in the operation of it, the obstacles to raising the 
 Tax effectually upon the principle of it may be great; more ex- 
 tensive disclosure of private circumstances may be necessary, 
 proceedings may be multiplied by the more numerous claims and 
 appeals necessary to be decided, the discontent and other feel- 
 ings occasioned by the rejection of unsubstantiated claims, and 
 by the detection of attempted evasions under a graduated Scale, 
 may be important enough to be weighed against the satisfaction 
 arising on the other hand, from allowances and relief obtained 
 under such a Scale where they might be equitably as well as 
 legally claimed. If Profits of Trade and Profession cannot be 
 so fully attained for charge as other Incomes can be, the in- 
 equality of charge occasioned thereby will be increased by 
 a graduated Scale, not only in as far as the Tax on the 
 
225 
 
 Trade Profits taken distinctly would be deficient, but in cases of 
 mixed Income, if the Tax were defectively charged on the Trade 
 part, it would be so on the other part, for as the aggregate of the 
 two would be consequently deficient, both would be brought into 
 a lower rate of charge than according to their true total amount 
 they would be legally chargeable to. It may however be due to 
 a graduated Scale to qualify in some degree the apprehension 
 here expressed as to the difficulties in the procedure and to the 
 danger of evasion attending it. Though there is the temptation 
 under a graduated Scale to make defective returns for the sake 
 of bringing them into a lower rate of charge, yet it may happen in 
 many cases that it will be, on the contrary, an encouragement 
 to fair Returns, for a person may be induced to return a larger 
 sum of Profit, knowing that it will be charged at the abated rate 
 of a graduated Scale than he would return if assessable at the 
 higher amount of a general rate of charge, particularly if he were 
 not satisfied of the justice of a general rate of charge ; Inmos t 
 cases where Returns must be made, in order to ascertain the proper 
 amount of charge, the Assessment and Collection may be effected 
 in as easy and unobjectionable a manner under a graduated Scale 
 as under a general Rate of Charge, and the proceedings would not 
 be multiplied by the'graduated Scale; troublesome proceedings, 
 and exposure of circumstances, if unavoidable under a graduated 
 Scale, would be confined mostly to cases of mixed Incomes and 
 where Returns would not have been required if they had not been 
 necessary to substantiate claims for abatements ; but it is conceived 
 that these cases would form the smallest, and not a very consider- 
 able proportion of the whole number of Incomes chargeable. As 
 mixed Incomes generally consist in part of Rents of Lands or In- 
 terest in Public Securities, there would be easy means of detecting 
 evasions without resorting, in those cases, to procedure of an ob- 
 noxious nature with the Parties. 
 
 2 o 
 
•226 
 
 On the Practicability and on the Mode of carrying into Eeffect 
 the Graduated Scale of Charge extended to the highest Classes 
 of Income. 
 
 Though it should be decided to establish distinctions in the 
 rates of charge on different Incomes, both according to the 
 amount and according to the description of them, it might never- 
 theless be necessary that every Income or Part of an Income 
 should be declared liable to charge at the maximum rate of 
 charge affixed to the highest class of the Division to which it 
 should belong, and that in order to obtain the abated rates of 
 charge, claims should be made by the Parties to the Commis- 
 sioners ; and that in cases of Persons possessing Income in both 
 Divisions, or under more than one Schedule, the Income in each 
 Division, or under each Schedule, should be charged according 
 to the aggregate amount of the Income of the Parties in both 
 Divisions. 
 
 The consideration may be whether the graduated Scale of 
 Charge can be carried into effect, in respect of Incomes of the 
 higher classes and of whatever description, by means similar to 
 those provided by the Rules of the late Property Act with respect 
 to Incomes less than £150 derived from sources connected with 
 Labor and Industry, and whether any such modifications should 
 and could be made of those Rules as would render the operation 
 of them upon that extended scale unobjectionable. Under that 
 Act, Persons with Incomes of such amount as to entitle them to 
 allowances or abatements from the maximum rate of Duty could 
 not obtain the same without stating in their claims to the Com- 
 missioners the amount and particulars of their Incomes from 
 every source, and the amount of any annual payments reserved 
 or charged thereon whereby the Incomes were diminished ; the 
 Commissioners were empowered to investigate the particulars of 
 the claims upon appeal, subject to powers and regulations as 
 other appeals were determined by, and if the claims were proved, 
 to grant the allowances which the Parties were entitled to, either 
 wholly out of the Duty charged on one source, if sufficient, or 
 
227 
 
 partly out of that and partly by Transfer Certificates out of the 
 Duty charged on other sources and in other places. 
 
 Those provisions of the Act were not extended beyond the 
 lower classes of Income connected with Labor, probably under 
 the apprehension that the Produce of the Duty would have been 
 too seriously affected, or that the Rules, if applied to the middle 
 and higher classes of Income, which are derived from various 
 sources and places more generally than the lower classes of In- 
 come, would have been attended with an inconvenient and ob- 
 noxious operation. How far the former effect would take place 
 may be conceived from the Estimates in this Work of the produce 
 of Duty, under various graduated Scales of charge.* With re- 
 spect to the latter ground of apprehension, it must be premised 
 that a modification of the mode of proceeding under the late Act, 
 with a view to its extension in an unobjectionable manner to all 
 Incomes, must be offered less with any confidence that it will be 
 practicable or successful to the desired extent than for the purpose 
 of bringing forward the difficulty in such a shape as shall better 
 assist in the consideration of it. Suppose then with that intention 
 it be suggested, that in order to render the disclosure and investi- 
 gation of circumstances as limited as possible, no Person entitled 
 to be assessed at an abated rate in respect of his Income, the Duty 
 on which is to be charged on and paid by himself personally, and 
 which arises from different sources and in different places, shall in 
 his claim in respect of his Income at either place, be required to 
 state the particulars of the other parts of his Income, but he shall 
 declare only the total amount of it, in order to decide at what 
 abated rate each part shall be assessed. That he should however 
 state the amount of any payments to others with which his In- 
 come or Property is charged, in order that he may remain charged 
 at the maximum rate in respect of that part. In cases where the 
 Duty would be contributed by way of deduction, that is without 
 any assessment on the Contributor personally, he receiving his 
 Income out of Property or Profits, the Duty on which has been 
 charged at the maximum rate on the Person in possession or oc- 
 
 Vide Appendix. 
 
228 
 
 cupation thereof, the Party should make his claim in like manner 
 to the Commissioners of the District in which he resided, (or if 
 resident abroad his Trustees or Agent should make it in his be- 
 half,) and receive from the Commissioners a certificate of the 
 amountof abatement or allowance of Duty which he might be entitled 
 to in respect of his whole Income, to be delivered to the Person 
 paying- his Income, who, after making the deduction of Duty short 
 of the allowance certified, would produce the Certificate in dis- 
 charge of so much of the Duty charged upon himself as the said 
 allowance might amount to. Certificates of this nature might be 
 made available at the Bank of England or other Departments, 
 where deduction of Duty would be made from Dividends, An- 
 nuities, or other Payments ; the proceedings might be there re- 
 gulated by Commissioners and Officers, appointed from those De- 
 partments, as under the late Property Act for the purposes of that 
 Act. 
 
 If the District Commissioners should be dissatisfied with the claims 
 of any Party, they should be empowered to call on him to revise it, 
 and if he declined to do so, then to make oath to the truth of it, 
 affording him such explanation of the Rules for his guidance in 
 making his claim as might appear necessary, but no disclosure of 
 or examination into his affairs in general should be admitted, and 
 no further demand on the Party should be made than the requisi- 
 tion of a revisal or of the oath, and the Commissioners should be 
 bound to accept the claim after being so revised or sworn to. 
 
 Questions of a general nature, for the purpose of ascertaining 
 whether the Rules of the Act in making up the claim had been 
 abided by, might be admissible : and to secure the object of them 
 the Party might be required to answer them on oath or to swear 
 in general terms that he had conformed strictly to those Rules. 
 
 If more convenient to the Party he might elect to receive the 
 total allowance or abatement to which he would be entitled on his 
 whole Income out of the Assessment on his Income at one place 
 only, but in that case he must produce Certificates from the Com- 
 missioners of the other place or places that they had charged 
 the part or parts of his Income arising there without any abate- 
 ment. 
 
 Notwithstanding these restrictions, if any claimant should pre- 
 fer or be willing to make a full disclosure of his circumstances 
 
229 
 
 in order to establish his claim more satisfactorily, (and doubtless 
 many would prefer that open course of proceeding,) the Commis- 
 sioners should be empowered to receive it and act upon it in that 
 manner. 
 
 Referees proposed by the Parties and approved by the Commis- 
 sioners might be empowered to ascertain the amount of aggregate 
 Income, either according to the Rules of the Act, or to require 
 all particulars of information which they might deem necessary, 
 and the Commissioners in fixing the rates of Charge or in granting 
 Abatements or Allowances should abide by the decision of the Re- 
 ferees. 
 
 If it should be considered that by allowing so much concealment 
 and restricting all investigation in ascertaining the aggregates of 
 Incomes from different sources, greater concession would be made 
 to the convenience and feelings of Persons interested than the 
 nature or necessity of their cases in general required, and that the 
 abuses of mild provisions would be to such extent that not only 
 the Revenue would be too much endangered but the important 
 object of preventing those unjust disproportions of contribution, 
 which the reasons in favor of a graduated Scale would attribute to 
 the effect of a general Rate of Charge, might in a great measure be 
 defeated, the Rules could be less indulgently modified, greater 
 disclosure of circumstances might be required, and investigation 
 might be made nearly in the manner authorized bv the late Act, 
 excepting that the Crown Officers should not interfere, or if their 
 interference were allowed, they should themselves derive no direct 
 advantage whatever from its result, and that such powers should not 
 extend to those parts of mixed Incomes which arose from Trade, &c. 
 (if the restrictions from investigation as before proposed in the pro- 
 ceedings to charge Profits of Trade distinctly be admitted) and the 
 Amount only of those Profits should be stated in the Claims, with- 
 out subjecting the Party to any proceeding's not authorized by the 
 specific rules laid down in respect of Returns of such Profits. As 
 the claims according to the rules and powers of investigation so 
 enlarged would state not only the Amount and Description of In- 
 come, but, among other particulars, in what other Districts or 
 Places the Property was situate or the Income accrued, the Com- 
 missioners if dissatisfied with any part of the claims, would in most 
 
230 
 
 instances be able to obtain all the necessary information by in- 
 quiries to be conducted in an unexceptionable manner through 
 official channels, without resorting to any unpleasant proceedings 
 with the claimants personally, the Claims being delivered in writing, 
 on forms to be provided for the purpose, and, if desirable, sealed 
 up under cover to the Commissioners. Sufficient information be- 
 ing obtained on the occasion of the first claim, no inquiries or 
 other proceedings would be necessary on future claims, unless any 
 material change in the circumstances of the claimant should take 
 place, and not in that case if the disclosure of them, as appearing 
 from the variation of particulars in the claim delivered in, should 
 be considered to be fairly made. In numerous instances of per- 
 sons possessing Income from more than one source, though arising 
 in different Parishes, if those Parishes should lie in one District, the 
 whole would come under the cognizance of the same Commission- 
 ers, by whom, all necessary particulars being known to them, the 
 claims would be easily settled, and it is not conceived that many 
 cases would arise in which from the great dispersion or variety of 
 Income much, if any, trouble or difficulty would, after the first 
 settlement, be experienced in substantiating the claims. 
 
 The course of proceeding to be adopted with respect to Incomes 
 arising in different Districts for the purpose of ascertaining the 
 aggregate amount as the basis of the Assessment in each, might 
 be made similar to the proceeding authorised by the Income Act 
 of 1799, in respect of Incomes derived partly from Trade and 
 partly from other sources. In cases where one set of Commis- 
 sioners considered it necessary, in order to ascertain the Income 
 of Parties in other Districts, or where the Parties themselves ap- 
 plied to those Commissioners in order to obtain Allowances they 
 were entitled to in respect of their whole Income, the said Com- 
 missioners transmitted inquiries to the Commissioners of the other 
 Districts ; the last mentioned Commissioners having ascertained and 
 settled the charge upon the Income laid before them, transmitted 
 Certificates to the Commissioners making the inquiries, with whom 
 the said Certificates were final and conclusive as to the Income 
 contained therein, and who received them as the basis of their 
 Assessment, Proceedings of this nature should however be subject 
 
231 
 
 to any restrictions as to investigation in cases of Profits from 
 Trade, &c. 
 
 The danger of abuse of a temperrte and gentle system might 
 however require that there should be some power to prevent or 
 check wilful and gross frauds, such, in cases of mixed Incomes, as 
 the total concealment of any one source of Income for the purpose 
 of obtaining an undue abatement of the Tax on the whole amount 
 or on any part. If it should be discovered that any Person in his 
 claim to be charged at an abated rate had fraudulently omitted, for 
 instance, the Rent of any Land, or his Dividend in the Funds, in 
 order to bring the remaining- Income into a lower Scale of Charge, 
 the Commissioners might be authorized to assess him in such over- 
 plus of Duty by way of Penalty, not exceeding a certain limit, as 
 the extent of the attempted evasion might require. It is conceived 
 that for the very important object of maintaining a mild plan of 
 procedure which too much abuse of it would frustrate, there would 
 not be objection to a reserved power of this nature, to be exer- 
 cised in cases of palpable evasions which admit of indisputable 
 proof, particularly as it would be Ijdgfd with those only who 
 in the execution of duties which they perform gratuitously are 
 ever indisposed to any unnecessary harshness towards individuals 
 in proceedings of a penal nature. The knowledge that a power 
 of this kind existed would prevent the attempt of frauds. 
 
 Attention is requested to more modified Plans of Charge on gra- 
 duated Scales offered for consideration under a subsequent head,* 
 by which some of the troublesome or objectionable procedure which 
 might arise from the plan of charge contemplated in the foregoing 
 observations would be avoided, particularly in cases of mixed 
 Icnomes. 
 
 Observations on the Graduated Scales of Charge as prepared in 
 
 this Work.f 
 The Estimates submitted in this Work of the Gross Produce of an 
 Income Tax at graduated Rates of Charge extended to the highest 
 
 * Containing a Recital of the different Plans of Charge proposed in this Work. 
 f Vide Appendix. 
 
232 
 
 classes of Income, consist of severel Scales, varying in amount ac- 
 cording- to the series of Rates affixed to them respectively. By the 
 lowest scale, the estimated Net Produce, after deducting charges of 
 management, &c. amounts to somewhat more than the Produce 
 of the late Property Tax, and the estimated Net Produce under 
 the highest scale, rather exceeds the average Annual Amount of 
 present Revenue. 
 
 It may be considered impossible to carry into effect an Income 
 Tax upon the highest proposed Scale, and the contemplation of it 
 may be treated as visionary, but regarding an Income Tax not 
 as an addition to, but as a substitute for other Taxes, it may be ob- 
 served that the practicability of an Income Tax to a great extent 
 having been proved, its practicability to any greater extent stands 
 on the ground that, if it be in its princ'ple more just and in its ge- 
 neral operation and effects superior to the present mode of Taxa- 
 tion, any amount whatever of Revenue may be raised by an Income 
 Tax with less detriment or inconvenience to the resources in «;e- 
 neral of the Country than if raised by the existing Taxes, but 
 whether an Income Tax to the extreme extent to which the Estimates 
 of its produce prepared in this Work are carried, may be, or it should 
 not be, seriously contemplated as a probable or possible event, 
 some view of the bearings of it, extended to that degree, on the 
 various descriptions and classes of Income may be desirable, and 
 therefore, whether in carrying an Estimate so far it is to be 
 considered, as though wholly speculative, yet as satisfactorily ex- 
 hibiting the probable numerical results of the measure if it were 
 pushed to that extreme, there is some inducement to offer it to at- 
 tention. The Writer is, however, anxious to be understood, not as 
 seriously proposing the immediate imposition of an Income Tax to 
 the full extent of the Public Revenue, nor if ever carried to that or 
 to any very high extent, as contemplating any other than a gradual 
 arrival at it from Scale to Scale, ft^as it may be deemed expedient 
 to substitute it in an increased degree for other Taxes. 
 
 To whatever extent an Income Tax may be carried, it would be 
 very desirable to establish sueh a Scale of Charges as should take 
 from each class and description of Income its due proportion, and 
 should leave the several Possessors, relatively, in their previous situ- 
 
•233 
 
 ations, or alter their relative situations in any degree, in consider- 
 ation that under the present system of Taxation some classes of 
 Persons or sources of Income are partially burthened. Though it 
 may be alleged in answer to any objection to the Scales of Charges 
 herein offered that they are merely specimens, deduced from ma- 
 terials supplied by former measures, from which the probable 
 results of any other series of Rates or other modes of charge more 
 expedient or feasible can also be deduced, yet it is submitted that 
 the Rates of Charge set forth in the Scales of the Series marked A. 
 progressively increase from the lowest to the highest class in each 
 division of Income, in a fair ratio, the Rates fixed to the lower 
 classes appearing as moderate as can reasonably be imposed, and 
 the R*ates fixed to the highest classes, being it is conceived, as great 
 as in due proportion they ought to bear. It may not, however, 
 on various considerations, be right to fix such a great dispro- 
 portion between the highest and lowest classes as proposed by 
 this Series, other Scales are therefore prepared (Series B.) exhi- 
 biting less disproportions by decreasing the rates, as compared 
 with those in Series A. from the highest class and increasing them 
 from the lowest class, to the middle class of each division of In- 
 come; the total amount of Duty estimated in each Scale of the 
 Series B. will be found very nearly the same as in its corresponding 
 Scale of the Series A. 
 
 It may seem that sufficient distinction is not proposed between 
 Income derived from Property and Income derived from other 
 sources, but as the greatest part of the Income derived from other 
 sources as charged to the late Property Tax was more deficient of 
 the actual amount than the Income derived from Property, it is 
 suggested, that unless returns of both descriptions of Income be 
 obtained in more due proportion to each other, a greater dis- 
 tinction in the Rates cannot justly be allowed. It may however be 
 observed, that the distinction is less in the higher than in the lower 
 and middle classes, that it gradually increases in descending from 
 the highest class, and this may be consonant with the reason for 
 which any distinction whatever should be made, as it is presumed 
 that the Profits of the higher classes of the division under the de- 
 nomination of Income derived from other sources (Schedules B. 
 
 2 H 
 
 OF THE ' r 
 ^NIVEPCJITV 
 
234 
 
 and D.) arise from Capital in a much greater degree than the 
 Profits of the lower classes, which are derived wholly or principally 
 from Labor, and as mnch of this Capital and many of the Trades 
 or Concerns in which it is employed are of a permanent nature, 
 and are transferable to descendants and others, like Landed or 
 Funded Property, the large Incomes derived from them may be 
 taxed at nearly the same rates as those affixed to Income derived 
 from absolute property. 
 
 To make any species of Income liable to higher Rates of Charge 
 on the ground of expected or practicable evasion may be acting 
 on an objectionable principle, and appear an encouragement to or 
 sanction of evasion ; but giving such objection every weight, the 
 protection justly due to Income derived from Property, contri- 
 buting to the full, or much more nearly to the full amount than 
 Income from other sources, may render it an indispensible alter- 
 native. 
 
 Until the consequences of so great a change in the system of 
 Revenue as the substitution of an Income Tax for the whole or 
 the greatest part of the present Taxes would create should in 
 their ultimate and settled state have been ascertained, it might be 
 difficult to decide any question of excess or inequality in the 
 Rates of Charge on any particular Classes, or the extent of it; the 
 relief from the abolition of old Taxes might not at once be pro- 
 portionate to the burthen of the substituted Tax, and the conse- 
 quences felt immediately on the commencement of the change 
 might not be permanent, there might be indirect as well as direct 
 effects which time only would bring fully to maturity ; it may be 
 apprehended that there would be great excess in the Rates of 
 charge on the highest class of Income under the two highest pro- 
 posed Scales (Series A.) under which in one division (Schedules 
 A. and C.) the Rates of Charge proposed are 45 and 50 per Cent, 
 and in the other division (Sch. B. D. and E.) they are 40 and 45 
 per Cent. ; the direct exaction of one half or nearly one half of 
 individual Income may seem too enormous to be contemplated, 
 but as on the adoption of either of those extreme Scales the whole 
 of the present Taxatio i may be presumed to be abolished, and 
 under the highest of them there would remain several millions 
 
< 235 
 
 sterling- of real surplus Revenue, applicable to the reduction of 
 the Public Debt, there must be fully considered the saving of 
 the vast accumulation of expence to which the present Taxes, 
 part directly, but much more indirectly, operating- through 
 every channel, subject the expenditure of large Incomes of that 
 class, bearing on them perhaps to an extent greater in propor- 
 tion than on lower classes of Incomes, though not attended with 
 so much personal distress and inconvenience to the possessors. 
 Although the precise extent of such saving cannot be satisfac- 
 torily calculated, it may be conceived to be such as to jus- 
 tify a comparison even with the great deduction which the 
 highest of the two proposed Scales would make from those 
 Incomes. To pursue the distinction between different classes or 
 descriptions of Income so far as to subject any Income whatever 
 to such a rate of direct Taxation as in this case would be im- 
 posed would not be unjust if the amount were no more than its 
 fair proportion of the whole Tax ; in that case, wherever the re- 
 lief from the abolition of all other Taxes were equal to the sum 
 imposed by such extreme rate, there would be no additional bur- 
 then, and where that relief from other Taxes were not equal to 
 the sum imposed by the Income Tax, it would only follow that 
 more of the burthen had been imposed where justly it ought to 
 be borne. 
 
 It may be conceived that such large proportions of the general 
 Income would not be found among the higher classes as the Esti- 
 mates prepared hold out, and that the Duty would fall short of the 
 amount calculated to be obtained from those classes, that therefore 
 any required amount of produce could not be raised without im- 
 posing on the lower and middle classes charges greater in compa- 
 rison with those on the higher classes than are proposed. Should 
 the produce of Duty be deficient from such a cause, that necessity 
 would not follow. In order to make up any deficiency of produce 
 arising from any aggregate amount of Income among the lower 
 and middle classes not being so productive of Duty as the same 
 amount would be among the higher classes, a higher graduated 
 Scale of Charges throughout all Classes should be resorted to, bv 
 which the Rates might be so increased in every class that the 
 lower and middle classes would continue charged at the same 
 
236 
 
 degree of comparative inferiority; the conclusion is, that the lar- 
 ger the proportion of the whole Income found among the lower 
 classes, the higher must be the graduated Scale of Charge re- 
 sorted to, and all classes must be charged at greater Rates, and 
 the larger the proportion of the whole Income divided among the 
 higher classes, the lower will be the graduated Scale of Charge 
 on all classes. 
 
 Whether the graduated Scale of Charge were extended to the 
 higher Classes of Income or not — it is conceived that it must be 
 admitted in favor of the lowest Classes. 
 
 The graduated Scale of Charge on small Incomes was more 
 favorable to them under the Income Act (1799) and the first 
 Property Act (1803) than under the last Property Act (1806) ; it 
 was under each as follows : (doubling the Rates and Duties under 
 the Act of 1803, the maximum rate of which was 5 per Cent, only? 
 for the sake of the comparison) 
 
 Income Act. 
 
 
 First 
 
 Property Act. 
 
 Last Property Act. 
 
 
 
 179£ 
 
 1. 
 
 Duty. 
 
 Rate. 
 
 1802 
 
 1. 
 
 Duty 
 
 
 1806. 
 
 Duty. 
 
 
 Incomes. Rate. 
 
 
 Rate. 
 
 
 51 
 
 Exemnt 
 
 
 
 . Exemnt 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 () 
 
 Parts 
 
 
 £ s. 
 
 d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 
 £ s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 £ *. 
 
 d 
 
 60 yfcr 
 
 ~ 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 6ty£ = 
 
 1 10 
 
 
 
 = £3 —,5 m^TS a 
 
 1 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * S o ffi b, « >>«o 
 
 
 
 80 jfc 
 
 — 
 
 1 6 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 5> — 
 
 3 6 
 
 8 
 
 in the 
 of U 
 er Scl 
 very 2 
 was le 
 of thi 
 but to 
 se the 
 1 evei 
 reen £ 
 
 4 10 
 
 
 
 100 ■& 
 125 ^ 
 
 — - 
 
 2 10 
 
 4 3 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 1 2 
 1 6 
 
 » — 
 
 5 16 
 
 9 7 
 
 8 
 6 
 
 •Si's .b's-s.t*.* 
 
 7 10 
 11 5 
 
 
 
 
 150 & 
 
 — 
 
 7 10 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 » — 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 11 E^fhS* 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 200 ft 
 
 = 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 » — 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 a 
 
 The Scale under the Income Act 1799, was considered objec- 
 tionable in not being sufficiently gradual, the differences between 
 the parts of the several classes were too wide and sudden. The 
 effect of the rule under the last Property Act, in case of a mixed 
 Income less than £150, of deducting from the aggregate amount 
 of it the Tax charged on the proportion derived from Property pre- 
 vious to settling the allowance of Duty which the parties were en- 
 titled to, was such as in many cases to increase the allowance 
 
237 
 
 where the porportion of Income derived from Property was greater 
 than that of Income derived from other sources, contrary, it would 
 seem, to the principle of the Act: there appeared no strong 
 ground for any such deduction at all in the Estimate ; the obser- 
 vation upon it at the time was that " it seems fair, but that its 
 " operation renders the allowance disproportionate."* 
 
 A person entitled to an abatement of Duty on the ground of 
 Income less than £150, and paying a premium for insurance on 
 his life or the life of his wife, might, under the Property Act, re- 
 ceive a further allowance of Duty, bearing the like proportion to 
 the whole amount of Duty charged as the amount of the Premium 
 bore to the Income proved. The rule so laid down occasioned a 
 troublesome calculation ; " no Table," as was observed, " can be 
 " framed for it within any reasonable compass, the allowance 
 u varying in every amount of Income and every amount of Pre- 
 " mium."* The mode of granting the allowance (if it were 
 continued in a future Tax) might be simplified by allowing the 
 amount of the Premium as a deduction from the estimate of the 
 amount of Income, and it might be extended to Income of any 
 amount, or, lest in case of a graduated Scale of Charge, the 
 estimated Income should by so much reduction be brought too low 
 in the Scale, a part only of the Premium might be allowed to be 
 deducted ; but whether a graduated Scale of Charge or a general 
 Rate of Charge be adopted, the allowance for Premiums of In- 
 surance should not be granted to those with permanent sources of 
 Income, but to those only with Incomes for life. 
 
 Graduated Scale of Charge without any distinction between 
 Incomes of different Denominations, and a Comparison of the 
 effects of such a Scale with those of a General Rate of Charge. 
 
 If in case of an Income Tax extending to all descriptions of In- 
 come it should not be deemed expedient to admit any distinction 
 
 * Guide to the Property Act. 
 
238 
 
 between Incomes derived from Property and Incomes derived 
 from other sources, but nevertheless to adopt a Graduated Scale 
 of Charge to the utmost extent, it may be desirable to form some 
 judgment of the probable result of the measure on such a prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 In the following Computations the two divisions of Income are 
 consolidated. The first computation shews about the Mean Rate 
 of Charge on each Class of Income under the highest graduated 
 Scale offered in this Work, also the difference in amount between 
 the Graduated Scale of Charge and the General Rate of Charge 
 on a single Income of every class, taking the mean Income of it. 
 The second computation shews the aggregate amount in every 
 class of that difference. 
 
 Graduated Scale of Charge. General Rate of Charge* 
 
 Average Mean Income Mean Income 
 
 Mean Income Mean Rate Amount of after Amount after 
 
 CLASSES. of of Tax on each deducting of deducting 
 
 each Class. Charge. Income. the Tax. Tax. the Tax. 
 
 Under =£50 =£25 fl7| per Cent. £4 7 6 £20 12 6 £9 5 £15 15 
 
 £50 and under £100 75 19 „ 14 5 60 15 27 15 47 5 
 
 100 „ 150 125 27f „ 34 13 90 7 46 5 78 15 
 
 150 „ 200 175 32f „ 57 6 3 117 13 9 64 15 110 5 
 
 200 „ 500 350 37| „ 132 2 6 217 17 6 129 10 230 10 
 
 500 „ 1,000 750 40 „ 300 450 277 10 472 10 
 
 1,000 „ 2,000 1,500 45| „ 681 819 555 945 
 
 2,000 „ 5,000 3,500 47 „ 1,645 1,855 1,295 2,205 
 
 5,000 and upwards 10,000 48 „ 4,800 5,200 3,700 6,300 
 
 * The general Rate of Charge is 37 per Cent, and is about the average rate at which 
 the whole Income attainable for charge is charged under the 7th, or highest graduated 
 Scale. In the first Computation the total amount of the Tax under the graduated Scale 
 of the several instances given in it is £7,668 14*. 3d. and at the general Rate of Charge 
 it is £6,105. The cause of this apparent deficiency in the result of a general Rate of 
 Charge is, that, for the purpose of computing the individual effect of the two modes of 
 charge, a single Income only under each Class is taken, it is made good in the aggregate 
 of the Tax on all Incomes charged at a General Rate by the excess in the numbers of 
 the Incomes of the lowest classes beyond the numbers of those of the highest classes. 
 
 f If that part of the Incomes which is exempted of those individuals who also re- 
 ceive part of the total Income charged in this class (under £50) were added to it, the 
 mean Rate of Charge on the whole would appear much less, probably about 10 per 
 Cent, the mean Income should in that case perhaps be taken at about £40, making the 
 mean Income after the Tax £35 12*. 6d, under the graduated Scale, and £30 15#. at the 
 general Rate of Charge. 
 
-239 
 
 CLASSES. 
 
 of) 
 edj -. 
 
 Estimated Total 
 
 Income attainable 
 
 for Charge. 
 
 Total Amount of 
 
 Tax under highest 
 
 graduated Si al<>. 
 
 £ 
 
 976,000 .. 
 . . . 4,040,000 . . 
 ... 5,550,000 .. 
 ... 3,620,000 . . 
 . . . 9,450,000 . . 
 .., 7,800,000 .. 
 . . . 8,080,000 . . 
 ... 10,270,000 .. 
 ... 9,770,000 .. 
 
 £58,556,000 
 
 Total Amount of 
 Tax charged at 
 a genei al Rate. 
 
 Under £50 exclusive 
 Wages & Income exempt 
 £50 and under £100 
 100 , 150 
 
 £ 
 ... 5,580,000* ... 
 . .. 21,160,000 ... 
 . . . 16,400,000 . . . 
 
 £ 
 .... 2,066,000 
 
 7,790,000 
 
 6,060,000 
 
 150 200 
 200 500 
 
 
 ... 11,050,000 ... 
 . . . 25,010 000 . . . 
 
 4,080,000 
 
 9,250,000 
 
 .... 7,170,000 
 . . . 6,560,000 
 8,060,000 
 
 500 „ 1,000 
 1,000 „ 2 000 
 
 
 ... 19,440,000 ... 
 .. . 17,730 000 .. . 
 
 2,000 5 000 
 
 
 . .. 21,820,000 ... 
 
 5,000 and upwards. 
 
 
 ... 20 330 000 ... 
 
 . .. 7,520,000 
 
 Totals. 
 
 
 
 
 . £158,580,000 
 
 £58,556,000 
 
 The principal effect of the Graduated Scale as compared with 
 that of the General Rate of Charge is, that it would relieve the lower 
 classes of Income, viz. those not exceeding- £150, to the amount of 
 nearly £6 millions or T ^ part of the total Duty, and cast the whole 
 of that Sum on the highest classes of Income, exceeding £1000 ; 
 the effect on the middle or intervening classes, from £150 to 
 £1000, is the same under both Modes of Charge. 
 
 The general and. individual effects of a Graduated Scale of 
 Charge as compared with those of a general Rate of Charge on the 
 two divisions respectively of the National Income, viz. the Income 
 derived from the Revenue and the Income not derived from the 
 Revenue, are attempted to be illustrated in the following Estimate. 
 
 Without pretending to approximate the real numbersor amounts, 
 suppose that the aggregate numbers of Persons possessing the 
 whole of the two descriptions of Income, so far as they would be 
 chargeable to the Income Tax, are respectively as assumed in this 
 Estimate, and that they would remain the same whatever might 
 be the variations in the respective amounts of Income of the two 
 divisions. As the effect of a general Rate of Charge is to leave 
 Incomes of all Classes after Taxation of the same relative amount 
 as before Taxation, and the effect of a graduated Scale is to leave 
 Incomes of the higher classes at a less relative amount to those of 
 Incomes of the lower classes, it would follow that under No. 1, of 
 the following Estimate, as the numbers of Persons in the two di- 
 
 * This is the estimated amount under Schedules A. and C. being the only part of all 
 Incomes under £50 which would be chargeable according to the Scale used in this 
 computation, or under any other Scale. 
 
•240 
 
 visions are proportionate to the respective amounts oflncome of 
 those divisions, the effect of a graduated Scale and that of a ge- 
 neral Rate of Charge would be the same after a levy on them of 
 a Total Revenue, say, of £50 millions, and it would follow as the 
 numbers of Persons in the two divisions under Nos. 2 and 3 are not 
 proportionate to their respective amounts of Income, but the total 
 amount of the Income derived from the Revenue is in proportion 
 to the total number of Persons receiving it greater than the total 
 amount of other Income is to the number of Persons receiving it, 
 that under a graduated Scale of Charge the Tax would fall pro- 
 portionately heavier on the former than on the latter division of 
 Income, and a judgment may be formed of the degree of gene- 
 ral and individual excess by comparing the aggregate amounts of 
 the Tax and the individual amounts of Income after Taxation un- 
 der each mode of charge as given in this Estimate. 
 
 TotalNumber 
 of Persons 
 
 with taxable 
 Incomes. 
 
 Aggregate 
 
 Amount of 
 
 Incomes. 
 
 fc (A. & 
 
 I (A.& 
 
 Sen Millions. 
 &D. £160 
 
 £40 
 
 &D. £130 
 C. £40 
 
 „ CA.B.&D.£100 
 £ I A. & C. £40 
 
 Average Indi- 
 vidual Amount 
 of Incomes. 
 
 £200 
 £200 
 
 162 10 
 £200 
 
 £125 
 £200 
 
 Aggregate 
 Amount of Tax 
 at General Rate 
 of Charge for a 
 total Revenue 
 of £50 Millions. 
 
 Millions. 
 £40 
 
 £10 
 
 £38 i 
 
 £11 | 
 
 £35 £ 
 
 £14 A 
 
 Average Indivi- 
 dual Amount of 
 Income after 
 Taxation. 
 
 £150 
 £150 
 
 £114 14 
 £144 5 
 
 £80 7 
 
 £128 10 
 
 Aggregate 
 Amount of Tax 
 on graduated 
 Scale for a total 
 Revenueof £50 
 Millions. 
 
 Millions. 
 £40 
 
 £10 
 
 £35 
 £15 
 
 £30 
 £20 
 
 Average 
 Individual 
 Amount of In- 
 come after 
 Taxation. 
 
 £150 
 £150 
 
 £118 15 
 £125 
 
 £87 10 
 £100 
 
 An Income Tax on a Graduated Scale of Charge, limited accord- 
 ing to the Scale of the late Property Tax ; or an Income Tax 
 with a General Rate of Charge on Trade and other Life In- 
 comes less than the General Rate of Charge on Incomes in 
 Perpetuity. 
 
 Giving all considerations due weight, it may be deemed most 
 advisable, in the event of a revival of the Income Tax, to resume 
 the same plan of Assessment as was adopted under the late Propertv 
 
241 
 
 Act by making no distinction in the Rates of Charge except in favor 
 of Incomes not amounting to £150 derived wholly or principally 
 from labor and industry and chargeable under Schedules B. D. 
 and E. The amount of such Income charged under the late Act 
 at a series of abated Rates, viz. Income exceeding £50, and less 
 than £]50, (Income under those Schedules not exceeding £50 
 having been exempted) was about £18f- millions, and it appears 
 that the average Rate of Charge upon it was about 6 per Cent, 
 viz. three-fifths of the maximum Rate of 10 per Cent, at which all 
 other Income was charged. Assuming, as before, that the total 
 amount of Income attainable for charge after special exemptions 
 to Foreigners and Charities, &c. would be £158± millions, and 
 deducting therefrom £18| millions as chargeable by a Scale of 
 abated Rates, the mean rate of which will be taken at three-fifths 
 of the maximum Rate, there will remain £140 millions chargeable 
 at the maximum Rate. 
 
 The following computations are offered of the probable Net 
 Produce of a future Income Tax on this plan under different Scales 
 of Charge, commencing with the Scale of the late Tax, and termi- 
 nating with two Scales, the lowest of which would produce an 
 Amount exceeding the average amount of the present Revenue. 
 
 
 Average Rates 
 
 
 
 
 Charges of 
 
 
 General Rates 
 
 of Charge 
 (viz. 3-5ths of 
 
 Gross 
 
 Discharges 
 and Losses 
 
 Net 
 Receipt or 
 
 Management. 
 
 
 of Charge 
 
 *>*H 
 
 
 Net 
 
 on £140 
 
 the general 
 
 Charge. 
 
 hy Arrears 
 
 Gross 
 
 §« 
 
 
 Produce. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Rate) on £183 
 Millions. 
 
 
 irrecoverable. 
 
 Produce. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 10 per Cent. 
 
 6 per Cent. 
 
 15,110,000 
 
 200,000 
 
 14,910,000 
 
 H 
 
 341,687 
 
 14,568,313 
 
 15 „ 
 
 9 „ 
 
 22,665,000 
 
 250,000 
 
 22,415,000 
 
 H 
 
 490,328 
 
 21,924,672 
 
 20 „ 
 
 12 „ 
 
 30,220,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 29,920,000 
 
 5 
 
 623,333 
 
 29,296,667 
 
 25 „ 
 
 15 „ 
 
 37,775,000 
 
 350,000 
 
 37,425,000 
 
 4f 
 
 740,704 
 
 36,684,296 
 
 30 „ 
 
 18 „ 
 
 45,380,000 
 
 400,000 
 
 44,930,000 
 
 4| 
 
 842,437 
 
 44,087,563 
 
 35 „ 
 
 21 „ 
 
 52,885,000 
 
 450,000 
 
 52,435,000 
 
 H 
 
 928,536 
 
 51,506,464 
 
 40 „ 
 
 24 „ 
 
 60,440,000 
 
 500,000 
 
 59,940,000 
 
 4 
 
 999,000 
 
 58,941,000 
 
 If it should be deemed expedient to confine the Graduated 
 Scale of Charges to Incomes of low amount derived from Labor 
 
 2 1 
 
242 
 
 and Industry, not from an opinion that it would be unjust in prin- 
 ciple to extend it to higher Incomes of whatever denomination 
 or amount, but from an apprehension that it could not be extended 
 to other Incomes without danger of too great evasion and with- 
 out such procedure as would be too obnoxious ; then it is to be ob- 
 served, that if a distinction on the ground of the amount of Income 
 could not for those reasons be extended to Incomes higher than 
 £150, a distinction on the ground of denomination of Income might 
 be easily extended to Incomes of all amounts without giving rise 
 to objectionable proceedings or creating extensive means of eva- 
 sion. All Income above £150 not derived from Property, and all 
 Income derived from Property of which the possessor has a Life 
 Interest only, might be charged at some general Rate but which 
 should be less than the general Rate of Charge on Income derived 
 from Property of which the party is absolute Proprietor. 
 
 The particular denomination of any Income or the limitation of 
 the existing interest in Property would be known, or they might 
 be ascertained without any objectionable interference or injurious 
 disclosure. Suppose that all Incomes above £150 of the denomi- 
 nation of Incomes chargeable under Schedules B. D. and E. 
 and all Life or temporary Incomes under Schedules A. and C. be 
 charged at some general Rate, not less than three-fifths nor exceed- 
 ing four-fifths of the general Rate of Charge on Income from abso- 
 lute Property under Schedules A. and C. The general Rate of 
 Charge on Life Income might vary according to the ages of the 
 parties, say. 
 
 Under 25 years of age, ^ of the general rate of charge on other Income. 
 
 25 and under 40 £ Ditto 
 
 40 and under 50 T 7 ^ Ditto 
 
 50 and above f Ditto 
 
 For the sake of trying a computation of the probable effect in the 
 produce of a Tax modified on such a principle, let it be supposed 
 that one-fourth of Income derived from Property (Schedules A. 
 and C.) is Life Income. 
 
243 
 
 Millions. 
 Estimated Income attainable for charge under Schedules A. and C . . . . £86J 
 | of which is (say) . . 21 J 
 
 Estimated Income from Property chargeable at the maximum Rate .... £65 
 Life Income derived from Property « 21J 
 
 Total Income attainable for charge under Sch. B. D. and E. £72 mill. 
 Deduct Income exceeding £50 and under £150 18 J 
 
 Income to be charged at a general rate, not less than 4 and not ex- 
 ceeding £ of the general rate on other Income 
 
 £53J 
 
 £75 
 
 If Trade, Professional, and Life Income above £150 be charged 
 at only three-fifths or not exceeding four-fifths of the general Rate 
 charged on Income from Property, then the Scale of Charges on 
 Income between £50 and £150 should be somewhat lower than 
 under the late Act, instead therefore of taking, as under that Act, 
 the Average Rate of Charge on such small Incomes at three-fifths, 
 it will be taken at two-fifths, of the maximum Rate. 
 
 General 
 Rate per 
 Cent, on 
 
 £65 
 Millions. 
 
 General 
 Rate per 
 
 Cent, on 
 
 £75 
 Millions. 
 
 Average 
 Rate per 
 Cent, on 
 
 £18* 
 Millions. 
 
 Gross Charge 
 
 on 
 £65 Millions. 
 
 Gross Charge 
 
 on 
 £75 Millions. 
 
 Gross Charge 
 
 on 
 £18J Millions. 
 
 Total Amount 
 
 of 
 Gross Charges 
 
 Estimated Net 
 
 Produce after 
 
 Deductions, 
 
 Charges of 
 
 { Management, 
 
 &c. 
 
 
 
 
 i £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 ■ 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 6,500,000 
 
 5,250,000 
 
 740,000 
 
 12,490,000 
 
 12,000,000 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 9,750,000 
 
 7,500,000 
 
 1,110,000 
 
 18,360,000 
 
 17,700,000 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 13,000,000 
 
 9,000,000 
 
 1,480,000 
 
 23,480,000 
 
 22,700,000 
 
 25 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 16,250,000 
 
 12,000,000 
 
 1,850,000 
 
 30,100,000 
 
 29,100,000 
 
 30 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 19,500,000 
 
 15,000,000 
 
 2,220,000 
 
 36,720,000 
 
 35,700,000 
 
 35 
 
 25 
 
 14 
 
 22,750,000 
 
 18,750,000 
 
 2,590,000 
 
 44,090,000 
 
 42,800,000 
 
 40 
 
 30 
 
 16 
 
 26,000,000 
 
 22,500,000 
 
 2,960,000 
 
 51,460,000 
 
 50,100,000 
 
 45 
 
 35 
 
 18 
 
 29,250,000 
 
 26,250,000 
 
 3,330,000 
 
 58,830,000 
 
 57,400,000 
 
244 
 
 Graduated Scale of Charge on Income according to the relative 
 
 Value of it. 
 
 An opinion has been entertained that it is not the nominal 
 Amount of Income but the relative Value of Income which, as 
 constituting the real individual means of contribution, or as shew- 
 ing the actual relative ability, should be the ground of Assessment 
 to any direct Tax upon it. 
 
 In order to charge Income precisely at its relative value, the 
 computation of value should -be made with regard not only to the 
 quality of it, but, in limited interests depending on life or lives, 
 to the ages also of the parties ; the result would be a Scale of 
 Values varying as the nature of the Income and the ages of parties 
 required; It would seem necessary, after estimating the price or 
 present worth of a Life Annuity, or Income depending on Life, 
 that is, after converting it into a nominal sum of Capital, to fix an 
 equitable rate per Cent, by which to determine the annual 
 value of it, which should be taken as equivalent to an Income 
 in perpetuity and on which the Tax would be chargeable. The 
 amount of computed value as charged at the commencement 
 of the Tax or on the first liability of any party to the Tax, 
 might be continued throughout the period of the party's liabi- 
 lity to the Tax, or it might vary annually in each case of 
 limited Income as the value might vary with increase of age. 
 With the assistance of Tables, the scheme of charge in the ratio 
 of value might be practicable with respect to fixed and certain 
 Incomes, as those derived from Land and in the Public Funds ; 
 but the difficulty would, it is conceived, be to maintain it with 
 justice to those Incomes which do not spring from any sure and 
 permanent source. If persons with permanent and those with li- 
 mited interests in perpetual Property are to be charged according 
 to the values of them, differing as the quality and other circum- 
 stances of the Property or Income may differ, and varying with 
 the probable duration of interest, persons in Trades, Professions, 
 and Employments, whose Incomes are for life, and often for a less 
 term, might equitably claim to be placed on the same footing; but 
 with respect to Incomes fluctuating and uncertain, as those derived 
 
245 
 
 from Trade, &c. if even the relative value of them could be made 
 the object of arithmetical computation in every case, endless cal- 
 culations would be required to regulate them in all their changes; 
 the scheme so minutely contrived would be very inconvenient in 
 practice, or be only partially practicable. - 
 
 As the plan of a Tax on Income according to relative value 
 may however be just and consequently desirable, it is submitted 
 whether a plan might not be devised which would be practicable, 
 and which, without attempting to form it so as to meet exactly 
 every individual case by the precise and troublesome discrimi- 
 nations of arithmetical rules, but relying on impartial judgment 
 and just discernment, would, with respect to the relation in point 
 of value which each species or source of Income bears to the rest, 
 so approximate it as to afford a fair general Scale of Charge ac- 
 cording to relative value, the chargeable amount of all Incomes 
 of the same species not to be varied according to ages, but to be 
 governed by the same ratio of value. 
 
 A scale so formed may be divided into a great variety of sources 
 or descriptions of Income and an equal variety of Values. Suppose 
 that the several species of Incomes specified in the annexed Table, 
 stand in regard to relative value in the order in which they are 
 placed therein, which is submitted without any pretensions to a 
 knowledge of and therefore as probably not exhibiting the exact 
 degree of their relative values, but merely for the sake of illustrating 
 the proposition ; suppose then that the ratios of value be as given in 
 the first column, taking the first and highest source of Income at 
 an integer and the others at fractional parts of it, and taking the 
 relative value of any sum (say £100) of nominal Income of each 
 species to be as given in the second column. 
 
246 
 
 Table of the supposed relative Values of different Sources of 
 Income, 
 
 1. — Rent of Lands in Fee simple and other Lands in perpetuity . . 
 
 2. — Interest of Mortgage or other Incomes secured in perpe-? 
 tuity on Lands $ 
 
 3. — Interest in perpetuity of permanent Public Stocks and ) 
 Securities £ 
 
 4. — Rent of Lands entailed on the Family of the present ? 
 Proprietor $ 
 
 5, — Profits of Commerce, Manufactures and Trades, derived? 
 wholly or principally from Capital £ 
 
 6. — Rents of Lands entailed on others than the Family of the ) 
 present Proprietor or on one Child of it only,. . . J 
 
 7. — Annuities for Life or terms of Years on Government Se- ( 
 curities or other perpetual Funds . , 
 
 8, 
 
 5 :.1 
 
 —Pay and Profits of Public Servants under Government, ) 
 or under other Public Authorities £ 
 
 pria- } 
 
 9. — Profits of Trade and of Occupation of Land, derived prin- 
 cipally or wholly from Industry, Labor or skill. 
 10. — Profits of Professions derived wholly from ditto. 
 
 Ratios 
 
 of 
 Value. 
 
 A nominal 
 Income 
 of£l00, 
 equal in rela- 
 tive value to 
 
 £100 
 £90 
 
 £ 
 85 
 
 .V. 
 
 14 
 £80 
 £75 
 £70 
 
 13 
 £60 
 
 £50 
 
 The ratios of Value being satisfactorily settled the scheme would 
 assume a fair practical form. The Amounts of the annual Value, that 
 is, the taxable amounts of Income, being determined, they might 
 be subject, as under any plan of charging Income at its nominal 
 amount, to a graduated Scale of Charge according to the aggregate 
 Income of the possessors from all sources; or Incomes of different 
 species being considered as reduced to a sufficient equality by 
 the Scale of Value, might be charged at one and the same ge- 
 neral rate, with perhaps an exception only of small Incomes de- 
 rived wholly or principally from Labor, which, under any plan of 
 a Tax on Income, should, it is conceived, be favored as much as 
 possible. 
 
 Allowances of Duty on account of Children. 
 
 If it should be regarded as a due and necessary relief to persons 
 having large families to grant some allowance of Duty on account 
 of Children maintained at their expence, the scales adopted under 
 the Income Act and under the first Property Act may be referred 
 to. The particulars of the two Scales are as follow, viz. — 
 
247 
 
 Income Act, 39 Geo. 3. 
 
 £60 and under £400 5 per Cent, for each Child born in wedlock. 
 
 £400 and under £1000 4 ditto ditto and if all the Children 
 
 were under Six Years of 
 Age, then 3 per Cent, for 
 each Child. 
 
 £1000 and under £5000 3 ditto ditto if ditto, then 2 per Cent. 
 
 £5000 and upwards 2 ditto ditto if ditto, then 1 per Cent. 
 
 First Property Act, 43 Geo. 3. 
 
 £60 and under £400 4 per Cent, for each Child born in wedlock above 
 
 2 in number. 
 £400 and under £5000 3 ditto ditto 
 
 £1000 and under £5000 2 ditto ditto 
 
 £5000 and upwards I ditto ditto 
 
 The allowances for Children in proportion to the amount of the 
 Property Tax in each case were not continued in the subsequent 
 Acts relating- to that Tax. It was stated on passing 1 the last or 10 
 per Cent. Act of 46 Geo. 3, that " the trouble and inconvenience 
 " of obtaining the allowance, as well to the Party as to the Com- 
 " missioners, has been the occasion of omitting it in this Act."* 
 This difficulty seems not a sufficient ground of objection to acceding 
 to the equitable principle of the allowance, and the magnitude of a 
 future Tax might render the granting it too important to be with- 
 held.! 
 
 The total amount of the Allowances on the Scale adopted under 
 the Income Act was £387,109 on the aggregate amount of Duty 
 of £6,280,586, being on the average at the rate of about 6 per 
 Cent, on the whole Duty ; but on the Scale under the Property Act, 
 which confined the Allowances to the number of Children above 
 two in each family, the total Allowance was no more than £48,000 on 
 
 * Guide to the Property Act. 
 f Allowances for Children were granted, during- the remaining- period of the Property 
 Tax, to persons paying the Assessed Taxes in proportion to their respective payments 
 of those Duties, the total Deduction on account of which was replaced out of the Pro- 
 perty Tax at the Exchequer, by which proceeding the net produce of the Property Tax 
 applicable to the Public Service was diminished by that amount, viz. nearly £170,000. 
 
248 
 
 £4,800,000 total Duty, viz. 1 per Cent, of the Duty, and the num- 
 ber of Children in respect of which it was granted, did not much 
 exceed 120,000. The latter Scale afforded such inconsiderable 
 relief (not worth " the trouble and inconvenience of obtaining it,") 
 that it would perhaps be more advisable in a future Tax to with- 
 hold all relief than to adopt it ; but if the Scale under the Income 
 Act would not subject the Gross Produce of the Duty to too serious 
 a deduction, the admission of that Scale is suggested, and the Net 
 Produce of the Duty under each graduated Scale of Charge is com- 
 puted in this Work with a deduction of 6 per Cent, accordingly. 
 
 Relief on account of Children, if numerous, in cases of persons 
 of the low classes of Income, might be granted by a plan of total 
 exemption upon a scale depending on the number of Children, by 
 way of illustration, as follows: 
 
 Classes of Income. To be exempted if under the 
 
 1st Graduated 
 
 Scale of Charge. 2d Scale. 3d Scale. 
 
 £50 and under £60 .... 3 children 4 children 5 children 
 
 £60 £70 .... 4 5 6 
 
 £70 £80 .... 5 6 7 
 
 £80 £90 .... 6 7 8 
 
 £90 £100 .... 7 8 9 
 
 £100 £110 .... 8 9 10 
 
 The Exemption on this plan to be allowed throughout the infe- 
 rior classes of Income, under £150, and to be extended to the 4th 
 and 5th graduated Scales of Charge in cases where the Children 
 are very numerous. 
 
 As the object of Allowances of Duty for Children would be to 
 lighten the burthen in proportion to the inability of the parents to 
 bear it, which in effect would be to impose it more heavily on those 
 better able to sustain it, the end might be answered by a due dis- 
 tinction between married and unmarried persons, providing no 
 abatements for Children, but imposing on unmarried persons ad- 
 ditional charges of 5, 10, 15 or 20 per Cent, of the Assessments 
 on their Incomes, the rate of additional charge to depend on the 
 amount of Income and the Scale of charge adopted. As the total 
 number of married persons is much greater than of those unmar- 
 ried and possessed of Incomes, this mode would be most limited 
 and easy in practice ; one objection to it however would be that 
 
249 
 
 married persons would be charged without distinction between 
 those who have large and those who have small or no families. 
 
 Very great Saving from the small amount of the Charges of Ma- 
 nagement of an Income Tax, compared with those of the present 
 Taxes in general. 
 
 One certain and very important advantage of raising the Revenue 
 by an Income Tax is the comparatively low rate of Expence of the 
 Management and Collection of it. 
 
 The late Property Tax was assessed and levied at an expence of 
 about 5jd. in the Pound ; the rate of expence of an Income Tax 
 could doubtless be diminished as the total amount of it increased ; 
 it may be estimated that it would vary, with the aggregate amount 
 of the Tax, from 5Jd. to 4d. in the Pound, at which latter, 
 if not at a less rate of expence, an Income Tax on the highest 
 proposed scale could be raised. The expence of managing and 
 collecting the present Revenue is upon the average about 6 per 
 Cent, or Is. 2fd. in the Pound. A very great saving therefore 
 would be realized by the substitution of an Income Tax; the ex- 
 tent of it under each Scale is shewn in the following computation, 
 being in the highest Scale more than £2-J- millions, or about 4^ out 
 
 of 6 per 
 
 Cent. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Estimated 
 Net Receipt 
 £ 
 1st Scale .. 16,061,013 
 
 Rate 
 
 of Charge 
 of Ma- 
 nagement. 
 d. 
 
 Amount 
 
 of 
 Charge. 
 
 £ 
 368,065 
 
 Amount at 6 per 
 
 Cent, the Rate of 
 
 Expence of the 
 
 present Revenue. 
 
 £ 
 
 963,660 
 
 Amount 
 
 of 
 Saving. 
 
 £ 
 595,595 
 
 2nd „ 
 
 .. 21,551,044 
 
 H 
 
 471,429 
 
 1,293,062 
 
 821,633 
 
 3rd „ 
 
 .. 27,286,180 
 
 5 
 
 568,465 
 
 1,637,170 
 
 1,068,705 
 
 4th „ 
 
 .. 33,559,090 
 
 n 
 
 664,189 
 
 2,013,545 
 
 1,349,356 
 
 5th „ 
 
 .. 40,990,550 
 
 # 
 
 768,572 
 
 2,459,433 
 
 1,690,861 
 
 6th „ 
 
 .. 46,880,316 
 
 H 
 
 830,171 
 
 2,812,818 
 
 1,982,647 
 
 7th „ 
 
 .. 54,532,159 
 
 4 
 
 908,869 
 
 3,271,929 
 
 2,363,060 
 
 The Tax upon that part of the Income which is derived from 
 the Revenue could be obtained with very little expence, being 
 deducted from the payments to be made, it would in fact be only 
 a lessening of the amount of them. Some expence would attend 
 the proceedings necessary for regulating and granting Allowances 
 
 2 K 
 
250 
 
 on the ground of Income (if the graduated Scale be admitted), 
 also to Foreigners, Charities, &c, but it may be estimated that the 
 whole Expence under the 1st. or lowest Scale would not exceed 
 £30,000, or f per Cent, on an amount of about £4 millions, at 
 which Sum the total Net Receipt of Duty under that Scale on Income 
 derived from the Revenue may be computed. The expence under 
 the highest Scale on an estimated Net Produce of £14 millions of 
 Duty derivable from Revenue Income might not amount to £55,000, 
 or | per Cent. Instead of paying into the Exchequer the 
 Tax deducted from the Dividends, to be again issued there- 
 from to the Bank of England, as was the form of proceeding under 
 the late Act, the issues from the Exchequer might be made to the 
 Bank of England short of the Tax, but with such additional sum 
 as might be necessary to meet the Allowances of Duty to Fo- 
 reigners, &c. This alteration would prevent some trouble, if not 
 also expence. 
 
 Some saving of trouble and expence, though not of consider- 
 able extent, could be made by reducing permanently the official 
 Incomes of all persons in the Public employ, instead of charging 
 and deducting the Tax annually from them ; but it might be most 
 advisable, on the whole, to fix the full compensations which they are 
 entitled to receive for their services at whatever amount may be 
 just, and then to subject them expressly to the Tax in common with 
 all other classes of society. Such a course would, it is conceived, 
 be most satisfactory to the Public Officers themselves. 
 
 This head cannot be closed without observing that the Service 
 of the Gentlemen acting as District Commissioners and performing 
 the duties allotted to them without receiving any compensation, is 
 most important, not only as it is a disinterested exercise of office 
 which renders their decisions more satisfactory or reconcileable 
 to all those subjected to them, but as it occasions a great saving of 
 expence to the Country. If the Revenue were wholly raised by 
 an Income Tax, then for the saving of £2 millions and upwards, 
 which would take place in the Charges of Collection by the repeal 
 of all other Taxes, the Country would be principally indebted to 
 this valuable body of men in rendering their indispensible services 
 gratuitously. 
 
251 
 
 Abstract Estimate of the Charge and Produce of an Income 
 Tax under the several Scales of Charge submitted in this Work. 
 
 Number 
 
 of 
 Scale of 
 Charge. 
 
 Gross Charge. 
 
 after 
 
 Allowances 
 
 on the 
 ground of 
 Income. 
 
 Allowances 
 
 for 
 Children. 
 
 Net Charge 
 
 after 
 Allowances 
 
 for 
 Children. 
 
 Amount 
 of 
 Discharges 
 & Arrears 
 Irrecover- 
 able 
 
 Net 
 Receipt. 
 
 Charges 
 
 of 
 Manage- 
 ment. 
 
 -i 
 
 Net 
 Produce. 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1 
 
 17,298,950 
 
 1,037,937 
 
 16,261,013 
 
 200,000 
 
 16,061,013 
 
 368,065 
 
 15,692,948 
 
 2 
 
 23,192,600 
 
 1,391,556 
 
 21,801,044 
 
 250,000 
 
 21,551,044 
 
 471,429 
 
 21,079,615 
 
 3 
 
 29,347,000 
 
 1,760,820 
 
 27,586,180 
 
 300,000 
 
 27,286.180 
 
 568,465 
 
 26,717,715 
 
 4 
 
 36,073,500 
 
 2,164,410 
 
 33,909,090 
 
 350,000 
 
 33,559,090 
 
 664,189 
 
 32,894,901 
 
 5 
 
 44,032.500 
 
 2,641,950 
 
 41,390,550 
 
 400,000 
 
 40,990,550 
 
 768,572 
 
 40,221,978 
 
 6 
 
 50,351,400 
 
 3,021,084 
 
 47,330,316 
 
 450,000 
 
 46,880,316 
 
 830,171 
 
 46,050,145 
 
 7 
 
 58,544,850 
 
 3,512,691 
 
 55,032,150 
 
 500,000 
 
 54,532,159 
 
 908,869 
 
 53,623,290 
 
 The column (3) of Net Charge, shews the Total Amount of the 
 Contributions due from the Parties charged ; the column of Net 
 Receipt (5), the amount of Contributions actually paid by the 
 Parties. The column (7) of Net Produce shews the Total Amount 
 applicable to the Public Service. If Allowances of Duty for 
 Children should not be admitted, the estimated Net Produce would 
 be greater by the Sums stated in column (2.) With reference to 
 the column (4) it is to be observed, that in computing- the Net 
 Produce of the Duty some deduction should be allowed on account 
 of Diminution of Profits, Losses, &c. within the year of Assess- 
 ment, for which proportionate Discharges may be granted at the 
 end of it, and also for irrecoverable Arrears arising from Insol- 
 vencies, &c. ; the Amount can hardly be anticipated : by the 
 Accounts of the late Property Tax, such Deductions appear to 
 have fluctuated in annual amount ; but forming a judgment from 
 the general extent of them, and taking the probable amount in 
 some proportion to the whole estimated produce, it is not appre- 
 hended that they would exceed the Sums affixed to the respective 
 Scales. Although the Sums of Gross Charges of Duty (1st col.) 
 from which the other amounts in the subsequent columns are de- 
 
252 
 
 duced, are the estimated results of Graduated Scales of Charge 
 submitted in the Appendix of this Work, those other amounts 
 or results would be the same or in the same proportion to Sums 
 of Gross Charges which might be deduced from General Rates of 
 Charge or from any Scales or Plans of Charge different from those 
 offered in this Work. 
 
 Suggestions for Consideration on certain Practical Points in case 
 of a Property Tax only. 
 
 Proprietors of Real Property, in case of a Tax on Property only, 
 should have the power of deducting a proportionable part of the Tax 
 from any annual payments to others which are charged thereon ; 
 it may be a question whether a distinction should not be made in 
 favor of the persons receiving such payments, and also of persons 
 in possession of Real Property for life or a term of years, by esti- 
 mating their Incomes or fixing the charges of Duty on them at 
 some rates lower than those applicable to persons possessing Pro- 
 perty absolutely. If a Tax be laid on Property exclusively, on the 
 ground of the superiority of it in some respects as concerns the 
 Proprietors when compared with Individuals depending on other 
 sources of Income, and not because it is a Tax more easily ascer- 
 tained and levied, then distinction just suggested would be conson- 
 ant with the principle observed in taxing Property only, or that prin- 
 ciple might justify the total exemption of Persons in receipt only 
 of annual Interest or other temporary charges on Real Property, 
 and it might not be just to subject to the Tax such annual Pay- 
 ments arising out of Property, while similar payments, charged on 
 Profits from Trade, &c. would not be subject to the Tax; on the 
 other hand it might be necessary to consider all participators of 
 Rents or Profits as involved in whatever fate and casualty might 
 occur to the particular security they had chosen; unless obligatory 
 Payments out of Real Property were rendered liable, Proprietors, 
 who could not in justice be assessed on their full Rents, &c. un- 
 less they were authorized to deduct the Duty proportionably from 
 such Payments, would have only to mortgage their Property or 
 charge it with Annuities, and lay out the proceeds in the same 
 
253 
 
 manner on other Real Property, or in some source of Profit not 
 rendered chargeable, and the Tax would be avoided. 
 
 Though in case of a Tax on Property only, Proprietors in 
 general of Real Property might in a great degree be reimbursed, 
 partly by partaking of the general relief from the fall of Prices on 
 the abolition of other Taxes, and partly by increased Rents, which 
 the reduction of other taxation would enable the Tenants to pay, yet 
 as the latter means of reimbursement would, with respect to the pe- 
 riod of its commencement, depend^on the length of existing Leases, 
 it might be just towards the Proprietors to throw a certain propor- 
 tion of the Tax on the Tenants until the Leases shall have expired. 
 Under the late Property Act, the Owner contributed four-sevenths 
 and the Occupier three-sevenths of the whole Tax charged on the 
 aggregate of the Rents and of the Profits of occupation : under 
 a Tax on the Rent only of Property, the contribution of the Owner 
 should be a greater proportion, probably f for the Landlord's pro- 
 portion and i for the Occupier's proportion might be in a just 
 ratio for this temporary adjustment, admitting exemption or abate- 
 ments to the Occupiers in cases of small Incomes. 
 
 There will be also to consider, whether any and what distinction 
 should be made in favor of Annuitants for life or for terms of years 
 in the Public Funds and Securities: as not possessed of the ab- 
 solute Property, it would not be equitable, according to the prin- 
 ciple on which only Property can with justice be exclusively taxed, 
 to charge them at the same rate as absolute Owners of Funded 
 Property — as possessing Income more secure and certain than In- 
 come in general derived from other sources than Property, it might 
 be fair to tax them, but it should be at some lower rate; to ex- 
 empt them totally would be to incur the danger just adverted 
 to in cases of Persons with life or temporary Incomes charged on 
 Real Property; Persons having the absolute Property would 
 be converting it into Life Annuities for the purpose of avoiding 
 the Tax. 
 
 It must not be omitted to be stated in considering the expedi- 
 ency and practicability of a fair and equitable Property Tax, that 
 the exclusion of Income from Trade, Profession or Employment, 
 would prevent to a great extent, if not wholly, the operation of a 
 graduated Scale of Charge, inasmuch as the due amount of 
 
254 
 
 charges, in proportion to the aggregate amount of each individual's 
 Income from all sources, according to which rul? only such a Scale 
 can be fairly established, could not be ascertained where that In- 
 come was partly derived from Trade, &c. 
 
 On the probable Produce of a Property Tax, at various Rates of 
 
 Charge, 
 
 Income derived from Property may be considered as compre- 
 hended under Schedules A. and C, and as amounting to rather 
 more than one-half of the total Income liable to the charge of an 
 Income Tax, and to considerably more than one-half of the whole 
 Income attainable for charge. It will be perceived that according 
 to either of the several proposed Scales of Charge the produce of 
 Duty estimated under Schedules A. and C. would be about three- 
 fifths of the aggregate amount of the estimated Produce of all the 
 Schedules. If a Property Tax were commenced upon the lowest 
 proposed scale of rates, the Net Produce might be taken at nearly 
 £10 millions, and if extended to the highest of the proposed Scales, 
 the Net Produce might be nearly £32 millions, according to the 
 following rough Estimate : 
 
 1st or lowest Scale. 7th or highest Scale 
 
 '*1£*&^£^^\*°*^ — £34 ' 649 > 250 ' 
 
 Estimated amount of [Allowances for 
 Children, charges of Management, J 
 
 and irrecoverable Arrears, being J off £q ™ fion P9 Q( r 9 Q o* 
 
 the total estimated amount of such> iyD ^ uu ±2,yb2,93b 
 
 allowances, &c. under all the Sche- V 
 dules 
 
 £9,972,600 £31,696,314 
 
 Although the Tax confined to Income derived from Property 
 doubtless has some recommendations, yet if so limited, the full 
 Revenue could not be raised without the continuance of other 
 general Taxes, bearing hard on those exclusively taxed in respect 
 of their Property and affecting disproportionably their means to pay 
 to the Property Tax. The intention in taxing Property only might 
 be to raise from it such a proportion of the whole Revenue 
 
255 
 
 as on comparing the probable total Income derived from Pro- 
 perty with the probable total Income derived from other sources 
 should yield a just or necessary excess of taxation to be paid 
 out of Property in consideration of the superior circumstances^ 
 in which it places and the greater stake it gives to those in 
 possession of it, compared with others depending on Income 
 only and on their own industry and labor for the acquirement 
 of it ; upon no other consideration, it is presumed, would it 
 be either just or politic to raise any Tax on Property exclu- 
 sively, and as Property is not capable of bearing" such an ex- 
 cess of taxation to a great amount, any material reduction of 
 the present Taxes could not be accomplished by the substitution 
 of a Tax confined to Income derived from Property* If it were 
 decided that an Excess of Taxation should be specially raised out 
 of Property, then in fixing the amount of that Excess it might be 
 considered advisable either to repeal an equal amount of the pre- 
 sent Taxes for which the Tax on Property should be substituted, 
 or if an Increase of the Revenue should be indispensible, then to 
 raise the Property Tax with less or no repeal of other Taxes. Sup- 
 pose, for the purpose of illustration, that the total amount of In- 
 come derived from Property (Schedules A. and C.) equals the 
 chargeable amount of Income derived from the other sources. 
 Schedules B. D. and E. (and probably the two denominations of 
 Income are near in total amount to each other,) and that they 
 sustain equally the charge of the present Taxes whatever the 
 amount and description of them may be ;* suppose that the present 
 Taxes amount to £50 millions, but that the Revenue required to 
 be raised by Taxes is some amount exceeding £50 millions, and 
 not exceeding £60 millions, and that by reducing the present 
 Taxes and imposing a Tax on Property only to such amount as 
 the increased exigencies of the State should determine, Taxation 
 would fall on the two denominations of Income as follows: — 
 
 # The Wages of Labor as depending on the Incomes of the superior Classes may be 
 considered as appertaining- to the two Divisions of them in proportion to their respec- 
 tive Amounts. 
 
256 
 
 
 Present Taxes. 
 
 Amount of 
 Property Tax 
 to be raised on 
 Property only. 
 
 Amount of 
 Relief from the 
 present Taxes 
 to each denomi- 
 nation of Income 
 
 
 Required 
 Revenue. 
 
 Amount to be 
 
 paid by each 
 
 denomination 
 
 of Income. 
 
 Total 
 Amount. 
 
 Net Increase 
 of Taxation 
 on Property. 
 
 Millions. 
 £50 
 
 Millions. 
 £22 
 
 Millions. 
 £44 
 
 Millions. 
 £6 
 
 Millions. 
 £3 
 
 Millions. 
 £3 
 
 52 
 
 22| 
 
 45 
 
 7 
 
 n 
 
 4 
 
 54 
 
 23 
 
 46 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 56 
 
 m 
 
 47 
 
 9 
 
 *i 
 
 t| 
 
 58 
 
 24 
 
 48 
 
 10 
 
 i 
 
 9 
 
 60 
 
 24£ 
 
 49 
 
 11 
 
 i 
 
 • 
 
 10|* 
 
 Assuming the total Income from Property attainable for charge 
 (under Schedules A. and G) to be £85 millions, then the rates of 
 charge to be imposed, in order to raise a Property Tax to either of 
 the amounts supposed in the foregoing Table, would on the ave- 
 rage be as follows : — 
 
 Amount of 
 Property 
 
 Tax on Average Rates 
 
 Property of Charge. 
 
 only. 
 £6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 H 
 
 10f 
 
 "i 
 
 13 
 
 per Cent 
 
 Millions, 
 or, say, Is. 6d. in the pound, which £ 
 would raise about 6^ 
 
 2s. Od 8| 
 
 2s. Qd. : 10f 
 
 A Tax laid on the Income of Property only at an average rate 
 of 5 per Cent, or Is. in the Pound, might raise about £4| millions ; 
 and if other Taxes to that amount were repealed, the Net Increase 
 of Taxation on Property would be 2 J per Cent, or 6d. in the 
 Pound. 
 
 # In proportion as the Tax on Income derived from Property were increased, it would 
 diminish the amount of that Ineome to be expended on other Taxes and a larger propor- 
 tion of those Taxes must consequently fall on Income derived from other sources, there- 
 fore the amount of relief from the present Taxes to be given to Income from Property 
 may be somewhat under-rated, and the increase of Taxation upon it proportionately 
 over-rated in this Estimate. 
 
257 
 
 On a Plan of assessing the Capital instead of the Pro/its of Trade. 
 
 It has been stated that many Persons in Trade though strongly 
 objecting* to disclose their actual Profits would not feel so much 
 reluctance to make known the amount of their Capital, and to be 
 charged for it at such a rate per Cent, as might be considered a fair 
 or the general rate of Profit of it. ft is conceived that a Tax on 
 Capital regulated by the value of Stock, and Merchandize, would 
 not only be less comprehensive, but-a*wl more unequal than a Tax 
 directly imposed on the Profits of all Trades, &c. taking them 
 relatively to each other, in as far as some require much, others 
 little or no Capital, and that it would be very difficult, if not im- 
 possible, to ascertain satisfactorily in many cases the quantities 
 and values of Stock, Goods, &c. annually acquired or disposed 
 of; also, that the Proceedings for that purpose would be more 
 vexatious and inquisitorial than those necessary to ascertain the 
 actual Profits. It may be presumed from the trifling Sum raised 
 from Merchandize, Stock, &c. by the Stock or Personal Estate 
 Tax, (viz. between £5,000 and £6,000 and which has always been 
 annually raised with the Land Tax on Lands and Tenements,) that 
 it has not been practicable or been deemed advisable to compre- 
 hend in the Assessments to the fixed Quotas of Land Tax, that 
 species of Property or Capital generally, although full powers 
 were given for the purpose. In the Act under which the Tax is 
 levied there are no particular rules prescribed for ascertaining 
 the value of the Capital assessed; the Tax can be levied in those 
 few places only in which it was levied in 1798, (when the Land 
 Tax was converted from an annual into a perpetual Tax,) it must 
 not exceed the amount raised in that year, and the mode of 
 charge appears to be left to discretion. In case, however, 
 such a mode of taxing Traders should, as an alternative for a Tax 
 on their actual Profits, be deemed preferable to a total exemption 
 of Persons in Trade, or to any scheme of a Tax to be imposed on 
 them exclusively, (as hereafter proposed), and if a Tax on Property 
 ought to comprehend all Capital, and Property, Personal as well 
 as Real, fixed and moveable, the attempt might perhaps be made 
 to raise a Tax from Capital generally, by varying it yearlv, or 
 
 2 L 
 
258 
 
 frequently, according to the varying value and quantity of Mer- 
 chandize, Stock, &c. acquired or disposed of by the several 
 Owners, as well as the quantities could be ascertained and the 
 value thereof determined on. It might be considered by some 
 not only as a mode of charging Traders, &c. less objection- 
 able than an Assessment on their Profits but as likely, in the 
 aggregate, to produce to the Revenue an amount nearly equal 
 to that which, trusting to their Returns of Profits, would be 
 attainable in that way. It might however be provided, that if any 
 Trader were over taxed by the fixed rate laid on his Capital, he 
 should have the option to appeal on the ground that the charge 
 exceeded the amount which would be chargeable on his actual 
 Profit, computing the amount according to the rate of charge on 
 other descriptions of Income, and that in such cases only the 
 amount of actual Profits should be disclosed and assessed. 
 
 An Income Tax on all Income whatever, or a Tax on the In- 
 come of all Property , attainable, in effect, by raising a Tax 
 on Real Property only, that is by a Land Tax, 
 
 Although in the event of a Property Tax the Profits of Trade, 
 Professions, and Wages, also the Profits of Occupation of Land and 
 the Pay, Salaries, &c. of Public Servants would not be directly 
 taxed yet it may be presumed, as the Tax would be limited to Land- 
 lords in respect of the Rents of Lands and Houses, that the'Oc- 
 cupiers would be made indirectly to bear a part of the bur- 
 then by an increase of the Rents, which it may be expected 
 would be demanded of them ; and that the Pay, Salaries, &c. 
 of Public Servants, might be reduced either in proportion to the 
 reduction in the price of living consequent on the diminution of 
 the Taxes to take place on the imposition of the Property Tax, or 
 in some proportion to the rate of that Tax. Under these circum- 
 stances if it were expedient and just, on the ground that these other 
 descriptions of Income, though not directly charged to the Tax, 
 were virtually reduced by it, to make a proportionate reduction 
 in the amount of the Dividends and Annuities due to the Public 
 Creditors instead of taxing them (a proceeding different in form 
 but the same in effect) the Property Tax would be limited, in the 
 
259 
 
 direct proceedings necessary for raising it, to nearly the same de- 
 scription of Properties as the present Land Tax embraces in its 
 charge, that is, Lands and Houses ; and if it may be presumed that 
 the equalizing* and compensatory effects of exempting Wages adn 
 Profits of Trade, &c. from any direct charge to a Tax would take 
 place in the manner anticipated in the discussion on them under a 
 preceding head, a general Income Tax might then be considered 
 as, in effect, imposed on all sources of Income, and yet the pro- 
 cedure of it, (the principal ground of objection offered to an In- 
 come Tax,) would not extend beyond the assessment and collection 
 of the Tax from the Rent of Real Property, that is, it would be 
 a Land Tax only. 
 
 Composition of Income Tax or Property Tax in the manner of 
 the Composition of the present Assessed Taxes. 
 
 When the Rates of Charge and Amounts of Assessment in ge- 
 neral shall have been for a length of time satisfactorily fixed, per- 
 sons might be allowed to compound for a continuance of the same 
 amount of Duty for a term of years, so far as concerns the Duties 
 under Schedules A. B. and D. in the manner adopted with respect 
 to the Assessed Taxes at the present time, thus avoiding ihe pro- 
 ceedings of annual returns and assessments and any increase of 
 charge during that term.* It might however be considered whe- 
 ther, as under the plan of Composition for Assessed Taxes, any 
 per Centage in addition to the Tax compounded for should be 
 
 * The Composition of Assessed Taxes, it may be presumed from the many su< ces- 
 sive Acts passed to extend the period of it, and from the large proportion of indi- 
 viduals who have availed themselves of it, has answered the object intended by it; 
 many who compounded under the first Act (1819) and have renewed their Composi- 
 tions nnder the subsequent Acts will, at the end of the last granted extension of time, 
 have had the continuance of the same Assessments for 14 years, viz. from 5th April 
 1819, to 5th April 1833, shewing- to what extent it is considered such a mode of rai- 
 sing direct Taxes can be carried with due regard to the Revenue as well as to the in- 
 terests and comfort of individuals. Some Persons have probably gained greater ad- 
 vantage than considering the subsequent improvement of their circumstances they are 
 in fairness entitled to; but as the Composition Acts contain provisions to guard 
 against abuse in certain cases of that nature any excessive advantage is, it is conceived, 
 confined to a few only, while those who have derived no advantage or have not de- 
 sired to continue their Contracts have had opport unities to withdraw from them. 
 
260 
 
 charged ; such per Centage may be a compensation for probable 
 loss of Revenue in some cases, but as the Compounders of Income 
 Tax might not in most instances derive any other advantage than 
 an exoneration, during the term allowed, from any proceedings, 
 (for no addition of Income might arise during the term) it would, 
 if no per Centag-e were charged, be a greater inducement to per- 
 sons to compound, an arrangement, by which any discontent and 
 disquietude that liability to Proceedings may occasion might be 
 prevented. Composition would not be essential or easily prac- 
 ticable in respect of the Duties under Schedules C. and E., and 
 it should be observed that if the modifications already proposed of 
 allowing long intervals between the periods of making Returns 
 and Assessments, or the scheme of Redemption of the Tax as here- 
 after suggested, were adopted, any Composition for a term of 
 years would be less desirable under the other Schedules. 
 
 On a gradual increase of an Income Tax with an estimate of 
 the proportions ivhich its produce under various Scales would 
 bear to the Total Income of the Country, 
 
 Although an Income Tax, at whatever scale imposed, would at 
 once create a considerable saving in the gross amount of public 
 contributions to the Revenue from the greater economy of ex- 
 pence in collecting it, as well as in private Profit and Expenditure 
 from the cessation of restrictive and injurious procedure, and from 
 reduction of prices on the abolition of other Taxes ; yet, if it 
 should be deemed expedient to extend it to a very high scale, it 
 might still be advisable to commence the measure on a low scale, 
 and to increase it gradually, from which progressive course, as the 
 change would operate on the various classes and interests of the 
 community with different degrees of effect, there would not arise 
 that confusion and derangement which, if once adopted on a large 
 scale, the magnitude, and suddenness of it might among some 
 classes of Persons for a time, occasion, and which, however just and 
 generally beneficial the ultimate effects of the change would be, 
 it might be proper to avoid. With reference to this point, the 
 following Estimate is offered of the average Rates of Charge 
 on the total Income of the Country of an Income Tax under 
 each of the proposed Graduated Scales of Charge, and it is 
 
261 
 
 to be submitted, that if a Graduated Scale of Charge to the In- 
 come Tax should, from any objection to it in principle or in 
 practice, be deemed inadmissible, and some General Rate of 
 Charge should be preferable, either as most just or as most prac» 
 ticable, then the following Average Rates affixed to the respective 
 Scales are offered as approximating to such General Rates of 
 Charge as would raise in Total Produce of Duty from the Income 
 rendered liable to charge, the sums estimated for those Scales 
 respectively. 
 
 Average Avearge 
 
 Rates of Charge. Rates of Charge 
 Total Amount on the Total on the Total 
 
 of the estimated Income assumed as Nominal 
 
 Net Receipt attainable for Income of the 
 
 Scales. of Duty. Charge.* Country .f 
 
 1 „ £16,061,013 101 per Cent... 6|perCt. 
 
 2 „ 21,551,044 .. 13f mm gf 
 
 3 „ , 27,286,180 17$ 11^ 
 
 4 „ 33,559,090 21$ ........ 13§ 
 
 5 „ 40,990,550 25-f 16f 
 
 6 „ 46,880,316 29£ ....... 19 
 
 7 „ 54,532,150 34f 22£ 
 
 According to this computation a total Produce of Duty exceed- 
 ing by £7 or £8 millions the Net Receipt of the present Revenue 
 of Great Britain may be obtained at an average rate of charge 
 not much exceeding J of the Net Income attainable for charge, 
 and at an average rate of charge between J and ^ of the whole 
 nominal Income of the Country.f 
 
 The average rate of increase of each Scale beyond its next in- 
 ferior Scale is between 3 and 5 per Cent, of the Income assumed 
 as attainable for charge, and between 2 and 4 per Cent, of the 
 estimated Total Income of the Country, the additional imposition 
 of which at due intervals would not, it is conceived, occasion any 
 generally inconvenient change, particularly as the abolition of 
 other Taxes of more than an equal amount might take place at 
 the same time. 
 
 * £158^ T millions, 
 f The nominal Income is taken at £245 millions. To £200 millions the estimated 
 Gross Income of the Trade and Agricultural Classes, including Wag-es, that is, the Real 
 Income, is added £45 millions the estimated Income of the Public Creditors and Public 
 Servants. 
 
262 
 
 Proposed exclusive Tax on Persons in Trade and Professions as 
 a Substitute for a Tax on the Profits thereof. 
 
 It may be more desirable than practicable to effect any scheme 
 of a Tax on Persons in Trade, &c* to be borne by them exclusively, 
 which shall be equal as respects them relatively to each other 
 and bear a due proportion to the produce of a Tax on the In- 
 comes of the other Classes and which shall also be unobjection- 
 able in the mode of carrying it into execution. 
 
 A Tax might be imposed on Merchandize, Goods, or Stock in 
 Trade, to be regulated by a valuation thereof and by the con- 
 ceived general rate of Profit in the respective Trades, &c. ; but, as 
 already observed, such a Tax would not operate with generalness 
 and equality; for, as Stock is a variable and uncertain criterion 
 of the comparative Profits of different Trades, and as some require 
 little or no Stock, depending more on skill and labor, the different 
 rates by which the Profits of the several branches or concerns in 
 Commerce, Manufacture, Trade, &c. should be taxed, could 
 hardly be maintained in their due proportion. The inquisition of 
 Stock might be attended with obnoxious proceedings ; deductions 
 for losses, bad debts, &c. could not be set off without all or much 
 of that disclosure and investigation which are held out as obnoxious 
 in an Income Tax. A Tax on Goods, Stock, &c. might therefore 
 be more unequal than a direct Tax on Profits, and the procedure 
 be fully as objectionable, Profits derived from the exercise of 
 the Professions or from the pursuit of the Arts, and other avoca- 
 tions of that nature, could not of course be attained by any such 
 criterion, and they would be left wholly untaxed. 
 
 The possibility of devising a substituted Tax must, it is presumed, 
 exist in some means of charging it directly on the private Ex- 
 penditure of Persons in Trade, &c. There appear however no 
 objects of private Expenditure which can be reached so well by a 
 direct Tax operating exclusively, and the knowledge of which is 
 
 * This would comprehend all Persons who would be chargeable by the Rules of 
 Schedule D. if the Income Tax were extended to them. 
 
263 
 
 so attainable, as the articles in general which are now the subject 
 of Assessed Taxes ; it may therefore be proposed to revive, with 
 respect to Persons in Trade, &c, a Tax upon the plan of the Aid 
 and Contribution Act or Additional Assessed Taxes of the year 
 1798. By this Tax parties were charged at additional progressive 
 rates on their Assessed Taxes of the preceding year. 
 
 In respect of Horses, Servants, and Carriages, if the total 
 Amount of the Duties thereon was under £25 per annum, a Person 
 was charged at 3 times the amount ; if the Duties exceeded £25, 
 the additional Charges were fixed at Progressive Rates from 3 to 
 5 times the Amount. Exemptions were granted in favor of 
 Horses and Carriages used for Travelling" Post, or let out for 
 Hire, &c. In respect of Houses and Windows, if the total Duties 
 charged were not less than £1, and were under £20, Parties were 
 charged progressively from J to 3 times the Amount ; if the Duties 
 exceeded £20, the Rates proceeded from 3J to 5 times the 
 Amount. Houses let out in Lodgings, or used partly as Shops; 
 also Inns, Public Houses, Boarding Schools, were charged at less 
 Rates, viz. — if the Duties were not less than £3 and were under 
 £20, the additional Charges proceeded at progressive Rates, 
 from T ^ to an equal Amount, and if the Duties exceeded £20, the 
 Rates proceeded from an equal Amount to twice the Amount 
 thereof. 
 
 Persons proving their total Incomes to be less than £60 were 
 exempted. If their Incomes exceeded £60 and were under £200 
 they were entitled to Abatements, and if the Income exceeded 
 £200, the additional Duties were reduced to one-tenth thereof: 
 Assessments so abated became in fact a Tax on Profits or Income. 
 With reference to ail such cases, whether of persons having no other 
 source of Income than Trade or of those possessed of other Income 
 contributing to the Income Tax,* who might be chargeable to the 
 Assessed Taxes beyond the sum at which their Profits of Trade, &c. 
 would have been chargeable to the Income Tax, either the par- 
 
 * This mode of charging Persons, partly by a Duty on their Income, and partly by 
 the Duties on Articles of Assessed Taxes, would not be without precedent ; as under 
 the Income Act of 1799, subjects of His Majesty, having only a temporary Residence 
 in Great Britain, were chargeable for that part of their Income only which arose from 
 
2<>4 
 
 ties must forego any abatement of Assessed Taxes, or to obtain it 
 they must submit to a disclosure of their Income from Trade, &c. 
 It would seem therefore, that in such cases there would be only 
 a choice of alternatives. But if the additional Assessed Taxes 
 were imposed at such rates as to yield a moderate substitute 
 for a direct Tax on Profits of Trade, &c. it is apprehended that 
 very few cases of such a description would arise; they would be 
 confined mostly to those of mixed Incomes, where the ameunt of 
 Profits from Trade were small compared with the amount from 
 other sources. 
 
 If the plan of Assessed Taxes should be resorted to, not with the 
 view of obtaining- from Persons in Trade, &c. in general more fair 
 contributions than a Tax on their Profits would yield, but for the 
 sake of avoiding the proceedings which the latter mode of Taxation 
 would subject them to, parties disregarding that consideration 
 might be allowed to declare their option in the first instance to be 
 charged on their Profits without being subjected to any additional 
 Assessment on their Houses or Establishments, and to the neces- 
 sity perhaps of ultimately appealing against it on the ground of 
 the amount of their Profits. 
 
 Any calculation of the additional Rates of Charge of Assessed 
 Taxes on a graduated Scale necessary to bring the Classes m 
 Trade, &c. to an equality with the other Classes taxed on their 
 Incomes, must be very vague. Much official information must be 
 previously obtained for settling the gradation in an equitable 
 manner. 
 
 The following suppositions may probably help to approximate 
 the Average Rate of Charge of additional Assessed Taxes (from 
 which a graduated Scale may be deduced) in case of a low Scale 
 of Income Tax on other Classes. 
 
 their Property in Great Britain, and were also chargeable under the Aid and Contri- 
 bution Act, which was kept in force for the purpose, but if in consequence of both 
 Charges their whole Income, as arising from every species of Property they possessed 
 in Great Britain, or elsewhere, was charged above the just proportion, they were re- 
 leased from the Excess. 
 
265 
 
 Millions. 
 The total Gross Charge of the 1st or lowest Graduated Scale of ) •,,,- 
 
 Income Tax in this Work exceeds , \ 
 
 The estimated Proportion thereof under Schedule D. is one-fifth 3 J 
 
 The total Gross Charge to the Taxes on Houses and Windows for the > „n~ 
 Year 1830, rather exceeded \ * 
 
 Ditto on Servants, Horses, Carriages, &c. amounted to nearly , £lf 
 
 The Total Gross Charge of Assessed Taxes 1830 £4£ 
 
 Suppose that the proportion of such total Gross Charge imposed ) „,„ 
 on the Trading and Professional Classes, was about £■* or ^ * 
 
 In order to raise by an increase of the present Assessed Taxes 
 the due proportion from Persons in Trade, viz. £3f , they should 
 contribute on an average between double and treble the amount 
 charged on them in 1830. To obtain a graduated Scale, pro- 
 gressive rates from 1 to 5 times the amount might be imposed, or 
 adopting the classifications and gradations of charges observed in 
 the Aid and Contribution Act, a lower series of Rates would be 
 imposed on Houses and Windows than on Horses, Servants and 
 Carriages. 
 
 Millions. 
 The Aid and Contribution, or additional Assessed Taxes, 1798, pro- ) £ , 
 duced about $ 
 
 The Assessed Taxes of 1797, on which they were founded, produced -\ 
 viz. on Horses, Servants, and Carriages, about £1-^ millions ) . . > £24 
 On Houses and Windows, nearly £1± „ $ ) 
 
 If the Scales of Charges pursued under the Aid and Contribution Act -\ 
 were adopted with respect to the Assessed Taxes of 1830, the> £6 
 Amount would be about • > 
 
 * It is conceived that this is a low Estimate, but the actual Amount might be soon 
 ascertained without any difficulty from the Returns of Assessed Taxes delivered by 
 those Classes. 
 
 2 M 
 
266 
 
 Millions. 
 The additional Assessed Taxes to be paid by the Trade, &c. Classes, 1 
 might, if raised by the same Scale of Charges, be estimated to / £2 
 produce ^ 
 
 It may then be estimated that much less than double the Rates 
 of the Scale of 1798 would be sufficient to raise from Persons 
 in Trade, &c. their required amount of < w 3f millions. 
 
 If an Income Tax on other Incomes according to a higher Scale 
 were resorted to, the Rates of additional Assessed Taxes would be 
 proportionably increased on Persons in Trade, &c. 
 
 If the Assessed Taxes were not repealed with respect to other 
 Classes, either the present Rates of Charge might be continued with 
 respect to Persons in Trade, Professions, &c. and the Assessments 
 they produced be taken as a basis on which the additional Assess- 
 ments should be charged, or combining the present and the addi- 
 tional Rates, a single series of Rates producing the same result 
 might be formed. 
 
 The present Assessed Taxes include Duties on Travellers, Shop- 
 men, Warehousemen, Porters, Clerks, Book-keepers, &c. also on 
 Horses used in Trade, Servants, Horses and Carriages let to Hire, 
 amounting to about ££ million, which are paid wholly by Persons 
 in Trade, &c. As the number of these Servants and Articles may 
 afford some criterion of the extent of Profits of Trade, it might 
 seem desirable to charge them at the same additional rates as all 
 other articles, but the employers would thereby be charged dis- 
 proportionably with other persons whose articles of trade are not 
 liable to the Assessed Taxes, and it would probably be most just 
 and fair wholly to exclude them from the additional Assessments, 
 and to confine the latter to articles comprehended within the pri- 
 vate expenditure of the parties. 
 
 If Abatements on account of Children were granted out of the 
 Duties on Income, the same indulgence should be allowed in re- 
 spect of the additional Assessed Taxes. 
 
 Relief from the present indirect Taxes might induce, as it would 
 enable many individuals in Trade, &c. to increase their expendi- 
 ture in respect of the articles subject to Assessed Taxes if any very 
 high scale of exclusive Taxation were not imposed on them. Some 
 
267 
 
 of the parsimonious could hardly be made to contribute their fair 
 proportion by any mods of Taxation depending on their Expendi- 
 ture, but it may be observed that whatever part of their savings 
 were laid out in the purchase of Property, would, by increasing 
 their Income derived therefrom, render them liable to a greater 
 amount of Income Tax. Means might perhaps be devised, by 
 extending the Rules of Charge to Assessed Taxes, to involve many 
 of this description of persons in assessment, so as to obviate in some 
 degree their escape from their due contributions. As such persons 
 are mostly Bachelors without families or establishments, they 
 might be made chargeable in respect of the Rents they pay and of 
 the Windows of the Houses or parts of the Houses they occupy at 
 double or treble the rates charged on married men; a proportion 
 of the total value of the Furniture used by them might, be added 
 to the Rent Not much objection to the substitute Tax would 
 arise with respect to Absentees, who, not occupying Houses or 
 keeping Establishments in this Country, are not chargeable to the 
 Assessed Taxes, for as they are not in general concerned in Trade, 
 Professions, &c. their Incomes are so derived that the contri- 
 butions due from most of them would be secured by the Income 
 Tax. 
 
 If any Person in Trade shall have compounded for a term of 
 years under Acts now in force for the Assessed Taxes on their 
 private Establishments (articles used in Trade being excluded 
 from Composition), either the amount of such Compositions might 
 be increased in a due ratio, or the parties might be charged by ad- 
 ditional and distinct Assessments, which additional Assessments, 
 unless they were afterwards allowed to compound for them, should 
 be subject to increase or diminution according to the changes which 
 the parties might make in their respective Establishments. Per- 
 sons who have not compounded for any part of their Assessed 
 Taxes, might be at liberty to compound for a term of years for 
 both old and additional Assessments. 
 
 As the additional Assessed Taxes and the Income Tax would be 
 raised by the same establishment of Officers, the further expence 
 of levying the former would be inconsiderable. 
 
 If the substitute of the additional Assessed Taxes for a Tax on 
 the Profits of Trade, &c. should not be approved as a general 
 
268 
 
 measure, and if under a well founded opinion that most Persons in 
 Trade and Professions are not so averse to such a Tax, or the pro- 
 cedure of it, as the violent opposers of it hold them out to be ; and 
 a general Income Tax should be imposed as most just and expe- 
 dient, it may still be a considerate regard to any of those in Trade 
 who do entertain strongly an aversion to such a Tax to give them 
 the option of being- charged in lieu thereof to the Assessed Taxes, 
 or additionally to them. As this option might give an undue ad- 
 vantage in cases of Persons with large trading Incomes and small 
 private Establishments, there should be a power to refuse the 
 opting or the Parties might make offers, as to the rate or additional 
 rate of Assessed Taxes to which they should be charged, the 
 power should be to reject the offers, if unsatisfactory, also to pro- 
 pose, and if the Parties consent, to fix higher rates of Charge. This 
 alternative mode might be at first attended with difficulty, but 
 though the amount of the Income in the cases embracing it would 
 be disclosed, all inquiry into the particulars of it would be avoided. 
 
 On raising an Income or Property Tax in Ireland, 
 
 The consideration of an Income or Property Tax in Ireland may 
 be submitted, not only with a view to the benefit which a remission 
 of the present Taxes would atfbrd to its trade and interests in ge- 
 neral, but to the greater expediency of such remission if the present 
 Taxes were superseded to a large amount by an Income or Pro- 
 perty Tax in Great Britain, especially any such as now affect the 
 mutual Commerce of the two Countries. 
 
 With respect to the practicable means of raising an Income or 
 Property Tax in Ireland, it may be observed that direct Public 
 Taxation in that Country has ceased since the year 1823, when upon 
 the very great reduction of the Assessed Taxes in Great Britain it 
 was deemed expedient, as the Assessed Taxes in Ireland had pre- 
 viously been so far reduced that but an inconsiderable amount 
 remained, wholly to repeal them in that Country. It appears 
 however that a Revenue can be raised by direct Taxation in Ireland: 
 the former system may have been imperfect in practice, but it 
 might, if again tried, be capable of improvement, particularly if an 
 
269 
 
 Income or Property Tax were to be the object of levy. If Poor 
 Rates should be established in Ireland there would be less objection 
 to the introduction of an income or Property Tax. 
 
 Small as the proportion of the Tax on Income derived from 
 Trade and Manufacture in Great Britain might bear to the propor- 
 tion raised from Income derived from other sources, the proportion 
 in Ireland would it is conceived be much smaller, and nearly the 
 whole of the Tax would be raised from the Rental and Profits of 
 Lands and Houses. It has been stated that the Landlords of 
 Ireland, including Sub-Landlords, obtain a very much larger pro- 
 portion of the produce of the Soil than is the proportion of the 
 produce of the Lands in England which is enjoyed by the Owners 
 of them — the circumstance, that so very large a proportion of the 
 Income of Ireland goes to unproductive Members to the dis- 
 couragement of industry and cultivation, calls strongly for an 
 Income or Property Tax in that Country, particularly as so great 
 a portion of the Produce is expended out of it by Absentees. 
 Among the advantages of the Tax, there would be an essential one ; 
 most Absentees would contribute more to the Revenue than 
 the preseet Taxes draw from them, and so much more of their 
 Rents would be retained and expended in their own Country. 
 
 It has been considered by some that an Absentee Tax would be 
 beneficial to Ireland by encouraging the residence in that Country 
 of a greater number of its Landed Proprietors, but any fair practi- 
 cable scheme of such a Tax has not, it is believed, been proposed. 
 Without discussing here the justice or policy of a Tax for that spe- 
 cific purpose, though observing that it would be unfair to the 
 absent Landlords of Ireland if not extended to those of Great 
 Britain, it may be submitted, if such a Tax would be just and 
 politic in either Country, an Income or Property Tax would afford 
 the fairest practicable means for it. Total absence of the Owner, 
 or an absence exceeding a certain large portion of the year from 
 the Country in which his real Property is situate (such absence 
 not being required for the Public Service) might be the ground of 
 a certain increase of the general rate of the Tax on that Property ; 
 the maximum extent of Absence and the increased rate of Duty to 
 be determined by fair and liberal considerations. 
 
 Irish Residents in Great Britain were liable under the late Pro- 
 
27G 
 
 perty Act for their Remittances from Ireland, but it was extremely 
 difficult to obtain in general due Returns of them. An Income or 
 Property Tax in Ireland would of course take off such liability in 
 this Country. 
 
 Although the population of Ireland may be taken at one-third 
 of the population of the United Kingdom, it is conceived that the 
 Income of Ireland should be estimated at a much less proportion 
 of the total Income of the whole Kingdom, particularly that part 
 of it which would be subject to an Income Tax. The value of the 
 private productive Property of Ireland was estimated by one Writer* 
 in 1SI2 at one-fifth of the amount of the Property of the United 
 Kingdom; without giving a separate estimate of the Income of Ire- 
 land, he computed the Total Income of the United Kingdom at £430 
 millions; assuming the proportion of Ireland was one-fifth of the 
 Income of the whole Kingdom, it would appear that at the lalter 
 end of the late War the total amount of Income in Ireland consi- 
 derably exceeded £80 millions. Other Writers have estimated 
 the Income of Ireland at £70 millions. Suppose that the present 
 total Income of Ireland be no more than £50 millions, and that 
 one-half of it, £25 millions, would come within the operation of an 
 Income Tax, that is less than one-sixth of the Income estimated as 
 attainable for charge in Great Britain. Suppose that the general 
 Rate or the series of Rates of Duty to be imposed should be so li- 
 mited as to produce an amount not exceeding one-twelfth of the 
 estimated Net Receipt of Duty in Great Britain on the highest 
 graduated Scale, that is, about the proportion which the present 
 Revenue of Ireland bears to the Revenue of Great Britain. 
 
 By the Public Accounts ending 5th January, 1831, it appears that 
 
 The Total Amount of the Ordinary Revenue of Ireland after > «« ano O o^ 
 deducting the Charges of Management was ] *«W0,US0 
 
 The Charges of Management (£603,690), were at the rate of above 
 14 per Cent, of the Net Receipt. When the Assessed Taxes were 
 at their highest annual amount, viz. about £J million, the rate of 
 charge of collecting them was JIJ per Cent. 
 
 * Colquhoun on the Wealth of the British Empire* 
 
271 
 
 Estimated Total Amount of Net Receipt of Income Tax for > ^- 4 ^ 159 
 Great Britain at the 7th or highest Scale $ 
 
 The estimated Net Receipt of the Tax for Ireland at -^ of the ) £4 544 34 g 
 
 Amount of Great Britain ] 
 
 Charge of Collection at 1 2 per Cent 545,321 
 
 Total Amount of estimated Net Produce for Ireland £3,999,025 
 
 The average Rate of the Net Receipt of the Tax under the highest 
 graduated Scale on the total assumed chargeable Income for Great 
 Britain is nearly 35 per Cent.; the average Rate of the Net Receipt 
 for Ireland, computed on the amount of the assumed chargeable 
 Tncome, would be about 18 per Cent, and it would be considerably 
 less than 10 per Cent, of the total Income of the Country taken 
 on the very lowest estimate. 
 
 Whether from want of Capital, or of Industry, or from disincli- 
 nation to pursuits in the way of Trade, or from whatever cause, 
 the generality of the Irish have a stronger predilection for Agri- 
 cultural Life and Employment, a bias, probably, prejudicial to the 
 general interests of the Country, which may be best promoted by 
 an extension of Trade and Manufacture, it may be most politic to 
 impose a Property Tasr, and not an Income Tax, in Ireland, and thus 
 give to the means of that extension whatever encouragement fa- 
 vor in taxation can afford. In Great Britain exemption from an In- 
 come Tax in favor of Trade may be expedient, whether just or 
 not, as a boon to the prejudices of many concerned in it — in 
 Ireland it may be indispensible as assisting a depressed source of 
 Income, which it may be of vital importance to raise from that 
 state : this may also be a politic way of throwing a greater burthen 
 on unproductive Landlords and Absentees. 
 
 Abstract Recital of the several different Plans or Scales of 
 Charge to an Income Tax or Property Tax, submitted in this 
 Work, 
 
 The different plans of raising an Income Tax or the different 
 Scales of Charge to such a Tax, which have been discussed or ad- 
 
272 
 
 verted to in the preceding part of this Work, are 1 to 9, inclu- 
 sive of the following, viz. : — 
 
 1. Two graduated Scales of Charge, one applicable to Income 
 derived from Property, the other to Income derived from other 
 sources, each classified according to the amounts of the aggregate 
 Incomes of the Parties under both divisions, and extended to the 
 highest Classes of Income : the Scale for Income derived from 
 Property charging each Class in it at a higher rate than is charged 
 on the corresponding Class of the other Scale, (p. 218.) 
 
 2. One and the same graduated Scale of Charge applicable to 
 both denominations of Income united in one aggregate, (p. 237.) 
 
 3. One Scale of Charge as under the late Property Act, charg- 
 ing all Incomes at the same general rate, excepting Incomes less 
 than £150 connected with Industry and Labor, (p. 240.) 
 
 4. A general Rate of Charge on Incomes derived from Pro- 
 perty of whatever amount, and a general Rate of Charge on In- 
 comes derived from other sources, and exceeding £150, the latter 
 general Rate to be lower than the former ; Incomes derived from 
 other sources, and not exceeding £150, to be charged at a still 
 lower general Rate or at a low graduated Scale, (p. 242.) 
 
 5. Incomes of different denominations, to be charged at rates 
 proportionate to their Relative Value, Incomes of the same deno- 
 mination being charged at the same general Rate or by a Scale 
 graduated according to the total Amount of the Party's Income 
 from every source, (p. 244.) 
 
 6. A Tax limited to Income derived from Property Real and 
 Personal viz. a Property Tax, properly so called, (p. 252.) 
 
 7. A Tax excepting only Income derived from Trade and Pro- 
 fessions, and substituting for a Tax on that Income an addition to 
 the Assessed Taxes on persons engaged in Trade, &c. (p. 262.) 
 
 8. A Tax on the Capital instead of the Profits of Trade. 
 (p. 257.> 
 
 9. An Income Tax on all Income whatever, or a Tax on the 
 Income of all Property, attainable in effect, by raising a Tax on 
 Real Property only, that is, by a Land Tax. (p. 258.) 
 
273 
 
 The following 10J//, l\th, and 12th Plans or Scales note offered 
 for consideration are not submitted in the preceding part of this 
 Work. 
 
 10th. If it should be deemed expedient to charge atone anch 
 the same general Rate all Income derived from Property 
 (Schedules A. and C.) and to confine the graduated Scale of 
 Charge to Income derived from other sources (Schedules B. 
 D. and E.) it might be suggested, as a means of simplifying that 
 graduated Scale and facilitating the operation of it, that every per- 
 son should be charged under the three Schedules, to which only 
 it would be applied, according to the total amount of his In- 
 come coming within those Schedules, without regard to his ag- 
 gregate Income under all the Schedules. On such a plan, though 
 it might appear, as, for instance, in the case of two persons pos- 
 sessed of Incomes equal in amount under Schedules B. D. and E. 
 that if one only of them possessed also Income from Property under 
 Schedules A. and C. that one ought to be assessed at a higher rate 
 than the other for his Income under Schedules B. D. and E., yet 
 it is conceived that the excess of the general and higher Rate of 
 Charge on the former for his Income under Schedules A. and C. 
 might be a sufficient equivalent. The greater the proportion of 
 Income under Schedules A. and C. and consequently of the Tax 
 charged at that general and higher Rate, the greater would be that 
 equivalent. A recommendation of such a Scale is, that it would 
 not give rise to so much objectionable procedure or exposure of 
 circumstances as the graduated Scale formed according to the 
 aggregate Income under all the Schedules, and jet if the Rates of 
 Charge under Schedules B. D. and E. were duly graduated and 
 were fixed with fair relation to the general Rate under the other 
 Schedules, it might operate fully as equitable as the graduated 
 Scale applied to all the Schedules. It would seldom happen that 
 any person chargeable under Schedules B. D. and E. would be 
 chargeable under more than one of them ; but in any such cases 
 the abated charge might be made either according, as above 
 proposed, to the aggregate amount of Incomes under those Sche- 
 dules, or to the amount under each distinctly, as might seem most 
 just or expedient ; the latter mode would occasion the least trouble 
 and disclosure, but might be too favorable to the parties. 
 
 2 N 
 
274 
 
 The following Table is ottered solely for the sake of illu- 
 strating* the proposed Scale, not as pretending to exhibit the Rates 
 of Charge under the several Schedules in a due relation to each 
 other. The general Rate of Charge on Income under Schedules 
 A. and C. is, in this illustration, supposed to be 20 per Cent. 
 
 Schedules A. and C. 
 
 X 
 
 Schedules B. D. and E. 
 
 i — > 
 Amount Tax 
 Total of at 20 
 Income. Income. per Cent. 
 
 £ £ £ 
 200 .... —...._. 
 
 Amount 
 
 of Rate Tax. Total 
 Income. per Cent. Tax. 
 
 £ £ £ 
 .. 200 .... 7 .... 14 .... 14 
 
 250 .... __ ...._.. 
 
 . . 250 . , . . 8 .... 20 .... 20 
 
 250 100 20 .. 
 
 .. 150 .... 6 .... 9 .... 29 
 
 250 .... 150 .... 30 .. 
 
 ..100 ... 5 5 35 
 
 250 250 50 .. 
 
 .. Ill ...—....—,... 50 
 
 350 100 .... 20 .. 
 
 . . 250 .... 10 25 .... 45 
 
 350 .... 250 .... 50 .. 
 
 ..100 5 5 55 
 
 400 .... 200 40 .. 
 
 .. 200 .... 7 14 .... 54 
 
 The abated Scale under Schedules B. D. and E. as taken in this 
 illustration might be supposed gradually to rise as Income rose in 
 Classification until it had reached the general Rate of Charge under 
 Schedules A. and C. — say, at Incomes of £1,000. All Incomes 
 under Schedules B. D. and E. exceeding that amount might be 
 charged at the same general rate as those under the other Schedules. 
 
 1 h. A variation of the foregoing Scale might be made on the 
 principle, that although it would be just to charge Income derived 
 from Property at a higher rate than Income derived from other 
 sources, yet it would not be so just to charge at the same rate all 
 Incomes of whatever amount, under Schedules (A. and C.) as to 
 charge the amount under each Schedule on a Scale graduated 
 according to the amount of the Income derived under that Sche- 
 dule or to the aggregate of both Schedules. 
 
 12th. The 1st plan of the foregoing series, viz. " Two graduated 
 " Scales of Charge" might be varied by a plan which should 
 charge, first, both denominations of Income in the aggregate by a 
 Scale graduated according to the aggregate amount of both; next 
 it should charge distinctly that part of the Income which is derived 
 from Property by such additional rate (which additional rate 
 might be either graduated or general), as might be deemed a 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 (To follow page 275.) 
 
 Upon a Tax imposed on Property exclusively, and regulated, not 
 by the Income, but by the Value thereof: Also upon a Graduated 
 Property Tax. 
 
 As an addition to the Abstract Recital just given (p. 271—275) 
 of various Plans of Charge to an Income and Property Tax, it 
 may be worth while to advert to two other Plans which have 
 been noticed in the parliamentary and public discussions respect- 
 ing- the substitution of an Income or Property Tax for other Taxes, 
 which have taken place since this Work was published. 
 
 A periodical Review * discusses a Property Tax, as its name 
 may imply it to be, that is, as a Tax on *the Property itself, not 
 as a Tax according to the extent of the Income or Proceeds, but 
 as a Tax to be regulated by the value of Property, including all 
 descriptions of Property.f The objections adduced against such 
 a Tax are, that as the quantity of Stock or Capital in hand varies 
 in the course of the year, there would be the difficulty of fixing 
 the proper time at which the valuation should be made — that it 
 would lead to a concealment of Property or to the employment of it 
 in an underhand manner; that though a Tax on the Income (for 
 which the Review expresses a preference) might certainly induce 
 a concealment of its amount, yet it would not tempt to an infe- 
 rior employment or process of the Capital or Property from 
 which the Income is derived, that the Tax would affect Capital 
 and Property whether productive of Profit or not, and dispro- 
 portionately to the degree of Profit. Much stress might also 
 have been laid on the inquisitorial and vexatious nature of the 
 proceedings necessary in ascertaining the value of Property and 
 Capital; but the conclusion of the Reviewer is thus stated, 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, April, 1833. 
 f Vide Note page 2 with respect to the Name given to the late Tax. 
 
that " under the pretence of equality, taxes proportioned to 
 " the property or capital of individuals are, from the impossibility 
 " of ascertaining 1 its amount, about the most unequal that can be 
 " imagined, while, from their pernicious influence on industry, 
 " they become the most prolific sources of poverty and dissatisfac- 
 tion." With respect to a Property Tax on the Properties of Land- 
 owners, Fundholders and Mortgagees, which, if restricted to them 
 might not have the effects just anticipated, such a Tax is treated 
 by the Reviewer as flagrantly unjust to those Classes and as more 
 destructive in operation than if extended to all sorts of Property; 
 it is argued that possessors of other Property, as Manufacturers, 
 Merchants, &c. are in a better condition generally than Land- 
 lords and Fundholders, the opulent of whom, Landed and Funded 
 Property being much subdivided, are not so numerous as sup- 
 posed, and the Tax would fall mostly on the middle and inferior 
 classes. 
 
 As suggesting a Plan preferable to a Tax on Property accord- 
 ing to the value thereof, reference might be requested to a pre- 
 ceding Head (p. 244) proposing a Tax on Income according to 
 the value thereof; the latter being capable of a more equal and 
 impartial imposition and less injurious in operation, if not also less 
 obnoxious in procedure. 
 
 The objections urged by the Reviewer to the substitution of either 
 a Tax on Property or a Tax on Income for the present Taxes, 
 are, it is hoped, sufficiently met or satisfactory remedies of them 
 are suggested in this Work As to any difficulty in the choice, it 
 may be as impossible to select that particular Plan of Income 
 or Property Tax, as it is to impose any other kind of tax, which 
 shall give universal satisfaction ; but supposing even that such an 
 Income Tax were imposed as would not allow any distinction in 
 respect either of the quality or of the amount of Income, its in- 
 justice in those respects would not be greater than the present 
 taxation inflicts, important however as is the capability, which an 
 Income Tax possesses, of making such distinction, and which the 
 present mode of taxation is destitute of, its superiority does not 
 depend on that advantage alone, but materially on other advan- 
 tages of serious importance which are discussed in the preceding 
 pages. 
 
 Of a Graduated Property Tax, meaning a Tax on the Income 
 
derived from Property but confined to Income of Property in 
 Lands and the Funds, some notice seems likewise necessary, it 
 having been strongly recommended. As the late Property Tax 
 charged all Incomes derived from Property at the same rate 
 (with some few exceptions*) there were not any proceedings 
 for ascertaining the aggregate of those Incomes such as would 
 be indispensable in case of a graduated Property Tax where the 
 Property of an individual was dispersed in various places or 
 consisted of more than one sort, all the several parts must in that 
 case be combined in order to settle the graduated rate of charge 
 on the whole, and nearly as much disclosure and inquisition might 
 take place as would be occasioned by a graduated Income Tax; 
 such a Property Tax would appear also open to the objection of 
 great inequality, unless it were regulated by a regard to the In- 
 comes of the parties from all sources, for it may be asked, whether 
 if a man possessed Rent of Land or Houses or Interest of Public 
 Securities to the amount of £200 and derived also £1000 from 
 Trade or Profession, he should be taxed at no higher rate in respect 
 of the former than an owner of Land or Funded Property whose 
 whole Income, derived exclusively therefrom, was no more than 
 £200 : if it would be most fair that, in this supposed case, the 
 trading or professional Income should be included in the Re- 
 turn in order to determine the rate of Charge, making the total In- 
 come £1200, then it might be asked, would it be just to tax the 
 landed or funded portion, viz. £200, at so high a rate of charge in 
 the graduated scale as should attach, in another supposed case, to 
 an Income of £1200 derived wholly from Property, or in what 
 way should the just distinction between the different cases be esta- 
 blished; if Trading and Professional Income were included in the 
 Return of Income, then, by its increasing the rate of charge on the 
 Income from Property, it would be in reality charged to the Tax, 
 and all the objections to a general Income Tax would thus be 
 experienced though such a Tax were not expressly imposed. 
 
 As however it has been alleged by the opponents to a gradu- 
 ated Property Tax that it would be tantamount to an equalization 
 or rather a confiscation of Property, and an unjust sacrifice of 
 
 * Vide Note page 203. 
 
the Rich, it may be observed (reverting to former argument, 
 page 218) that there is a wide difference between the impo- 
 sition of a Tax (whether it be a Property Tax or an Income 
 Tax) in lieu of other Taxes and the imposition of it in addition to 
 them; incase of its substitution for other Taxes, then, with a view 
 to regulate it justly, it may be inquired how do those Taxes now 
 operate on the rich and on the middle and poor classes re- 
 spectively : in apportioning the new burthen some consideration 
 should be had to the degrees of relief from the old burthen 
 which the different classes would respectively receive : do the 
 higher classes contribute to the present Taxes in the increasing ratio 
 in which a graduated Property or Income Tax would bear on 
 them, or in proportion only to the amount of their expended 
 Incomes beyond those of inferior amount, or do they contribute 
 less in proportion to the amount of their Incomes than the in- 
 ferior classes contribute? It may perhaps be answered, that the 
 proper question is not what the rich do pay but what they ought to 
 pay ; whichever may be the proper way of viewing the question 
 its importance is in principle only, for it must be borne in mind 
 that the bulk of the public Revenue will necessarily be derived 
 from the vast number and aggregate amount of middle and infe- 
 rior Incomes, not from the large individual amounts of a compa- 
 ratively few : to repeat a former observation, " the larger the pro- 
 " portion of the whole Income found among the lower classes the 
 " higher must be the graduated Scale."* A Property Tax charg- 
 ing in all cases at the same general rate, would also, as not involv- 
 ing a consideration of the Incomes of the parties from every 
 source, produce an unequal effect ; but a graduated Property Tax 
 would not only fail of curing that evil and in all probability would 
 increase it, but it would certainly be attended with the additional 
 one of inquisitorial and vexatious procedure. 
 
 * Page 236. 
 
275 
 
 proper addition to the burthen to be thrown on Property. The 
 following' Table is offered by way of illustrating' a plan of this 
 description without pretending to exhibit such a progression of 
 Rates of Charge as would be most fair and expedient in practice^ 
 The additional Rate proposed in each Class is, in this illustration, 
 the same as the graduated Rate of Charge in that Class, the effect 
 of which is, to double the graduated Rate of Charge in respect of 
 that part of the Income in each Class which is derived from Pro- 
 perty. 
 
 Total 
 Income. 
 
 £. 
 60 .. 
 
 Graduated 
 Scale 
 of 
 Charge. 
 
 1 per Cent. 
 
 Amount of 
 
 Tax on 
 graduated 
 
 Scale. 
 £. s. d. 
 12 
 
 Proportion of 
 
 Income 
 
 derived from 
 
 Property. 
 
 £. 
 
 .. 15 .. 
 
 Additional 
 
 Tax on 
 
 ditto. 
 £. s. d. 
 3 0. 
 
 Total 
 
 Amount of 
 
 Tax. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 . 15 
 
 100 .. 
 
 2 
 
 ?> 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. 20 .. 
 
 8 0. 
 
 . 2 8 9 
 
 200 .. 
 
 3 
 
 »» 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. 50 .. 
 
 1 10 . 
 
 . 7 10 
 
 300 .. 
 
 4 
 
 55 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. 100 .. 
 
 4 0. 
 
 . 16 
 
 500 .. 
 
 5 
 
 a 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 
 
 — . . 
 
 . 
 
 . 25 
 
 1000 .. 
 
 6 
 
 » 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. 500 .. 
 
 30 . 
 
 . 90 
 
 1500 .. 
 
 7 
 
 » 
 
 105 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. 300 .. 
 
 21 . 
 
 . 126 
 
 2000 .. 
 
 8 
 
 55 
 
 160 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. 2000 .. 
 
 160 . 
 
 . 320 
 
 2500 .. 
 
 9 
 
 55 
 
 225 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. 700 .. 
 
 63 . 
 
 . 288 
 
 3000 .. 
 
 10 
 
 55 
 
 300 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. 1000 .. 
 
 100 . 
 
 . 400 
 
 This graduated Scale, as compared with that of which it is a 
 variation, makes a distinction between Income derived from Pro- 
 perty and Income derived from other sources which appears more 
 simple and better defined. It would however make no variation 
 in the procedure necessary for carrying it into effect. 
 
276 
 
 THIRD PART. 
 
 Plan of diminishing the National Debt by means of an Income or 
 Property Tax, without increase of Taxation, and without a 
 Sinking Fund or Surplus Revenue, 
 
 Redeemable Income or Property Tax. 
 
 It appears decided,* that no other kind of Sinking Fund than 
 such as consists of real Surplus Revenue shall be hereafter re- 
 sorted to as a means of discharging the National Debt. Surplus 
 Revenue, or the Excess of the Public Income beyond the amount 
 of the Public Expenditure and the Annual Charge of the Debt, is 
 the only real means now in operation for reducing the Debt, but a 
 consideration of the present amount of that surplus in comparison 
 with the total amount of the Debt, leads to the conclusion, that 
 unless the Surplus be increased by a very great addition of annual 
 Taxation, either all hope and intention of ever discharging or ma- 
 terially diminishing the Public Debt must be abandoned, and it 
 will remain a permanent burthen on the Country ; or, if it be ab- 
 solutely necessary to discharge or diminish it, some other more 
 practicable and effectual scheme, such as it is conceived a re- 
 deemable Income or Property Tax only holds out, must be re- 
 sorted to. 
 
 In case of a redeemable Income or Property Tax, provision would 
 be made for the redemption and purchase of the part charged on 
 Lands and Houses by means similar to those by which a large 
 
 * Vide— Fourth Report of Select Committee on Public Income and Expenditure, 
 
 1828. 
 
277 
 
 portion of the present Land Tax has been redeemed, but with some 
 modification of the terms and other regulations of that measure, 
 in order to render the proposed Plan more acceptable and satis- 
 factory. 
 
 The advantages and expediency, together with some of the most 
 material part of the detail of the Plan, will be now fully entered 
 into. 
 
 Voluntary Redemption of the Tax, and the mode and terms 
 
 of it. 
 
 I ■ 
 
 The plan of a redeemable Income or Property Tax has great 
 
 recommendations. 
 
 It may be a bargain or contract perfectly voluntary on the part 
 
 of individuals entering into it. 
 
 It immediately conveys an individual benefit proportionate to 
 
 the cost which it requires. 
 
 As it proceeds, however gradually, and to whatever degree it 
 
 proceeds, however inconsiderable, it creates a change which is a 
 
 general as well as an individual benefit. 
 
 Although it is natural to entertain feelings against any scheme 
 of the State which demands a pecuniary sacrifice, and objections 
 to it are readily conceived and started; yet if the Public Debt 
 be a national evil, and if it must be got rid of wholly or in 
 part, it may be submitted that there is no plan for that purpose so 
 feasible as that which renders the sacrifice a vol untary one on the 
 part of the person making it, and which will give him an equiva- 
 lent benefit, not prospective merely and uncertain, such as 
 additional Taxation raised in order to create an accumulating 
 Sinking Fund holds out, but such as would be both certain and 
 immediate, which shall be, as it were, an exchange between the 
 Creditor and Debtor, by which they will be at once left, in respect 
 of virtual Income, relatively as they previously stood, and after 
 which one will benefit and the other will suffer no longer by 
 Taxation, the Debtor will give up and the Creditor will receive 
 directly so much Rent or Profit, instead of transferring it indirectly 
 
278 
 
 through the channel of Taxation, and neither will in reality be 
 richer or poorer. 
 
 To exonerate Estates from annual Taxation by disposal of parts 
 of them would doubtless be beneficial to Holders of Lands, &c. it 
 would be as an investment of Capital at the usual rate of Interest 
 on the best possible security, their own Property ; though they 
 would surrender parts of their Estates, they would suffer no loss of 
 Income ; the measure would also convert the Fundholder into an 
 Owner of real Property, put the Mortgagee into possession of a due 
 part of the Property mortgaged, and by thus changing the nature 
 of the Property of the Public Creditors it would render it more 
 substantial and would free them from dependance on the annual 
 levy of Taxes out of the pockets of others, forming altogether a 
 most satisfactory mode of adjustment of the Debt between the 
 Creditors and the Debtors. 
 
 As the change would be desirable with respect to the Fund- 
 holder, so should it be with respect to the Owner of Real Property. 
 In giving up a part, he would not only be relieved from Taxation 
 in respect of the rest of his Estate, but the value of the part thus 
 exonerated would be equal to the value of the whole Estate before 
 exoneration. 
 
 The present Land Tax is a charge on the Rent only • but the 
 plan of Redemption of Income or Property Tax might be ex- 
 tended to the charge on the Profits of Occupation ;* in such case 
 the Owner or other person redeeming or purchasing might have 
 the election to redeem or purchase that part jointly with the Tax 
 on the Rent, or to decline the redemption or purchase of the Oc- 
 cupation Tax, leaving the occupier subject to annual charge and 
 payment of that part of the Tax. 
 
 If an Owner redeemed the Occupier's Tax he would be entitled 
 to demand it of the Occupier as so much additional Rent ; if the 
 Occupier redeemed it, the Estate at the end of his lease would be- 
 
 * This suggestion is offered in case the Charges on the Rent and Profits, viz. — on 
 the Landlord and Tenant, be not consolidated into one as proposed under a preceding 
 head, p. 175. 
 
279 
 
 come charged for the benefit of himself and representatives to the 
 amount of the Tax redeemed. 
 
 The length of time necessary for payment of the Consideration 
 for redemption of Income or Property Tax on an Estate might, 
 unless part of it were sold for the immediate accomplishment of 
 the bargain, depend on the amount of the Consideration compared 
 with the total Value or annual Profit of the Estate or on any other 
 resources possessed by the party. In case of an Income Tax on a 
 high scale, and if the party proposed to redeem the Tax on the 
 whole of his Property, and that Property constituted the whole or 
 the greatest part of his Income, a long period for paying the Con- 
 sideration would be necessary. The number of the Instalments 
 should be at the election of the party, providing that Interest 
 were paid on each Instalment after the first, at such rates as 
 are payable on redemption of Land Tax by Instalments. As soon 
 as the party had paid one Instalment, the Estate should be no 
 longer subject to annual Assessment. 
 
 Suppose the Consideration to be equal to 30 years purchase, 
 and to be paid by 20 yearly Instalments, then the annual Pay- 
 ments would be I J year's Tax, together with the interest, the 
 amount of which would diminish on each successive Instalment; 
 the Interest would be equal to the Tax redeemed, deducting there- 
 from a sum bearing the same proportion to the amount redeemed 
 as the amount of Stock transferred or number of Instalments be- 
 fore paid would bear to the whole amount of Stock or number of 
 Instalments agreed to be trant'trred or paid. Interest would of 
 course be justly chargeable as in other cases of pecuniary transac- 
 tions where the object of purchase is at once obtained, but the 
 payment of the Purchase Money is deferred to a future period. 
 
 The mode of redemption may be varied to suit the particular 
 circumstances or inclinations of different persons. There was a 
 provision for the redemption of Land Tax in the way of additional 
 Assessment by payment of an annual sum, equal in amount to the 
 Land Tax to be redeemed, during the term of 18 years certain, or 
 until the money raised by such additional Assessments should, 
 with the accumulating Interest arising from it, purchase Stock 
 equal to the usual Consideration for redemption, the exoneration 
 of the Estate commencing- in one case on the completion of the 
 
280 
 
 term of 18 years and in the other on the accumulation of the re- 
 quired sum of Stock. Some parties would probably prefer such 
 a mode of redemption of Income Tax, but they might have the 
 option to be additionally assessed for a larger or a less sum than 
 the amount proposed to be redeemed, the term of such Assessment 
 in that case being necessarily shorter or longer. 
 
 It might however not make much difference in the end, in respect 
 of the total amount paid for the Redemption, whether it were ef- 
 fected by paying the Consideration by Instalments, with Interest, 
 the annual Assessments ceasing on Payment of the first Instalment, 
 or whether by additional Assessment, the usual annual Assessment 
 being continued during a certain term: the difference would be 
 in the procedure, in the one case all operations of Taxation would 
 at once cease, in the other they would be continued for a limited 
 time. 
 
 Instead of entering at once into a Contract for the redemption of 
 any particular amount of Tax, a person might be allowed to pay 
 to Government any Sum of Money whatever by instalments 
 (however unequal) and at any periods (however irregular) which 
 might be most convenient to him, the same to be vested in the Funds 
 in his behalf, and to accumulate for the purpose of redeeming, at any 
 period afterwards, to be determined by him when it shall arrive, 
 such sum of Income Tax as the accumulated amount of Stock should 
 be equivalent to, and for exonerating any Estate which he may now 
 or hereafter possess on which such a sum of Income Tax should 
 be charged. One benefit of this arrangement to the parry would 
 be r that after purchasing Stock for this particular purpose he would 
 be secured against the disadvantage of a rise in the price of Stock 
 which he might have to meet if he waited until he entered into 
 a contract, and would also be secure against his own less advan- 
 tageous expenditure or application of his money. 
 
 It is submitted that the Consideration for the redemption of 
 Income Tax should not be required to be more than would pur- 
 chase an equal amount of Dividend in the Public Funds : for the 
 Redemption of the Land Tax the Consideration is required to be 
 such a sum of Stock in the 3 per Cents, as will yield a Dividend 
 exceeding the Land Tax by one-tenth of it, the bargain is there- 
 
281 
 
 fore a loss of Income to the Contractors; the high price of the 
 Funds is regarded as operating" against the measure, but that loss 
 occurs equally whether the Funds be high or low. The excess of 
 one-tenth may have been considered partly as necessary to defray 
 the expence of the carrying the measure into effect, (which how- 
 ever it may be added that excess has far exceeded,) but such ne- 
 cessity would not exist, it is conceived, to near such a degree in 
 case of the redemption of an Income or Property Tax, and whatever 
 additional expence would be unavoidable mighty considering the 
 low rate of charge of collecting the Income Tax and the reduc- 
 tion which the measure would occasion in that charge, fairly be 
 paid out of the general Revenue, thereby rendering the exonera- 
 tion of the Income Tax and the price of it exactly equivalent 
 to each other. 
 
 It may also be submitted whether, besides a rate of Consi- 
 deration lower than the Land Tax Redemption Act offers, other 
 advantages might not be granted for the redemption of the In- 
 come Tax. The right gained, under the provisions of the Land 
 Tax Redemption Act, to votes at Elections for Members of Par- 
 liament is confined to those who purchase it as Strangers to the 
 Estates charged with Land Tax. It might induce the redemption 
 of much Income Tax if those authorized to redeem the Tax charged 
 on Lands, Tenements, &c. of such a tenure as according to the 
 Laws and Customs relating- to Elections does not now confer on 
 them the right of voting, should be entitled to votes in respect 
 thereof if the sum redeemed were not less than 40s. or such higher 
 amount as may be considered expedient. 
 
 Persons who purchase Land Tax on Estates in which they have 
 no interest are subject to a mode of proceeding w r hich is circuitous 
 and troublesome, and probably attended with some expence not 
 intended by the Act ; their offers are also laid open to competi- 
 tion, for which purpose public notice of them is given, putting up 
 the Land Tax in such cases as it were to the highest bidder* In 
 case of the sale of the Income or Property Tax, strangers might 
 be enabled to purchase on the same terms as persons interested in 
 the Estates, with no other restriction than a previous notice to the 
 Owners of the Estates to give them the opportunity to redeem 
 
 2 o 
 
282 
 
 within a certain time, otherwise the offers of the strangers should 
 be proceeded in. 
 
 It is conceived that every facility in the mode of proceeding and 
 that liberal encouragement in the terms of redemptions and sale 
 may with fair policy be offered to persons willing to redeem or pur- 
 chase ; whatever their motives, whether arising in any degree from 
 public spirit or wholly from private views, as the individual bar- 
 gain would be a general benefit it would deserve to be treated as 
 a patriotic or a meritorious act. 
 
 Compulsory Redemption of the Tax, 
 
 It has been before stated to be a great recommendation of the 
 Scheme of Redemption and Purchase of an Income or Property Tax 
 that it admits of a perfectly voluntary transaction on the part of the 
 individuals entering into it. Any contemplation of rendering it an 
 obligatory Act in any manner or degree must arise from the abso- 
 lute necessity of reducing the excessive amount of the National 
 Debt and from the expediency of imposing such obligation, as an 
 alternative, in case the Redemption and Purchase of the Tax vo- 
 luntarily were not carried to a sufficient extent ; it may however 
 be observed, that such an alternative expedient might be as jus- 
 tifiable as the levy of Surplus Revenue by annual Taxation for the 
 specific purpose of liquidating the Debt — the Produce or Profits 
 of Property as being forcibly attached by one as they would be by 
 the other measure, and it may be immaterial to the real interests 
 of the parties concerned whether their Property be burthened 
 with an annual charge in perpetuity, or whether an equivalent 
 part of their Property be taken in liquidation of the charge. The 
 expedient may be also defensible on the principle which is con- 
 stantly compelling the surrender of Property on equitable terms 
 for public purposes in general. 
 
 Although it might be necessary that the plan of reducing the 
 Public Debt by a redeemable Tax should comprehend extra- 
 ordinary powers, subjecting Estates to its proceedings in some 
 compulsory manner if parties did not to a sufficient extent volun- 
 
283 
 
 tarily come forward to promote the measure; yet in order to 
 avoid as much as possible resorting to an actual use of any such 
 powers, it might on the same grounds, as parts of entailed Estates 
 are, under the Act for the Redemption of the Land Tax, disposed 
 of by the present holders for life, for the purpose of exonerating 
 the whole from that Tax, be advisable, where Lessees or Tenants 
 of Estates, whether entailed or not, have long terms therein, to 
 empower them to sell parts of them for the purpose of redeeming 
 the Income Tax on the whole ; the beneficial interest in the Estates 
 of such Lessees may generally be equal to that of the present 
 Owners, individually considered, and as the persons in occupation 
 of these Estates may be the most interested in getting rid of the 
 burthen of Taxation on them and of the proceedings of the Income 
 Tax, if constituting that burthen, such an expedient might be no 
 more than a just regard to their situations and be a less obnoxious 
 exercise of power towards the Owners, declining to take the ne- 
 cessary steps for redeeming, than any proceedings requisite for en- 
 forcing the measure on the part of the latter personally. The extraor- 
 dinary powers given by the Land Tax Redemption Act for the sale 
 of entailed Estates by those in present possession of them are sub- 
 jected to proper restrictions, with a view to protect the interests of 
 the Reversioners and to guard against any unnecessary or disad- 
 vantageous disposal of the Estates : so far as those powers have 
 been exercised in releasing entailed Property, they have operated 
 fairly and satisfactorily to the private Individuals interested and 
 with benefit to the Public. It was observed in an Official Publi- 
 cation circulated with a view to recommend that measure, that 
 " persons are by this Act only enabled to do what by every Canal 
 " Act they are compelled to do and persons in remainder are com- 
 " pelled to submit to. The principle that private inconvenience 
 " must not prevent a great public benefit has always been ad- 
 " mitted as a sufficient justification of this violation of right of 
 " private property. It was undoubtedly necessary to the success 
 Ci of this measure, from which the Public it is contended are 
 " likelv to derive such considerable advantage, that every avenue 
 " should be opened to the Land Owners to procure money for 
 %i the purpose of redeeming the Land Tax. The principle must 
 
284 
 
 " surely be admitted as a justification in the one instance as much 
 " as in the other, and the interests of the persons in remainder are 
 " not less attended to in the one than in the other. With respect 
 Ci to powers of mortgaging and granting rent charges, it is only 
 " necessary to observe that the power of mortgaging under res- 
 " trictions is given in almost every Inclosure Act; and as the rent 
 " charge to be granted cannot exceed the amount of the Land 
 " Tax, no injury can thence accrue to the remainder man." The 
 principle on which these powers have been granted (and the 
 powers to levy annual Taxation out of Property in any way and 
 to apply it whether to redeem the Public Debt or to meet other 
 public exigencies are in consonance with it) might justify the dis- 
 posal of private Property to any extent, whether in settlement or 
 not, if absolutely essential for the purpose of reducing the Public 
 Debt, and if granted under such regulations and restrictions as 
 would guard impartially all private interests and secure to them 
 advantages equivalent to the sacrifice demanded. 
 
 Compulsory Redemption to be confined to Property on its changing 
 
 hands. 
 
 A scheme to compel either the surrender of such parts of Estates 
 or the payment of such pecuniary consideration, to be otherwise 
 raised, as would be adequate to exonerate them from the Income 
 Tax charged on them, might be limited to Real Property on its 
 changing hands ; it might form a part of the plan of a redeemable 
 Income or Property Tax, if the redemption of it voluntarily should 
 not succeed to a sufficient extent, that on every change of the 
 Owner of Property unredeemed, whether by purchase, by devise, 
 or however arising, a portion of it should be surrendered for 
 the purpose of redeeming all or a certain part of the Tax charged 
 on the whole of it; in cases of change otherwise than by purchase, 
 either the necessary quantity of the Estate should be sold or 
 the new Owner should raise the Consideration by other means ; 
 in cases of change by purchase, the Purchaser would either pay 
 the consideration for redemption or would pay so much more pur- 
 
285 
 
 chase money to the Vendor, if the latter had previously redeemed 
 the whole or required portion of the Tax ; the Purchaser would 
 in either case derive virtually the same amount of Income for what- 
 ever sum of money he might wish to lay out. 
 
 It is to be considered that this limited plan of compulsory 
 surrender of parts of Estates would not deprive any one of Pro- 
 perty which he had previously been in possession of, and it would 
 not subject the new Proprietors to any loss of Income ; although 
 they would receive less nominal Income from their new acqui- 
 sitions they would pay an equal less sum of annual Tax. On Pur- 
 chasers of Property there would be no hardship, they might obtain 
 a less quantity, but that quantity exonerated from the Tax would 
 be of the same value as the greater quantity not unburthened of 
 it ; and on Inheritors the hardship would be more apparent than 
 real, a permanent Tax being as a mortgage on an Estate, a portion 
 of it might be considered as lost or useless to the new owner, 
 which portion he might as well surrender as receive no real benefit 
 from it. 
 
 If notwithstanding the limitation of the scheme, as a compul- 
 sory one, to Properties on changes of Ownerships, there should, 
 from comprehending within it changes by devise and inheritance 
 as well as changes by purchase, be a probability of such an extent 
 of Property for sale at the same period of time that the value of it 
 might be depreciated, to the impediment of the measure or to the 
 detriment of the interests of the Owners ; it might be advisable, 
 particularly in case of a high Scale of Tax, to admit, at the option 
 of the parties, of the redemption, on the first change, of a part only 
 of the Tax charged, and of the redemption of the remainder on 
 the succeeding change or changes ; or instead of availing- them- 
 selves of this option they might prefer the mode of a Contract for 
 the total exoneration, to be fulfilled by Instalments within the 
 longest allowed term. If the Contractor died before his Contract 
 was fulfilled, his Successor in the Estate would be bound to com- 
 plete it. 
 
 If a compulsory surrender of Property (in default of otherwist 
 providing the necessary Cosideration for redeeming the Tax) b< 
 applied to all Properties without waiting for changes in the owner 
 
286 
 
 ship of them, then in order that the simultaneous disposal of vari- 
 ous Properties may not be disadvantageous] y extensive, it must 
 be framed under restrictions regulating the progress at a very gra- 
 dual and uniform rate : for this purpose either every County, Dis- 
 trict or Place might be required to effect annnally the redemption 
 of a certain proportion of its Quota of the Tax charged on the Pro- 
 perties situate within it, or a certain number of Counties, Districts, 
 or Places might periodically be selected, on which the obligation 
 of redeeming the Tax or a part of the Tax charged therein should 
 fall. A selection having regard to the distances of the Counties, 
 &c. from each other might be necessary, with a view to obviate, if 
 the Consideration for Redemption could not generally be raised 
 without sale of Property, those obstacles and disadvantages which 
 proximity might raise or increase on the occurrence of numerous 
 sales at the same period of time. 
 
 Estimates of the Extent and Cost of Redemption : also the pro- 
 bable Effects of it on Funded and on Landed Property re- 
 spectively. 
 
 The following rough computations and further observations are 
 offered with a view of assisting in a more detailed way to estimate 
 to what extent, and at what cost, it may be possible, by a redeem- 
 able Income or Property Tax, to effect the very important object 
 of reducing the National Debt in the most equitable manner. 
 
287 
 
 Estimate of Net Charge of Income Tax under each Schedule according to 
 
 different Scales. 
 
 Schedules. 1st Scale. 2d Scale. 3d Scale. 4th Scale. 5th Scale. 6th Scale. 7th Scale. 
 
 Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions. 
 
 A. on Rents ofi £ £ £ £ £ £ £ 
 Lands, Houses, > 64 ..9 .„ llf ,. 13^.. 16J .. 19^.. 22 
 &c. ........ 3 
 
 B. on Profits of } 
 
 Occupation of > 14, ..3 .. 3f .. 4f . . 5f . . 6 T %. . 8 
 Lands j 
 
 C. on Dividends ~) 
 
 ofFundedPro->3 T V .. 4J . . 5} . . 6^.. 8 .. 9^,. 1QJ 
 perty, &c } 
 
 D. on Profits of } 
 
 Trade, Profes- £ 3-& .. 4f .. 5f .. 6f .. 81 .. 9| .. 11 
 sions, &c ) 
 
 E Officeltc:.°. f ^ "_* -J* .._H» J* -^ •• 3| 
 
 Total.. £16 £22 £28 £34 £41 £47 ~£55 
 
 It may be premised that the amounts of Charge under the 
 several Schedules are given as resulting from Rates of Charge 
 which are higher in respect of Incomes derived from Property 
 (Sch. A. and C.) than of Incomes derived from other sources 
 (Sch. B. D. and E). A graduated Scale of Charge on Incomes 
 according to individual amounts might be objectionable in case the 
 Tax on Property were subjected to redemption ; it might not be 
 equitable to allow permanent exoneration to some Lands on easier 
 terms than to others, because the aggregate Incomes of the re- 
 spective Owners or Tenants for the time being happened to be 
 of different amounts, — but the reasons for objecting to a graduated 
 Scale would not apply to a Scale charging all Income derived 
 from Property at a general Rate higher than the general Rate at- 
 tached to Income derived from other sources — if a Property Tax 
 and not an Income Tax were established less difficulty with respect 
 to a graduated Scale, or to a distinction of Rates of charge might 
 ensue — but in case of an Income Tax, whether the graduated 
 Scale were admitted or not, the aggregate amount of the Tax 
 
288 
 
 under any particular Schedule might be nearly the same, and 
 therefore the above Estimate might approximate it computed in 
 either way. The last two or three Scales are higher than might 
 be required for the particular purpose of diminishing the Na- 
 tional Debt, they are introduced for the sake of completing the 
 Series of Scales of charge offered in this Work. 
 
 Very nearly the whole of the Tax charged under Schedule C, 
 which comprehends Income derived almost wholly from the Pub- 
 lic Revenue, would in effect be a discharge of the Interest of the 
 National Debt to that amount and a cancellation of the same pro- 
 portion of the Principal Stock ; the remaining sum of Interest and 
 Principal, or as great a proportion thereof as it would be expe- 
 dient to discharge, mig'ht be liquidated by the redemption of the 
 Tax on Income chargeable under Schedule A. or under Schedules 
 A. and B. Nearly the whole of the Tax under Schedule E. being 
 obtained from the Pay, Salaries, &c. of Public Servants, would, 
 like the Tax under Schedule C, be in effect Taxation abolished. 
 
 Suppose that after deducting the amount of Government Life 
 Annuities which could not consistently with engagements to the 
 Annuitants be paid off, and the Long Annuities, which, expiring 
 in 1860, it might be unnecessary to pay off, amounting together 
 to about £2 millions, the amount of the charge of the Public 
 Funded Debt of Great Britain remaining to be discharged would 
 not exceed £25 or £26 millions ; but considering such a national 
 fund as the Public Debt, if of a moderate extent, rather as a conve- 
 nience to be retained than an inconvenience to be got rid of, that 
 it were not expedient to discharge more than four-fifths of that 
 amount, — say, £20 millions ; suppose that a Scale of Income Tax, 
 such as the 3rd Scale offered in this Work, were imposed ; then as- 
 suming that the foregoing rough Estimate would approximate the 
 actual eesult of a Tax on that Scale, it would appear that after de- 
 ducting from the Total Sum to be discharged, the Tax charged 
 under Schedule C. on Income derived from the Revenue as being 
 so much Interest of Debt at once discharged by the Tax itself, or 
 as it might be declared to be, so much of the Principal Stock can- 
 celled as being the price of redemption of the rest of the Stock, 
 there would remain to be liquidated by the Redemption or Pur» 
 
289 
 
 chase of the Tax on Real Property such an amount, say £15 mil- 
 lions, as the redemption of the amount of the Tax under Schedules 
 A. and B. of that Scale would be equal to. 
 
 The total estimated amount of the Income Tax of the 3rd 
 Scale (£28 millions) is less than double the amount of the late 
 Property Tax, and is at the rate of about 17$ per Cent, of the 
 Total Income estimated as attainable for charge. 
 
 The nominal* Pound Rates of Charge on Income derived from 
 Property (Schedules A. and C.) and on fncome derived from 
 other sources (Schedules B. D. and E.) respectively, exclusive of 
 Wages, &c, would, according to the foregoing Estimate, be 
 about as follows : — 
 
 Schedules. 
 
 A. and C. 
 
 B. D. and E. 
 
 Estimated amount 
 
 of Income 
 
 attainable for 
 
 Charge. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 £86 A 
 
 72 
 
 Estimated 
 amount 
 of Tax. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 . £17 
 11 
 
 Nominal Pound Rates 
 
 of Charge computed on 
 
 Income attainable 
 
 for Charge. 
 
 *. d. 
 4 
 
 £158 T V 
 
 £28 
 
 3 
 
 3 6 
 
 Allowing for the Saving in the expence of collecting an In- 
 come Tax of £28 millions, a Repeal of the present Taxes to an 
 amount exceeding £29 millions would follow, or 5 as the Expendi- 
 ture of Government beyond the sum disbursed for the personal 
 Pay, Salaries, &c. of all its Servants, that is, the incidental Ex- 
 pences of the several Public Departments, would be diminished by 
 the reduction of Prices after the repeal of the present Taxes, and 
 probably the amount of that diminution would not be much less 
 than £2 millions, a repeal of the present Taxes to an amount of 
 nearly £31 millions might ensue. 
 
 * The nominal Rate of Charge must be fixed at such a Sum as the amount of Income 
 attainable for charge would require in order to produce the desired amount of Tax from 
 all Incomes declared liable, the real Rate of Charge would be such a Sum as the ag- 
 gregate amount of Incomes declared liable, including any proportion which might 
 escape Assessment, would give,— the real Rate would of course be so much less than 
 the nominal Rate as the amount of Income attained for charge fell short of the amount 
 of Income declared liable to charge. 
 
 2 p 
 
290 
 
 Supposing 1 the amount of Rents and Profits of Land, &c. 
 (Schedules A. and B.) estimated as attainable for charge be too 
 high for the present period of Agriculturalde pression, and that the 
 rates of Charge as laid down for the 3rd Scale of the foregoing 
 Series would not produce the assumed amount of Tax, a higher 
 Scale of Charge must be resorted to in order to produce that 
 required amount, but it would not be necessary to increase the 
 rates of Charge in the degree in which the actual amount of the 
 Rents and Profits might fall short of the assumed amount of them ; 
 for the less the amount of Income not derived, from the Revenue 
 might be to the amount of Income derived from it than the Esti- 
 mate assumes, the larger would be the proportion falling on the 
 latter of the whole amount of the Tax than the Estimate affixes to 
 it, and consequently on the assumption that the Tax permanently 
 charged on the Interest of the Debt would be tantamount Debt 
 discharged, there would remain so much less of Debt to be dis- 
 charged out of Real Property, and of course so much less Tax and 
 Consideration for Redemption of Tax would be required from 
 Property. 
 
 The amount of Cost or Money Consideration payable for the 
 Redemption of Income or Property Tax would fluctuate with the 
 price of the Public Funds, but for the sake of estimating what 
 would be the highest amount of Consideration which, in the aggre- 
 gate, could be demanded, let it be supposed that the whole of the 
 redeemed Principal Stock would be bought at Par: suppose that 
 the amount of Tax the redemption of which would be necessary to 
 discharge the portion of the Debt required to be discharged would 
 be £15 millions, the total amount of Consideration, at the price of 
 £100 Stock for £100 Money, would be £500 millions, and the 
 whole amount of the redeemable Tax would be redeemed at 33J 
 years' purchase. This Sum of £500 millions does not include 
 any Excess of Consideration, such as the one-tenth which is re- 
 quired in the Redemption of the Land Tax beyond the amount 
 necessary to purchase a Dividend in the Funds equal to the Land 
 Tax to be redeemed, it being proposed that such Excess should 
 not be demanded on the Redemption or Purchase of Income Tax. 
 If however it may be anticipated that the Public Fuuds would 
 fall instead of rising, and that the average price of them during 
 the term of redemption would be 80 per Cent., the aggregate 
 
291 
 
 amount of the Consideration would be £400 millions, and the 
 Tax would be redeemed at 26" year's purchase. 
 
 It may be doubtful whether the certainty of a liquidation of the 
 National Debt or of the greatest part of it, would advance the 
 price of the Funds while in the course of redemption : the prospec- 
 tive duration of such Property to any large extent would be so 
 much shortened as might induce many of those possessed of it 
 and of those having other Capital for investment to seek at once 
 different security, and thus lessen the demand and value of Funded 
 Property; if the regular and large demands of Stock for pur- 
 chase and cancellation under the operation of the Redemption of 
 the Income Tax maintained it at a high price, that circumstance 
 might also discourage private purchases, and induce a preference 
 to other means of vesting or employing Capital. In assuming 
 however, for the sake of shewing the utmost cost which the re- 
 demption of a certain amount of Tax could possibly occasion, that 
 the Funds would rise to and continue at the high price of £100, 
 it may be as reasonably assumed that the value of other Pro- 
 perties would keep proportionably high, or that whatever the 
 value of one, the value of others would preserve the usual or due 
 relation to it, for it is conceived that facilities for carrying the 
 plan of Redemption into execution would arise out of the plan 
 itself and assist that effect; after it had been commenced the 
 Fundholders, to whom their Capital would revert, would be under 
 the necessity of finding other means of investment, and the Owners 
 of Lands and Houses might avail themselves of that necessity to 
 dispose the more easily and advantageously of their Propertv ; a 
 constant supply and demand proportionate to each other would 
 be kept up ; purchases or mortgages of Lands and Houses would 
 be sought for equally with purchases of Funded Property; it is 
 therefore not apprehended, even if the measure were rendered 
 compulsory in any manner and to whatever extent carried in any 
 given time, that the value of Funded Property would rise dis- 
 proportionably higher than the value of Real Property, but it may 
 be expected that the two Classes, the Debtors and Creditors, 
 would render themselves auxiliary to the progress of the measure 
 in a manner equitable and beneficial to both, while the instru- 
 mentality of the Tax in the adjustment between them would ob- 
 
292 
 
 tain from the State the necessary guarantee and responsibility for 
 the fairness and security of the whole transaction.* 
 
 The saving and relief arising- from the Repeal of Taxes on Ex- 
 penditure would not only enable the Proprietors of Land, &c. 
 more easily to pay the substituted Income Tax but to provide the 
 pecuniary Consideration for redeeming it, and they would have less 
 occasion to resort to a sale of any part of their Estates. It might in 
 general be paid out of Income and not necessarily out of Property. 
 In cases of Estates mortgaged, the Mortgagees as proportionably 
 interested might voluntarily join the Proprietors in redeeming the 
 Tax and assist in their own exoneration from it : if expedient they 
 might be subjected to obligatory enactments in common with the 
 Proprietors. If the Mortgagees did not furnish their proportion 
 of the Consideration, the Proprietors would contiuue to deduct 
 the Tax from the Interest payable to them. 
 
 If the Funds advanced to £100, and if there nevertheless should 
 be an extensive demand on the part of private individuals for in- 
 vestment in them, it may be conceived that in proportion as the 
 aggregate of the Principal Stock diminished by redemption of 
 Income Tax, and as Government might from its large purchases 
 for that purpose take off from time to time the greatest part to be 
 sold, there would be difficulty in obtaining sufficient private in- 
 vestments ; therefore if such security as Taxation and the guarantee 
 of the State should continue to be preferred by many of those 
 possessed of disposable Capital to any other kind of investment, 
 they might be inclined to bargain with the State for the loan of 
 the amount at a less rate of Interest than the old Funded Debt 
 would yield, for such certain limited periods as might be agreed 
 to ; with the monies so raised a New Debt could be created, and 
 a large part of the Old Debt could be discharged with a great 
 saving of annual Interest — the New Debt might be discharged by 
 the Consideration for Redemption of Income Tax at the end of 
 the stipulated period of its duration, or if, as before suggested, it 
 
 * The value of Funded Property may be occasionally affected by events or circum- 
 stances which do not at the instant act upon the value of Landed or other Property, 
 but those effects may be temporary, or if of a lasting nature, they may be expected to 
 be followed in time by similar effects on the value of other Property. 
 
293 
 
 might be expedient that some portion of the National Debt 
 should remain permanently unredeemed as a public convenience 
 and accomodation — the part reserved might be constituted on the 
 reduced terms. 
 
 If the operations for raising a Consideration to the extent of 
 £400 or £500 millions be spread at an uniform rate over the space 
 of a large number of years, the practicability of the scheme of a 
 redeemable Income or Properly Tax would be greatly facilitated, 
 and any inconvenience likely to arise from great and sudden 
 changes in respect of Property and Capital would by that gradual 
 accomplishment of it be avoided. Suppose that 30 years be taken 
 for raising the desired Consideration of from £400 to £500 mil- 
 lions, then the annual payment of Consideration would be from 
 £13i millions to £16^ millions, the mean would be £15 millions, 
 also £J million of Income Tax would on the average be redeemed 
 and the same amount of the charge of the Debt be reduced in 
 every year. Assuming that a large proportion (suppose one-third) 
 of this amount would be provided out of personal Property pre- 
 viously belonging to the Owners of Real Estates, or by savings 
 made annually out of their Incomes, it is conceived that after al- 
 lowing for that portion of the total amount of Consideration to be 
 raised out of Real Property (£10 millions) which would arise in- 
 cidentally from such changes by sale as are constantly taking 
 place for private purposes, there would not remain a very consi- 
 derable amount of Consideration to be obtained by sales made 
 solely for the purpose of providing it. Contrasting the probable 
 amount to be raised both purposely and incidentally out of Pro- 
 perty chargeable to the Tax subject to redemption, with the ag- 
 gregate amouut of the value of all such Property in the Kingdom, 
 there cannot be apprehended any great difficulty or inconvenience 
 from the undertaking. 
 
 The annual amount of the present Stamp Duties on Deeds and 
 other written Instruments, Legacies, Probates, Receipts, Adver- 
 tisements, &c. amount to upwards of £3 millions. As the greater 
 part of the transactions on which these Duties are obtained take 
 place on Transfers of Property, out of the Produce of which the 
 Duties are defrayed, the saving to accrue from the repeal of those 
 
294 
 
 Duties would be equal to a large part of the Consideration an- 
 nually requisite for redeeming the Income or Property Tax. 
 
 On Sales of Property, whether taking place under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances or for the sole purpose of redeeming- the Income Tax, 
 the Vendor would receive for his own use the same consideration 
 for the Property sold as if the Redemption of the Tax had not 
 formed any part of the transaction ; the Purchaser who would 
 pay the Consideration for Redemption of the Tax as purchase 
 money for an equal amount of future Rent and Profit, would as 
 the future Proprietor of the Estate, pay or be made responsible to 
 the Public for the due payment of the Consideration. If the Ven- 
 dor had previously redeemed, he would, as before observed, pro- 
 portionably raise the price of the purchase and in fact receive back 
 the Consideration from the Purchaser.* 
 
 * For the sake of illustrating the numerical result in an instance of two or more 
 individuals concerned in the transaction, and thereby enabling a judgment to be formed 
 of the general results in all such instances, suppose the Case of a Farm of Lands let for 
 a Rent of £100. Taking in this case the amount of the Tax on the Rent (Schedule A.) 
 and on the Profits of Occupation (Schedule B.) according to the 3rd Scale of Charge, the 
 result would be as follows: — 
 
 Schedule A. 
 » B. 
 
 Rent and Profit. 
 
 .... £100 
 
 75 
 
 £175 
 
 Tax. 
 . £16 15 .. 
 9 7.. 
 
 Net Income. 
 .... £83 5 
 ... 65 13 
 
 
 £26 2 
 
 £148 18 
 
 If the consideration for the redemption of the Tax be calculated at £100 of the Funds 
 (the highest Price which could be demanded) viz. at 33£ years' purchase, the amount 
 due would be in respect of the Landlord's Tax £558 7 
 Occupier's Tax 311 13 
 
 Total.. £870 
 
 The Consideration at 33£ years' purchase would be, in respect of the Rent one-sixth, 
 of the Occupation Profit one-eighth, and of the aggregate of both, one-seventh, if they 
 be respectively computed at the same number of years; and at whatever number of 
 years' purchase the Tax were redeemed, the Consideration would be the same pro- 
 portion of the amount of Rent and Profit accumulated in that number of years. 
 
 If the Proprietor exonerated his Estate he would receive annually the Occupation 
 Tax £9 7s. from the Tenant as so much additional Rent in reimbursement of the 
 
295 
 
 Some part of the Consideration necessary for redeeming" the Tax 
 might be raised by mortgage ; that would be to substitute a private 
 for a public Creditor. A mortgage might probably be raised on 
 such terms as would charge the Estate with a sum of Interest less 
 than the public charge got rid of — the exchange of a private for 
 the public Creditor might then be a pecuniary gain. The security 
 of Land as being preferable in general estimation to the security of 
 Funded Property, and the probable increased demand for the for- 
 mer, consequent on the reduction of the Debt, might tend to give 
 this advantage to Land Owners. By the Land Tax Redemption 
 Act persons becoming- Mortgagees under the Act have a preference 
 over prior Mortgagees in respect of the Interest, though not of the 
 Principal, and the latter have a preference to advance the Money 
 required to redeem the Tax. In whatever way the Consideration 
 were raised, and whether made payable at once or gradually, the 
 riddance of future proceedings of Taxation would be an imme- 
 diate advantage, unless the party chose the mode of a double 
 annual Assessment to endure for a fixed number of years or until 
 so much Stock had been purchased as with the accumulating In- 
 terest would redeem the Tax. This mode of Redemption would 
 differ from a Contract for paying a Consideration by Instalments, 
 inasmuch as under such a Contract not only the length of the term 
 would be fixed by the Contract itself, but the Cost might be raised 
 
 Consideration paid by him for the redemption of it, and the Consideration being cal- 
 culated at the price of £100, viz. at an Interest of 3 per Cent., he would receive the 
 fair amount of Interest from the Tenant for exonerating- his Profits from Taxation • if the 
 Price of the Funds were lower the Consideration would be proportionably so, and, what- 
 ever the Price of the Funds, it might be presumed that the cost and the reimbursement 
 would bear due relation to each other. If the Tenant of the Estate redeemed the Tax 
 out of his own means he would continue to deduct the Tax from the Rent which would 
 be his reimbursement in that part of his bargain, he would be free from the Tax on his 
 own Profit, and at the end of his Lease he would possess a Rent Charge on the Estate 
 equal to the whole of the Tax redeemed by him. If a Stranger purchased the Tax or 
 any part of it, he would receive an equivalent Fee Farm Rent. Roth Stranger and 
 Tenant might be entitled to Votes at Elections by virtue of their Rent Charge. If the 
 Tax were imposed by a consolidated Charge on the Rent and Profits (Schedules A. and 
 B.) the results might be the same, instead of falling separately on Landlord and Tenant 
 as in case of separate charges, there would be an adjustment between them by a dimi- 
 nution or increase of Rent according as the Landlord or the Tenant redeemed the whole 
 Tax. 
 
296 
 
 out of any other resources of the party than the Estate to be ex- 
 onerated and without the interference of Taxation. By the mode 
 of double Assessment the length of the term would, if not fixed, 
 depend on the Price of the Funds in the several years of its duration, 
 but whether the term were fixed or not, the usual proceedings of 
 Taxation must be continued ; the total cost of either mode might 
 be nearly the same. The mode of double Assessment would per- 
 haps suit the cases of some Strangers (as well as of Owners redeem- 
 ing) who might wish to purchase Rent Charges on Real Property, 
 it would be as the purchase of a deferred Annuity on the best pos- 
 sible security, the Consideration to be paid, not at once as usual 
 on purchasing deferred Annuities, but by certain annual Instal- 
 ments, the sooner they were completed the sooner the Annuity 
 would commence ; in order to complete the bargain more quickly, 
 if wished for, the annual Assessment might be trebled instead of 
 doubled, or any number of Instalments might be paid in ad- 
 vance. 
 
 If the Consideration were, under a Contract, made payable by a 
 stipulated number of annual Instalments, with Interest to be paid 
 on each Instalment after the first, the exoneration from the Tax 
 then commencing, there would be a decreasing proportion of the 
 Tax remaining unredeemed in each year, the amount of which 
 would be equal to the Interest payable : — Suppose the period for 
 completing the Contract were extended to 33-J- years, each Instal- 
 ment would be the exact amount of the Tax, and the Interest pay- 
 able annually with each Instalment would become in fact the 
 Consideration for the Redemption of it, the first payment of In- 
 terest would be nearly equal to the Tax, and the Interest would 
 annually diminish by about fa part thereof. A Contract to be 
 completed by Instalments in that or any other great number of 
 years might be a desirable mode of fulfilling it in cases where the 
 whole Consideration could not at once be provided, but where it 
 might be convenient to raise most of it gradually in the early years 
 of the whole term, with a wish on the part of the Owner to dis- 
 burden his Estate as much as possible during his life time, and 
 leave it to his family with so much less of the cost to be provided 
 by them, at the same time to rid himself of the trouble and vex- 
 ation of Taxation. 
 
297 
 
 Advisable Variations or Alternatives in the Scheme of Redemption 
 
 or Purchase, 
 
 In cases of Contracts for Redemption of Income Tax by Instal- 
 ments to be paid within a term of several years, there might, if 
 considered most just and expedient, in the event of such a high 
 Scale of the Tax on Real Property as £15 millions, be a power to 
 raise or reduce the amount of each Instalment as it became due 
 by increasing or diminishing the part of the Tax which the Instal- 
 ment was to cover, in the ratio of any intervening increase or 
 reduction in the Rents and Profits of the Estates in cases where 
 the Instalments were payable at intervals of not less than twelve 
 months. The Cost of Redemption would then vary with the vary- 
 ing ability of the Estates to bear it : as each Instalment would be 
 payable in Money to the Stockholder according to the market 
 price on the stipulated day of payment (unless the Contractor him- 
 self possessed Stock, in which case there would be a mere transfer 
 or cancellation of Stock, and what the money price of it might be 
 would be immaterial) such a modification as is now suggested 
 would keep the Land Owner and the Stockholder, throughout the 
 whole term allowed for fulfilling a Contract, on a more equal foot- 
 ing \uth each other; the one might make and the other might 
 receive each payment more in proportion to the relative value of 
 their Properties than if the amounts of the Land Owner's several 
 payments were made to fluctuate not with the value of his own 
 Property, but only with the price of the Fundholder's Stock ; but 
 as such a modification would be attended with trouble and fre- 
 quency of proceedings, also with uncertainty as to the precise 
 result, it might be made optional with the Contractor on entering 
 into his contract to render himself subject to it ; also any such 
 alteration in the charge to the Tax might not be admissible unless 
 the increase or fall of Rent and Profit were proved to have ex- 
 ceeded a certain rate per Cent, which should be declared in the 
 Act. — Or, — If a person having at any particular time disposable 
 means, and being desirous, as more convenient to him at that time, to 
 purchase and redeem the Tax on his Estate, should object to do 
 so from anticipation of a reduction in the comparative value of it 
 
 2 Q 
 
298 
 
 and consequently in the future charge on it if not redeemed, there 
 might be such a provision as was contained in the first Land Tax 
 Redemption Act (not continued in the subsequent Acts) under 
 which though the Land Tax were redeemed the Estate should not 
 be exonerated, but be subject to any variation in the charge which 
 future variation in the comparative value might require — the party 
 in that case paying the Land Tax as before and receiving it back,* 
 having the power at any future time to exonerate the Estate by 
 application to the Commissioners, and then paying or receiving 
 back such amount of Consideration as might be further due from 
 or repayable to him in respect of any reduction or increase of 
 charge made in the interval ; he having the power also before the 
 exoneration, to assign or bequeath the Land Tax so redeemed and 
 not exonerated to any other person. 
 
 Also — instead of establishing at once such a high Scale of Income 
 Tax that the redemption of the sum charged by it on Real Property 
 would liquidate the full amount required to be discharged of the 
 National Debt, it may be deemed more expedient to commence 
 with a low Scale of Tax, and instead of a total Charge of £15 mil- 
 lions imposed in the first instance on Incomes derived from Lands, 
 Houses, &c. (Schedules A. and B.) and made redeemable in 20 or 
 30 years, as heretofore contemplated, to impose a Tax not exceed- 
 ing £5 millions thereon, but circumscribing the period for redeem- 
 ing it to 8 or 10 years; after the redemption of this sum had been 
 completed, to re-charge the same amount of Tax, allowing the 
 same period for redeeming it, and after the redemption of the 
 second Charge to impose a third Charge at the same rate, subject 
 also to redemption within the same limited term. This course of 
 operation would be one of the several variations which the Scheme 
 of a redeemable Income or Property Tax admits of for accomplish- 
 ing the Reduction of the Debt in that gradual manner which may 
 be most advisable. It might be considered by some to be the most 
 safe and cautious mode of proceeding-, as best guarding against a 
 
 * In practice the Land Tax has seldom been collected in cases where the parties 
 entitled to it have been also in possession of the Estates charged with it. 
 
•299 
 
 failure of the Scheme of Redemption, as also best calculated to 
 maintain satisfactorily every where the Charge and Price of Re- 
 demption in correspondence with the various changes in the value 
 of different Real Properties which might be expected between the 
 successive periods of renewing the Charge thereon. If this plan 
 were adopted, all Incomes derived from other sources must be 
 charged during- the first period at a Rate proportionate to the Rate 
 applied during that period to Incomes derived from Real Property; 
 during- the second period, the Rate of the first Charge on other In- 
 comes must be doubled, and during the third period it must be 
 trebled, in order that the Contributions out of those Incomes may 
 be increased in due proportion to the aggregate amount of the 
 successive Charges made on Real Property. 
 
 As another of the variations in the plan of liquidating theNational 
 Debt, of which an Income or Property Tax subject to Redemption 
 might be the basis, it may besuggested that the Consideration payable 
 for exoneration from the Tax should be calculated at the same 
 number of years purchase at which it might be determined on a 
 fair valuation that the Property itself on which the Tax is charged 
 would be worth, or that a certain number of years purchase should 
 be fixed as applicable to all Lands and the Tax on them, and 
 another but less number of years as applicable to all Houses and 
 Buildings and to the Tax on them. It would seem most just either 
 that the Tax on the Rents of Houses should be lower than the Tax 
 on the Rents of Lands, as before suggested,* or that the price of 
 Redemption should be less in one than in the other case. There 
 was a provision in one of the Land Tax Redemption Acts for 
 the redemption of the Tax on Houses at 18 years' purchase ; it 
 had a temporary operation only, the period being limited by the 
 Act; many persons availed themselves of it, but it is not supposed to 
 have been very publicly known. During the time of its existence 
 the Tax on Lauds was sold at nearly SO years' purchase. 
 
 * Vide page 177, 
 
300 
 
 Great comparative Saving in Cost and Expence, attainable under 
 the Plan of reducing the JVational Debt by a redeemable In- 
 come or Property Tax, 
 
 It may be estimated that taking the amount of the Charge of 
 the National Debt and of the Expenditure of Government to be 
 £50 millions, there would be required for the creation of a Sinking 
 Fund of £15 millions, under the present system of Revenue, a total 
 annual levy of Taxation, including Charges of Management and 
 Collection, of very nearly £70 millions ; adding to this amount 
 the excess of increase of prices beyond the Taxes themselves, there 
 would be a yearly aggregate not far short of £100 millions taken 
 out of the pockets of the Public by the process of Taxation ; but 
 in case of a general Income Tax forming the Total Revenue, with 
 such part of it subject to redemption as should be adequate to dis- 
 charge so much of the Principal of the National Debt, as remained 
 to be discharged, after deducting the portion virtually cancelled by 
 the Tax itself, not only a Sinking Fund would be unnecessary, but 
 while the aggregate nominal amount of Taxation, including Charges 
 of Collection, would not amount to £51 millions, the real amount, 
 deducting the proportion paid by Income derived from the Revenue, 
 would not exceed £38 millions ; to this latter Sum there should be 
 added the annual payment of Consideration for the Redemption of 
 the Tax on Real Property, forming an aggregate amount on which, 
 to pursue the comparison, it is to be observed, that as such an 
 amount of the Principal of the Debt would at once be virtually 
 discharged and cancelled by an Income or Property Tax, as were 
 proportionate to the annual Interest taken away permanently by 
 it, so the amount of Consideration actually to be raised from the 
 Public and paid over to the Fundholders would, under a redeem- 
 able Income or Property Tax, be very considerably less than the 
 amount of Consideration to be levied and paid to them in case of 
 a Sinking Fund or Surplus Revenue raised by other Taxes, under 
 which latter mode of discharging the Debt there would be required 
 the actual levy of an amount equal to the whole Money Principal of 
 the Debt; the Public Creditors would, under this mode, contribute 
 a large proportion to the Sinking or Surplus Fund, to be afterwards 
 repaid to themselves, as the consideration due for their principal 
 Stock, thus greatly extending an expensive, troublesome, and in- 
 
:J01 
 
 jurious process of Taxation, which would be rendered wholly un- 
 necessary by the superior means of adjustment which a redeem- 
 able Income Tax presents, under which the levy of any Consider- 
 ation for discharging that part (about one- fifth) of the Principal 
 Stock which were virtually discharged by the Tax itself would be 
 of course unnecessary. 
 
 The difference of cost, if considered with reference only to the 
 expence of Management and Collection between the two systems 
 of Taxation, would be very great. To raise a Gross Revenue of 
 nearly £70 millions by Taxation on the present system, including 
 a Sinking Fund or Surplus Revenue of £15 millions, the annual 
 Cost of Collection would exceed £4 millions; but the cost of a 
 Gross Receipt of £50 millions raised by a general Income Tax 
 would not amount to£l million; the accumulated amount of this dif- 
 ference in expence of upwards of £3 millions per annum during the 
 great length of time requisite for liquidating the National Debt by 
 a Sinking Fund, would be a very large proportion of the Total 
 Capital of the Debt; at the same time it is to be observed, that 
 the less the amount of the Sinking Fund or Surplus Revenue 
 raised by the present Taxes might be, and the longer consequently 
 its duration, the greater would in the end be this accumulation 
 and excess of Cost of Collection. 
 
 Supposing the present amount of the Surplus Revenue to be 
 on the average £3 millions per annum, and that by raising the 
 present Revenue of £50 millions by an Income Tax there would 
 be a saving in the Collection of the Revenue to the amount of £2£ 
 millions, and from the fall of Prices a further saving in the inci- 
 dental Expenditure of Government to the amount of nearly £2 
 millions, Taxation to an amount of £7 millions could be at once 
 abolished on the substitution of the Income Tax subject to Re- 
 demption. 
 
 With respect to that part of the Cost of redeeming the National 
 Debt which would be the Consideration paid by the Owners of 
 Real Property to the Public Creditors in liquidation of their 
 Principal Stock, it might not very materially differ in total amount, 
 whether the Owner of an Estate provided its share of that Cost 
 gradually by means of additional Taxation raised by an Income 
 or Property Tax out of the Rents and Profits of it for the pur- 
 pose of an effectual Sinking Fund, or whether gradually by rais- 
 
ing thereout, or out of any other resources in his possession, the 
 adequate Consideration for the Redemption of the Tax charged 
 on it, or for the latter object, by surrendering at once an adequate 
 proportion of the Estate itself; but it may be observed, that as 
 the value of all Property fluctuates under the influence of other 
 causes than Taxation, the progress and effect, and consequently the 
 Cost of any plan for reducing the Debt might partly depend on 
 circumstances, which however good the plan, it would not wholly 
 control ; as however any measure of the kind, if gradual and 
 uniform in its operation and pursued with the full assurance of a 
 perseverance in it to the entire accomplishment of its intention, 
 mio-ht counteract in some decree fluctuations in the value of Pro- 
 perty, the adoption of such a plan as would best secure the attain- 
 ment of this particular object appears highly essential ; with this 
 view it may be conceived, adverting to the fate which Sinking 
 Funds have hitherto experienced and to the like probable fate 
 of a Surplus Revenue, though even declared by law to be to a spe- 
 cified fixed amount applicable to the same object, that a redeem- 
 able Tncome Tax, from the certainty of its bona fide application 
 to the fulfilment of the avowed and real design of it would possess 
 a great advantage. The Redemption of the Income or Property 
 Tax would infallibly and inevitably effect its purpose, there could 
 be no misapplication of the produce, the means and the end would 
 be simultaneous and inseparable. 
 
 Expences of Proceedings, how to be borne. 
 
 Considering the Redemption and Purchase of Income or Pro- 
 perty Tax, though accompanied with immediate private advan- 
 tages, yet as having for its principal and ultimate object the public 
 good, it might be just and politic, with a view to encourage it, that 
 the expences attending the disposal of Property sold for the pur- 
 pose of redeeming or purchasing the Tax should fall not on the 
 individual Vendors or Purchasers, or not wholly on them, but 
 wholly or partly on the Public at large, and be defrayed out of the 
 Revenue. It might be equitable that those Classes whose In- 
 comes were derived from other sources, and who made no sacrifice 
 of Property or Capital, should bear some part of the expence of 
 the measure — to throw the expence on the Revenue at large would 
 be the means of obtaining their contribution towards it. In order 
 
303 
 
 to secure the utmost uniformity of procedure and ceconomy of ex- 
 pence, all the Legal Proceedings should be under the direction of 
 Professional men in the Public employ or of others who should also 
 be subjected to the control of Government, and be compensated for 
 their services by fixed salaries or at the most moderate rates of charge 
 if compensated according to the extentof the proceedings. This ar- 
 rangement would create a great saving of expence, and would be 
 attended with the additional advantage of preventing much trouble 
 and anxiety to the parties, they would have only to make application 
 to the proper official quarters, where they would meet with every fa- 
 cility and readiness of preparation for the execution of the business ; 
 the superintendance and responsibility of official authority would 
 also be a guarantee to the Purchasers in their new acquisitions ; 
 with a view to render that guarantee most certain, and as the ap- 
 prehension of defect of titles is often an impediment to the dis- 
 posal of Estates, it might, in order to prevent such a discourage- 
 ment to the purchase of Property offered for sale, be enacted, as 
 under the Land Tax Redemption Act in respect of parts of en- 
 tailed Estates sold for redeeming the Land Tax thereon, that all 
 sales made and conveyances executed for the purpose of redeem- 
 ing the Income Tax should confer on the Purchasers of the Lands, 
 &c. a good and valid title. That such an enactment would ex- 
 tensively promote the measure may be inferred from the follow- 
 ing observation of a Legal Commission. iC We believe it may be 
 " confidently asserted, that of the Real Property of England a 
 " very considerable proportion is in one of these two predica- 
 " ments : either the want of security against the existence of latent 
 " deeds renders actually unsafe a title which is yet marketable, or 
 " the want of means of procuring the formal requisites of title 
 " renders unmarketable a title which is substantially safe."* The 
 Land Tax Redemption Act provides that any persons injured by 
 sales guaranteeing the title as before mentioned shall be entitled 
 to relief by a Court of Equity to such amount and in such manner 
 as in its discretion it should think proper ; but it is believed that 
 there has not been occasion for seeking such relief in any instance. 
 It may, however, be observed, as the provision would extend only 
 
 * Second Report of Commissioners on the Law on Real Property — 1830. 
 
304 
 
 to guarantee to the Purchaser so much of an Estate as it would 
 be necessary to sell for the purpose of redeeming the Income Tax 
 on the whole of it, that in case a person in possession of any Estate 
 to which he had not a legal title sold a part of it for the purpose of 
 exonerating the whole from Income Tax, and the sale be de- 
 clared to give a good title to the part sold, if the rightful Owner after- 
 wards established by law his title to the Estate, he would not by the 
 previous act of the unlawful possessor be subjected to any grievance 
 requiring a remedy, for he would sustain no real injury from it, 
 though he would obtain possession of part only of the Estate to 
 which he was entitled, that part, exonerated from Taxation, would 
 be equal in value to the whole not unburthened of it. 
 
 Incompleteness of Redemption of the present Land Tax not a 
 discouragement to a Redeemable Income or Property Tax. 
 
 It appears by the Public Accounts that nearly £§ million of 
 Land Tax was redeemed in the first two years of the Land Tax 
 Redemption Act, shewing to what extent such a measure is prac- 
 ticable within a short period, even on terms less advantageous to 
 individuals than it might fairly have offered. Tt was avowed at 
 the time of its commencement (1798) in an official Publication 
 that the great object of the measure was to " relieve the pressure 
 " in time of War by taking out of the market as speedily as pos- 
 " sible a considerable quantity of the Funded Capital and there- 
 " by raise the price of the Funds." Though the great success of 
 the scheme within the first two or three years answered the expec- 
 tations of it, the Funds having from that as well as from other 
 causes risen within that time nearly 20 per Cent., yet as they after- 
 wards continued to rise or maintained their increased price, the 
 further success of it became a less important object; the rise of 
 the Funds was considered as increasing the disadvantage of laying 
 out money in the redemption or purchase of Land Tax ; but more 
 favorable terms could not, in justice to those who had redeemed, 
 be offered to those who had not. It may however seem that if the 
 present Owners of Land unexonerated will not redeem the com- 
 paratively small sums of Land Tax charged on them, it is not 
 likely that Owners of Land in general could or would redeem the 
 
305 
 
 much larger sums which an Income Tax would impose on them; 
 but it is conceived, from the smallnessof the Land Tax charges in 
 general, that it is not the want of means which retards the progress 
 of the redemption of them,but that persons interested, even if the pe- 
 cuniary loss of one-tenth, already adverted to, did not deter them, 
 would regard the riddance of the charges by redemption as a mat- 
 ter of too trivial a concern, not worth the trouble of the proceed- 
 ings, particularly as there are other Taxes, viz. Assessed Taxes, 
 with which they are always collected, and for which the Tax Col- 
 lectors must nevertheless visit them, as usual, from time to time. 
 Other causes, besides those already offered, have been also as- 
 signed for the incomplete success of the plan for the Redemption 
 of the Land Tax, among which has been the apprehension that 
 the design of the measure was, after the Redemption of the whole 
 Tax, to establish a new Land Tax: also the great inequality of it, 
 Lands, &c. in some places being charged from twice to 20 times the 
 rate at which Lands, &c. of the same extent and quality are 
 charged in other places ; then as the sum to be paid for Redemp- 
 tion may be equal to 30 years purchase or upwards, at what a 
 multiplied rate of cost must some persons pay beyond others for 
 relief from the Land Tax in respect of Property of the same value. 
 In this respect the Income Tax, from the near equality of its charge 
 on Property in general, would possess a very superior recom- 
 mendation for the Redemption of it. As far however as the mea- 
 sure of the Redemption of the Land Tax has proceeded the inten- 
 tion of it has been answered both in a public and private point of 
 view, and though it has not succeeded to the utmost desired ex- 
 tent, it cannot justly be held up in discouraging anticipation of the 
 success of another measure, which though similar in its plan may 
 be brought forward under very different circumstances, and the 
 advantage of which, in giving relief to a much greater extent 
 from the proceedings and effects of constant Taxation, renders it 
 a matter of great interest to those whom individually it would 
 more immediately affect ; it may therefore be sanguinely hoped 
 that the chief object of it, the release of one part of the commu- 
 nity from Taxation and of another part of the community from 
 dependance on it, with the more favorable and equitable terms it 
 would propose, would constitute it a more fair and advantageous 
 
 2 R 
 
306 
 
 bargain. By thus placing the two divisions of the Community on 
 a more equal footing-, and by making some minor modifications 
 in the plan, suggested by a knowledge of other difficulties which 
 have impeded the Redemption of the Land Tax, the progress and 
 success of the new measure may be assured with a confidence and 
 certainty which the plan or terms of the Redemption of the Land 
 Tax hardly entitle it to. 
 
 Probable Period of completing the total Redemption of the 
 
 Tax. 
 
 It may not be possible to anticipate with certainty the exact 
 period which would elapse before the discharge of the National 
 Debt, or of so much of it as it might be expedient to discharge, 
 would be wholly accomplished by a redeemable Income or Pro- 
 perty Tax ; much must depend on the nature and extent of the 
 powers and methods provided for carrying the measure into 
 effect. It has been stated that the whole Property of the King- 
 dom changes hands in about 30 years ; whatever may be the 
 length of time within which an entire change takes place, the 
 complete exoneration of all the Property might not, calculating 
 upon it under a limitation of imposing the obligation to redeem 
 the Tax on new Owners only, be accomplished within a less pe- 
 riod, but making allowance for a large extent of voluntary Re- 
 demption and Purchase of the Tax by the present Owners and by 
 Strangers, the greatest part would in all probability be freed and 
 discharged long before the expiration of that period. 
 
 It may be assumed that the National Debt could be discharged, 
 wholly and at once, at about the termination of 30 years by an 
 accumulated Sinking Fund operating at compound Interest, and 
 commencing at an amount of £15 millions, and gradually at 
 about the termination of 50 years by a Fund permanently of that 
 amount operating at simple Interest. 
 
307 
 
 2, Discharge of the Public Debt by an Equitable Mode of 
 Adjustment depending on the Co-operation of an Income Tax, 
 rendering it redeemable on a different Plan. 
 
 If much difficulty were likely to arise in effecting on fair terras 
 the disposal of Lands, &c. in the ordinary way of sale and pur- 
 chase of Estates, or in raising, in the manner of redeeming the 
 Land Tax, the necessary Consideration for redeeming the Income 
 or Property Tax, there may be suggested another plan for accom- 
 plishing the object of it, which might be more simple and in many 
 cases, more convenient in the procedure, and asfair and satisfactory 
 in its result to the parties interested. 
 
 A limited number of Commissioners, forming separate Boards 
 for the respective Counties, or one General Board of Commis- 
 sioners for the whole Kingdom, to be selected and appointed in 
 such mauneras the Legislature might deem most proper;* should 
 receive the offers of any Owners of Real Property voluntarily pro- 
 posing to redeem the Income Tax charged on their respective 
 Estates, and also the offers of any Fundholders willing to become 
 purchasers either of the Tax as private Rent Charges on Estates or 
 of adequate parts of Estates to be surrendered for the Redemp- 
 tion of the Tax charged on the whole, and to settle and determine 
 the terms of exchange between the parties in the most just and 
 impartial manner. 
 
 It is confidently believed that numerous Fundholders are de- 
 sirous or have no objection to change the nature of their invest- 
 ments, but in consequence of the difficulty of acquiring Real Pro- 
 perty on secure and fair terms, also with ease and convenience to 
 themselves, they are not induced earnestly to seek for the ex- 
 change. The instrumentality of a high competent Authority, whose 
 duty it would be to protect all interests equally by the strictest 
 procedure, also the legal guarantee of good title, which it would 
 
 * A Board of Commissioners, consisting- of Individuals of the highest official situa- 
 tions, and of others of high rank, was appointed in the year 1802, by which all sales of 
 Church and Corporation Properties sold for the purpose of redeeming Land Tax have 
 been sanctioned and confirmed and the legal and equitable disposal of them superin- 
 tended. 
 
308 
 
 be empowered to give to whatever Property might be acquired 
 under its consent and sanction, and the avoidance of expences in 
 the proceedings, or the very moderate amount of them, would in- 
 crease the desire on the part of the Fundholders to become Owners 
 of Real Property and to enter voluntarily into the scheme. 
 
 As it might be supposed that such a plan of reducing the Public 
 Debt, or of adjustment between the Public Creditors and Debtors, 
 could be effected without the aid or direct intervention of Taxation 
 in any way, it is necessary to observe that it could not be fully and 
 fairly carried into effect under any other system of Taxation than a 
 general Income Tax, for not only the riddance of a Tax charged 
 directly on all Real Properties would be a great inducement to the 
 Owners of them to seek the adjustment, and offers for it would be 
 more readily made, as comprehending obviously a mere surren- 
 der of so much Property as Taxation had virtually rendered value- 
 less to them, but unless the present Taxes or the greatest part of 
 them were abolished and a general Income Tax of an adequate 
 amount were imposed in lieu of them, the Owners of Estates 
 would obtain no relief in return for their surrender of the required 
 portions of them, but would remain unavoidably subject to the 
 payment and procedure of Taxes in the same degree as those who 
 had surrendered nothing. If a Tax on Property only were im- 
 posed, the present project might not bear harder on the Owners 
 of Property than a Property Tax redeemable in the ordinary way, 
 and it could certainly be carried into effect with perfect fairness 
 and justice between the Real Property Owners and the Fund- 
 holders so far as they only were relatively concerned. 
 
 It might not be an arbitrary extension of the plan to compel 
 the adjustment in cases where offers were not voluntarily made; 
 it might to many holders of Property be an alternative preferable 
 to a forced sale of Property, or to any other compulsory mode of 
 exacting the required amount of Consideration; or it might be 
 made an adjustment optional with the Landholders but not with 
 the Fundholders, or vice versa. If the Redemption of Income 
 Tax in the ordinary way of sale and purchase would be likely 
 to have the effect of depreciating the value of Real Property, 
 and according as the amount of Funded Property diminished, of 
 raising disproportionably high the value of the latter, this alter- 
 
309 
 
 native plan of exchange would be recommendable as comprehend- 
 ing* the means of more effectually preventing any undue advantage 
 being obtained by one Glass at the expence of the other. 
 
 It may however be suggested, as preferable to any plan com- 
 prehending a forced surrender of Property itself, to cease payment 
 out of Taxation of the Interest of any Creditor's portion of the 
 Debt, whether making a voluntary offer of adjustment or not, and 
 to give him an equivalent Rent Charge on any individual Pro- 
 perty which he might choose, or on which it might be determined 
 by the appointed Authority to fix it. In all such instances the 
 party would be vested with power, as in cases of Land Tax sold to 
 Strangers or to beneficial Lessees under the Land Tax Redemp- 
 tion Act, to recover it in the same way as other Rent Charges are 
 recoverable; thus, instead of the general Collector of Taxes, the 
 public Creditor, converted into a private Creditor or Mortgagee, 
 that is, the party entitled to the sum payable, would directly 
 receive it, and Property so charged, however improvable in value, 
 should be considered free from further charges to the Tax, and 
 all proceedings with respect to it, in the same manner as if ex- 
 onerated by the Owner in the usual mode of redemption, and the 
 expence and other objections to a public levy would be avoided. 
 Whether the transaction were of a voluntary nature or not, the 
 Rent Charges might be made redeemable thereafter by the Owners 
 of the Estates charged; so that although it should not be convenient 
 to them in the first instance to exonerate their Estates from public 
 Taxation, they should not lose the right to exoneration from the 
 substituted private Charges whenever it should become convenient. 
 
 On the Substitution, for some of the present Taxes , of a Property 
 
 Tax, at a low Rate of Charge, and subject to redemption, as the 
 
 most expedient means of commencing the desired Financial Re- 
 
 vision , and the sure reduction of the National Debt. 
 
 In order to relieve the Community from some of the most 
 
 onerous or unpopular of the present Taxes, it might be expedient 
 
 to impose a Property Tax in lieu of them, but without extending 
 
 the substitute, at present, to an Income Tax: the rate of Charge 
 
 might depend on the amount of other Taxes to be abolished, and 
 
 of any further possible retrenchment of the Public Expenditure. 
 
 The lowest rate with which it might be advisable to commence the 
 
 Tax would not, probably, be less than 5 per Cent. The produce 
 
310 
 
 of it at that rate, taking the Properties chargeable under Schedules 
 A. and C, might be estimated at about £4 millions — if it were ren- 
 dered redeemable, the amount subjected to redemption and pur- 
 chase (Sch. A.) might be taken at nearly £2J millions, viz. at an 
 amount somewhat exceeding the total amount of the Land Tax when 
 it was first imposed (at 20 per Cent.) in 1692, and when rendered 
 perpetual, subject to redemption, in 1798, at which latter time the 
 real rate per Cent., though greatly reduced since the first imposi- 
 tion of the Tax, was, on the average, higher than its present real 
 average rate. 
 
 x4dopting the mode and terms of redemption or purchase sug- 
 gested under the preceding heads, and considering, in comparison 
 with the present plan of the Redemption of the Land Tax, the su- 
 perior position in which a redeemable Property Tax would stand, 
 not only with reference to the more fair and beneficial terms of 
 redemption, but to the infinitely greater equality of the individual 
 Charges of it, also that the procedure of it, being such as is adopted 
 for levying the Land Tax and for effecting the Sale of it, would (with 
 some desirable and practicable modifications) be unobjectionable, 
 it might be sanguinely expected that the Redemption or Purchase 
 of it would proceed successfully, and, as it might also be hoped, 
 without the necessity of rendering it compulsory :— five or six years 
 might be a sufficient term to be allowed for the purpose,* at the end 
 of which a fresh imposition at the same rate might be laid on and 
 be made subject to redemption within the same term ; at whatever 
 rate the first or the successive impositions were charged, a pro- 
 portion of the Interest of the National Debt computed at the same rate 
 should, instead of the whole amount of Interest remaining taxed at 
 that rate, be declared to have permanently ceased at the termination 
 of the allowed periods of redemption, that is, when Real Property 
 had fully completed its part of the obligation ; also, some re- 
 duction might then be justly made in the amount of the Pay, 
 Salaries, &c. of the Public Servants, which, though not consistently 
 to be subjected to the Property Tax, yet as being increased in value 
 by the diminished price of living from the reduction of other 
 Taxes, might be lessened, as they were at former periods increased 
 
 * Upwards of one-fourth of the whole Land Tax was redeemed or sold in the first two 
 years of the Land Tax Redemption Act. 
 
311 
 
 on the ground of the then increase of the Taxes and price of living. 
 Each imposition of a Property Tax at 5 per Cent, might, together 
 with a proportionate reduction of the Pay,&c. of the Public Servants, 
 amount to not far short of £5 millions, and other Taxes to full that 
 amount might be repealed. After the trial for a few years of a Pro- 
 perty Tax, on the moderate Scale of 5 per Cent, it might be satis- 
 factorily decided whether the Tax could be justly carried on to 
 further or renewed Impositions without also imposing an Income 
 Tax on Trade and Professions, or whether the equalizing and com- 
 pensatory adjustment (discussed in the First Part of this Work*) 
 under which the untaxed Income would indirectly bear a part of 
 the burthen, would take place to a sufficient extent as to obviate 
 the necessity of resorting to such an extension of the Tax. Wait- 
 ing the event of time and benefit of experience before further pro- 
 gress were made, the Plans of Charge to the Tax, and of the 
 Redemption and Purchase of it, might be advantageously re- 
 commenced with such improvements as they should be found to 
 require. 
 
 Under all the circumstances of the present Crisis of the Public 
 Finances and Affairs in general, it is humbly conceived, that this 
 Section submits the most safe and upon the whole the most ex- 
 pedient commencement of the Financial Commutation and Change 
 which the Crisis demands. 
 
 Observations on the Advantage of a Property or Income Tax as 
 the Basis of an equitable Mode of discharging the National Debt. 
 
 Some complain that the terms on which the Public Debt is 
 now discharged are unfair or disadvantageous to the Public at 
 large, that in repaying Capital at prices higher than those at which 
 it was borrowed, more Capital is received by the Fundholders 
 than is justly due to them, and that this disadvantage is increased 
 in proportion to the increase in value of Money since the Capital 
 was lent. 
 
 It appears that the Public, though bound to pay the Interest 
 of the Debt and to continue to pay the same amount of Interest, 
 whatever may be its real rate per Cent, according to the current 
 value of the Principal, are not obliged to repay the Principal; but 
 
 * Page 129. 
 
312 
 
 that when repaid, it must be paid according* to the market price of 
 the day, not exceeding Par, whether below or above the price at 
 which it was borrowed, and whatever may, relatively to it, be the 
 value of other Properties. 
 
 Without entering- into the question, whether the present terms 
 of liquidation are unfair or disadvantageous to the public, it may 
 be surmised that if they be so, the effect may partly arise from 
 making Capital or Principal the basis of adjustment, inasmuch as 
 a certain sum of Surplus Taxation is applied as so much Capital to 
 the discharge of a certain amount of the Capital or Principal of the 
 Debt, according to the market price of the latter, without regard 
 to the relative value of the Capital or Properties cut of which that 
 Taxation has been raised; the adjustment may therefore not be 
 equitable, or if Funded Property and other descriptions of Capital 
 or Property fluctuate in different ratios* it may not be uniformly 
 equitable; but by making Income or the Tax on it the basis of 
 adjustment, a greater degree of equity is attainable. Though 
 many, if not most, of the present Fundholders have acquired their 
 Property at the higher prices of later times, and though also the 
 relation in value of Capital in Land and Capital in the Funds may 
 vary, the amount of the Income transferred by annual Taxation 
 from the Owners of the former to the Owners of the latter, whether 
 old or new Fundholders, is fixed and invariable ; it appears therefore 
 that Income or an equal Tax on it would form a fairer basis of liquida- 
 tion. The procedure under a plan of redeemable Income or Pro- 
 perty Tax would render more manifest that the Fundholders received 
 and the Landholders paid no more than the fair consideration for 
 that Interest which has been undeniably due to the former from 
 the commencement of the Debt, which has ever been paid and 
 must continue to be paid until the Principal be discharged, that 
 the Creditor were put in possession of so much Real Estate or of 
 such a direct charge on it as yielded to him the same amount of In- 
 come as he before possessed and as the Debtor surrendered, the 
 
 * The value of Funded Property does not at all times rise or fall contemporaneously 
 or in an exact proportion with the value of Landed or other Property and Capital • the 
 former is occasionally governed by circumstances which do not simultaneously affect, 
 or affect in the same degree, the value of the latter. 
 
313 
 
 one receiving directly from that Property the same amount as he 
 had ever received from it indirectly through Taxation. Under an 
 equal and redeemable Tax on Income, the alterations in value of 
 Income and of Property which the changes in value of Money 
 create would be less material, for, whether the real value or 
 nominal amount of Income be considered, both parties after 
 the settlement between them, would in point of Income remain 
 relatively the same. 
 
 Anticipating however difference of opinion on any proposed ad- 
 justment between the Public Creditor and Public Debtor, it may 
 be necessary to advert to a question which might be started, whe- 
 ther it would be unjust to the Fundholder that the Income de- 
 rivable from Real Property awarded to him should be somewhat 
 less than the Income he had received through Taxation, in con- 
 sideration that his new Property would be of a more substantial, 
 secure, and permanent nature, and that Incomes derived from 
 Lands and Incomes derived from Public Securities have generally 
 stood in that relation to each other ; acting upon this principle, the 
 Owner of Real Property would exonerate himself from a sum of 
 Taxation greater than the sum of Income which he would part with 
 in exchange for it; instead of being subjected, as under the Land 
 Tax Redemption Act, to a loss of one-tenth of Income by paying 
 an excess of Consideration at that rate beyond the Land Tax re- 
 deemed (from which excess however, it should be observed, the 
 Fundholders do not derive any advantage) he would surrender a 
 proportion of his Property, or pay in pecuniary consideration, rather 
 less than the quantity or amount which would be adequate to the 
 sum of Income Tax redeemed ; or, if it were not deemed right that 
 the Expences of the Proceedings on the Sales of Estates, and of all 
 other charges attending the execution of the measure, should as 
 just suggested, be defrayed out of the Revenue at large, so as to 
 throw the burthen of them on all Classes, then it might be deter- 
 mined, as preferable to any other mode of making some difference 
 in the terms of exchange which should be partially favorable to 
 the Owners of Real Property, that the Fundholder rather than the 
 Landholder, that the Purchaser and not the Vendor of the Estate, 
 should be subjected to the whole of the expences, and for that pur- 
 
 2 s 
 
314 
 
 pose that there should, in order to meet the whole probable expenee 
 of the measure, be a moderate deduction, at a fixed Rate, from 
 the Property awarded or from the Consideration payable to the 
 Fundholders, by which their new Incomes would be of propor- 
 tionable less amount.* 
 
 If it should be impossible by means of a redeemable Income 
 Tax to effect so exact an adjustment between Landholder and 
 Stockholder as that some degree of advantage should not, appa- 
 rently at least, be derived by one or the other ; yet, considering the 
 improvement in respect of security, of independence and of sub- 
 stantial value of the Property and Capital to be possessed by both 
 parties after the adjustment — the difference might be of incon- 
 siderable importance ; where the general state of the two Classes 
 had been materially ameliorated, and placed on a footing which 
 should be more satisfactory to both, it would hardly be matter of 
 just complaint that one side had been benefitted rather more than 
 the other. It may however be suggested that any difficulty in sett- 
 ling on a principle satisfactory to both parties the terms of ex- 
 change between the Public Creditors and Public Debtors, does 
 not render a redeemable Income Tax in particular, objectionable ; 
 that difficulty presents itself under a Sinking Fund or any other 
 plan of reducing the Debt. The terms of exchange being pri- 
 
 * The proposition of making- any distinction unfavorable to the Fundholders may be 
 approved by those persons who entertain the opinion that by an "equitable adjust- 
 " ment of Contracts" the Income of the Fundholders should be reduced to that level 
 with the Income of other Classes above which they assert that the alteration in the 
 Currency has raised it, (any specific terms of which adjustment they however do not 
 propose) j but there is a consideration of some weight, which though those persons may 
 not admit it as affecting the justice of their opinions, seems to create a dilemma on this 
 question, which is, that most of the present Fundholders have paid for their Property 
 that addition to the original cost which the rise in the price of it since the Capital was 
 first lent to the State has required, and which it may be presumed is equal to the 
 increased value of the Income derived from it, and therefore though the the Public 
 may be paying a greater annual Dividend than may appear to be due from it with 
 reference to the original value or money amount of that Capital, it would not be 
 fair that the present Fundholders should be treated like the original Loanmongers 
 or first Purchasers of Funded Property, many of whom, had they remained to this 
 time might probably from the increase of the value of Money have been in receipt 
 of Income of greater value than the value of the Capital at the time they lent it 
 would have now entitled them to. 
 
315 
 
 marily settled on as just a principle as can be attained, it is con- 
 tended that a redeemable Income or Property Tax will be the 
 most effective plan for carrying them into effect. 
 
 A redeemable Income or Property Tax may perhaps be more 
 confidently proposed in consequence of the virtual abandonment of 
 an effectual Sinking Fund. As it has been held that a Sinking 
 Fund increased or maintained the value and security of Funded 
 Property, that on an expressed or implied condition of its conti- 
 nuance, Fundholders have vested their Capital or continued their 
 investments, and that therefore its abolition is a breach of faith with 
 them, so it may be held that to establish another measure of re- 
 deeming the National Debt, which would give to those Fund- 
 holders, whose Stock it would cancel, possession of Property more 
 secure and independent and of Income of equal or adequate 
 amount, and which to those Fundholders whose Stock remained 
 untouched, would give the advantage derivable from a Sinking 
 Fund, might be an equivalent for the loss of the Sinking Fund 
 which would be justly due to the Fundholders. 
 
 Comparison of the Scheme of a redeemable Income or Property 
 Tax, for the purpose of reducing the National Debt, with 
 Schemes of Assessment on Property and Capital of every 
 Description, and particularly with the Scheme as advocated by 
 Mr. Heathjield. 
 
 With reference to the Scheme which has been proposed for dis- 
 charging the National Debt by directly assessing Property and 
 Capital of every description, it may be observed, that besides the 
 great confusion and difficulties which would attend the simul- 
 taneous or the very rapid disposal of all kinds of Capital and 
 Property contemplated in that Scheme, it would hardly be possible 
 to lay down any practicable rules and methods by which all the 
 varieties of Capital, fixed and moveable, could be brought under 
 such valuation as that the contribution out of each species should 
 be equal or proportionate to the rest ; but it may be confidently 
 assumed, that if the amount of the individual Contributions be re- 
 gulated by the actual Income derived from Real Property, or by 
 
316 
 
 an equal Tax on that Income, the Contributions will be obtained 
 by an equal or a more equal standard. 
 
 On the plan of directly assessing" all Capital whatever for the 
 purpose of paying off the National Debt, it has been observed that 
 " the Income Tax was imposed during the latter years of the War 
 iC with very considerable fairness, and it is not easy to see why 
 " the Capital belonging to individuals might not be assessed with 
 " equal facility as their Incomes ; the same sort of machinery by 
 " which the one was collected might serve to collect the other ; 
 " and as the Assessment on Capital is not to be continued, but is 
 " to cease and determine at once, there could be no good objec- 
 " tion to arming* the Commissioners with powers on such an oc- 
 " casion which might perhaps be justly reckoned oppressive were 
 " they given them to enforce the collection of a constant Tax."* 
 Even if the Assessment on Capital could, as conceived by the Re- 
 viewer, be levied so that it might cease and determine " at once," 
 such a plan would not be preferable to that of a general Income 
 Tax made redeemable solely in respect of Real Property, not 
 only because in making a Tax on the Income of Real Property 
 the basis of Redemption, there would be greater equality in the 
 Contributions of the various Ownerships of Properties, taken rela- 
 tively to each other, but because Real Property would be justly 
 and more easily relieved by the extension of the Tax to Incomes 
 derived from other sources than Property. It may very properly 
 be said, that " a Gentleman with a fortune of £10,000, yielding 
 " an Income of £500, out of which he is obliged to pay £100 
 " towards the Interest of the Public Debt, is in fact worth £8,000, 
 " and, in the most unfavorable view of the matter, he would be 
 " equally rich whether he continued to pay this £100 a-year or 
 " made at once a single payment of £2,000."* But it may be asked 
 whether it is possible to effect this change with all individuals " at 
 " once by a single payment ;" for various considerations much Time 
 must be allowed, and in the interval, those who have earliest made 
 their payments ought in justice to be proportionably exonerated 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, October 1827. 
 
311 
 
 from Taxation ; but unless a general direct Tax were previously 
 fixed on all Incomes, that exoneration could not be sufficiently en- 
 joyed; without such a Tax imposed in the first instance as the 
 basis of the measure, it would be impossible to give full relief from 
 Taxation when and where the sacrifice of Property and Capital 
 had taken place, and to leave Taxation in operation on those only 
 whose Contributions had not been made. Even if a period of 
 years were allowed for paying the whole Assessment on Capital, 
 and all Capitalists were bound to pay in each year at the same 
 rate, an arrangement which might appear to meet the objection 
 just started, yet extreme inconvenience and embarrassment would 
 be experienced by many of them. Capitalists and their Capitals 
 are under such different circumstances, that the surrender which 
 could be made without detriment to one might ruin or seriously 
 injure another ; but what the latter could not yield without ruin- 
 ous consequences at one period he might without inconvenience 
 part with at another, and therefore the necessity of admitting an 
 option, not only as to the period of the payments, but as to the 
 proportion in which each payment shall be made, so that the whole 
 be completed within the stipulated time, an accommodating mode 
 of proceeding which is safely allowable under the plan of a re- 
 deemable Income Tax confined to Real Property, is a strong 
 ground of preference to that particular Scheme. 
 
 The Scheme advocated with great ability by Mr. Heathfield, of 
 a general Assessment of 1 5 per Cent, on all Capital, Stock and 
 Goods, approximates so far to a redeemable Income or Property 
 Tax, as it proposes that Interest at 5 per Cent., charged on the value 
 of the Capital, should be annually paid until its Assessment had 
 been levied — the period allowed not to exceed 10 years ; but so va- 
 rious, fluctuating and uncertain are the values of the different 
 species of Capital, that as an Assessment made on Capital itself 
 would, as just observed, be more unequal than the Considera- 
 tion for exoneration of Real Property, regulated by a Tax charged 
 on the Income of it, so the same general annual charge of 5 per 
 Cent, interest applied to all Capitals would be more unequal 
 than a Tax charged on the actual Incomes of them and extended 
 to all other descriptions of Income, considering not only the 
 possessors of Capital relatively to each other, but all those Per- 
 
318 
 
 sons who not possessed of Capital would contribute nothing 
 under the former mode of charge. The precise ways and 
 means by which Mr. Heathfield's plan could be carried into 
 effect, are not detailed by him, but it is apprehended there 
 would be more difficulties in the execution of it than in carry- 
 ing into force a redeemable Tax on Real Property : the for- 
 mer would appear to combine the objectionable procedures 
 of the Excise and of the Income Tax ; not only all Capital 
 must before Assessment be surveyed and valued, but the inqui- 
 sitions of Stock, Goods, &c. must be annually or frequently re- 
 peated, as the quantities or extent of them varied, in order to 
 charge the Interest as a Tax where the due amount of the Prin- 
 cipal assessed had not been levied. On this point the Author re- 
 marks, " the inconvenience incident to an inquisition into the 
 " Estate and Property of every individual is undoubtedly very 
 " considerable, and for any inferior purpose ought not to be pro- 
 " posed ; the purpose in question is however of the deepest con- 
 " cern to all who feel the value of social existence ; distress and 
 " danger press, and if the measures now brought into view com- 
 " prehend the means of extensive relief, of what comparative 
 " weight is the inconvenience objected V' It is to be observed, 
 that this inconvenience would be much lessened, if Real Pro- 
 perty only were subjected to sale or surrender; the proceed- 
 ings in that case could less justiy be complained of as inquisito- 
 rial. The value of any particular Lands or Houses is no secret, 
 it is in general known to neighbours or connections, or it can be 
 ascertained without obnoxious procedure or exposure, but it may 
 be inconvenient if the value or the quantity of any particular 
 Stock or Goods in each person's possession be made known be- 
 yond himself; both the quantity and value are constantly vary- 
 ing, and could not be ascertained for the purpose of direct Taxa- 
 tion on it without frequent vexatious inquisitions. 
 
 On an anticipated objection to the plan advocated by Mr. Heath- 
 field he observes, " it is admitted that the Stockholder would 
 " enjoy an apparent advantage ; 3 per Cent. Stock, under the in- 
 " fluence of the measures recommended, would advance to £100 ; 
 " the Contribution of the Stockholder being only 15 per Cent, he 
 " would receive £85 for what would now in the market produce 
 
319 
 
 " only £70.* Upon the reinvestment of his money on Govern- 
 " ment security, at 3 per Cent., he would however receive but 
 " £2 lis. per annum, say 3 per Cent, on £85 instead of £100 ; 
 " his Income would be reduced 15 per Cent. ; and in that way 
 H an equality with the situation of the Landed Proprietor would be 
 " produced :f if indeed the Capital should not again be advanced 
 " on Government security, or when finally paid off, the Stock- 
 " holder would obtain an advantage, but not more than he would 
 " have obtained in the market, as now constituted, whenever any 
 " considerable reduction in the quantity of Stock should have 
 " been effected ; and it will not be contended that the Nation is 
 " for ever to be oppressed with Debt to prevent the Stockholder 
 " from obtaining £100 for the £100 which the Bank books record 
 " in his name. The objection applies rather to the principle on 
 " which the Stock has been created, than to the principle on 
 " which it is proposed that it shall be redeemed." The effect 
 here contended for by Mr. Heathfield with reference to his pro- 
 posed Scheme, would equally be realized under a Scheme of Re- 
 demption and Exoneration confined in form and proceeding to a 
 Tax on Real Property, for the Tax, extended to the Interest of 
 Funded Property, would virtually be a tantamount reduction of 
 the Interest of the Stockholder, and at once (as it might be de- 
 clared to be) a cancellation of a proportionate sum of Principal 
 Stock. The point then in question may reasonably be, as Mr. 
 Heathfield conceives, not what amount of Principal, what sum of 
 Money may be returned to the Stockholder for that part of his 
 Stock for which he would receive a due value out of the Conside- 
 ration paid by the Owners of Real Property, but what sum of In- 
 come that money would afterwards obtain for him, whether it be 
 re-invested in the Funds or be laid out on Land, Houses, or in 
 Trade. As the demand for Stock would be coeval with an equal 
 demand for investment in Real Property, there seems every pro- 
 
 * The price of Stock at the date of Mr. Heathfield's publication, 1819. 
 
 ■f " It may be presumed that the Accountant General, most or all the Corporate 
 " and other Public Bodies, and Charitable Institutions, the generality of Trustees,. 
 " and many Individuals, on their own account, would avail themselves of an oppor- 
 " tunity of re-investing the amount of Stock held by them or in their names, on Go- 
 " vernment Security, if paid off, and the opportunity were presented. ,, 
 
.320 
 
 bability that the different Properties would maintain their proper 
 relative value. On the above quoted passage the following re- 
 mark has been made : — iC But if the system of Contribution of 
 " Capital be gone into at all, there seems to be no injustice in 
 " paying off the Fundholders at the price at which they pur- 
 " chased; no man at present holding Property in the Funds pur- 
 " chased in the belief that Government would ever pay him or his 
 " heirs £100 sterling for £100 Stock — he invested his money in 
 " the Funds as a place of deposit, to draw the Interest in the 
 " mean time and sell out again when convenient. Parliament 
 " frequently compels individuals to surrender their Property for 
 iC the public good upon receiving a fair compensation, and there 
 " is no reason why the Fundholder should be exempted from the 
 " rule. As to any supposed impropriety in the Nation purchasing 
 " up the claims against itself at a lower price than its ohligement 
 " to pay, it may be answered that it is daily done if the Sinking 
 " Fund does any thing, for the object of that Fund is to purchase 
 " up at the market price for behoof of the Nation the claims of 
 " the National Creditors."* But if this market price should by 
 an extraordinary demand for Stock, such as the purchase of it by 
 money raised to a large extent under an Assessment on Capital 
 or by Redemption of Income Tax would create, be raised to 
 £100, it would not seem consonant with justice, even had there 
 been no engagement to the contrary existing, that the Stock- 
 holder should be compelled to take his Capital at the price at 
 which he purchased, however much below that market price ; he 
 seems entitled to sucli a consideration as would place him in point 
 of relative Income as fairly as he previously stood as a Stockholder. 
 The Sinking Fund in purchasing up at the market price has never 
 jet forced any Creditor to sell his Stock at a price lower than the 
 sum he gave for it — all sales to the Commissioners for reducing 
 the Debt have as yet been perfectly optional on the part of the 
 Vendors. 
 
 A serious objection made to the Scheme proposed by Mr. 
 Heathfield is, that the Capital of Trade and Manufacture is com- 
 prehended in its operation. As has been observed by the objectors 
 
 * Blackwood's Magazine, 1820. 
 
321 
 
 to this part of the Scheme, all such Capital is perishable, or it may 
 be transferred and exported. A large proportion of Goods, Mer- 
 chandize, &c. or the worth of them in Money could not be sur- 
 rendered without extreme embarrassment to Trade, &c. and with- 
 out the risk, by such an extraordinary loss or diversion of Capital, 
 of throwing numbers out of employ. There would be no secu- 
 rity of the solvency of the Holders assessed for Capital or of either 
 Holder or Capital remaining in the Kingdom; there would then 
 be great difficulty in attaching Trading ( Capital so as to secure 
 the Contribution due from it in a just and convenient manner. If 
 a man possessed, when the Assessment was first made, a certain 
 amount or quantity of Capital, and was rendered liable for the 
 whole of that Assessment, but was allowed a certain period for 
 discharging it, the transfer of that Capital to other persons might 
 disable him from making the payments as they became due, or 
 he might be unable to obtain any reimbursement due to him 
 from those into whose hands it had gone ; if the liability were to 
 be shifted from person to person with the Capital itself, it would 
 hardly be possible to trace and identify it through all its changes. 
 The amount of Capital in the same person's possession might vary 
 in every year of the period allowed for discharging the Assess- 
 ment, the consequent necessary alterations in the Assessments 
 would create extreme confusion and inconvenience. But it may 
 be observed, that in subjecting Real Property only to Redemp- 
 tion no such difficulties could occur ; little or no inconvenience 
 would arise when that Property were transferred to other Owners, 
 and as it is immoveable it could not escape the effect of its re- 
 sponsibility. Real Property seldomer varies in value, quantity or 
 extent, and though it constantly changes hands, any existing con- 
 tract or obligation to redeem the Tax on any particular quantity 
 would be no bar or difficulty to the tranfer of it; a new Owner, 
 obliged to redeem the Tax or complete a previous Owner's con- 
 tract not wholly fulfilled, would give so much less purchase 
 money for the Property. With respect to Trading Capital, after 
 an individual had discharged the Assessment on it wholly or in 
 part his Trade might decline and himself become a Bankrupt, in 
 that case he would have made a sacrifice for which he could re- 
 ceive no benefit; but from the imperishable nature ofRealPro- 
 
 2 T 
 
32-2 
 
 perty it would not be subjected to- such a contingency, the Owner 
 would with certainty derive an adequate and permanent advan- 
 tage for the sacrifice made out of it. 
 
 It has been also objected to the Scheme of assessing all Capital 
 that much of it would be transferred to hands unfit for the use of 
 it; that objection may be of some force if it is to be supposed that 
 Fundholders must take Capital in Goods and Merchandize and 
 turn Traders, whether competent to any concern in the way of 
 Trade or not ; although that necessity might not in general follow, 
 there would in many cases be great difficulty in disposing of 
 Goods, &c. ; but if the measure be not extended beyond Real 
 Property, the objection would less extensively apply : Fundholders 
 could receive portions of Lands and Houses, and be converted 
 into Landlords without detriment to the Property or to them- 
 selves ; most of the present Owners of Lands are but mere Re- 
 ceivers of Rents, and but few Owners, excepting those who are also 
 Occupiers of their own Lands, pay more attention to them than 
 Fundholders in general converted into Landowners could give 
 them. 
 
 As one of the objections started against Mr. Heathfield's 
 Scheme (but which he does not apprehend to have any force) is 
 that a levy of such an extraordinary sum as it contemplates for 
 paying the National Creditors cannot be carried into effect with- 
 out a great quantity of Money or Circulating Medium, it may be 
 observed, as shewing another probable advantage of a redeem- 
 able Income Tax, that it is most likely that on the repeal of the 
 present Taxes and the substitution of the Income Tax much Cir- 
 culating Medium would be left at disposal; the change if pro- 
 ducing such an effect might facilitate the measure of Redemption 
 of the Tax.* 
 
 An observation of Mr. Heathfield concerning Mortgaged Lands 
 under the Scheme advocated by him is equallv worthy of atten- 
 tion under the Scheme of a redeemable Tax on Real Property. 
 il If it be supposed that the Estate be under mortgage, the adop- 
 " tion of the measure becomes the object of more anxious desire. 
 
 Vide Observations, page 76. 
 
323 
 
 " In the inslance of an Estate worth £60,000 under mortgage for 
 " £40,000, the great effect of the incidental relief would be ex- 
 " perienced by the Mortgager; upon him the effect of the earlier 
 Ci deficiencies of Rent would fall, over him the risk of foreclosure 
 " and sale (through his inability arising from the non-payment of 
 " Rent) impends ; the relief in respect of the whole Estate is the 
 64 relief of the Proprietor, and the relief in respect of his personal 
 " or individual Expenditure is also proper to himself. The price 
 " of that great range of benefit, so long as the mortgage con- 
 " tinue, must be borne to the extent of two-thirds by the Mortga- 
 *• gee. The whole class of Property under mortgage would 
 " therefore be assisted and relieved in a peculiar and unexpected 
 " manner. It is not possible that objection or difficulty can arise 
 " on the part of this description of Proprietor. 
 
 iC And the Mortgagee would have sufficient motive for the 
 " cheerful payment of the Contribution to be required of him if 
 u he expend the Income of the Mortgage within the Kingdom, 
 " in the great relief which he would experience in the removal of 
 " the general burthens. If the Mortgagee do not expend the In- 
 " come of the mortgage within the Kingdom, or do not expend 
 " it any where, the advantage of the measure must be seen still 
 " more forcibly in the subjection to contribution of a class of per- 
 " sons who would otherwise receive large advantages under the 
 " social compact without making any social return."* 
 
 The following remarks extracted from a Reviewf refer to the 
 plan advocated by Mr. Heathfield. The Reviewer reasons on the 
 supposition that the plan, in order to answer its professed or pro- 
 per purpose, must be completed within a very short period of time 
 and extend to the whole of the National Debt : as the difficulties 
 anticipated in that case by the Reviewer comprehend objections 
 which may be conceivable also against a plan of any kind for redu- 
 cing the Debt by a levy on Property and Capital, they may, for the 
 
 * ** The Mortgagee might, perhaps, attempt to throw the whole of the Contribution 
 upon the Proprietor, which if necessary might . be guarded against by Legislative 
 See Property Act, 46 Geo. 3, Cap. 65, Sect. 195." 
 
 f Edinburgh Monthly Review, February 1820. 
 
3-24 
 
 sake of argument, be taken as applicable also to a redeemable Tax 
 confined to Real Property, though as the completion of the latter 
 is not, upon the plan suggested in this Work, designed for such 
 dispatch or for such extent as the Reviewer contemplates in his con- 
 sideration of the object of Mr. Heathfield's plan, they are appli- 
 cable in a much less degree. 
 
 " We are of opinion that the fair way to try the principle of 
 
 " Mr. Heathfield's plan is to suppose it put into compulsory ope- 
 
 u ration upon a large scale, and within a limited period of time, 
 
 " because it is in this form alone that it can be made effectually 
 
 " to answer the professed purpose of the Author, by procuring an 
 
 u immediate relief from Taxation and by the sure and speedy 
 
 " liquidation of the Debt. Let us suppose, then, that not a part 
 
 " only, but the whole of the existing Debt is to be liquidated, in 
 
 " the space of one or two years, by Assessments in respect of Pro- 
 
 iC perty, and that Property to the extent of £500 or £600 millions 
 
 " sterling must be suddenly brought to market and sold. This is 
 
 " not much less than a fourth of the whole Property of the Coun- 
 
 *• try, according to Dr. Colquhoun's estimate. What would be 
 
 " the consequences of so large a compulsory sale, if indeed it 
 
 " were at all practicable under any circumstances? Would not 
 
 " Property of all kinds become a mere drug in the market; and 
 
 " by the enormous reduction of price which must ensue, would 
 
 " not every Proprietor in the Kingdom be forced, in order to 
 
 u liquidate the Assessment laid upon him, to sell an extent far 
 
 " exceeding the proportion which at the present rate of price 
 
 " would be necessary? Not a fourth only, but perhaps a half or 
 
 " more of the entire Property of individuals would of necessity be 
 
 " brought to market in consequence of the unprecedented de- 
 
 " pression of price which could not fail to ensue. Money being 
 
 " the only medium through which the Assessments could be dis- 
 
 u charged, would come into universal requisition, and its value 
 
 " with respect to all kinds of Property would rise out of all as- 
 
 " signable proportion. The Legislature might indeed impose 
 
 " upon the Stockholders the obligation of taking Land or other 
 
 " Property at a certain valuation, in discharge of the debts due 
 
 " to them ; but in what manner could the proportions be adjusted 
 
225 
 
 " and the sub-divisions of Property be made? There are various 
 " kinds of Property — Machinery, for instance, which in this Coun- 
 " try is of great value, and which could not without destruction 
 " be sub-divided so as to take from it 15 or any other per Ceutage 
 " of the total value, and which, if disposed of at all, must be dis- 
 <; posed of entirely. Even in the case of Land, how would it be 
 " possible, without the greatest loss and inconvenience, to dissect 
 " an Estate so as to give off 15 per Cent, of the whole to the Stock- 
 " holder; or how can the claims of individual Stockholders be 
 tC adjusted to the surrenders made by the parties assessed ? Would 
 " you assign to the Stockholder the shreds of Land insulated and 
 " detached as they had been surrendered, perhaps by fifty Contri- 
 " butors to the Assessment 1 The more the subject is considered, 
 " the more will the project of assigning to the Stockholder the 
 " actual Property at a valuation be found inextricable, and the 
 Ci more it will become apparent that this violent scheme of Re- 
 " demption, if it be practicable in any form, can be executed 
 " only through the medium of sales so extensive and ruinous that 
 " it seems problematical whether, in the progressive reduction of 
 " price which every new sale must accelerate, the sacrifice of 
 " Property to any amount would be sufficient to liquidate in 
 " Pounds sterling the actual Debt, or to perform to the Public 
 Ci Creditor the obligation contracted in his favor in the only shape 
 " in which he is bound to receive performance. 
 
 " The actual price of all kinds of Property is regulated by the 
 " actual demand for it ; or in other words, by the amount of that 
 " floating Capital which seeks a convenient and profitable oppor- 
 " tunity of being invested in Land, Machinery, &c. This floating 
 " Capital at any given period exhibits but a small proportion to 
 " the entire value of the Property in which it is destined to be 
 " absorbed; and if, besides the ordinary and average sales of 
 " Property occasioned by the necessity or convenience of the 
 " Proprietors, additional Property to the extent of £500 or £600 
 " millions were thrown into the market, and compulsorily sold, 
 < c the depression of price which would arise must surpass all cal- 
 " culation. The relation betwixt the amount of Property brought 
 <c to sale and of Funds destined for its purchase would be wholly 
 " deranged. It has been suggested in answer to this, both by 
 
326 
 
 " Mr. Heathfield and Mr. Ricardo, that the Capital disengaged 
 " by the Redemption of the Debt, and applicable to the purchase 
 " of Property, would correspond to the amount of the additional 
 " sales, and that the equilibrium would thus be restored. We 
 u consider this view of the matter to be wholly fallacious. It 
 " must be kept in view, that the moment the Redemption is en- 
 " acted by the Legislature, the sale of Property becomes impera- 
 u tive and unavoidable, and that every Capitalist can reckon with 
 " perfect assurance on entering within a limited period a market 
 " glutted with Property, where he will be able to make his pur- 
 " chases upon his own terms. He will therefore wait with patience 
 " for the event, and in the meantime find occupation for his Ca- 
 " pital in some speculation, either at home or abroad, or throw it 
 " for a while into the Funds of some Foreign State. It appears 
 " to be forgotten besides, that the sales, by the produce of which 
 " the Stockholder is to be paid, and to be put into the condition 
 " of becoming a Purchaser of British Property, must precede the 
 <c realizing of his Capital ; and that the very Fund which it is erro- 
 " neously supposed must sustain the price in the general market 
 " can come into existence only after the market shall have been 
 iC closed. The sales, moreover, are compulsory, for the Assess- 
 " ments must be paid; but the purchases are of course voluntary, 
 " because it is optional to the Stockholder when he shall invest 
 " his Capital in Property, or to what amount he shall do so. We 
 " do not say that in such circumstances the re-investment will not 
 " ultimately take place ; but we ask upon what terms it is likely 
 Ci to be effected in a case where the one party is compelled and 
 f the other remains at liberty to do as he pleases? Is there a Ca- 
 <c pitalist who, knowing with certainty that Land and other Pro- 
 u perty to the enormous amount of £500 or £600 millions must 
 tC within one or two years be brought to market, would think of 
 " making any purchase till the utmost imaginable point of de- 
 
 * pression had been reached 1 The certainty that he can make 
 " his purchase at any time — that every day must be adding to the 
 " advantages with which he will come into the market — that as 
 Ce the final period approaches for paying up the supposed Assess- 
 u ments a more various choice will be presented to him, and more 
 
 * beneficial terms obtained by the progressive and inevitable de- 
 
327 
 
 '*'. pression of prices; the strong" indisposition which every man 
 " must feel towards buying a subject which is every day sinking 
 u in value ; these and other obvious considerations would tempt 
 " the Capitalist to withdraw himself from the market to the very 
 " last moment, and until the most destructive sacrifices had been 
 " consented to by the unhappy class of Proprietors. Even if the 
 " Public Creditor could be in a condition to purchase at the very 
 " outset, and could apply that Capital which can arise only out of 
 " the proceeds of the sales in accelerating the sales themselves, it 
 " is manifest that if he be possessed of common prudence he will 
 Qi rather risk the temporary employment of his Capital abroad than 
 ' invest it in Property at home, of which the Legislature, by enact- 
 iC ing the sale to an enormous extent, would manifestly have re- 
 u solved the indefinite depreciation. 
 
 iC Looking therefore at the only efficient form in which the plan 
 " of Mr. Heathfield could be put in operation, we must fairly con- 
 " fess that it appears to us to be impracticable but at the hazard 
 " of general ruin ; and with this view of the matter profoundly 
 " impressed upon us, we confess we are the less solicitous about 
 " enumerating the more detailed objections to which we think his 
 * c project exposed in its more minute developements. We are 
 " aware that we may seem to have taken a stronger view of the 
 " difficulties of the operation recommended by him than is jus- 
 " tified by an examination of his plan, and that we may be thought 
 " to have done him wrong in assuming that the Debt is to be paid 
 " off at par, without regard to the amendment of the Scheme in- 
 " dicated by Mr. Ricardo in his speech, where he suggests that 
 Ci the Redemption may be accomplished at the market price of 
 " Stock, to be ascertained by Commissioners named by Parliament. 
 ' c Mr. Heathfield himself, however, does not, even in the last 
 " edition of his pamphlet, include this suggestion among the faci- 
 " lities enumerated by him for the execution of his plan ; and we 
 Ci confess we have great doubts of the soundness of the principle 
 64 upon which it proceeds. Upon what ground is the Public Cre- 
 " ditor to be compelled to part with his Stock at the market price, 
 u or at any price short of that which is stipulated by the original 
 <c contract with Government ? It is nothing to the purpose that 
 
328 
 
 M he cannot obtain more for it in the market, and that he may 
 iC really appear to suffer no substantial loss by this compulsory 
 " Redemption. The Stock is Property to the Stockholder ; it is 
 iC often the most convenient form in which his Capital can be in- 
 cc vested. If it were practicable for Government to pay off the 
 iC whole Debt at once, there cannot be a doubt that the Creditors 
 Ci would be put to material inconvenience, and would probably 
 Cl sustain very great loss before being able to find a new and be- 
 " neficial employment for their Capital. Every Public Creditor 
 u besides is entitled, under the equitable construction of his con- 
 " tract, to all the possible chances of future gains by the rise of 
 " the market price of Stock, and we will add, by the probability 
 " which exists, in the present state of the Country, that some 
 iC vigorous measures must soon be adopted to accelerate the 
 " operations of the Sinking Fund and the partial Redemption of 
 " the Debt, an operation by which the price of Stock will of course 
 " be considerably enhanced. Upon what principle are you to 
 " demand of him the sacrifice of these advantages by compelling 
 " him to dispose of his Property at the market price ? The mea- 
 " sure, it may be said, is for the public good, and the interest of 
 " individuals must yield to the general advantage. This is true 
 " when the interest to be sacrificed is comparatively unimportant; 
 " but the mass of Property to be acted upon in the present instance 
 " is too great for the application of a principle so anomalous. 
 Ci The Legislature will compel an individual, or a small number 
 " of individuals, to surrender parts of their Property at the market 
 " price, that a road, a canal, or a street may be carried through^ 
 " or some other object of public utility may be accomplished, but 
 " one cannot easily figure the pretence of general expediency 
 " which could justify Parliament in compelling all the Proprietors 
 " of one or of ten Counties to sell their Property, even at a fair 
 " valuation, and to seek employment for the price in undertakings 
 " to which they may be perfect strangers. Every man's Property 
 cC is, at common law, assured to him in the specific form in which 
 << he has acquired and holds it, and he cannot be forced to accept 
 " of an equivalent for surrendering it. The rule is violated only 
 " when the sacrifice required is insignificant, and it is that very 
 
3*29 
 
 " insignificance which appears to sanction the violation. But the 
 * c character of the transaction is essentially changed when a com- 
 " pulsory sale of Property, to the extent of £850 millions, at the 
 " market price is proposed ; the fourth part of the Property of the 
 44 Community is here in question; and if you can thus act forcibly 
 Ct upon so large a part, no reason can be discovered why, in a 
 44 different emergency, the interest of one half of the people 
 44 should not be sacrificed to the other. The magnitude of the 
 44 resisting interest is in such a case too formidable to admit the 
 44 application of the principle contended for. The principle itself 
 44 is the violation of the general and sacred rule which protects 
 44 the right of Property, and although in the application of such 
 iC rules the importance or insignificance of the interest at stake is 
 44 nothing, yet it is every thing in a question as to their infraction, 
 44 The Public Creditor is no favorite with those who look with 
 C4 jealousy upon the long course of political measures on account 
 C( of which the immense Debt has been contracted ; he is repre- 
 a sented as an ally of the corrupt system, and any harsh treat- 
 " ment towards him would, in certain quarters, be contemplated 
 44 with great equanimity; but besides that the public faith and the 
 44 honor of the Nation are inseparable from the most scrupulous 
 " fulfilment of its obligations, those who take a different view of 
 " the policy of the last thirty years may be pardoned for thinking 
 4f that the large Capitalists who, from whatever motives, contri- 
 u buted so essentially in perilous times to invigorate the energy 
 4{ and sustain the hopes of their Country, are entitled to any thing 
 u rather than the suspicion and odium which have sometimes been 
 44 cast upon them." 
 
 The Consideration necessary for the liquidation of the National 
 Debt, whether the liquidation be effected on the plan of a re- 
 deemable Income or Property Tax or of a direct Assessment on all 
 Property and Capital, would be raised, 
 
 1. From Funded or other disposable Personal Property. 
 
 2. By sale or surrender of Real Property. 
 
 3. By borrowing Money on Mortgage or Personal Security. 
 
 4. From Savings out of annual Income. 
 
 2 u 
 
330 
 
 It is conceived, whether the time allowed for completing the 
 whole Assessment or Payment were so limited as the Reviewer 
 considers necessary for the due fulfilment of the object of 
 Mr. Heathfield's Scheme, or whether the time allowed were more 
 ample, as contemplated in the execution of a redeemable Income or 
 Property Tax, that the Stockholders, who command the greatest part 
 of the disposable monied Capital of the Country, would of imme- 
 diate necessity come forward, without gaining the undue advantage 
 apprehended by the Reviewer, to meet, as auxiliaries, the Owners of 
 other Property, if the latter raised the Consideration in either of 
 the first three of the ways just mentioned ; that the Stockholders 
 would necessarily and at once become Purchasers and Mortgagees, 
 or Lenders on equitable terms, whether the transactions were indi- 
 vidually and directly between them and the Land Owners, Govern- 
 ment not receiving the Consideration but only superintending and 
 guaranteeing the transactions, or whether they were carried on be- 
 tween them indirectly, the Owners of Real Property paying the Con- 
 sideration to Government and Government transferring it over to 
 the Stockholders. So far as the Consideration might be provided 
 in the 4th and last mentioned way, the co-operation of the Stock- 
 holders would not be needed. It might happen just on the com- 
 mencement of the measure that a few Landholders would have to 
 pay their Consideration before the Fundholders, to whom it would 
 be transferred, would be obliged to make a fresh investment of it; 
 the precedence, creating the difficulty in the mind of the Reviewer, 
 would be in the first instance only, and even then the transactions 
 on the two sides would be in such quick succession as would pro- 
 bably be equal in effect to a simultaneous operation ; certainly, 
 after the first start of the measure, the number of*Stockholders or the 
 amount of Stock seeking other investments would at least be equal 
 to the number of Owners, or to the amount, of other Property seek- 
 ing Purchasers or Mortgagees of it; the Owners of Real Property 
 would not have occasion for Money to a greater amount than that 
 which the Stockholders must at the same time be endeavoring to dis- 
 pose of : very few if any of the latter would be willing to depend on 
 the mere chance that time might afford them more advantageous in- 
 vestments, or would be able to bear the loss of Income during the in- 
 terval with the anxiety of keeping their Capital in an idle and un- 
 
331 
 
 productive state. Considering" the great proportion of Owners of 
 Real Property, who are also Owners of Funded or other personal 
 Property, or who could raise the required Consideration gradually 
 out of savings of Income, and who would thereby be placed out of 
 the necessity of parting with Real Property, the disadvantage 
 w T ould not, as apprehended by the Reviewer, be on their side ; 
 it might rather be feared that any difficulty would be on the 
 side of some of the Stockholders, in obtaining other investments, 
 unless the measure went to the extent of assisting to provide 
 the same for them as suggested for consideration under a pre- 
 ceding head** 
 
 Fn answer to the imputation of injustice in " compelling all the 
 " Proprietors of one or ten Counties to sell their Property even at 
 " a fair valuation, and to seek employment for the price in under- 
 " takings to which they may be perfect strangers," it may be ob- 
 served, understanding Proprietors to mean Landowners, that they 
 would have no employmentto seek for the price of the Property sur- 
 rendered or sold by them — their sole undertaking would be a co-ope- 
 ration in the proceedings for that purpose, which would not be at- 
 tended with much difficulty or any real grievance ; the result would 
 be an extrication from Debt, which, if it did not produce to them 
 future gain, would not leave them in a worse state than they were 
 previously in ; if the term " Proprietors" means Owners of Funded 
 Property, it maybe said that these are bound in law and justice to 
 relieve their debtors from a state of debt by receiving back the 
 amount of the Debt whenever offered to them. Although difficulty 
 might occur with some Stockholders in the future disposal of their 
 Capital, it is not apprehended that the transfer of Capital to other 
 Countries would be either a desirable or a practicable alternative 
 with a large portion of them ; most of them are so circumstanced, 
 particularly those who are holders in trust, that they would 
 prefer the smaller rate of Interest of an investment in this Coun- 
 try with greater security and other advantages, to a larger rate 
 of Interest attainable in other Countries with less security and 
 with other disadvantages ; or if they vested their Capital to any 
 great extent in Foreign Funds, it would, as before surmised,f 
 
 * Page 307. t Vide page 45. 
 
332 
 
 be an evil which would quickly remedy itself. The small com- 
 parative amount of other National Debts wiuld not admit of in- 
 vestments in them of large amount without such a great and 
 rapid rise of the [rice of them as would soon stop the demand 
 and throw back the English Stockholders upon the resources of 
 their own Country. With reference to the anticipated difficulty on 
 this head, and in answer to the objection of the Reviewer to the 
 plan of Mr. Heathfield as defective in not providing for the re- 
 demption of the whole sum of the Public Debt, Mr. Heathfield has 
 observed^ 
 
 " The situation of persons who might be compelled to receive 
 " back without any means of employing Capital, is undoubtedly to 
 " be considered, and admits the consideration required. 
 " The case supposed includes three particulars ; 
 
 " First. — That the security of the British Nation for the Prin- 
 " cipal and Interest of Money is so desirable, at least for a 
 " time, as to threaten great inconvenience if entirely with- 
 u drawn. 
 " Second. — And consequently, that if means could be found 
 " to redeem the National Debt, loans of Money would be 
 " tendered to the State at a very moderate rate of In- 
 " terest. 
 " And, 
 
 " Third. — That it would be expedient to continue some part 
 
 " of the objected remainder of £350 millions of Stock, for 
 
 11 a time, in order that persons who have sunk their money 
 
 " and adjusted their habits of life to the accommodation 
 
 u of that description of security, and also public bodies and 
 
 " official and other trusts, to whom such security might for 
 
 " a time be of great importance, might not be exposed 
 
 " suddenly to the inconvenience anticipated by the Re- 
 
 " viewer. 
 
 14 Upon these grounds the Author has not felt desirous of press- 
 
 " ing the whole object into immediate execution. Upon these 
 
 " grounds he has presumed that money to great extent would be 
 
 " proffered to the British Government at 3 per Cent, in the event 
 
 " of Government Securities ceasing to be the subject of sale at 
 
 " market. 
 
333 
 
 i: Great individual inconvenience might ensue from the hasty 
 " redemption of the whole of the Government Stock. The Au- 
 " thor's proposal does not proceed upon the view of the imme- 
 c ' diate redempt on of the whole: he is fully aware of the great 
 " extent of inconvenience which might ensue from the sudden 
 " breaking down of the whole system, and he feels the value and 
 " importance of that consideration to the Country. The change 
 u to the Nation would be great and beneficial indeed, from the 
 " condition of necessitous borrowers, upon terms which as be- 
 " tween individual and individual would bear the character of 
 " enormous, complex and indefensible usury, to the situation of 
 " depositaries of money, at moderate interest, for the special con- 
 " venience and accommodation of individuals or associates, be- 
 " cause that description of security became the object of request 
 " or desire, under circumstances which would not fairly justify 
 " the refusal. That great change is one of the most desirable of 
 " the consequences to be anticipated from the undertaking to 
 " liquidate the Public Debt. 
 
 " The refusal of the security of the Government at 3 per Cent. 
 iC interest would probably not be judicious, in respect of a nume- 
 <c rous class of the present Stockholders, and within certain limits 
 " as to amount, each of such persons might be allowed the privi- 
 " lege of advancing money to Government, for a period of time, 
 " to be limited at 3 per Cent., the Principal of the loan not being 
 " subject to fluctuation. Without pretending to anticipate to 
 * £ what extent this accommodation would be required, it is suf- 
 Ci ficient to suggest that it would be unnecessary to displace the 
 lC whole body of Stockholders, without regard to the situation of 
 w individuals : the object proposed is the national good, the good 
 «* of all who constitute the Nation, and the oppression or injury or 
 " even severe inconvenience of any individual now constituting 
 c any part of the whole is unnecessary for any purpose con- 
 " templated. 
 
 « c It is clear that regard may be had to the circumstances of 
 " persons, who, being actual Stockholders, would be exposed to 
 Ci inconvenience if deprived of the advantage of the security of 
 " the Government. But however proper it may be to keep that 
 u object in view, other means of investing money would arise out 
 
334 
 
 " of the liquidation of the Debt; particularly in the specificMort 
 c * gage of Landed Property, provided money for that purpose 
 (c could be obtained at 4 per Cent. It is sufficiently plain that all 
 " immoveable Property is deeply mortgaged to the Public Credi- 
 " tor. It is proposed that this general, undefined and over- 
 iQ whelming mortgage be reduced and defined in respect of the 
 a principal part, as a mortgage (without the form of security) to 
 Ci the extent of 15 per Cent, on the value of Property, and, that 
 " until the mortgage be redeemed, Interest after the rate of 5 per 
 Ci Cent, per adnum, be paid on such amount. That is the true 
 u character and definition of the proposed measure: call it a re- 
 " deemable Property Tax, or a defined Mortagage, with great fa- 
 " cilities for the redemption, the measure remains the same. Con- 
 " sidered then as a Mortgage to the State, without the form of a 
 " Mortgage ; provided securities for the advance of money should 
 iC be required by persons to whom Capital might be paid over by 
 " the Government in satisfaction for Stock ; and that such Capital 
 Ci would be advanced on specific Mortgage, as between individual 
 " and individual, at 4 per Cent. ; the facilities wanted would be 
 ** presented. The Proprietor of the immoveable Property would 
 " be enabled to pay to the Government the full amount of the 
 ft Assessmant, which, again, would accelerate the liquidation of 
 " the Debt : he would be relieved to the extent of 1 per Cent, on 
 " the Interest of his Mortgage, and by such means advanced in 
 " his object of redeeming his Property entirely out of mortgage ; 
 '* and the Ex- Stockholder would obtain an eligible security for 
 " the money which he might desire to invest at interest. 
 
 " Should a Metropolitan Bank of Deposit be established, these 
 " operations would be conducted with peculiar facility. 
 
 iQ The Funding System derives its strength from the great ex- 
 " extent and variety of persons and associations seeking the safe 
 * c and easy means of securing Interest for Money, and the assur- 
 " ance of the restitution of Capital when required. Persons and 
 " associations of that description are the foundation and support 
 * c of that system ; it may fairly be presumed that a considerable 
 " proportion of that class of Stockholders, if not presented with 
 " more advantageous Government Security, would accept such 
 tC security at 3 per Cent. Interest, without being ruled by the 
 
335 
 
 " general rate of Interest; and that in the event of Government 
 " Security being withheld, on the provision of other forms of se- 
 curity, by the establishment of a Bank of Deposit or otherwise, 
 the like rate of Interest would be accepted under the new secu- 
 rity. The Stock standing in the name of the Accountant Ge- 
 neral is supposed to exceed £30 millions. The Assurance 
 Offices hold large amounts of Stock, and the Stock held by 
 a Trustees to Charitable Institutions, trustees in many other of the 
 u great variety of trusts, and belonging to elderly and infirm per- 
 " sons, must extend to a very large amount. These several de- 
 cc scriptions of Stockholders could only require the security of the 
 " Government until the accommodation of other sufficient modes 
 c< of security could be provided; and if in the result it should be 
 " found that the Government Securities, even at 3 per Cent., 
 " would not be relinquished so speedily as the power to redeem 
 Ci the Debt and the general interests of the Country would render 
 " desirable, it would be better even that some inconvenience 
 * should be borne, for a limited time by the whole, than that the 
 " departure from a long established system should press heavily 
 iC upon the interests of any individual incorporated in the sys- 
 " tem. 
 
 " The Author therefore ventures to presume, 
 u That apprehension need not be entertained with reference to 
 u the forced payment of Capital to the Stockholder. 
 
 " That the continuance, for a time, of some remainder of Stock 
 " may be contemplated as a convenience and recommendation, 
 cc and not as an objection : 
 " And, 
 
 Ci That there are sufficient grounds for concluding, without 
 " supposing the reduction of the Interest of Money for the active 
 iC purposes of business, that Government Security would be in 
 " request, at the rate even of 3 per Cent. Interest." 
 
 It is conceived that the objection to an instantaneous or rapid 
 disposal of all the Property necessary to discharge the Debt is not 
 so much any danger that an unfair advantage would be gained by 
 one class at the expence of the other, as that the sudden or very 
 quick reduction of the National Debt to a large amount would 
 create too hastily and violently a change in the relative state of the 
 
336 
 
 different Classes of Society of a very serious nature and magnitude, 
 and that mischievous confusion might ensue therefrom to all Classes; 
 it might also be utterly impossible to complete satisfactorily the 
 whole of the proceedings necessary to accomplish such an exten- 
 sive change at once or in a very short period of time. The crea- 
 tion of the Debt and the presentstate of Society arising from it was the 
 progressive work of time ; the discharge of the Debt and the return 
 of Society, or of a great part of it, to its original state must be also 
 a gradual operation. Two-thirds of the present amount of the Debt 
 was incurred during the late War, a period though exceeding twenty 
 years, yet probably too short for the accomplishment, without much 
 partial inconvenience, of the extensive change which took place 
 within it: it is proposed to discharge about that proportion of 
 the Debt by a redeemable Income or Property Tax, and the same, 
 if not a longer, period of time may be reasonably assumed as ne- 
 cessary for the gradual execution of it, with reference not only to 
 the extraordinary amount of the Capital to be provided, but to 
 the long duration of that particular mode of distribution of a 
 large sum of the National Income which the Debt has established, 
 and which, however objectionable it may be, or however benefi- 
 cial ultimately it might be to put an end to it, cannot be disturbed 
 suddenly to a great extent without much temporary mischief — to 
 get rid without inconvenience and injustice to Debtors or Credi- 
 tors of any number of millions of Taxation it may perhaps be suf- 
 ficient to discharge annually at the rate (say) of £1 million of In- 
 terest of the Debt, and consequently of an amount of Taxation 
 rather exceeding that sum. The Debtors would then easily pro- 
 vide in every year for the discharge of so much of the Ca- 
 pital remaining to be discharged after the amount cancelled 
 by the Tax on the Creditor's portion of it had been deducted, as 
 it might be deemed expedient to discharge. Whether if a com- 
 pulsory Redemption were limited to cases of changes in Owner- 
 ship of Property, it should be extended to changes by inheritance 
 and devise, or whether it should be confined to changes by pur- 
 chase would be a question of expediency ; however that point 
 might be determined, it is anticipated that there would be a volun- 
 tary Redemption from year to year to such an extent, as together 
 with compulsory Redemption in some degree on changes oi 
 Ownership, would effect as quick a discharge of the required 
 
337 
 
 amount of Debt as would be expedient : it may even be hoped 
 that the extent of voluntary Redemption would be sufficient, for 
 some years at least, to obviate the necessity of any compulsory 
 Redemption whatever. 
 
 At whatever rate of cost and within whatever period of time the 
 discharge or diminution of the Debt could be most advantageously 
 effected, a redeemable Income or Property Tax is the most ex- 
 pedient means for the gradual accomplishment of it, not only 
 because an equal Tax on the Income of Property is the best 
 standard by which Property can be made to contribute to the dis- 
 charge of the Debt, but because as the discharge of the Debt in 
 a fair and prudent way must be the work of time, the measure of 
 a redeemable Income Tax is the most safe and secure basis to de- 
 pend on during the period of operation : the superior advantages 
 which also, as a system of Taxation, the Income Tax possesses, add 
 to that safety and security. It may therefore be more sanguinely 
 hoped that the firm and just foundation on which a redeemable In- 
 come or Property Tax would stand, would not only ensure the suc- 
 cessful accomplishment of its object, but that it would be met in the 
 manner most to be desired, that is, voluntarily and cheerfully, by 
 the Owners of Real Property, under a feeling on their part of per- 
 fect reliance on the honorable principle and on the stability of the 
 measure. 
 
 The necessity that any plan, if it extended beyond Real Pro- 
 perty to every description of Capital whatever, should be at once 
 carried into execution, would not arise for the reason assigned by 
 the Reviewer, in his understanding of the object of the plan pro- 
 pounded by Mr. Heathfield, that is, immediate relief from Debt and 
 Taxation, or for that reason only; but the necessity would arise prin- 
 cipally from the changeable and perishable nature of a great portion 
 of moveable ( Capital ; the plan must be quickly executed while Ca- 
 pital remained, in each case, to that extent, and in that individual 
 possession in which it would be when first assessed ; it would hard- 
 ly seem possible, on grounds before stated, to make the levy of it 
 an operation of long time. With respect to the supposed necessity 
 of immediate relief from Debt and Taxation, it may be observed, 
 that as an adequate value in Property or in Money must be pro- 
 vided for the amount of the Debt cancelled, — as the Principal 
 
 2 x 
 
338 
 
 must be paid instead of the Interest, — the desired relief would not 
 be the avoidance of a pecuniary sacrifice, but the riddance of the 
 obnoxious and injurious proceeding's and effects of so much Taxa- 
 tion as the payment of the Interest requires and as the cancellation 
 of the Principal would remove. Under a redeemable Income 
 Tax not only the Cost of the discharge of the Debt would be justly 
 and equally exacted, but the desired relief from the procedure of 
 constant Taxation might in each case commence immediately that 
 the Owner of Property entered into a Contract, whether to be ful- 
 filled at once or in a term of years — the relief principally sought 
 for would be attained as soon as the bargain had been made and 
 in many cases long before the full price of it had been paid. 
 
 With respect to the objection made by the Reviewer to the pro- 
 position that the Stockholders shall take back their Capital at the 
 Market Price, it may be answered that the Market Price implies 
 a price at which Vendors voluntarily part with their Stock, and at 
 which as much Stock can be provided, without any compulsion, 
 as may be desired — if the demand of Stock by the State for the 
 purpose of discharging or cancelling it should increase the demand 
 beyond the ordinary amount of demand, and the Market Price 
 should rise, it would rise to whatever price the Vendors might be 
 willing to part with their Capital, and at that price, if not exceed- 
 ing £100, the Stock could be bought by the State without com- 
 pulsion and without injustice ; if there were none to sell but those 
 who must be forced to sell, the price would be at the command of 
 those compelled Vendors up to the maximum limit of £100 — if 
 forced to sell at £100 it would not violate existing engagements 
 with the Public Creditors, and would be neither illegal nor un- 
 just. It is not understood how there could be a compulsory sale 
 or purchase of Stock at any price under £100. 
 
 On the Justice of a general Income Tax, subject to Redemption in 
 respect of Real Property, as regards the Owners of Real Pro- 
 perty and the other Classes of Society relatively to each other. 
 
 It has been objected to a discharge of the Debt on the plan ad- 
 vocated by Mr. Heathfield of a levy on Property and Capital, 
 that as that Debt was incurred for defraying the expence of those 
 
339 
 
 National Measures by which Income derived from Professions and 
 from Skill or Labor was protected, as well as Income derived 
 from Property and Capital, the burthen of discharging the Debt 
 should extend in some proportion to the former description of 
 Income. By a Tax, though redeemable in respect of Real Pro- 
 perty only, yet extending, as an annual Tax, to all Incomes, the 
 general burthen may be thrown on Professional, Trade and other 
 Incomes derived wholly or principally from Labor and Industry, 
 so far as it justly should fall on them. With respect to Income 
 from Funded Property, the immediate extinction of so much of 
 the Principal Stock as would be proportionate to the Tax on the 
 Interest of it, would be as a condition for immediate exoneration 
 from the Tax of the remaining Stock. The remaining Stock or 
 part of it would however be subject to be paid off gradually by 
 the Consideration received from the Owners of Real Property for 
 their exoneration in respect of that Property. During the period 
 allowed to Real Property for exonerating itself from the Tax, Income 
 derived from Trade, &c. would remain chargeable ; the price of ex- 
 oneration to any Real Property would be a certain number of years 
 purchase of the Tax charged on the Income derived from that Pro- 
 perty, and the period occupied in completing the exoneration of 
 all Properties might eventually be equal to that number of years; 
 that or any other number of years might be the time expressly 
 allowed and fixed within which all Proprietors should be bound 
 to exonerate their Properties ; then, by a continuance of the Tax 
 on Incomes from Trade, &c. during that term, but not beyond it, 
 it may be considered, on a comparison of the different natures of 
 the two sources of Income, that the burthen would be as propor- 
 tion ably divided as justice and expediency demanded. This de- 
 sired result maybe shewn as necessarily following from the plan 
 laid down. If every person possessed of Real Property were to 
 effect the Redemption of the Tax by the surrender at once of a 
 part of it or by a single Payment in Money, then it would be 
 impossible for reasons already stated, that all persons could re- 
 deem at the same time — they must redeem successively, and a 
 number of years would be occupied in completing the exonera- 
 tion of the whole ; so, whether every Owner of Property redeemed 
 
340 
 
 the Tax at once by surrender of Property, or by a single payment 
 in Money, or gradually by instalments, a certain term would be ab- 
 solutely necessary during- which persons in Trade, \c. paying the 
 Tax not redeemable might continue subject to it; but that term 
 might, as just observed, be fixed so that the period of cessation of 
 the Tax might be looked forward to with certainty. Persons pos- 
 sessed of Real Property and exonerating it from Taxation by Re- 
 demption would yield up a part of their Income in perpetuity 
 which would be equal to the Tax on their whole Property ; those 
 who completed the exoneration at once w 7 ould surrender a propor- 
 tionate part of their Property or pay a proportionate price in Money, 
 either of which would be equal to the value of such a perpetual In- 
 come : those who deferred the redemption of the Tax or the entire 
 completion of a Contract for it, and preserved the Income or Pur- 
 chase Money wholly or in part for an allowed longer time, would, 
 as they justly should do, during the interval, pay the proportionate 
 Sum of Tax 3 or Interest, due in respect of the part of the Income 
 or Purchase Money so preserved, in addition to the full stipulated 
 cost of redemption which they must ultimately pay. In respect of 
 Income derived from Property, the Tax would be as a perpetual 
 Tax, — like the present Land Tax it would be enacted to be " per- 
 * petual, subject to Redemption and Purchase ;" in respect of 
 other Income it would be a temporary Tax, to co-operate as an 
 auxiliary to Property during the time that Property was raising 
 the means for exonerating itself from the Tax, to which time 
 a fixed limit would be declared. A fair principle would 
 govern the distinction thus made between the two descriptions 
 of Income. A man possessed of fixed Property has an Income 
 for a permanency — his Contribution would be of the same na- 
 ture; a person depending on his skill and labor or on perishable 
 Capital, possesses no certain means beyond the present time, and 
 he would contribute annually as his Income accrued — if his In- 
 come lasted the whole fixed term, the number of years during 
 which he would pay the Tax might be equal to the number of 
 years purchase for which the Tax could be redeemed by the Owner 
 of Property at once by a single payment, and there might, between 
 the aggregate amounts paid by them respectively, be no other 
 difference than such as would be occasioned by any difference in 
 
241 
 
 the Rates of Charge to the Tax which it might be deemed just 
 and fair to make between Incomes derived from Property and In- 
 comes derived from other sources. 
 
 General Observations on the Superiority of a redeemable Income 
 or Property Tax as the means of reducing the National Debt, 
 and on the urgent Necessity of resorting to it. 
 
 By the Modification in the Plan of assessing Property and Ca- 
 pital of all descriptions which Mr. Heathfield proposes, in allowing 
 a certain period of time for raising the Assessment and in charging 
 annual Interest until the Assessment has been fully raised, it would 
 virtually, in a great degree, be a compulsorily redeemed Pro- 
 perty Tax; but it should rather be considered as inverse to a 
 redeemable Property Tax upon the Plan proposed in this Work ; 
 the former is an Assessment on Capital with an annual Tax on the 
 Income of it, to be paid until the Assessment on the Capital be 
 discharged ; — the latter is an annual Tax on the Income of Capital, 
 to be paid until it be wholly discharged by Capital : on a com- 
 parison of the two Plans in detail, it is conceived that the one 
 which makes Income the basis of operation, and which extends to 
 Incomes of all descriptions, would be not only most equal and 
 comprehensive in effect, but most free from practical difficulties. 
 The more free from real objection one Plan of discharging or 
 reducing the Public Debt may be found in comparison with 
 others, the more easily practicable it is likely to be — it is, then, on 
 the very essential head of Practicability that a general Income 
 Tax made redeemable in respect of Real Property, appears 
 decidedly superior to any other Scheme of discharging the Na- 
 tional Debt. 
 
 It may however he surmised, that no Scheme, however excellent, 
 for redeeming the National Debt can be proposed without exciting 
 objections to it ; but imaginary dangers rather than the certainty 
 of real evils may create them. If the truth were that no Plan of 
 discharging the National Debt could be executed or attempted 
 without incurring evils greater than, or as great as, those which the 
 existence of it entails on the People, and all were sensible of that 
 
342 
 
 truth, then it would be folly and absurdity to contemplate or to 
 wish for the riddance of it ; but in truth, " an important objection 
 iC to a large National Debt is the feeling which prevails so very ge- 
 " nerally among all those not immediately concerned in it, and 
 " consequently among the great mass of the population, that they 
 " would be immediately and greatly relieved by its extinction ; 
 " and whether this impression be well founded or not, it cannot 
 " exist without rendering the Revenue in some decree insecure 
 " and exposing a Country to the risk of a great convulsion of 
 " Property."* — " A Country which has involved itself in the dif- 
 iC Acuities attending this artificial system (a large Debt) would 
 " act wisely by ransoming itself from them at the sacrifice of any 
 " portion of its Property which might be necessary to redeem its 
 iC Debt. That which is wise in an individaul, is wise also in a 
 " Nation. A man who has £10,000, paying him an Income of 
 " £500, out of which he has to pay £100 per annum towards the 
 " Interest of the Debt, is really worth only £8,000, and would be 
 " equally rich whether he continued to pay £100 per annum, or 
 " at once, and for only once, sacrifice £2,000 ; but where, it is 
 " asked, would be the Purchaser of the Property which he must 
 
 * sell to obtain this £2,000? The answer is plain; the National 
 " Creditor, who is to receive this £2,000, will want an investment 
 " for his Money, and will be disposed either to lend it to the 
 66 Landholder or Manufacturer, or to purchase from them a part 
 " of the Property of which they have to dispose. To such a pay- 
 a ment the Stockholders themselves would largely contribute. 
 
 * This Scheme has been often recommended, but we have, I fear, 
 " neither wisdom enough nor virtue enough to adopt it. It must 
 " however be admitted, that during Peace our unceasing efforts 
 6i should be directed towards paying off that part of the Debt 
 " which has been contracted during the War; and that no tempta- 
 " tion of relief, no desire of escape from present and I hope tem- 
 " porary distresses, should induce us to relax in our attention to 
 
 * that great object."f — " When National Debts have once been 
 " accumulated to a certain degree, there is scarce I believe a single 
 
 * Mallhus f Ricardo. 
 
343 
 
 u instance of their having" been completely and fairly paid. The 
 " liberation of the Public Revenue, if it has ever been brought 
 " about at all, has always been brought about by a bankruptcy, 
 " sometimes by an avowed one, but always by a real one, though 
 " frequently by a pretended payment."* — " Without offering at 
 " present any opinion on the comparative advantages of defraying 
 u the charges of War, by the immediate imposition of Taxes, to 
 " the amount of those charges, or by raising the required supplies 
 " by Loans, the Committee consider that, if a nation has been in- 
 u duced, for the sake of greater present facilities and safety, to 
 " provide for such exigencies by a system of borrowing, whereby 
 <c a permanent annual charge has been created, that nation is 
 " bound, on the return of Peace, to make every effort, consistent 
 " with a due regard to the other burthens upon the people, for the 
 " reduction of that charge. A course of policy founded upon 
 " the avowed principle of raising Loans for the exigencies of the 
 " State in time of War, and of making no provision for diminish- 
 " ing the permanent charge of those Loans in time of Peace, ap- 
 " pear an abandonment of all consideration for the credit and 
 " safety of the Country, in the eventual occurrence of future dif- 
 * Acuities and dangers. If the accumulated Debt of each period 
 " of extraordinary exertion is to be handed down undiminished as 
 " a load upon those who are hereafter to meet the exig-encies of 
 " other struggles and other difficulties, it is too obvious to require 
 " an argument, that the time cannot be very distant (according to 
 " the ordinary vicissitudes of Peace and War in the history of 
 " human affairs) when the combined weight of the past and pre- 
 " sent burthens must become too great for the most prosperous 
 Ci people to support, and the fabric of public credit must crumble 
 " under the accumulated pressure."! 
 
 Until Taxation be placed upon a proper system, the popular 
 outcry for the reduction of the amount of it will ever continue, and 
 it may be dangerous much longer to disregard the cause ; in some 
 quarter or other the partial and oppressive effects of the present 
 system are sure to be felt, it will, with certainty, fall somewhere 
 
 * Dr. A. Smith 
 t Fourth Report from Select Committee on Public Income and Expenditure, 1828. 
 
344 
 
 beyond the means of endurance, and then the desire to throw oft' 
 the unequal pressure will be vociferated, those who thus loudly 
 but justly complain are supported by others who, from different 
 motives, join in the outcry, and the two Classes of the Community, 
 the Creditors and Debtors, are thereby kept in an eternal conflict 
 of opposite interests and feelings ; there is also sure to be a la- 
 mentable aggravation of this evil, which is, that distress and pres- 
 sure, proceeding in part from other causes than taxation though 
 greatly increased by the injurious process of it, will be imputed 
 to it wholly or in a greater degree than it should be. If Retrench- 
 ment in the incidental expences of the State has been carried to 
 its utmost, or so far as not to render practicable any further ma- 
 terial saving — if there be scarcely any Surplus Revenue, then the 
 reiterated demand for reduction of taxation to a large amount (and 
 the specific demand now most generally made isfortherepeal ofthe 
 Assessed Taxes, £4 millions, while there is not £1 million of Sur- 
 plus Revenue), cannot possibly be yielded to without committing a 
 direct spoliation of the Public Creditors, or, without adopting such 
 a change in the mode of Taxation, as will demonstrate (after the 
 vast reduction in the amount of taxation since the War, without 
 adequate benefit therefrom to the Country) that the evil of taxatino 
 has ever laid more in the mode of raising it than in the amount of 
 it, such a change as will, by honest means, prevent the necessity 
 of resorting to those improper expedients by which other Debts 
 have been got rid of. To avoid, then, the danger of such a 
 fate falling on the present National Debt as it appears other 
 Public Debts have undergone, is it not imperatively neces- 
 sary, if a plan of discharge or reduction of it, which is just 
 and honorable, can be devised, to disregard difficulties in the 
 progress and execution of it, which may be trifling when com- 
 pared with the important and certain advantages of the result? 
 No plan whatever could be devised which would be free from 
 objections or difficulties; but as some plans may be less difficult 
 or less objectionable than others, is it not also necessary to de- 
 termine on the choice and to proceed at once and resolutely on 
 the plan chosen? presuming on the affirmative to that question, 
 it is reiterated with confidence that the plan of a Tax on the In- 
 come of Real Property subject to Redemption, with an extension 
 of the Tax to all other Incomes during the period of that Re- 
 
345 
 
 clemption, is most worthy of that choice. Supposing however that 
 the danger alluded to need not be apprehended, yet, if notwith- 
 standing- all which might be adduced in justification or in pal- 
 liation of the proceedings and effects of Taxation on any plan, 
 though the most unobjectionable and innoxious which could be 
 devised and put into execution, though it were an Income Tax 
 raised on the most perfect plan, it would be impossible to prove, 
 or if demonstrable, to create a general conviction and feeling, that 
 Taxation would not continue to be a great national evil, must not 
 the conclusion be that the riddance of Taxation, so far as it is 
 practicable, is expedient, and that the greater the evil, real or ima- 
 ginary, the more expedient it is to adopt fair and effectual means 
 for that purpose? Presuming so far, that Taxation should not be 
 and generally is not regarded and felt as an evil, simply as a pecu- 
 niary obligation, in taking a sum from the possession of one to be 
 rendered to another, if that sum be not, with respect to either, 
 greater than perfect justice and absolute necessity require ; and that 
 so far as Taxation is an evil, it arises from the intrinsic and irre- 
 mediable defects of the mode of Taxation in taking more from the 
 one than it transfers to the other, and from other obnoxious and in- 
 jurious effects thereof (such as are adverted to in the first part of 
 this Work as imputable, in a greater degree, to indirect than to other 
 Taxation), would it not follow, if relief from those consequences 
 of Taxation were provided by means such as an Income or Pro- 
 perty Tax, with the power of redeeming it, offers, yielding at the 
 same time a full pecuniary equivalence for the pecuniary cost of 
 it, that with respect to all those who did not avail themselves of 
 the proffered means, either that they did not regard or feel those 
 consequences, or that they could not with justice and reason any 
 longer complain of them ? 
 
 Equitable means of getting rid of the 'present Land Tax unre- 
 deemed, in case of a redeemable Income or Property Tax. 
 
 As it might be presumed that, whatever other Taxes were 
 repealed on the substitution of an Income or Property Tax, that part 
 of the present Land Tax which is unredeemed should be retained in 
 justice to those who had exonerated their Estates from Land Tax, 
 
 2 Y 
 
346 
 
 it may be suggested, if the Income or Property Tax were sub- 
 jected to redemption, as Real Property would form the sole ob- 
 ject of it, and it would then be extremely desirable to free such 
 Property from other puVic burthens as much as possible, that the 
 whole of the Land Tax unredeeme I might be repealed, and 
 that in that case due compensation might be made to the Pro- 
 perties previously redeemed from that Tax by allowing the 
 Consideration paid for it to be taken in discharge, pro tanto, of the 
 Consideration payable for the redemption of the Income or 
 Property Tax on those particular Properties; £720,000 Land 
 Tax, that is about two-fifths of the redeemable part of it, has 
 been redeemed, for which about £26 millions of Consideration 
 in Principal Stock has been transferred to the Commissioners 
 for the reduction of the Debt, and so much of the Debt can- 
 celled; either the present value of the amount of Stock then 
 transferred or the amount in Money actually paid for that Stock, 
 (exclusive or not, of the Excess of one-tenth before mentioned) 
 might be deducted from the Consideration payable for the Re- 
 demption of Income Tax on those Properties, the Land Tax on 
 which had been redeemed. The total deduction would be small, 
 compared with the very large amount of Consideration required to 
 redeem all Real Property from the Income Tax. The Land Tax 
 unredeemed might then be repealed with perfect justice to those 
 whose Land Tax had been redeemed. 
 
 Or — In case of adopting an Income or Property Tax, and of an 
 intention to subject it to Redemption and Purchase, it might be 
 expedient before the latter part of the measure were commenced 
 upon, to get rid of the remaining unexonerated Land Tax by sub- 
 jecting it to some such compulsory means of Redemption as are 
 herein proposed for a redeemable Income or Property Tax. The 
 Sale and Redemption of the Land Tax has for many years pro- 
 ceeded very slowly ; it would probably make more progress if 
 greater facility were, as it could be, given to the proceedings, as 
 well to those enabling owners of Property to redeem, as to 
 those authorizing Strangers to purchase ; by the latter a great 
 part of the Sum remaining unsold would be converted into 
 Charges for the benefit of the Purchasers, which being considered 
 as Fee-farm Rents would also entitle them to Votes at Elections ; the 
 
347 
 
 Owners of Estates, if averse to such Charges, might, for the sake 
 of preventing them, be the more induced to redeem ; or itmight be 
 immaterial to them whether they paid Land Tax to the State, or Rent 
 Charges to private Individuals. — From the vast increase of Buil- 
 dings, and the great improvement and addition of Lands culti- 
 vated, the charge of Land Tax on each Individual has become in 
 many places so trifling, that it might not be at all hard on those of 
 ability to pay the small consideration w r hich would be payable for 
 the Redemption, to raise it at once, or by Instalments within a short 
 period, making additional Assessments for the purpose in the 
 same manner as for the annual levy of the Land Tax itself, instead 
 of contracting with the Parties ; or power might be given for the 
 purchase out of the Poor Rates of some of the very trifling Assess- 
 ments, after which they would be collected with and as a part of 
 those Rates.* The annual expence and trouble of charging and 
 collecting the very numerous small Assessments of Land Tax un- 
 der the present plan, which are supposed to constitute by far the 
 greatest portion of the whole number of Assessments, are dispro- 
 portionately great, and it appears on that account also to be very 
 desirable to dispose of them. 
 
 On the score of Inequality, there is not any Tax existing of 
 which it is so desirable to get rid as the present Land Tax, for the 
 Rates of Charge in the numerous Townships, Parishes, Hamlets, 
 and Places, vary in so many degrees, that they may be supposed 
 to consist of every possible fraction from one-eighth of a penny to 
 Is. and upwards in the pound on the real or nominal Value of the 
 unredeemed Properties situate within them : It should however be 
 observed, that the Land Tax does not operate as a burthen on the 
 Owners of Estates in cases where the Estates have been purchased, 
 being a certain known charge on the Owner, the purchase money 
 for the Property has been proportionably less. 
 
 If an Income or Property Tax be not adopted and if also the 
 Assessed Taxes be wholly repealed, it would be still desirable to 
 dispose of the unredeemed Land Tax in the manner now suggested, 
 
 * In some large Places the Land Tax is so small that it has been collected without 
 distinction from, and paid out of the Poor Rates. 
 
348 
 
 it being raised by the nearly same machinery as is used for as- 
 sessing* and collecting those Taxes, that machinery could then be 
 altogether got rid of, and the system of direct taxation for the 
 Public Revenue would wholly cease. 
 
 Extension by an Income Tax of the Public Revenue beyond Us 
 present Amount^ without any actual increase of burthen on 
 the Country ', for the purpose of reducing the National Debt or 
 one-half of it. 
 
 Comparing the present amount of the Revenue, (assuming it at 
 £50 millions) on the supposition that it were raised wholly by an 
 Income Tax, with the probable extent of the Income supplying it, 
 considering the large proportion of the Revenue drawn directly from 
 itself as so much Taxation abolished, and the remaining part of 
 the Revenue as Income transferred from one portion of the com- 
 munity to another without diminishing the general amount, and 
 assuming that this remaining part, or real amount of Taxation, does 
 not exceed £37 J millions, that it is paid out of an aggregate real In- 
 come of £200 millions, created by the Agricultural, Manufacturing, 
 and Trading Classes, that the whole directly or indiectly reverts to 
 the payers in general to be re-formed into Income, it might (though 
 only for the sake of conceiving what an Income is capable of) be- 
 come the subject of contemplation, if the Scheme of Redemption 
 and Purchase as suggested under the preceding Head be not 
 adopted, how far, by an Income Tax upon a well modified plan, 
 the Revenue could be extended beyond its present amount for the 
 purpose of raising a Surplus to reduce the National Debt, with 
 out subjecting the Country to a heavier exaction than the existing 
 Taxes at their present amount directly and indirectly impose on it. 
 
 Suppose the amount of saving to the Tax Payers by the abolition 
 of the present Taxes and the substitution of an Income Tax to be 
 the utmost extent to which an Income Tax could be carried beyond 
 the present amount of the Revenue. 
 
 The increase of prices of articles of use and consumption created 
 by the present Taxes beyond the amount of the Taxes themselves 
 has been variously estimated at from 30 to 50 per Cent, of that 
 amount ; the excess may perhaps be very safely taken at 35 per 
 
349 
 
 Cent.* The Gross Receipt of the Excise, Customs, &c.f con- 
 sisting of those Taxes is nearly £40 millions, 35 per Cent, of which 
 would benearly£14 millions. The difference between the charges of 
 management of an Income Tax and those of the present Taxes lias 
 been computed at about £2J millions; these together would make 
 an ultimate saving of £16 millions. If however the payment beyond 
 the Taxes themselves is not to be regarded wholly as so much super- 
 addition to Taxation, but partly as the interest and profit of Capital 
 advanced for Taxation by the Producers of articles which addi- 
 tionally come to them from the Expenditure of the Consumers, and 
 therefore that a great deal of what the general Community in one 
 character loses, a large part of it in a different character gains, there 
 is nevertheless to be taken into consideration the general benefit to 
 be derived from the greater equality of Taxation and from the 
 variation of its pressure according to the variation of power to sus- 
 tain Taxation which a well regulated Income Tax would introduce : 
 also the advantages of a removal or diminution of the restrictions 
 on Capital, operations of Trade, &c. which the present Taxes im- 
 pose : likewise the extension of its operation to Misers and Ab- 
 sentees whom the present Taxes do not adequately reach — also 
 the great ceconomy of its Collection. 
 
 It is likewise to be considered that not only a saving will arise in 
 the Charges of Collection of the Revenue, but that the reduction 
 of Prices will occasion a great saving in the incidental expences of 
 Government, assumed in this Work at about £5 millions, also in the 
 expenditure of many other Taxes or Rates of a public description, 
 such as the Poor Rates, &c. which altogether amount to £ 15 or £16 
 millions per annum. The direct saving under these several heads 
 of Expence may be taken probably at £5 millions; an estimate 
 of all the advantages at a value of £10 millions appears therefore 
 moderate. 
 
 Depending then on a realization of those various beneficial 
 effects which are anticipated from a change in the system of Tax- 
 
 * Vide Estimate in the Appendix. 
 f Some of the Stamp Duties are paid in advance by professional men and others $ 
 and their fees or charges may in justice be proportionably higher on that account. 
 
350 
 
 ation, it may be sanguinely expected that a Revenue raised wholly 
 by an Income Tax to the amount of £10 millions beyond the 
 amount of the present Revenue, say to the extent of £60 millions, 
 would not, in effect, be a greater exaction from the payers of it than 
 £50 millions raised by the present Taxes. 
 
 To raise an Income Tax of £60 millions, the 7th and highest 
 graduated Scale of Charge in Classes proposed in this Work might 
 be resorted to, or 3 there might be adopted the Scheme* of charging 
 Life Income derived from Property, Trade, &c. at a general Rate 
 not exceeding four-fifths of the general Rate of Charge on In- 
 come derived from absolute Property, and taking the average of 
 the graduated Rates of Charge on Incomes below £150 at 
 about two-fifths of the maximum Rate, the Scale then might appear 
 as follows : 
 
 Amount 
 
 Rates 
 
 Amount 
 
 Description of Income. of 
 
 of 
 
 of Gross 
 
 Income. 
 
 Charge. 
 
 Revenue. 
 
 Millions 
 
 General Mates 
 
 Millions 
 
 Income derived from absolute ) n~ n 
 Property $ 
 
 45 per Cent. 
 
 £29£ 
 
 Life and Trade Income ...... £75 
 
 36 per Cent. 
 
 £27 
 
 Lowest Classes of Income de- > „,« g 
 rived chiefly from Labor . . $ * 
 
 Average Rate 
 
 
 20 per Cent. 
 
 £3f 
 
 £158| 38 per Cent. 
 
 £60 
 
 The nominal average charge of the Tax on the Income assumed 
 as attainable for charge would be 38 per Cent. ; but making al- 
 lowance for the reduction of the price of Labor from the dimi- 
 nution of Wages arising from the abolition of other Taxes, vir- 
 tually shifting a part of the Tax on that description of Income, 
 the actual average would probably be less than 25 per Cent, of 
 the whole real Income ; or, making the computation in another 
 way by adding the Income of the Public Creditors and Public 
 Servants to the Income of the other Classes (assuming the for- 
 mer at £45 millions and the latter at £200 millions) making an 
 aggregate of £245 millions ; then supposing that one-fourth of 
 
 Vide, page 240. 
 
351 
 
 the Revenue of £60 millions would be contributed by the Public 
 Creditors and Servants, the remaining three-fourths of £45 mil- 
 lions would be less than a charge of 25 per Cent, of the whole 
 estimated Income of all the other Classes. 
 
 It may appear to some persons to be a monstrous proposition, 
 that of imposing" direct Taxation upon any Income at such rates 
 as the foregoing Estimates present ; but the proposition becomes 
 reconcileable when it is considered that the existing taxation, if 
 its amount be taken in the proportion of five-sixths of the whole 
 proposed amount of Income Tax, presses on and deteriorates di- 
 rectly and indirectly the several sources and classes of Income to 
 at least as enormous an extent. By the substitution proposed, the 
 reduction of the Public Debt will be effected without any real ad- 
 dition to taxation, while such a reduction could not be effected 
 under the present system of taxation without such an extraordi- 
 nary addition to it, and without such an aggravation of all the con- 
 comitant evils of it, as it would indeed be monstrous to propose, 
 although it may be recollected that even that extraordinary extent 
 of taxation was endured for some time during the late War when 
 a Sinking Fun5, exceeding in nominal amount, the Fund now con- 
 templated, formed a part of the system. 
 
 Pursuing however the Estimate — Suppose the surplus of the 
 present Revenue beyond the amount necessary to pay the Interest 
 to the Public Creditors and the Expenditure of Government to be 
 on an annual average £3 millions, as being the desired amount of 
 the Sinking Fund,* (a sum to be considered less as the means of any 
 material reduction of the National Debt than as a resource in case 
 of any indispensable increase of the Expenditure of Government or 
 a falling off of Revenue) £60 millions of Gross Revenue of Income 
 Tax would, taking into account the difference in the amount of 
 Charges of Management and Collection, give a Net Revenue ex- 
 ceeding by £12 millions a Gross Revenue of £50 millions raised 
 by the present Taxes — this excess added to the average surplus of 
 £3 millions, would create a Sinking Fund of £15 millions.* 
 
 * Vide Fourth Report of Select Committee on Public Income and Expenditure, 1828. 
 The actual annual amount of the Surplus Fund has varied very considerably. The 
 Amount of the Revenue has been of late so reduced that at present the Surplus is much 
 
352 
 
 An Annual Fund of £15 millions, accumulating at compound 
 Interest at 4 per Cent, would cancel the Debt in rather more than 
 28 years ; but the diversion of former accumulated Sinking" Funds 
 from the specific object for which they had been raised may wholly 
 have destroyed the public confidence in them, and any Fund, if left 
 to accumulate for the purpose of reducing the Debt, might, after 
 great accumulation, be again applied to other purposes ; it might 
 also be less beneficial to defer any reduction to a distant period and 
 then to reduce at once the whole or so very large a proportion of the 
 Revenue as a Fund accumulated to a great extent would by that 
 time render practicable, than to commence the reduction immedi- 
 ately and proceed upon it gradually; and although a gradual 
 reduction commencing with the establishment of a new or the 
 augmentation of the present Fund would require a longer time 
 than an accumulating fund for accomplishing the complete extinc- 
 tion of the Debt,* it would with greater certainty secure the appli- 
 cation of the fund to its real object, and those at whose expence it 
 might be formed would receive at once that proportion of relief 
 which it would be designed regularly to afford ; the benefit would 
 not be prospective and uncertain, such as an accumulating Fund 
 holds out, but each successive yearly Fund, or Surplus, would be 
 certainly followed by a yearly proportionate diminution of Tax- 
 ation. 
 
 A surplus Revenue of £15 millions in yearly redeeming ra- 
 ther more than that amount of Debt would, computing at 4 per 
 Cent, diminish the Annual Charge by an amount somewhat ex- 
 ceeding £600,000; in each succeeding year a surplus Revenue 
 of £15 millions would nevertheless remain, applicable to the 
 same extent of reduction. It might occupy the period of nearly 
 25 years to effect a reduction of Taxation equal to the Sinking 
 Fund of £15 millions, and nearly 50 years to reduce the whole 
 of the present charge of the Debt. 
 
 less than £3 millions. Taking- the amount of the Revenue as now reduced, the Esti- 
 mate above given of a substituted Income Tax, exceeding it by £10 millions, might 
 be proportionably reduced in the Rates of Charge on all the Classes of Income. 
 
 * An accumulating Sinking Fund, though while in operation it does not diminish the 
 amount of Taxation, reduces the Debt gradually, as every Purchase of Stock made of a 
 Public Creditor is a reduction of the Debt, though the Stock be transferred to the names 
 of the Commissioners, and not immediately cancelled. 
 
353 
 
 But as by this progressive course of reducing Taxation the gradually 
 increasing relief would be felt by those who raised the means for it, 
 so, by the other mode, many who had borne the full burthen would 
 not survive to enjoy in any degree the relief which after nearly 30 
 years it would then all at once yield, creating a change among the 
 several Classes of the Community of such a magnitude, as that the 
 suddenness of it would detract materially from the anticipated 
 benefit of it. 
 
 A comparison of the operations of the two Funds, one accumu- 
 lating at Compound Interest, the other immediately applicable at 
 Simple Interest to the gradual reduction of Taxation, would be as 
 follows : 
 
 Relief from Taxation. 
 
 Number of 
 Years. 
 
 By Fund at 
 Simple Interest. 
 
 Millions 
 
 By Accumulating 1 
 Fund. 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 15 
 20 
 25 
 28 
 35 
 40 
 50 
 
 £3 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 12 
 15 
 
 16* 
 
 21 
 
 24 
 .30 
 
 Nil 
 
 £30 
 
 Interest of 
 Debt reduced by 
 Accumulating 1 
 Fund. 
 
 Millions 
 
 ... £31 
 
 7 T V 
 12 
 
 l*ft 
 25 
 
 30 
 
 If the evil of the National Debt be balanced in some degree by ad- 
 vantages derived from it, and if the evil arise principally from the 
 excessive magnitude of it — or if the resources of the Country be in- 
 adequate to the complete discharge of it by any mode of Tax- 
 ation — then, upon either consideration, a partial reduction of the 
 Debt, suppose to the extent of one-half of it, may be as much as 
 can in the present state of things be contemplated : and if under all 
 circumstances it be also deemed advisable to continue the exist- 
 ing system of Revenue to the amount of the present Expenditure 
 of the State and Interest of the Debt, though not beyond it, then 
 
 2 z 
 
354 
 
 an Income or Property Tax of £14 or £15* millions, some- 
 what more than half the present total charge of the Debt, might 
 be raised solely and specifically for the purpose of discharging 
 gradually out of it, one half of the Principal of it, and the 
 amount of Taxation annually reduced would be rather more 
 than the amount of the Interest of the Principal annually liqui- 
 dated. An Income Tax commencing at the maximum Rate of 
 10 per Cent, with abated Rates on low Incomes, would be ade- 
 quate to this purpose, which would be completed by it in about 
 25 years, effecting during the interval the progressive reduction of 
 other Taxes according to the computation last given. In order 
 to avoid frequency of Proceedings arising from Yearly Returns 
 and Assessments, instead of an annual reduction of the Tax to the 
 amount of the liquidated charge of the Debt, the amount of the 
 Assessments of the first year might remain for five years, giving 
 power however to bring into charge in the intervening years new 
 Incomes, or to increase charges on Incomes liable in the first 
 year to greater charges than had been made on them in that year, 
 and also to allow Abatements in certain cases of Incomes dimi- 
 nished within each year. At the end of five years the Tax might 
 be reduced to a maximum Rate of 8 per Cent. 
 At the end of 10 years to ...» 6 per Cent. 
 
 Of 15 years to .... 4 per Cent. 
 
 Of 20 years to 2 per Cent. 
 
 By such periodical reductions of the Income Tax, maintaining the 
 same Rates for five years, a larger amount of Tax would be gained 
 than if the reductions were annual, but some loss would arise by 
 allowing relief to Incomes diminished, and not authorizing in- 
 crease of Duty on Incomes augmented during the intervening 
 four years. 
 
 These provisions would not apply to Income under Schedules C. 
 and E. the Duty on which being stopped therefrom at the places 
 
 * As the late Property Tax, which ultimately raised about the sum now contem- 
 plated, was imposed for defraying in part the extraordinary expences of the War, it 
 was held by some that it should have been continued after the War to assist in de- 
 fraying that increased annual expence which the War, from the additional Debt created 
 by it, brought upon the Country. 
 
355 
 
 of payment, would necessarily vary, as the Amount of each pay- 
 ment might vary; if the provisions were extended to these 
 Schedules, frequency and trouble of proceedings would be 
 created instead of avoided. 
 
 In the event of a War, the operation of the Sinking- Fund or 
 Surplus Revenue in reducing the Debt and Taxation might be 
 wholly or partly suspended, the Revenue applied to it being in 
 that case required for other purposes, but in that event there would 
 be the advantage of possessing an adequate Revenue already pre- 
 pared to meet such an exigency, on the termination of which the 
 Surplus Fund would return fully to its original operation. 
 
 On the great Advantage of an Income or Property Tax in case it 
 be not advisable to attempt to reduce materially the National 
 Debt. 
 
 An Income or Property Tax may be proposed as equally 
 expedient, whether it be advisable to attempt to reduce the 
 National Debt, or not. — It is most expedient in case of the 
 necessity of a reduction of the Debt, as affording the most ef- 
 fectual and fair means for accomplishing it, whether, as shewn 
 under the preceding heads, by subjecting the Tax to Redemption 
 and Purchase; or, by raising a Sinking Fund or Surplus Re- 
 venue of an adequate amount. It is most expedient, in case it be 
 not advisable to attempt to reduce the Debt, as it will be a less 
 impediment than any other mode of Taxation to such a degree of 
 improvement and increase of the Resources and Income of the 
 Country as may be indispensible to render the Debt a less in- 
 jurious and a more tolerable burthen, being the only description 
 and means of relief from or of assistance under the great weight 
 of the Debt, which, in case of its decided perpetuity, there would 
 remain any prospect of attaining. 
 
 The concluding observation with respect to an Income or Pro- 
 perty Tax as the means of discharging or reducing the National 
 Debt may be, that any substantial reasons which can be adduced 
 against it can be such only as will lead to the presumption that 
 Taxation, or the distribution of Income as made through Taxation, 
 now that it has been very long established and the relative state of 
 
356 
 
 society has been formed on it, is no longer an intolerable or very se- 
 rious evil, whatever it may have been at its commencement or at 
 periods of its increase ; that the great evil of Taxation is, at first, in 
 the derangements which it then for a time occasions ; that the con- 
 tinuance of it is now less to be dreaded than the consequence of any 
 attempt, by whatever means made, to reduce it wholly or materially ; 
 or — that the reduction, in any great degree, of the National Debt 
 and Taxation, and an alteration, by means however unobjectionable, 
 of the long established mode of distributing so much of the National 
 Income, will not diffuse a general benefit, but will introduce a 
 worse state of circumstances than that which it will get rid of; 
 the same conclusion, to which other premises lead, is then again 
 come to, that whatever degree of evil there be in Taxation is 
 less to be obviated or mitigated by reducing the amount of it 
 than by changing the system of raising it, that is, by adopting 
 that more equal, more certain, and less injurious mode of transfer- 
 ring the exact amount of Income due from the Payers to the 
 Receivers of it, which the direct Tax on Income most palpably 
 presents. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Attempt to shew the extent of the Deficiency of the Returns and Assessments 
 under the late Property Act. 
 
 An opinion of the amount of Income liable, or which should have been 
 rendered liable to charge, beyond the amount brought into charge under the 
 late Property Act may be founded partly on experience and observation of the 
 too general inclination to evasion with respect to all Taxes, and its practica- 
 bility with respect to some part of the Property Tax arising from the inade- 
 quacy of the provisions of the late Act wholly to prevent it, and partly on a 
 knowledge of the insufficiency during the period of that Act, of the general 
 Rat efixed for estimating the Profit of Occupation of Lands, forming one of the 
 largest sources of Income subject to the Tax ; but such opinion may be more 
 confidently founded on other means of information of the extent of the va- 
 rious descriptions of Property and Sources of Income in Great Britain, from 
 which not only it will satisfactorily appear that there was a considerable de- 
 ficiency in the amount of Income charged to the late Property Tax but a judg- 
 ment may be formed of the extent of that deficiency. 
 
 Schedule A.— Rents of Lands, 8fc. 
 
 Under Schedule A. the deficiency may be principally attributed to defective 
 returns of the Parties and defective estimates of the Parochial Officers, which 
 it may be presumed were more or less so according as the rules of the Act for 
 estimating the annual value and allowing deductions therefrom were under- 
 stood and pursued. 
 
 As Produce from Land was progressively increasing in value during nearly 
 the whole period of the Property Tax, the Rent at which Land was worth to 
 be let must in many cases, soon after the commencement of Leases, have ex- 
 ceeded the Rent for which it was actually let, while the general rule of the 
 late Act which declared that the annual value on which the Duty was to be 
 charged should be understood to be the Rent, if fixed by agreement within 7 
 years preceding the year of Assessment, limited the charge to the actual Rent ; 
 much of the annual value charged in the year 1814, the last year of charge,* 
 was therefore not the full yearly worth of Land at that period, but the lesser 
 worth of it at an antecedent period, and the deficiency may partly be attri- 
 buted to that cause. 
 
 * Vide Account of Particulars, p. 204, Second Part. 
 3 A 
 
2 APPENDIX. 
 
 It is conceived also that in cases where there was a power to charge the 
 annual value under Schedule A. beyond the Rent, leaving the occupier to pay 
 for the excess, such power was not always exercised. If the lease or agree- 
 ment had existed beyond 7 years, or if it had commenced within 7 years, and 
 it did not express the full consideration for the demise, or the Rent bond Jide 
 paid for it : or if the Rent reserved was less than the Rack Rent on occasion 
 of repairs or improvements to be done by the lessee, the annual value assessed 
 was required to be the full sum at which the property was worth to be let, but 
 it is apprehended that the Rent reserved was in many cases under these cir- 
 cumstances the amount on which the Assessment was made. 
 
 The rule and practice of resorting to the Poor Rates as a basis on which to 
 estimate the annual value or Rents, have been already animadverted on;* 
 much deficiency doubtless arose therefrom. The natural inclination of those 
 on whom the duty of making the Assessments, or the power of deciding on the 
 amount of them devolved, to press lightly on those subject to them, may also 
 in some instances have produced similar effects ; where they occurred, rela- 
 tive justice may have been enforced so far as concerned individually all those 
 coming within the same local jurisdiction; but as the degree of pressure where 
 it was liable to such discretion varied in different Districts, the well-intended 
 lenity gave rise in effect to various rates of charge, taking Districts and Places 
 relatively to each other. A rigid adherence to the rules of the Act might have 
 created less real hardship than a relaxed execution of them. Complaints 
 were founded mostly on comparison ; the mild practice in other Districts or 
 Places was adverted to in appealing against the alleged severity shewn to the 
 complainants. 
 
 The whole deficiency of Income under Schedule A. is assumed at rather 
 less than one- seventh of the total amount liable or which might have been ren- 
 dered liable to charge, that is, at nearly £10 millions, taking £6J millions as 
 the proportion of the deficiency of the Rent of Lands (charged in 1814 at 
 £39 J millions) and £3 J millions for Rents of Houses, Tenements, Tithes and 
 other Profits arising from the Soil to the Owners thereof, (charged in 1814 at 
 £20 J millions.) The total amount charged in 1814 was rather more than £60 ~ 
 millions, the amount assumed to have been liable to charge is £70 millions. 
 
 Having adverted to the principal causes of the deficiency, the following data 
 are offered as some ground for the large amount assumed, 
 
 It appears by some returns made during the War that the total number of 
 cultivated acres of Land in Great Britain was 35A- millions, and by other re- 
 turns that it was 37J millions. Taking the number of acres at 36 millions, the 
 average amount of Rent per acre as assessed in 1814 (the total amount charged 
 being £39 1 millions) was nearly £1. 2s. Od. Considering the very high price of 
 
 * Page 147, Second Part. 
 
APPENDIX. o 
 
 agricultural and grazing produce and the proportionably high rents received 
 during the prosperous period of Agriculture referred to, it may be presumed 
 that the average amount per acre of all Lands, arable, pasture, &c. was not 
 less than £1. 5s. Od.* which would be more than sufficient to give the total 
 estimate now taken, viz. 
 
 Millions. Millions. Total. 
 
 £39J + £6J = £46 millions. 
 
 Tithes. 
 
 The returns in respect of Tithes may be assured to have been defective. 
 It was estimated by one Writer f that the Receipts of Tithes in England and 
 Wales were as follows, viz. 
 
 Tithes in the possession of the parochial Clergy £2,031,000 
 
 The Impropriations from Tithes, of which ^ belonged to the supe- J -. r go qqq 
 rior Clergy and Universities and §- to the Lay Impropriators . . $ ' ' 
 
 . . Total 3,569,000 
 
 The total amount of Receipts by Owners of Tithes, lay and eccle- > « 730 898 
 siastical, charged under Schedule A. of the Property Act 1814 ^ ' ' 
 
 Deficiency in amount charged to the Property Tax on the Owners > £go« ]Q2 
 of Tithes \ ' 
 
 As it appears by the Property Tax Accounts that T 9 T of the Tithes were leased 
 or compounded for, and as it is apprehended that the compounders or lessees 
 in general made the returns and were charged thereon for the Owners' Duty, 
 having the authority to deduct the Duty from the Owners, and being also 
 chargeable under Schedule B. on J of the amount returned by them, as Profits 
 arising to themselves from their leases or compositions, it may be conceived 
 that the deficiency was to the extent appearing from the foregoing Estimate. 
 
 The Landed Rental in England and Wales subject to Tithes was estimated 
 by the above Writer at £28 millions or £35 millions, according as the Lands 
 were valued at 20s. or 25s. per acre, and taking the lowest of these estimates 
 £28 millions, and calculating the titheable gross annual produce as equal to 
 3£ rents only, or £98 millions ( T ] ^ of which is £9-| millions) the Clergy and 
 Lay Impropriators in receiving only £3,569,000, obtained, as that Writer 
 observes, not much more than one- third part of their legal right. 
 
 * " On the authority of the Board of Agriculture the average rent of Arable Land 
 ** subject to Tithes in 24 Counties in England was stated in 1813 at 32*. per annum and 
 (i upwards, and of Arable Land Tithe-free, at an average of 40*. per annum. 
 
 t Rev. Dr. Cove on the Revenues of the Church of England, 18 16. 
 
4 APPENDIX. 
 
 From the Property Tax Accounts it would appear that the Rents of Lands 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Tithe-free amounted to £14j 
 
 Tithe-free in part or subject to Modus 1J 
 
 Titheable 23§ 
 
 Total.. £39| 
 
 Taking only the Rental, £39 J millions, as charged to the Property Tax, 
 the Land in England and Wales subject to Tithes in 1814 should be estimated 
 at about £24 millions, although assuming the Annual Gross Rental of the 
 Kingdom at that period to have been £46 millions, as herein estimated, the 
 proportion subject to Tithes might be taken at Dr. Cove's lowest estimate, 
 viz. £28 millions. 
 
 Suppose then 
 
 Millions. 
 
 That the Landlords' Income from titheable Land was £24 
 
 That the Occupiers' Income was J only of the Rent 18 
 
 Total Landlords' and Tenants' Income £42 
 
 Or suppose 
 That the Occupiers' actual Income was equal to the full Rental assessed £24 
 Landlords' Income 24 
 
 Total amount.. £48 
 
 If the sum of £42 millions or £48 millions, as the full joint Income of the 
 Landlords and Tenants, represented their net Profit of -^ of the Produce after 
 all the expences of cultivation and other outgoings, then the question would 
 be as to the net Profit of the Tithe Owners from the other -J^ of the Produce, 
 supposing that they took the Tithes in kind, or if they compounded for them, 
 that they allowed no greater reduction than such an amount of expence as is 
 incurred by the Tithe Owner taking his Tithes in kind.* 
 
 If the Tithe Owners' rate of Profit should not be greater than that of the 
 Landlords and Tenants, then i of £42 millions or £48 millions, that is £4| 
 or £5^- millions, would be their Income therefrom ; but considering that the 
 expence only of the Produce from the field to the market is incurred by the 
 
 * The accounts state the Profits of Tithes taken in kind assessed to the Property 
 Tax to be £\ million, but as they do not distinguish the amount of the Rent of the Land 
 on which they were taken, they afford no assitance in forming- a judgment of the full 
 value of all the Tithes. 
 
APPENDIX. *> 
 
 Tithe Owners taking them in kind, it is conceived that the rate of Profit should 
 be greater. If the value of Tithes taken in kind be, as alleged, J, or as high 
 as J. of the Rent, the total Profit on all the Tithes, at those rates, on a Rental 
 of £24 millions, would be £6 millions or £8 millions. 
 
 If the Produce of the Land were estimated at 3 J times the Rent, then the 
 Tithes, if taken at -J^ of the Produce, would be as follows : — 
 Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions. 
 
 £ £ £ £ 
 
 Rent 24 x 3| = 84 Produce, and 84 -h 10 == 8f amount of Tithes, 
 
 and deducting from this amount the expences incurred by the Tithe Owner, 
 the net Profit would be reduced to somewhat less than £8 millions. 
 
 But, the total of Profits of Tithes were assessed to the Property Tax as 
 follows : 
 
 Millions. 
 Schedule A. — Owners' Profits from Tithes taken in kind. . . - . . ..... £± 
 
 Ditto leased and compounded for* 2^ 
 
 Schedule B. — Lessees and Compounders' Profits i 
 
 Total amount charged t £31 
 
 Comparing the lowest of the foregoing estimates of the value of the Tithes, 
 viz. £4|- millions, with the amount charged to the Property Tax on all parties, 
 viz. £3J millions, it appears either that there was a deficiency of £1^ millions 
 in the total sum charged, or that the Owners received far short of the amount 
 due to them. 
 
 Rents of Houses, and Profits of other Properties. 
 
 The total amount of Rents of Dwelling Houses and other Buildings may be 
 presumed to have increased, within the period of the late Property Act, in 
 proportion with Income from other Property, both from the addition to the 
 number of Houses, and from the augmentation .of Rents of Houses pre- 
 viously built ;f as during a course of improvement the full value of any 
 
 * The proportion leased is not distinguished from the proportion compounded for in 
 the accounts of those years in which the Compounders were charged as well as the 
 Lessees, but in an account of the year 1805, the last year of charging Lessees only, 
 the amount of Tithes leased is stated at £\ million. 
 
 \ By the Population Returns in 1801 and 1811, it appears that the number of 
 Houses in Great Britain increased at the average rate of 10 per Cent, in the interval. 
 In Cities and large Towns in England the increase appears at the rate of 15 per 
 Cent. The Rental of Houses assessed to the Property Tax in 1803 is not distinctly 
 shewn in the accounts, but the amount in 1806 was £llfk millions, and in 1814 it was 
 £161 millions. 
 
6 APPENDIX. 
 
 Property is more difficult to be attained for the purpose of a Tax thereon than 
 when Property has been for a lon£ time in a settled state, (and the rules of 
 the Act did not allow of any increase of charge in case of long leases until they 
 had exceeded seven years) and as it is well known that the Rents of Houses 
 were raised at a very great rate during the War, it is concluded there was con- 
 siderable deficiency in the amount brought into assessment. 
 
 Some deficiency may also be attributed to the Assessments on such proper- 
 ties as Mines, Quarries, Iron, Salt and other Works, Canals, Docks, Rights of 
 Markets, Tolls, Bridges, and other concerns of a like nature, charged under 
 Schedule A. according to the amount of Profits returned by the parties ; the 
 total amount of them actually brought into charge, including Fines on De- 
 mises of Land and Profits of Manors, amounted to £lf millions. 
 
 The estimate of £3J millions as the total deficiency in respect of Dwelling 
 Houses and Buildings, Tithes, Mines, Quarries, and the other Properties enu- 
 merated, is presumed to be moderate. 
 
 Schedule B. — Profits of Occupation of Lands. 
 
 The deficiency under Schedule B. being taken, in the first place, in propor- 
 tion to the deficiency in the individual Returns or parochial Estimates of Rent 
 and Annual Value of Lands under Schedule A., and it being in the next place 
 assumed that the real Profits of the Occupiers were, during the latter years of 
 the Property Act, at least one Rent instead of f thereof only as rated by the 
 Act, the whole estimated Income of the Occupiers of Land would be equal to 
 the total assumed amount of the Rent or Annual Value of Lands under Sche- 
 dule A., that is £4(> millions, exclusive of the Profits from Tithes compounded 
 for and leased, estimated as much exceeding the sum charged, £J million, 
 and which may be taken at least at £1 million,* shewing a deficiency in the 
 total amount charged under Schedule B (£27f millions) exceeding £ of the 
 whole estimated amount. 
 
 One proof of the lowness of the rate of charge on Profit of Land was that 
 but few complaints of the charges were preferred, and such as were re- 
 ceived, were not made on the ground that the charges were excessive as com- 
 pared with the actual Profits, but that they were so in comparison with the 
 charges made in other parishes or districts. 
 
 As parts of the foregoing Estimate of Deficiencies in respect of Lands may 
 appear to be formed too much on opinion, it may be satisfactory to find them 
 
 * It must however be surmised, that when Tithes are compounded for at less than 
 their real worth the Landlords receive proportionably higher Rents, or divide with the 
 Tenants the saving by the Compositions. 
 
APPENDIX. 7 
 
 confirmed by any good authority having relation to the same period, reference 
 is therefore made to the Treatise published by Dr. Colquhoun in 1814 upon 
 the Wealth of the British Empire, containing Estimates of the total Value of 
 the whole Property in the United Kingdom and a Computation of the new 
 Property or Income annually created. Dr. Colquhoun's Work was prepared 
 from authentic Public Documents or the best authorities attainable at that pe- 
 riod, and has been referred to with confidence in subsequent publications re- 
 quiring information of the Property and Income of the Country. 
 
 Dr. Colquhoun in order to form his computation of the total amount of new 
 Property or Income created annually fi om Agriculture, estimated the aggregate 
 value of the total quantities of tbe several species of the Produce of Land by 
 first calculating the quantities consumed ; for this purpose he took the number 
 of the population from the census of the year 1811 and the number of animals 
 from other existing accounts, he multiplied these by the rate of annual con- 
 sumption of each individual and each animal, which he assumed at moderate 
 averages, he then multiplied the total quantities consumed by the prices of 
 the several kinds of Produce respectively, which prices he took at the rates 
 hereafter mentioned. The aggregate value arising therefrom was £217 mil- 
 lions ; now, deducting from this result such a sum in respect of Ireland as 
 was, according to Dr. Colquhoun's valuation, its proportion of the total value 
 ofthe productive Property of the United Kingdom, that is, rather more than^-, 
 there would remain between £170 & £180 millions as the aggregate value of 
 the new Property or Income of Great Britain derived from Agriculture ; further 
 deducting the Wages of Laborers employed in Agriculture, which Dr. Colquhoun 
 estimated at £33f millions, and all other expences of cultivation and outgo- 
 ings, the remainder would be amply sufficient to justify the foregoing estimate 
 ofthe total amount of the Rent received by the Owners and of the Profit de- 
 rived by the Occupiers of Lands in 1814, viz. 
 
 Sch. A. Sch. B. 
 Millions. Millions. Total. 
 
 £46 + £46 = £92 millions. 
 Dr. Colquhoun's computations of the Value of the Products of Land were 
 made at a time (September 1812) when the prices were exceedingly high, 
 but he took the rates for his calculation before mentioned at one-half only 
 of those prices, viz. Wheat 70s. 6d. per quarter. 
 Barley 37s. 6d. do. 
 Oats 29s. Od. do. 
 Rye 43s. lOd. do. 
 Beans and Peas 38s. lOd. do. 
 The value of produce of Hay, Grass, Potatoes, Garden-stuff, and other Food 
 derived from Land, was estimated by him from other data. It is to be ob- 
 served, that one-half of the highest prices of the year 1812 gave much less 
 
8 APPENDIX. 
 
 than the actual average price of Produce of Land during the latter period of 
 the War, for instance, the price of Wheat was on the average nearly £5 per 
 quarter in the 1 1 years ending 1815, therefore the Gross Value of the Produce 
 and the Gross amount of new Property or Income as deduced from Dr. Col- 
 quhoun's mode of calculation appears less than the actual value of Produce 
 and amount of new Property or Income at the time when he made it ; and Dr. 
 Colquhoun admits that his computations were prepared at low rates. Sup- 
 posing however that the value of new Property or Produce from Land in Great 
 Britain at the latter period of the War was between £170 and £180 
 millions, as just taken ; then, assuming that the Rent or Annual Value of 
 Land was one-fourth of that new Property or Produce, the amount would be 
 nearly equal to the sum assumed (£46 millions) . The actual Rent paid to the 
 Owners may not in all cases have amounted to the annual value, that is, the 
 sum at which Lands were worth to be let (and it is the annual value rather than 
 the actual Rent which is now the proper object of estimate) ; the Profits of 
 the Farmers having leases for long terms of years may have been so great as 
 to have placed them in a great degree in the Character of Owners, as well as 
 of Occupiers ; it has been stated that the Landholders' actual share of the 
 Produce of Lands did not, owing to the extraordinary rise in the price of it, 
 and the length of leases, exceed, at one time during the War, one-fifth of it, the 
 Profits of Tenants must then have proportionably exceeded their ordinary rate, 
 but whatever may have been the respective amounts of Rents and Profits of 
 Landlords and Tenants, it may be presumed that the total Income of both de- 
 rived from Land at the latter end of the War, when taken at £92 millions is 
 rather under than overrated.* 
 
 * Dr. Adam Smith stated that the Rental of Lands in Great Britain was in 1774 esti- 
 mated at £-20 millions, though he considered it overrated at that sum-, if the Rental in 
 1814 amounted to £46 millions, and if according to evidence adduced, the Rental in 
 1792, before the commencement of the War, (a) did not exceed one half of the Rental 
 towards the close of the War, 1814, viz. £23 millions, the increase of the 18 preceding- 
 years, viz. from 1774 to 1792, was not more than £3 millions. Considering the extra- 
 ordinary increase of Agricultural Produce during the late War, from the very great 
 extension and improvement of cultivated Land, (for it has been stated that more waste 
 Land was enclosed during that period than within a century preceding- it, and that the 
 improvements of old enclosures kept pace with the extension of new enclosures) also 
 the large nominal advance of prices that took place in consequence of the alteration in 
 the Currency, the great disproportion in the estimated increase of the two intervals re- 
 spectively of 13 and 22 years (much of which is more nominal than real) may be satis- 
 factorily accounted for. 
 
 (a) " The witnesses examined by the Corn Committees of the House of Lords and House of Com- 
 " mons in 1813 and 1814, a^-ree in stating that the Rent or value of Land had been doubled within 
 " the preceding 20 or 25 years." The rental of Land as assessed to the Property Tax in 1893 was 
 £241 millions. 
 
APPENDIX. » 
 
 Schedule C Funded Property and Interest of Public Securities. 
 
 From the effectual mode adopted of securing the Duty under Schedule C. 
 it does not appear there could have been any deficiency in the amount of In- 
 come charged under that Schedule. 
 
 Stopping the Duty from the Dividends was the only mode of securing the 
 full sum due. It will be seen by the accounts that in the early years of the 
 Property Tax, 1803, 1804, and 1805, when the Duty was not stopped and 
 the amount obtained depended in a great degree on the Returns of the parties, 
 there was a very considerable deficiency in the amount returned ; and al- 
 though, as copies of the books of the Bank of England, &c. were in posses- 
 sion of the Tax Office as required by the Acts, much Duty must have been 
 recovered by its proceedings, yet the loss of Duty may be estimated at one- 
 fourth or one-fifth of the total amount due, shewing to what extent evasion 
 was effected where practicable.* 
 
 Schedule D.— Profits of Trade, Sfc. 
 
 The amount of deficiency of the Income rendered liable to charge under 
 Schedule D. is assumed to have been much greater than the amount of 
 deficiency of the Income rendered liable under the other Schedules. Re- 
 verting to reasons already offered for this assumption,f considering the 
 extraordinary augmentation and improvement of almost every branch of 
 Manufacture and Commerce and the great prosperity of Trades, Pro- 
 fessions, &c. in general during the War, notwithstanding occasional de- 
 pressions in some branches ; comparing the amount of Income returned 
 from the whole of those sources with the amounts returned of Income 
 derived from Lands, the very trifling increase of the amount of the Profits 
 from Taade, &c. obtained for charge during a period of several years with the 
 large actual increase of Profits which it is conceived must have taken place in 
 a great degree with Agricultural Income ;+ adverting also to the general opi- 
 
 * Half-yearly Dividends less than 20*. were not liable to deduction under Schedule 
 C. at the place of payment ; they were rendered chargeable under Schedule D. and 
 the parties were required to make returns of them and pay the Duty to the Collectors, 
 but it is not conceived that attention was paid to that requisition in many cases. 
 f Second Part, page 192. 
 
 Profits charged. Assumed Profits. 
 1803. 1814. 1814. 
 
 Millions. Millions. Millions. 
 % Sch. A. & B. Land £4l£ . . £67| . . £92 being 2|of the amount charged in 1803 
 „ D. Trade, &c. 34f .. 37$ .. 50 „ If ditto ditto 
 
 3 B 
 
10 APPENDIX. 
 
 nion that Agriculture and Trade act on each other, that as one prospers or 
 declines the other proportionably varies, considering the difficulties of ascer- 
 taining the Profits of Trade, &c. and that the amount attained for charge de- 
 pended almost wholly on the returns of the parties themselves, it is assumed 
 that the deficiency in the Returns of Income under Schedule D. amounted to 
 one-fourth of the actual Net Profits liable to Duty. The total amount charged 
 in the year 1814 was £37| millions, and it is assumed that the actual aggre- 
 gate amount was at least £50 millions. 
 
 The following Table shews the progressive Increase of each species of In- 
 come as charged to the late Income and Property Taxes respectively in alter- 
 nate years from 1801 to 1814. 
 
 It will be perceived, that the increase of Income charged under Schedule D. 
 of the Property Act in 1814 scarcely exceeded -^ of the whole amount of that 
 Schedule in 1803, but that the total increase under Schedules A. and B. 
 from Lands and Houses was nearly J of their total amount in 1803. 
 The produce of the Income Tax did not increase after the first year of it 
 (1799), and though it was a 10 per Cent. Tax, and the Property Tax was at 
 the commencement of it a 5 per Cent. Tax, the produce of the latter in 1803 
 amounted to within £1J million of the produce of the former in 1801, a result 
 attributable principally to the superior efficiency of the plan of the Property 
 Act. 
 
 * It should be observed that numerous returns of small Profits were delivered which 
 stated that they were " under £50" but did not specify the amount, and many per- 
 sons obviously in low circumstances were not required to make returns. — If the 
 amounts of the former were added in order to give the full amount of the Incomes 
 returned under Schedule D. the total amount would probably be £40 millions, and 
 the deficiency would not exceed one-fifth of the aggregate amount of Profits required 
 to be accounted for. 
 
 Great deficiency is supposed to have taken place in respect of Interest from Securi- 
 ties and Profits of Possessions in Colonies and Territories abroad, realized there and 
 remitted to this Country, which were liable to the full rate of Duty without abate- 
 ment on small Incomes as in respect of other Profits chargeable under Schedule D. 
 It was hardly possible to secure such a proof of the receipt of those pecuniary remit- 
 tances as would fix the parties with the due charge. It appears from the accounts that 
 the total amount assessed was less than £1 million. 
 
 NJ* 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 11 
 
 Income Act. 
 
 Amount charged 
 
 in 
 
 1801. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 -•SI'S 
 
 Sch. A. 
 B. 
 
 a 
 
 E. 
 
 Property Act. 
 
 Amount of Income charged. 
 
 1803. 1805. 1806. 1808. 1810. 1812. 1814- 
 
 Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions. 
 £38| £411 £45 £48 £52 £57 £60£ 
 
 
 17± 
 
 6? 
 
 20§ 
 
 22^ 
 
 7| 
 
 22f 
 24 
 9f 
 
 23| 26| 27f 
 24f 26 1 30 
 lOf 11| 14* 
 
 Exclusive 
 of Trade 
 Trade* . 
 
 I £fi^ Exclusive? 
 S * bo ^ ofSch. D.J 
 
 15 Sch. D. 
 
 Total £80f 
 £10 
 
 £76£ 
 
 £851 
 
 £95| 
 
 £104 
 
 £lll| 
 
 £121* £132* 
 
 34| 
 
 34| 
 
 34| 
 
 33| 
 
 34* 
 
 34| 37£t 
 
 £111§ 
 
 £120 
 
 £129| 
 
 £137f 
 
 £145| 
 
 155| £170 
 
 £5 
 
 £6i 
 
 £10 
 
 £10 
 
 £10 
 
 clO £10 
 
 Millions. 
 £4± 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Millions. 
 £11^ 
 
 Millions. 
 
 £11| 
 
 Millions. Millions. Millions. 
 £12± £13| £14± 
 
 Rates 
 per Cent 
 
 Net Pro-} Millions. 
 duceofV £5^ 
 Duty . ) 
 
 In giving the Increase of Income according to the Returns of it under the 
 Property Act, the depreciation of the Currency during the period coeval with 
 it should perhaps be adverted to : much of the Increase of Income may be 
 considered more nominal than real ; it has been computed that in 20 years 
 the depreciation was so great that £100 of the year 1794 was equivalent to 
 £ 160 of 1 8 1 4. Whatever the rate of depreciation may have been, as it applied 
 equally to all descriptions of Income it would not vary the comparison of them 
 
 * It is conceived that many Returns made to the Income Tax, 1801, by persons in 
 Trade, having- Incomes also from other sources, did not distinguish in them the amount 
 obtained from Trade, and that therefore some part of the charged Profits of Trade is 
 included in the amount of other Incomes. The different mode of charge to the Pro- 
 perty Tax necessarily enforced the distinction. 
 
 f The sudden increase of Profits charged under Schedule D. in the year, 1814, 
 does not appear to have arisen from any extraordinary increase of Trade, &c. at 
 or immediately previous to that particular period ; it was probably occasioned by 
 the proceedings then adopted by Government to raise the Assessments under Schedule D. 
 from their extreme state of deficiency, viz. a reference to the Customs and Excise en- 
 tries of the quantities of the different articles of Manufacture, Trade, and Commerce, 
 in cases in which such information appeared necessary as a means of assistance to 
 ascertain the amount of Profits. If the Act had been continued, the Duty under 
 this Schedule might by these means have been raised much nearer to its proper 
 amount. 
 
12 APPENDIX. 
 
 now given. The circumstance. may however be adduced as corroborating the 
 opinion of the great extent of deficiency in the Returns of Income rnder 
 Schedule D. &c. for instead of any real increase of Profits from Trade and 
 Professions, it would appear, from the Returns under the Property Act taken 
 with the altered value of Money, that there had been a progressive decrease 
 of them from the year 1803 to the year 1814, and that Trade and Professions 
 had been declining while other sources of Income had been improving. It 
 may also be assumed that in 1803, the first year of the Property Act, the 
 sums returned under Schedule D. were not the full amount of the actual Pro- 
 fits ; and when it appears that at the end of the 1 1 succeeding years, a period 
 on the whole of great prosperity in Trade and Manufactures in general, there 
 was so inconsiderable an increase, a deficiency to the extent herein assumed 
 may be reasonably inferred. 
 
 The following is a compare of the number of Families in the Summary of 
 the Population Returns of 1811 with the sums of Income charged to the late 
 Property Tax and the sums assumed to have been the actual amount of In- 
 come in respect of Agriculture and Trade, &c. respectively. 
 
 Proportions of Num- Proportions of Income Proportions of 
 
 bers in the Popula- charged to the late the assumed 
 
 tion Summary. Property Tax Income. 
 
 Agriculture 89 67% * 92f 
 
 to to to 
 
 Trade, &c 112 37f 50 
 
 A part of the Income under Schedule D. of the late Property Act consisted 
 of the Profits of Professions and of those of Employments or Vocations not as- 
 sessed under Schedule E., also of Interest of Foreign Securities and of Re- 
 mittances from Foreign Possessions and from Ireland, and casual Profits not 
 falling under other ►Schedules, most of which appertained to Families not in- 
 cluded, it is conceived, in the class, in the Population Returns, of Families 
 employed in Trade and Manufacture. The total amount of all such other 
 Profits, Interest, and Remittances is not shewn by the accounts, but assuming it 
 to have been one-fifth of the whole amount charged under Schedule D. the 
 
 As Charged. As Assumed. 
 
 * Schedule A £39| £46 
 
 „ B £27f £46 
 
 Total., £67| f£92 
 
APPENDIX. 13 
 
 deduction of it would reduce the amount of Income assessed in respect of Trade, 
 Manufacture, and Commerce very nearly to £30 millions, and at the same rate 
 of deduction the assumed real amount chargeable in respect thereof would be 
 reducible to £40 millions. 
 
 Schedule E. — Profits of Public Offices. 
 
 The regulations prescribed by Schedule E. of the Act for charging and 
 stopping or collecting the Duty from the Salaries, Pay, &c. of Offices and 
 Appointments under Government precluded almost in every case the means of 
 evasion. In a few cases of persons receiving Fees (not carried to a general 
 fund) the full amount of which may have been known only to themselves, some 
 deficiency in the returns of them may have occurred. Income derived from 
 Public Employments of other descriptions was not fully subjected to the same 
 regulations, and it is apprehended there was some deficiency in the returns of 
 such Income, a part may however be supposed to have been erroneously in- 
 cluded in the amount of the Professional Profits returned by some of the parties 
 under Schedule D., and the Salaries of some Officers under Corporations and 
 Public Companies, being payable out of the Rents of Lands, were subject 
 to deduction of the Duty under Schedule A., and were not distinctly charged 
 under Schedule E. 
 
 Partly to these causes aud partly to the much greater augmentation, in con- 
 sequence of the War, in the number of the Government Offices and Appoint- 
 ments, than in the number of other Offices of a public nature may be attributed 
 the much greater increase in the amount of the Official Incomes of the former 
 assessed under Schedule E. of the late Tax within the period of its duration, 
 as may be more particularly seen by the following Account of the Total 
 Amount of Incomes exceeding £50 charged thereto, in the years 1803 and 
 1814 respectively, distinguished in Departments. 
 
 Though the War and also the Property Tax were renewed in the year 1 8 15, it 
 is conceived that the total amount of the chargeable Incomes was about the 
 same as in the year 1814. The Accounts do not furnish the amount charged 
 for 1815. 
 
14 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Appointments under Government. 
 
 Amount of charged Income, 
 exceeding £50.* 
 
 1803. 
 
 1814. 
 
 Offices of the Royal Household, including the Civil 
 List, Judges, Pensions, &c 
 
 Principal Offices of State, including Treasury .... 
 
 Officers of Revenue, and Departments belonging 
 thereto 
 
 Officers of the Army, and Civil Departments be- 
 longing thereto t 
 
 Officers of the Navy, and Civil Departments be- 
 longing thereto 
 
 Courts of Justice, and Departments belonging 
 thereto 
 
 795,800 
 
 273,900 
 
 1,269,500 
 
 1,805,700 
 
 831,600 
 
 234,700 
 
 Total.. £5,2 11,200 
 Other Offices of a Public nature not under Govern- 
 ment, viz. Clerks of the Peace, Clerks of Magis- 
 trates, Coroners, Under Sheriffs, Clerks to Com- )> 988,800 
 missioners & Collectors of Taxes, Vestry Clerks, 
 Officers under Public Corporations, &c. &c . . 
 
 1,310,400 
 
 541,800 
 
 2,368,800 
 
 5,405,400 
 
 2,658,600 
 
 315,000 
 
 12,600,000 
 1,600,000 
 
 Total.. £6,200,000 | 14,200,000 
 
 Estimate of Total Income and of Total Deficiency of Amount charged 
 under all the Schedules. 
 
 Schedules 
 
 A 
 B 
 C 
 D 
 E 
 
 Total Amount 
 
 charged. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 £601 
 27$ 
 30 
 37* 
 14* 
 
 Deficiency. 
 Millions. 
 
 £9| 
 19* 
 
 12* 
 
 * 
 
 Total Income. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 £70 
 47f 
 30 
 50 
 15 
 
 Total.. £170 
 
 £42 
 
 £212 
 
 * The Pay of the Soldiers, Sailors, and others, of less than £50 per annum, are 
 not included. 
 
 f Including £1 million as the amount of Profits assumed to have been derived from 
 Compositions and Leases of Tithes. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 15 
 
 The total Deficiency amounted to nearly one-fifth of the. total estimated 
 Amount of actual Income, but it should be observed that a great part of it, 
 though received by persons possessing Incomes of an amount chargeable in 
 other cases, was not rendered liable to charge. 
 
 The charge to the Tax under Schedule B. was on three-fourths of the Rent, 
 but the assumed actual Profit is an amount equal to the full Rent ; thence 
 arises nearly two- thirds of the estimated deficiency under this Schedule. 
 
 The following is a compare of the average Rates per Cent, of Net Duty on 
 the Income so far as it was accounted for, and on the assumed actual Income 
 under each Schedule in the year 1814. 
 
 Total Income Total assumed Net Duty remain- 
 charged. Income. ing after Abate- 
 ments on small 
 Incomes. 
 
 Average Rate Average Rate 
 
 per Cent. per Cent. 
 
 of Net Duty of Net Duty 
 
 on Income on assumed 
 
 charged, Income. 
 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Sch. A. 
 
 £601 
 
 £70 
 
 £^% 
 
 „ B. 
 
 27J 
 
 47 
 
 *k 
 
 „ c. 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 
 „ D. 
 
 37$ 
 
 50 
 
 3A 
 
 „ E. 
 
 14* 
 
 15 
 
 «* 
 
 
 £170 
 
 £212 
 
 £15§ 
 
 v^.. 
 
 10 
 
 H 
 
 ~9A 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 General Averages. 
 
 If the Profits of the Occupiers of Land did not exceed three-fourths of their 
 Rents, and the deficiency under Schedule B. in that case arose only from de- 
 ficient Returns or Estimates of Rents, the deficiency would not much exceed 
 £7 millions, the assumable Income should then be taken at less than £35 mil- 
 lions and the average rate per Cent, of Net Duty at 6i. The total assumed 
 chargeable Income would then be about £200 millions, the total deficiency 
 would be about £30 millions, and would not much exceed one-seventh of the 
 total chargeable Income 
 
 The total Income brought into assessment (£170 millions) produced, after 
 all deductions, the sum of £14 J millions Net produce applicable to the Public 
 Service. If the whole estimated Income of £212 millions had been brought 
 into assessment, subject to the like deductions, it would have produced about 
 £18 millions. 
 
 The late Property Tax operated on the several descriptions of Income, as 
 far as they were attained for charge in the ratios given in the column of which 
 9^ is the general average, which shews the comparative effects of the Gradu- 
 ated Scale of Charge of the limited extent adopted for that Tax. If the actual 
 
16 APPENDIX. 
 
 Incomes were the Amounts given in the Estimate, the real operation was in 
 the ratios expressed in the column of which 7 J is the general average. It may 
 be conceived that the inequalities of the late Property Tax were greater, taking 
 the Schedules in their respective aggregates relatively to each other than 
 taking individual Incomes under the same Schedule relatively to each other ; 
 individual Incomes under Schedules C. and E. were charged relatively, with 
 perfect or nearly perfect equality, the effect of the Act coincided with its in- 
 tention, as almost every Income was charged at the rate and precise amount 
 at which the Act intended it should be charged. Incomes under Schedules 
 A. and B. were probably charged relatively with near equality, but it may 
 be inferred that Incomes under Schedule D. were charged with much relative 
 inequality, the deficiencies in individual cases having probably been in very 
 different degrees. 
 
 It must however be considered, that the magnitude of the deficiency 
 both under Schedules A. and B. arose partly from a circumstance which is not 
 likely at any period of a future Tax to recur, viz. a most extraordinary and 
 rapid course of increase (real and nominal) of Rents and Profits from Lands 
 for several years successively. The rules of the Act (which precluded increase 
 of charge in cases of leases of or beyond 7 years until after the expiration of 
 that period) not allowing a concurrent and proportionate advance of the Tax 
 either in respect of the Rent of the Landlord or the Profits of the Tenant, and 
 limiting the charge on the latter to the general rate of three-fourths of the 
 Rent as fixed in the first instance, which undoubtedly was much less than the 
 real proportion of the Occupiers' Profits in the latter years of the War. It 
 may however be concluded that the annual increase in the Property Tax As- 
 sessments of the latter years arose partly from deficiency of charges in for- 
 mer years discovered and supplied, and not wholly from actual increase of 
 Rents and Profits. 
 
 Wages. 
 
 Although the Property Act subjected to charge all Incomes derived from 
 Wages exceeding 30s. in any week, a very small proportion only of such 
 Wages was brought into charge.* Considering the very high Wages paid 
 
 * It was estimated during the late Property Tax that if it had been enforced on all 
 Wages exceeding 30s. per week, viz. £78 per annum, the charge on which was 
 £4 4s. Od., it would have produced £1 million. This would suppose upwards of 200 000 
 Individuals earning Wages exceeding 30s. per week and the total amount of such 
 Wages to have been nearly £20 millions. 
 
APPENDIX. 17 
 
 to some descriptions of Artificers and Mechanics during the War, it is con- 
 ceived that the highest Rate of Wages may be taken at 40s. per week for each 
 family, and that the lowest Rate, including the Earnings of Parents, Children, 
 and every member of each family, cannot be taken at less than 1 0s. per week - T 
 the mean rate of the two extremes is 25s., but as that probably was higher 
 than the actual average rate of Wages paid to the Laboring Classes, the com- 
 putation may be safely made at the rate of 18s. per week, or about £47 per 
 annum, and the aggregate will be as follows : 
 
 The Total number of Families and Persons with Incomes 
 assumed to have been about 
 
 is I 3,000,000 
 
 The Total number of Families and Persons charged to the ? *Q^5 000 
 Property Tax on Incomes exceeding £50 $ 
 
 1 " 
 Number of Families and Persons with Incomes not exceeding £50 2,355,000 
 
 A great number of these Families with Incomes not exceeding £50 did not 
 derive them from Wages, but otherwise in a small way of Trade, Farming, 
 &c. the amount of such Income maybe taken at about £10 millions, (which is 
 included in the Estimate of £2 12 Millions), and the number of Persons shar- 
 ing it at 250,000, leaving about 2,150,000 Families living by Wages, which 
 at £47 per annum, would amount to about £100 millions. 
 
 Estimate of the Total Income of Great Britain at the latter period of the 
 
 Property Act. 
 
 The Total of the Income of Great Britain at the latter period of the Property 
 Act, comprehending every description and amount, will appear from the fore- 
 going Estimates as follows : 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Total Amount of Income, exclusive of Wages £212 
 
 Amount of Income from Wages 100 
 
 Total.. £312 
 
 Dr. Colquhoun estimated the New Property or Value of Productions an- 
 nually raised from the use of Capital, Machinery, Skill, and I^abor, in Great 
 Britain and Ireland, at £430 millions, which, distributed among the various 
 Classes and Ranks of Society, viz. in the way of Rent to the Proprietors of 
 
 * Vide Estimate under a subsequent head. 
 3 C 
 
18 APPENDIX. 
 
 Lands, &c, of Profits to the Occupiers of Lands, also of Profits to Persons in 
 Trade, Professions, &c, of Wages to Laborers, &c, and by way of Taxes to 
 the Fundholders and Persons employed by the State, was taken to constitute 
 the Income of those several Classes. 
 
 A classification of this Income according to amount has been given by Dr. 
 Colquhoun, but not in such a form as to admit of a comparison of it with the 
 classification from the Income and Property Tax Accounts, excepting that as 
 he distinguished the amount of the New Property or Income distributed among 
 the lower classes of families or persons whose Incomes or Earnings, princi- 
 pally Wages, did not exceed £50, a compare of the proportions of aggregate 
 Income below and exceeding that amount may be made as follows : 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Total Amount of estimated Income £430 
 
 Total Amount of estimated Income under £50 1 28 
 
 Total Amount of Income of £50 and above 302 
 
 Dr. C. estimated the Total productive private Property of Ireland at } 
 
 about one-fifth of the total productive Property of the United f gQ„ 
 Kingdom, assuming the proportion of Income derived therefrom f * 
 
 at the same rate for the purpose of this compare it will be ; 
 
 Estimated Income of £50 and above for Great Britain £241| 
 
 Dr. C.'s estimates distinguish the several items of New Property, or Income 
 under the heads of Agriculture and Trade, Manufacture, Commerce, &c. and 
 the amounts of them, in the aggregate, appear as follows : 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Agriculture (including £9 millions for Mines and Minerals) £226 
 
 Trade, Manufacture, &c. (including £5 Millions Foreign Income re- } 9fU 
 mitted) \ ^ U4 
 
 Total Income.. £430 
 
 His Estimate of Income under £50, was £128 
 
 Deduct for Ireland one-fifth 25| 
 
 Total amount of Income under £50 for Great Britain. . £102| 
 
 Following Dr. C.'s Computation, the Total Income of Great Britain might 
 be taken as follows : — 
 
APPENDIX. 19 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Income of £50 per annum and above £241£ 
 
 Income under £50, including Wages 102f 
 
 *£344 
 
 In a Work which may be considered as upon the whole most favorable in its 
 views to an Income Tax, it may seem inconsistent to make the operation of 
 the late Tax on different descriptions of Income appear so unequal and 
 deficient as it is here represented to have been ; after offering, however, for 
 consideration modifications of the late plan, it is deemed most proper candidly 
 to submit the supposed degree of that unequal and defective operation, as the 
 propriety of those modifications may partly rest on their probable effect in those 
 essential respects. The inequality and deficiency of the late Tax, partly arising 
 from evasion and partly from imperfection of plan and defect of execution, 
 cannot be denied, and they were greater perhaps than some of the friends 
 of it conceived ; but whatever the degpee of them may have been, they are 
 presumed to be remediable to a great extent in a future Tax ; the dif- 
 ficulties of rendering the Tax perfectly full and equal, and wholly unob- 
 jectionable in other respects, have been fully and fairly exposed in the 
 Second Part of this Work; but though perfect equality cannot be anticipated 
 from any change of the late plan, yet not only it may be expected that with 
 due practicable modifications its relative exactions would, compared with 
 those of other Taxes, be more correspondent with relative means ; but it must 
 be also considered that the greater equity of an Income Tax consists not 
 wholly in the more just proportions of its demands, taking classes or indi- 
 viduals, or individuals of the same class, relatively to each other, but in a great 
 degree in the readier variation of the amount of its exaction from each class 
 or individual as the particular means of each vary; the partial operation of 
 an Income Tax arises partly from causes which may in some degree make it 
 reconcileable, for according as any Income is in its nature fixed and durable, 
 so it is most effectually reached by the Tax, particularly such as is derived 
 
 * The new Property or Produce formed in the first instance the Gross Income of the 
 Agricultural, Trade, &c. Classes— the payment out of it to the Fundholders and Public 
 Servants left the former with a Real Income of less than £300 millions. Comparing 
 that amount of the Total Income of the United Kingdom which is assumed as the 
 proportion for Ireland, viz. — 
 
 Of and above £50 Under £50 Total 
 
 £60§ millions -|- £25f millions zz £86 millions, 
 with the Estimates of other Writers on the Income of Ireland it would appear to be ex- 
 cessive • if it be so, then the amount which should be herein assumed for Great Britain 
 would be proportionably greater. 
 
20 APPENDIX. 
 
 from Taxation itself, and according as Income is of a description fluctuating and 
 uncertain, so it is most difficult to be fully attained for charge. These natural re- 
 sults corresponding with the various natures of different descriptions of Income 
 may not be considered undesirable in a general view, and the consideration 
 becomes the stronger as it regards Macufactures and Trade, from their greater 
 liability than other sources of Income not only to fluctuation and uncertainty 
 but to complete destruction, for however variable and precarious the amount 
 of Profits from Landed Property may be, the Property itself remains, it yields 
 some Profit, and is capable of maintaining, however indifferently in adverse 
 seasons, or assisting in the maintenance of, the Owners, Tenants, and Laborers 
 who have been accustomed to subsist upon it, but a source of Trade, &c. may 
 be wholly annihilated, or so extremely reduced that those who have depended 
 on it can derive no subsistence whatever from it. At the same time, as 
 has been contended in the Contrast submitted in the First Part of this Work, 
 it is to be borne in mind that the Process of Taxation on Commodities is such 
 as to be most disadvantageous to Capital and Income of a fluctuating and 
 uncertain description as those of Commerce and Trade : it is not only the 
 greater degree of inequality with which those Taxes operate, but the inju- 
 rious effects of that Process and also detrimental consequences in those other re- 
 spects which have been fully exposed and from which an Income Tax is com- 
 paratively free, that give the latter measure its great superiority. 
 
 On the probable Amount of the National Income at the present Period. 
 
 In attempting some estimate of the Amount of the total Income of Great 
 Britain which would be chargeable to an Income Tax if revived at the present 
 period, it is assumed that the principal causes of any alteration of its former 
 amount may have been, on one side, the fall of Prices, arising partly from the 
 state of Agriculture and Trade and partly from the change in the Currency, 
 and, on the other side, the increase of Population, which has proportionably 
 augmented the number, and, to a great, though not perhaps to a proportionate 
 extent, the amount of Incomes.* How far the increase of Population, with 
 an improvement in some sources of Income in consequence of the Peace, may 
 have balanced the causes of diminution of Income it is difficult to estimate 
 satisfactorily ; but it may not be drawing too favorable a view of the present 
 state of Income compared with the state of Income at the latter period of the 
 War, to assume that the amount of additional taxable Incomes from increase 
 
 * It appears by the Census of the Population in 1811 and 1831 that the rate of In- 
 crease during- that interval has been upwards of % of the number of Persons in 1611. 
 
APPENDIX. 21 
 
 of Population, and the amount of a considerable number of former taxable In- 
 comes which have improved or have remained unaltered, are not in the ag- 
 gregate less than one-fourth of the former total Amount (taking it at £212 
 millions), or £53 millions, that the remainder, amounting to nearly £160 
 millions, has materially diminished, that the average rate of diminution of it 
 has exceeded one-fourth, say £40 millions, leaving the present chargeable In- 
 come at not less than £170 millions. The former and present Amounts as 
 estimated under the different Schedules mi^ht be then as follows, viz. 
 
 B. 
 C. 
 D, 
 E. 
 
 
 Former Amount. 
 Millions. 
 £70 
 
 Present Amount. 
 Millions. 
 
 £60 
 
 
 47 
 
 30 
 
 
 30 
 
 29 
 
 
 50 »»»*. 
 
 •%**... 40 
 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 £212 
 
 £170* 
 
 * Sch. A. It is conceived that the principal, if not the whole, diminution of Income 
 under this Schedule has been in the Rental of Land — that the number of 
 Houses has so greatly increased that the Rents of the new Houses balance 
 any diminution of the Rents of Houses before built j assuming- as before the 
 Rental of Land in or previous to 1814 at £46 millions, and allowing a fall on 
 the average of between 20 and 25 per Cent., the present amount would be 
 about £36 millions, which added to the Rental of Houses, Tithes, and 
 other Profits chargeable under Schedule A. and assessed in 1814 at nearly 
 £21 millions, but assumed then to have been and still to remain at the sum of 
 about £24 millions, would make an aggregate of £60 millions. 
 
 Sch. B. The greatest diminution in any description of Income has arisen in the 
 Profits of the occupation of Land. The amount of diminution is here taken 
 at nearly two-fiths of the former assumed amount. Although the Rents 
 have been much reduced, the present average rate of Profits is not taken as 
 much exceeding three-fourths of the Rent, which added to Profits of Tithes 
 compounded for and leased would yield about £30 millions. 
 
 Sch. C. It should be observed that the Dividends of Funded Property did not 
 attain their maximum amount till after the year 1814, therefore the accounts 
 of Property Tax for that year do not exhibit it. The estimated diminution of 
 Income under this Schedule on account of the subsequent reduction of the 
 4 and 5 per Cent. Stocks is not so great as it would appear if compared with 
 the amount assessed in the year 1815, viz. £33 millions, which was extra- 
 ordinarily great, as, besides the Dividends of an increase of Funded Debt, 
 it included an unusually large amount of Interest of Exchequer Bills. 
 
22 APPENDIX. 
 
 If the reduction of Wages be computed at one-third, and the average rate 
 of Wages paid to all classes, which has been taken at 18*. per week or £47 
 per annum during the War, be supposed to have been reduced to 12*. per 
 week or £31 4*. per annum, and if an addition be made on account of sub- 
 sequent increase of Population* with Incomes derived from Wages, the total 
 Amount would be at least £ 70 millions. This result would render the aggre- 
 gate Income as follows : 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Total amount of Income exclusive of Wages £170 
 
 Ditto Ditto from Wages 70 
 
 Total.. £240 
 
 As the Total Income, including Wages, before the end of the War, is taken 
 (p. 17) at £312 Millions, the subsequent aggregate rate of diminution is £72 
 Millions, or rather more than two-ninths. 
 
 Some judgmeut may be formed of the Total amount of Income of the pre- 
 sent period by considering the Sum necessarily expended by or on account of 
 every individual of the whole population on an average. 
 
 Sch. D. Conceiving that the total Income from Trade, Commerce, Professions, &c 
 chargeable during the late Property Tax has been herein estimated at a 
 low amount, and that the Peace and other causes have materially be- 
 nefited some branches of them, it is considered that, although the average 
 rate of diminution on the aggregate amount is not taken at more than 20 per 
 Cent, the assumed amount of the present Income (£40 millions) is not ex- 
 cessive. 
 Sch. E. The rate of diminution under this Schedule is taken at upwards of one- 
 fourth. The reduction in amount of chargeable Income is not propor- 
 tionate to the reduction in number of Public Appointments and Employ- 
 ments since the War, as half or retired Pay and Pensions, are received by 
 most of those who have retired from Service. 
 In estimating the rate of diminution under Schedules A. B. and D. it is very mate- 
 rial to consider it with regard to aggregate amounts. The average rate of individual 
 diminution of former existing Incomes under either Schedule, may in general be 
 greater than now taken, but the large addition to the number of Incomes created by 
 the great increase of Population must have had the effect of preventing so great a re- 
 duction in the aggregate rate of diminution • former Income may therefore have become 
 more subdivided, but not much lessened in aggregate amount. 
 
 * The rate of increase in the number of Families 1811 to 1821 was ^ assuming 
 that rate of increase has since continued, the number in receipt of Wages might be 
 assumed to have increased to nearly 2| millions. 
 
APPENDIX. 23 
 
 By the Returns of the Population of Great Britain, collected in ) , A o Q1 M1 
 
 the year 1821, the number is stated at \ I4,jy l,OJl 
 
 Subsequent Increase at -^ (say) 2,200,000 
 
 Total estimated Number of the present period * 16,591,6^1 
 
 Suppose that the amount of Income expended by or on each } 
 
 Person be upon an average lOd. per Day or £15 per> 15 
 
 Annum \ 
 
 The Total Income expended would be 1^248,874,465 
 
 The chargeable Income of the year 1814 has been estimated at an 
 amount of £212 millions, and the present chargeable amount is taken at 
 £170 millions only, but as the proportion of the latter attainable for charge 
 has been assumed in the Estimates of this Work at nearly the amount (£170 
 millions) charged in 1814, reference is requested to the reasons offered for 
 this assumption, (Note, Second Part, p. 208) ; at the same time it is to be ob- 
 served, that former experience and knowledge would, together with improved 
 rules in a future Plan, render material assistance to future practice and pre- 
 vent so much deficiency as before existed. It was difficult while Rents and 
 Profits were in a course of progressive increase to obtain Returns proportion- 
 ably increasing ; the early Returns were in many cases too long adhered to ; 
 the interference of those whose duty it was. to prevent evasions as much as 
 possible was insufficient to make the Tax keep pace with the advance of In- 
 come. 
 
 The rate of depression of Prices and Profits from the change of Currency 
 has been variously estimated by different writers ; but whatever the rate may 
 be, as the aggregate amounts of the Value of articles of Commerce, Manufac- 
 ture, and Trade, must, notwithstanding the depression of prices, have been 
 much kept up by the increased demand and consumption, arising partly 
 from the greater cheapness of them and partly from the increase of popula- 
 tion, the aggregate amount of Profits cannot have been reduced in the ratio of 
 the reduction of the Currency ; and though upon the balance of effects of the 
 
 * Since this Estimate was made the result of the Census taken of the Population in 
 1832, has been published. The total number of Persons in Great Britain is stated 
 therein at 16,537,398. 
 
 f " The annual Income of Great Britain after making allowances for the reduction 
 " of Rents and the diminution of the Profits of Trade since the War may be stated to 
 <* be from £250 to £280 millions." (Vide Earl of Liverpool's Speech, 26th February 
 1822, on the Agricultural Distress.) 
 
24 APPENDIX. 
 
 several causes operating differently on Property and Income the proportion of 
 it attainable for charge to a future Tax might not realize immediately such 
 results as appear in the Estimates of the Produce of Duty offered in this 
 Work, yet, anticipating augmented means of contribution from still further 
 increase of population, and from the improvement of Agriculture and Trade, 
 which will be materially aided by the abolition of the present Taxes, it may 
 not be too much to expect that a future Income Tax would in time compre- 
 hend within its operation as large an amount of Income as those Estimates 
 exhibit. 
 
 Nominal and Real Amount of National Income distinguished. 
 
 The Income of the County is to be distinguished under two points of view, 
 in as far as Taxation, which forms the Income of a large portion of the 
 Community, is but Income taken out of the Income of the rest, The In- 
 come of the Country is then to be shewn in one view as Real and in the other 
 as Nominal. 
 
 The Real Income of the Country as charged to the late Tax, and the Real 
 Income as it is assumed to have been at the latter end of the War, are as 
 follow : 
 
 Real Income as charged. Real Income as assumed. 
 
 Millions. Millions. 
 
 Schedule A. .. £60£ £70 
 
 B. ,, 27j 47 
 
 Not derived from the J c o* o 
 
 Public Revenue. . \ " ^' " l ■ l 
 
 D. .. 37$ 50 
 
 E. .. If 2 
 
 £129f £171 
 
 Ditto Income derived from Daily or Weekly 1 
 
 Wages of Labor not charged to the > 90 
 Tax 5 — 
 
 £261 
 
 * The amount of Income charged under Schedule C. which was not derived from the 
 Public Revenue is not distinguished in the Accounts, this Sum is therefore partly esti- 
 mated. 
 
APPENDIX. '25 
 
 The total Nominal Income would appear to have been as follows 
 
 As charged. As assumed. 
 Millions. Millions. 
 
 Amount of Real Income.. £129f £171 
 
 Derived from C Sch. C 28 28 
 
 the 
 
 C Sell 
 
 Public Revenue { ,» E 12f 13 
 
 £170 £212 
 
 Ditto .Daily Pay of Soldiers and Sailors } 
 
 and other Public Servants, not > 10 10 
 
 charged to the Tax* 3 
 
 Wages of Labor, Ditto 90 90 
 
 Total Nominal Income . . £270 £312 
 
 Supposing the total Real Income as before assumed, viz. £261 millions, to have 
 declined in the proportion of nearly one-fourth, the present Real Income 
 would not exceed £200 millions ; and supposing that the present Income 
 of the Public Creditors and Public Servants may be taken at £45 mil- 
 lions, the Amount of the Nominal Income at this period would be about £245 
 millions. 
 
 Comparative Estimates of the Amounts of Taxation and of Income at dif- 
 ferent Periods, distinguishing Income derived from the Public Revenue and 
 Taxation on that Income. 
 
 As it is impossible, under the present system of Taxation, to ascertain and 
 distinguish the effects of it on the various sources of Income, so it cannot be 
 shewn to what extent Taxation has affected the different Classes of So- 
 ciety It is certain that a great increase in the general amount of the Income 
 of the Country has been realized notwithstanding a much greater proportion- 
 ate increase of Taxation, from the year 1792, the year preceding the com- 
 mencement of the late War, (a date to which it appears customary to revert 
 when comparative views of the state of the Country at different periods are 
 taken). It has been observed, that "an increase of population cannot take 
 w place without a proportionate or nearly proportionate increase of wealth."f 
 The rate of Increase of Nominal Income since 1792 had at the conclusion of 
 
 • This is a mere conjectural estimate of the Amount, the Accounts do not furnbh 
 it distinctly. 
 
 f Malthus. 
 
 3 D 
 
26 APPENDIX. 
 
 the War (1815) far exceeded the rate of increase of population ; but taking 
 into account the previously depreciated and the subsequently restored value 
 of Money, and the corresponding augmentation and diminution in the no- 
 minal amount of Income, it might prove, if the precise results were shewn, 
 that the increase of Real Income and the increase of Population had up to 
 that date, and have from that to the present time, been nearly proportionate 
 to each other ; if so, individual Incomes have, on the average, continued 
 without alteration in real value, though not in nominal amount, throughout the 
 whole intervening period. 
 
 As thenlhe rate of increase of Population has differed from the rate of increase 
 of nominal Income, it appears essential to estimate the average amount of in- 
 dividual Income at various periods, as presently attempted, as shewing more 
 readily, on a comparison of one period with another, the rate of increase or 
 decrease of aggregate real Income, after due allowance has been made for the 
 degrees of depreciation and restoration in the value of Money. 
 
 According as Population may have increased more or less proportionably than 
 Real Income, it may be generally considered that the state of the Country has, 
 on the whole, been improved or been deteriorated ; but the question of equal 
 or more importance may be, whether the Division of the aggregate Income 
 has maintained its former or proper state, whether the apportionment of it 
 among the various Classes, high, middle, and low, in all their gradations has 
 remained the same, or if it has undergone any change, whether that change 
 has improved or deteriorated the general state of Society : this exposition it 
 may be impossible to give confidently and correctly in an arithmetical form ; 
 it is believed that there does not exist any more authentic documents for 
 estimating numerically the Divisions of Income than the Classification con- 
 tained in the last Accounts of the Income Tax made up for the year 1801, 
 which has been used in this Work as the only basis which could be resorted 
 to on which to estimate the Income in Classes of a subsequent period ; but 
 as the Accounts resorted to give the Classification for one period only,* they 
 cannot be used for estimating for another period, the Total Income only of which 
 Other period may be known, any variation in the apportionment of Income 
 which may in the interval have taken place among the several Classes, as any 
 calculations founded on them must give, though not the same amounts, yet 
 the same relative proportions. 
 
 As there appears however a want of positive information as to any varia- 
 tions which may have actually occurred in the division and classification of 
 the general Income, it may be desiiable to estimate, as well as existing ac- 
 
 * Classifications were made for each of the years 1799 and 1800, during- which time 
 the Income Tax lasted, but the Amounts of the different Classes are very immaterially 
 different from those of the year 1801. 
 
APPENDIX. 27 
 
 counts will admit, the changes which have taken place, not only in the average 
 individual amounts of Income but in those of Taxation, also in the proportion 
 which the aggregate amount of Income has borne to the aggregate amount of 
 Taxation within the period of nearly 40 years from 1792, during which 
 changes of greater magnitude have occurred in those particulars than had taken 
 place within a century preceding. 
 
 Taking the Accounts of the late Property Tax as containing, though de- 
 ficient amounts, on the whole, of the Income chargeab'e with it, yet a tolerably 
 good comparison of the Amount of Income in the different years compre- 
 hended within the period of those Accounts, and reverting to other evidence 
 already offered, it appears that the Amount of the Real Income of Great Britain 
 
 was at least doubled during the late War ; viz. from 1792 to 1814. 
 
 Millions. 
 The Amount of Income attained for Charge to the Property Tax of > « 19fi 
 the Agricultural, Trade Classes, &c. in 1814, (Sch. A. B. & D.) \ X1 ^° 
 Ditto ditto 1803 91 
 
 Increase in the last half of the period of the War, 1 803 to 1 8 1 4 £35 
 
 Supposing the taxable Income was doubled during the War, the In- > # ~a 
 crease within the first half of the said period from 1 792 to 1 803 was $ 
 
 Supposed Income of 1792, being one half of the taxed Income > +^q 
 of 1814, exclusive of Wages ] T DcJ 
 
 If an estimate be made according to the amount of the Income attained for 
 charge to the late Tax of all Classes, including the Public Creditors and Ser- 
 vants, that is of the nominal Income, exclusive of Wages, the result appears as 
 follows : 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Amount charged in 18 1 4 £ 1 70 
 
 Do. 1803 Ill 
 
 Increase during the last half of the period of the War , 59 
 
 Suppose that the taxable Income was doubled during the War, the } #0R 
 Increase within the first half of the period was $ 
 
 Supposed Income in 1792, being one-half of the taxable Income of > .*.«- 
 1814, exclusive of Wages \ * * b5 
 
 * As the Bank Restriction Act, which occasioned such an extraordinary increase of 
 the Circulating Medium and depreciation in the value of Money, with a corresponding 
 nominal increase in the amount of Rents, Profits, &c., did not take place till the year 
 1797, it seems probable that the rate of increase of Income was not so great during the 
 first as during the last half of the period in question. 
 
 f As the Property Tax did not charge the full amount of Income which was liable 
 or which should have been rendered liable to it, the sums estimated as the real or no- 
 minal Income of 1792 should be taken as proportionably deficient. 
 
28 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The following is offered as a rough Estimate of the aggregate amounts of 
 Income and of Taxation, also of the average individual amounts of Income 
 and Taxation of the Agricultural, Trade Classes, &c. at three different periods, 
 viz. before the commencement of the late War, at the end of it, and at the 
 present period, (1831). 
 
 Number of 
 Persons of the 
 Agricultural 
 
 and 
 
 Trade Classes 
 
 possessed of 
 
 Incomes. * 
 
 Taxation, 
 deducting 
 the propor- 
 tion paid 
 Gross by the 
 Income Public 
 of those Creditors and 
 Classes. Servants. 
 
 Net 
 Income 
 of the 
 Agricultural 
 and 
 Trade 
 Classes. 
 
 Average 
 Individual 
 
 amount 
 of 
 
 Gross 
 Income of 
 
 ditto. 
 
 Average 
 
 Individual 
 
 amount 
 
 of 
 
 Taxation 
 
 paid by 
 
 ditto. 
 
 Average 
 
 Individual 
 
 amount 
 
 of 
 
 Net 
 
 Income of 
 
 ditto. 
 
 Millions. Millions. Millions. 
 
 1792— .2,100,000.. 130.. 
 1815— 2,400,000.. 260.. 
 1831— 2,800,000.. 200.. 
 
 £ £ 
 
 ..H.... 116 
 
 ..45f... 214 
 ..37±t.. 
 
 162J 
 
 £ s. £ s. £ s. 
 
 . 61 18 .. 6 13.. 55 5 
 
 .108 7 ..19 3.. 89 4 
 
 . 71 8 ..13 7.. 58 1 
 
 According to some calculations of the effects of the alterations in the Currency, 
 and of other causes which, as well as the increase or decrease of Taxation, 
 occasion a rise or fall of Prices or vary the extent and the value of Money in 
 circulation, it would appear that an Income of £100 of the year 1814 was 
 equivalent to an Income of £60 in 1792, and that at the present period the 
 value has been nearly or in a great degree restored. Whatever the degrees of 
 former diminution and of subsequent restoration of the value of Money may 
 have been, in those degrees the former increase and the subsequent decrease 
 of Income and of Taxation should be considered as more nominal than 
 real. 
 
 With reference to the difference of opinion as to the effects produced on the 
 National Income by the increase of the National Debt and of Taxation, it may 
 be observed, whether the increase of Income is to be considered to have taken 
 place rather as in spite of the increase of Debt and Taxation than as in any 
 
 * From the Returns of Population since 1792, and from estimates of it for that pe- 
 riod, it would appear that the rate of increase from 1792 to 1830 has, on the whole, 
 been about one-half $ but as in forming" the numbers here given a much larger pro- 
 portion for the number of the Public Creditors and Public Servants has been de- 
 ducted for the years 1814 and 1830 than for 1792, the rate of increase of the other 
 Classes appears one-third only. 
 
 -J- As the difference between these two sums is not near equal to the amount of Taxes 
 repealed or reduced since the War, it is to be observed that the reduction of Taxes, or 
 other causes, have so far increased the productiveness of the remaining Taxation that 
 the increase of it amounts to more than one-half of the amount of the Taxes repealed 
 or reduced. 
 
APPENDIX. 29 
 
 degree in consequence of it, that although the Principal of the Debt was 
 trebled, and the Expences of the State greatly increased during the late War, 
 yet if the Income of the Country was doubled at the end of it, the increase of 
 the Annual Charge of the Debt and Taxation within the same period, de- 
 ducting therefrom the proportion repaid to it by the Public Creditors and 
 Servants, did not amount to one-fourth of the increase of annual Income which 
 took place at the same time; and notwithstanding the reduction of no- 
 minal Income since the War, the excess of the Income of the present period 
 beyond that of 1792 may be taken at three times the amount of the increased 
 Charge of the Debt and of Taxation for the other Expences of the State. 
 
 As it is assumed that the united Capital and Labor of 3^ millions of Per- 
 sons or Families of all classes produce at this period an aggregate Real In- 
 come of £200 millions, including Wages, or superadding thereto the Incomes 
 of the Public Creditors and Public Servants, &c. an aggregate nominal In- 
 come of £245 or £250 millions, the following further conjectural Estimate is 
 offered of the Division of the whole Income between the Classes whose In- 
 comes are derived from Taxation and the Classes whose Incomes are not de- 
 rived therefrom, also of the Net Amounts of Taxation paid by the latter and 
 received by the former respectively. 
 
 Division of Income. 
 
 Incidental 
 Expenditure 
 Sch.A.B.&D. Sch.C.&E. of Total. 
 
 Government. 
 
 Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions. 
 
 Nominal or Gross Income £200 .... £45 .... £5* £250 
 
 Taxation 37J 12J — 50 
 
 Real or Net Income £1621 £32 J £5 £200 
 
 * This conjectural Sum is not included in preceding Estimates of Nominal Income :— ■ 
 in the disbursement of it by Government, it creates additional Real Income principally 
 among the Trading Classes. 
 
30 APPENDIX, 
 
 Taxation paid by 
 
 Millions. Millions, 
 
 Schedule A £20±- exceeding \ of the estimated Income £60 
 
 „ B 7 less than ± do. do. 30 
 
 D 10 = £ do. do. 40 
 
 } exceeding \ of the taxed Income.. £130 
 Real amount of ) noni ( Washes exempt .... 70 
 
 Taxation.... \ £37 i> 
 
 3 less than £ of total Real Income . . £200 
 Schedules C. and E. .. £12J exceeding \ of the estimated Income 45* 
 
 Incidental Expenditure , . 5 
 
 NO T^atio™T , . n . t .°. f | £50 = i of total Nominal Income £250 
 
 Taxation paid to 
 
 Millions. Millions. 
 
 Schedule C £19 J nearly T ^ of the total Real Income of £200 
 
 E 13 „ -J^. do. do. 
 
 Incidental Expenditure 5 zz _l do. do. 
 
 £37£ nearly £ do. do. 
 
 Schedules A. B. & D. Schedules C. & E. Total Number. 
 Number of Families or } 
 
 Persons possessed ofV 2,800,000 700,000 3,500,000 
 
 Income } 
 
 Average Individual No- > £7l g . . . . £64 6 ....£70 
 minal Income $ 
 
 Average Individual Tax.) ? ....f]7 18 0....£14 5 9 
 
 ation $ 
 
 Average Individual Real ) £5g , .... f46 8 ....£45 14 3 
 Income v 
 
 # Including the proportion exempted from the Tax. If the rate of charge be com- 
 puted on the proportion charged, viz. less than £40 millions, it would not be much less 
 than one-third of that proportion. 
 
APPENDIX. 31 
 
 Proportions which appertain to the Agricultural, Trade Classes, &c. — 
 
 Of the Total Amount of Nominal Income . . f 
 
 Do. do. Taxation -J 
 
 Do. do. Real Income .... -^ 
 
 Of the Total Number of Population f * 
 
 As a considerable reduction of the rates of Wages, of Labor, and of the Pay of 
 Soldiers, Sailors, &c. might be made if they were exempt from Taxation, 
 the virtual relief therefrom attainable by the Incomes of the taxed Classes 
 would be proportionate to that reduction. 
 
 As one object of the foregoing computations is to exhibit the real amounts or 
 relative proportions of Taxation which if the whole Revenue were raised by an 
 Income Tax would be borne respectively by the Agricultural, Trade Classes, &c 
 supplying Taxation, and by the other Classes subsisting on it, it is to be ob- 
 served, that if the present means of the former Classes to bear Taxation are 
 overrated so is also the amount of Taxation affixed to them, and the amount 
 
 * The number of the Public Creditors and Servants taken in the above rough esti- 
 mate is greater in proportion than the total amount of their Incomes ; if the number 
 were taken in the proportion which the total amount of their Incomes would give, the 
 average individual Income of those Classes would be the same as the general average 
 amount, but it is conceived that the number as taken is not overrated. Income from 
 Funded Property is so very much dispersed among all classes that the number given is 
 probably much short of the whole number among whom it is divided, comprehending 
 many who have other Incomes, and who belong therefore in pari to other Classes. 
 The total number here assumed under Sch. C. and E., may perhaps be considered as the 
 number of those whose Incomes are derived wholly or principally from the Revenue. 
 
 It is apprehended that there is a very large proportion of the Public Servants of the 
 lowest ranks whose respective Incomes arising from small daily pay are less in indi- 
 vidual amounts than are earned as daily Wages by those among the Laboring Classes 
 in general j also a large number of Public Creditors and Public Servants living on 
 small Annuities and Pensions, less in amount than they had or would have earned in 
 active life and employ ; that therefore the Individual Incomes of the Public Creditors 
 and Servants are on the average smaller than those of the other Classes. So much of 
 the sum of £5 millions here conjecturally taken for incidental Expenditure of Govern- 
 ment as is expended for clothing, lodging and subsisting some of the Public Servants 
 (whose pecuniary pay and allowances only are included in the rough estimate of their 
 Income) may be considered as forming a part thereof, and therefore as virtually in- 
 creasing the individual average amount of it. The proportion which the number of 
 the Public Creditors and Servants bears to the number of the rest of the Population is 
 assumed to be as 1 to 4— the proportion which the Net Income of those Classes (£32| 
 millions) bears to the Net Income of the other Classes (£162| millions) is as 1 to 5. 
 The excess of the Rate of the Tax on Income under Schedules A. and C. arises chiefly 
 from the principle of it, that is, the charge is at a higher rate on Income derived from 
 Property than on Income otherwise derived. 
 
32 APPENDIX. 
 
 of Taxation on the Revenue Classes is underrated. On a question now so dis- 
 putable and involved in obscurity, and which must ever create wide differences 
 of opinion until an Income Tax be fully established and bring out certainty 
 and truth, it may be added that any attempt to estimate the relative means of 
 the different Classes to bear Taxation and the real weight falling on them 
 respectively, cannot be made so as to give a result conclusive and satisfactory 
 to every one, but so far all must agree, as an axiom, that under perfectly equal 
 Taxation (to which an Income Tax approaches nearer than any other system 
 of Taxation) the exact proportion paid to Taxation by every individual tax 
 payer should and will be as his individual means are to the aggregate means 
 of all the tax payers, and the positive amount paid by him will be less or 
 more as the aggregate means of all the tax payers are augmented or reduced ; 
 likewise that the individual amount received by every tax receiver and the ag- 
 gregate amount received by all the tax receivers will be more or less as the 
 aggregate means of all the tax payers increase or diminish. 
 
 If the statements which have been lately made of the very reduced amounts 
 of Rents, Profits, and Wages at the present period be correct, the present In- 
 come of the Agricultural, Trade Classes, &c. may be overrated by the fore- 
 going Estimate of it. As there is the satisfaction of knowing that the more 
 reduced the Income of those Classes, the less will be the real amount of Tax- 
 ation paid by them and the greater will be the sum repaid by Incomes derived 
 from Taxation, or in other words, to a greater amount will Taxation be re- 
 duced or abolished, particularly if the Revenue be raised wholly by an Income 
 Tax — it may be worth while to compute these effects on a supposed Amount 
 of Real Income, which shall be as low as the most desponding can appre- 
 hend. Let it then be imagined that the total Income of the Trade, Agricul- 
 tural Classes, &c , including Wages, does not exceed £150 millions, and that 
 the proportion of it derived from Wages is £50 millions, that the nominal 
 amount of Taxation and the nominal amount of Income derived from it by 
 the Public Creditors and Public Servants nevertheless remain the same ; under 
 these circumstances, and premising that upon the supposition of such a very 
 reduced amount of Income of the Agricultural, Trade Classes, &c, but of no 
 reduction in the numbers of those among whom it is divided, the number of 
 Individual Incomes brought into lower Classes, by which they would, under 
 a graduated Scale of Charge, become chargeable at lower rates or be wholly 
 exempted, would be greatly augmented, the Income Tax would consequently 
 operate in an increased ratio on the Incomes derived from Taxation, the num- 
 ber and individual amounts of which are supposed to continue the same ; esti- 
 mating then that the aggregate amount of real Taxation on the Agricultural, 
 Trade Classes, &c. would be reduced from three-fourths (the proportion 
 hitherto taken) to three-fifths of the nominal amount of Taxation, and that the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 33 
 
 remaining two-fifths would fall on Revenue Incomes, the result would be as 
 follows : 
 
 
 Gross or Nominal 
 Income. 
 
 Tax. 
 
 Net or Real 
 Income. 
 
 Schedules A. B. and D. . . 
 
 Millions. 
 £100 
 
 Millions. 
 
 .. £30 .. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 .... £70 
 
 Vages 
 
 ....... 50 .... 
 
 .... 50 
 
 £150 £30 £120 
 
 Schedules C. and E 45 20 25 
 
 Government Incidental Expenditure 5 — 5 
 
 Total £200 £50 £150 
 
 It must not however be omitted to be stated, that Opinions have been pub- 
 lished from most respectable Quarters that the aggregate Income of the Nation 
 has not been diminished since the War, but that it has, both really and nomi- 
 nally, been increased. The greatly increased quantity of consumption and 
 consequently of production necessarily occasioned by the very great increase 
 of population since that period would seem to sanction these Opinions. 
 The diminished amount of Money Circulation may however be stated as 
 most likely to have kept down the nominal amount of the Income ; the 
 Value rather than the extent of the total Income may have been augmented ; 
 the Value may have advanced while the A mount may have retrograded. 
 
 On the great importance of the Information afforded by anlncimc Tax of any 
 variations in the general amount of Income and in the division of it among 
 the several Classes. 
 
 On the important question, whether the general Income of the Country has of 
 late years diminished, it may be further observed, that if the quantities of untaxed 
 Commodities have increased as well as those of taxed Commodities, (and an 
 increase of the former may, from the fact of the increase of the latter in gene- 
 ral, as proved by ihe Public Accounts, and the great coincident increase of 
 Population, be concluded to have taken place), then, as the amount of the value 
 of the new Produce of every kind which is annually created, constitutes Income 
 to an equal amount, in some way, to the Classes or Individuals who create it or 
 share it among them, the aggregate Income of the Nation must have increased 
 
 3 E 
 
34 APPENDIX. 
 
 in real value, whatever may have been its alteration in nominal Amount.* 
 Adopting other premises : it may be concluded, if the pecuniary or nominal 
 value of the aggregate mass of Produce and Commodities has fallen since the 
 War, though the aggregate quantity of them has increased, the total nominal 
 amount of Income must have proportionably diminished ; but as the aggregate 
 real Value of Produce, &c. cannot have diminished while the quantity of them 
 has increased (for the real value of a quarter of Wheat, a stone of Meat, a 
 hogshead of Liquor, &c. must be the same at all times), it will again follow 
 that the aggregate real value of the total National Income must have increased, 
 although by alterations in the Currency it may have been diminished in nominal 
 amount. 
 
 Furthermore ; as the necessaries, conveniencies and luxuries of life do not alter 
 in their real value in use because they alter in their nominal value, because they 
 
 * The usual division of Income has been into Rant, Profit, and Wages; to these 
 three heads has been added by some Writers a fourth, viz. Taxation — but it is con- 
 ceived that Income derived from Taxation may properly be comprehended in Rent, Profit 
 and Wages, out of which it is exacted or to which it is but a nominal addition. 
 
 The value of New Produce derived from Land constitutes Income in the way of Rent to 
 the Owners, of Profit to the Occupiers, and of Wages to the Laborers, after deducting in- 
 cidental expences of cultivation, as machinery, utensils, repairs, &c, and from the sup- 
 ply of which articles, pprsons of other Classes necessarily derive Incomes to an amount 
 equal to the amount of the expence of them. In the same manner the value of Produce, 
 Merchandize, and Manufactures sold in Commerce and Trade, constitutes Income to 
 an equal amount in the way of Profits and Wages, to the Merchants, Traders, Work- 
 men, &c. employed in or dependent on them Some Writers, as it seems, treat immaterial 
 as well as material products, as a part of the wealth of a Nation, but this course is not 
 followed by others, among which latter is Dr. Adam Smith. The pecuniary value of 
 an immaterial product gives the Producer of it command over a proportionate share of 
 the material products, but as immaterial products must in general diminish or increase in 
 extent with material products, the value of the latter appears to constitute the real Wealth 
 or the standard of the Wealth of the Country, while immaterial products increase the 
 number of the sharers of it. To pursue this question would be to enter unnecessarily 
 here upon the complicated subject of the nature of Wealth, of the distinctions of pro- 
 ductive and unproductive Labor, &c. on which points there are such very conflicting 
 opinions among the best Writers; it will therefore only be further suggested, that the 
 Tables in the Treatise of Dr. Colquhoun on the Wealth of the British Empire (so much 
 referred to in this and other Works of the kind) give, if not a perfectly accurate es- 
 timate of, yet an illustration of the proper mode of estimating the Amount and Division 
 of the Income of the Country, by founding them on the Amount or Value of the New 
 Property or material Products annually created, and by distributing that amount or 
 value among the several Classes of the Community as the full Income of those Classes 
 distinguished under the denominations of productive aud unproductive Members, or 
 material and immaterial Producers, and under the various ranks and gradations into 
 which the whole Community is divided. 
 
APPENDIX. 35 
 
 become dearer or cheaper in money price, so unless the increase of popula- 
 tion has been greater in proportion than the increase in quantities of those 
 necessaries, conveniencies and luxuries of life, the average individual share 
 of them has not been lessened, the average individual Income (by which that 
 share is represented) has not, then, in real value been diminished whatever may 
 have been its diminution in nominal amount ; but although the aggregate real 
 value of the general fund of Income has increased, and the average individual 
 share of it may have remained unaltered, the division of the aggregate bulk of 
 necessaries conveniencies and luxuries, the apportionment of that general fund 
 of Income, may have been changed for the better or for the worse. Comparing 
 different periods during the last 35 years, it must be found that as the total mass 
 of Productions of all kinds has increased proportionably or nearly so with the 
 total increase of Population, every Class has in its number of Persons and in its 
 amount of real aggregate Income been advanced, but if a view be taken under 
 a correct Classification of Income, by which the most perfect knowledge and. 
 judgment can be formed of the relative state of the several Classes, it may be 
 found that their proportions in number and in Income, that is, the apportion- 
 ment of the necessaries, comforts and luxuries of life have been materially 
 altered ; if a general Income Tax were established, such a Classification might 
 be prepared periodically from the materials of it as would shew whether and 
 in what degree the relative state of any Class had been changed. This con- 
 stitutes the very important information which the Public should be constantly in 
 possession of. It is not only essential in Taxation, but it might also assist 
 materially in the determination of other national measures affecting the con- 
 ditions of the Classes in general or any of them in particular, and in ascer- 
 taining accurately the actual results of those measures ; it may not be enough 
 to know what is the aggregate fund of Wealth and Income at different periods ; 
 whether it is declining, progressing or stationary, it is material also to ascer- 
 tain proportions, " all the great results in political ceconomy respecting 
 " Wealth depend on proportions ;"* if the proportions be duly maintained, 
 the whole will be in the best state : information of actual results from time to 
 time which an Income Tax would elicit, will shew how far the proportions 
 have duly been maintained and whether any and what changes are necessary. 
 There appears generally to be some difference of opinion as to the actual 
 state of any particular Class or Branch of the Community when its concerns 
 are by any emergency brought under public notice. The number and 
 amount of Incomes belonging to each Class or Branch at any particular time 
 are, when compared with its number and amount at other periods, also with 
 
 Malthus. 
 
36 APPENDIX. 
 
 those of other Classes and Branches, the surest and least disputable mean^ 
 of arriving at the truth. The rates of Wages of the Laboring Classes though 
 generally well known or easily ascertainable, may not be sufficient data to 
 ascertain the relative state of those Classes, or Branches of Trade, Agri- 
 culture, &c. to which they are respectively attached ; it is the extent of the 
 Profits in general and the division of them among the rest of the community 
 which are required to be also known. Any differences of opinion which there 
 might be as to the comparative value of Money and of Income at different 
 periods would be immaterial to the principal object of the Classification of In- 
 come, which being an exhibit of proportions, the relative state to each other 
 of the various Classes and Branches at different times would be known, what- 
 ever alterations in the value of Money and of Income had occurred. 
 
 Taxation itself, if raised on the best practicable system, may have but little 
 effect, comparatively with other causes, in producing any alteration in the 
 relative state of the different Classes ; those other causes may be of far greater 
 moment. As however the operation of Taxation in that respect is constantly 
 called in question, it has been shewn it is hoped in this Work, and which is 
 here the main point to be decided, that the change of system of Taxation 
 advocated in it will in the first place improve, or rather it will less impede the 
 means of Production and Income; that in the next place it will admit of a 
 more beneficial distribution and just apportionment of them, two important 
 advantages, the more to be desired as the one will promote the other ; and 
 lastly, that it will give an exposition of the progress and result of Production 
 and of the State Income in general, and of any changes in the distribution of 
 them, more complete and accurate than any other system of Taxation will 
 afford.* 
 
 On the comparative Extent of Taxation on Real Property at different 
 
 Periods. 
 
 Although a Scheme as suggested f of an Income Tax on Real Property at 
 fixed quotas, might be called a new Land Tax, it would not, like the present 
 Land Tax at its commencement, be adopted without an equivalent contribu- 
 tion from other sources of Income; and though it would require a sacrifice 
 from Real Property grealer in positive amount than that to be sustained by 
 
 * Much interesting and useful information can be obtained from the printed Docu- 
 ments furnished under the late Property Act ; but it is limited and mostly of a general 
 nature— more detailed and various particulars of a valuable description, might have been 
 derived from the Returns and Assessments than the Accounts made up have supplied. 
 The destruction of the Papers by Parliamentary Order prevented the preparation and 
 collection of more materials. 
 
 f Second Part, pages 175 and 179. 
 
APPENDIX. 37 
 
 other Property or sources of Profit, yet if the Income Tax be as fairly charged 
 as it can be, that sacrifice would not be disproporrionably greater, and the 
 relief from other Taxes, which both in the cost of cultivating productive Real 
 Property and in the expenditure of Income derived from it, now fall on it 
 with a great accumulation of force, would be more than equivalent to the 
 sacrifice. As the interest and stake in the Country which Real Property gives 
 to its possessors are more important than other Owners of Income possess, as 
 the Income yielded by it is not only far greater in the aggregate than 
 that derived from any other source, but it is more secure, certain and 
 durable, that measure must be most just and expedient which would 
 draw from it a contribution proportionate to the superiority of all its 
 advantages. Any state of depression under which Property in Land and 
 Houses might be would not create any objection to an Income or Pro- 
 perty Tax; for though the extent of those resources were lessened, yet 
 in a depressed state, the proportion of the whole amount of the Tax to be 
 charged on Incomes derived from Real Property, and if subject to redemp- 
 tion, the total cost of redeeming it, would be less than if fixed on it when 
 under prosperous circumstances; in cases of Owners of Real Property having 
 also Personal Property, such a period might be preferable to them, as they 
 could then more advantageously apply the latter to redeem the Tax on the 
 former. 
 
 On comparing the estimated amount of an Income and Property Tax, or new 
 Land Tax on Lands and Houses (Sch. A. and B.) which under either of the 
 Scales of Charge herein offered may be taken at between one-half and three- 
 fifths of the total Amount charged under all the Schedules, with the extent of 
 Taxation imposed on Lands, &c. at former periods, it might not be found 
 that the burthen cast on them by the Income and Property Tax, or the new 
 Land Tax, would exceed the proportions of the general burthen thrown on them 
 directly by the old Land Tax and indirectly by other Taxes at those periods. 
 
 During the Reign of — 
 
 William III. the aggregate of the ) t of the Total Amount of all the Taxes 
 
 Land Tax was nearly $ T raised in that Reign. 
 
 Anne „ „ -J- „ 
 
 George 1st. „ „ £ „ 
 
 George 2nd. „ „ J „ 
 
 During the Reign of George III. the aggregate produce of the Land Tax was 
 a very reduced proportion of the aggregate produce of all the Taxes, it did 
 not amount to ^j thereof; but the proportion of the late Property Tax col- 
 lected from Lands and Houses was nearly three-fifths of the total amount of 
 that Tax ; if m addition to these particular direct Taxes, it be considered that 
 
38 APPENDIX. 
 
 Income derived from Real Property, as forming the largest proportion of the 
 whole Income, must during the above periods have borne also, through the Ex- 
 penditure of it, the largest proportion of all the other Taxes, direct and in- 
 direct, there is reason to conclude that a future general Income Tax would 
 not throw on Real Property a greater comparative burthen than it has ever 
 borne; and it may be confidently presumed, that with a well modified 
 Scheme of such a Tax imposed on all Classes as the groundwork and regulator 
 of the plan of Redemption from Debt and Taxation, neither Class would have 
 much reason to complain of unjust excess of Taxation on it, particularly 
 when, if any degree of excess did occur, it would arise, as before observed, 
 from such superior qualities in the Property or source of Income subject to it 
 as would in a great degree render the excess reconcileable. Whatever Pro- 
 perty or source of Profit yielded the greatest share of the general Income or 
 possessed the greatest share of those qualities, would make, as justly it should 
 do, the greatest sacrifice. 
 
 On *hc Reimbursement to be made to taxed Incomes by the Reduction of the 
 Wages of Labor consequent on the Exemption of them from the Tax on 
 Income. 
 
 The Net Income of the Country, " out of which all Taxes must be paid,"* 
 has been defined to be " Rent, Profits, and that part of Wages which is the 
 " excess of them beyond the value of absolute necessaries."* — It is that part 
 of the whole Gross Income to which an Income Tax can be exactly limited. 
 Following this definition, the present Gross Real Income of the Country, that 
 is, the Gross Rents, Profits, and Wages of the Agricultural, Trade Classes, &c, is, 
 (if the Amount as estimated in this Work may be taken) £200 millions, in- 
 cluding £70 millions for Wages, and if the amount of Wages be but little more 
 than the value of absolute necessaries, the Net Real Income would not much 
 exceed £130 millions ; concluding then, that if the whole Tax were paid out 
 of Net Income, and Wages were altogether exempted, the rates of Wages 
 would be reduced, a consideration of the general effect of that reduction, and 
 of the proportions in which tjie whole burthen of Taxation would be virtually 
 divided among the several Classes may be desirable. Any calculation of it 
 however must be very vague ; but if it be assumed that in proportion as Wages 
 were reduced all taxed Incomes would be* reimbursed, the following may be 
 offered as an approximation to the probable result. 
 
 * Ricanlo. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 39 
 
 Nominal 
 Nominal Charge of Amount of 
 
 Income. the Tax. Reimbursement. 
 
 Virtual 
 Amount of Real 
 Taxation. Income. 
 
 Millions. 
 Scheds. A. B. & D. . £130 , 
 „ C. & E. &c. . 50 , 
 Wa°es 70 
 
 £250 
 
 Millions. 
 
 £37± 
 
 i4 
 
 £50 
 
 Millions. Millions. Millions. 
 
 £7i 
 
 £10 
 
 £30 ... 
 10 .. 
 10 .. 
 
 £50 
 
 £100 
 40 
 60 
 
 £200 
 
 As the general effects of a great reduction of the Price of Labor cannot be 
 foreseen with any precision, so the extent of Income of the different Classes, 
 after the substitution of an Income Tax for the present Taxes, cannot, from 
 that and from other causes, be precisely anticipated. The alteration may be 
 as much in the Value as in the Amount of Income, and it may be as much in 
 the general Amount as in the relative Proportions of the different Classes. 
 Great improvements may however with the utmost confidence be expected, 
 though the extent cannot be closely approached by arithmetical calculation. 
 
 If an increase of Wages occasioned by Taxes on Produce diminish the Pro- 
 fits of the Producers, it might be inferred that the abolition of the present 
 Taxes, followed by a reduction of Wages, would increase Profits. It has been 
 observed that there " can be no rise in the value of Labor without a fall of 
 " Profits. If the corn is to be divided between the Farmer and the Laborer, 
 " the larger the proportion that is given to the latter the less will remain to 
 " the former ; so if cloth or cotton be divided between the Workman and his 
 " Employer, the larger the proportion given to the former the less remains 
 " for the latter."* If the Employers of Laborers do not obtain, besides repay- 
 ment of that increase of Wages which is generally paid by them on a great in- 
 crease of Taxes, proportionate Interest and Profit for advancing so much ad- 
 ditional Capital, they do not gain that which they are entitled to. As it appears 
 that the increased price of Labor employed in producing some articles of life 
 will often increase indirectly the price of Labor in producing other articles, it 
 may be presumed that on the abolition of the present Taxes the aggregate di- 
 minution of the price of Labor will be considerable ; that therefrom, and from 
 the increase of consumption and production to arise from the general reduction 
 in prices of all commodities, the amount of Profits will on the whole be much 
 advanced ; yet what will comparatively be the present amount and the future 
 amount of Profits may be less material than the comparative value of them 
 
 * Rieardo. 
 
40 APPENDIX. 
 
 at the two periods ; as the expence of living will be diminished, the value of 
 Profits as well as of Wages will, in the expenditure of them, be proportionably 
 enhanced ; if Profits and Wages should eventually be diminished in nominal 
 amount by a great reduction in prices, they would not be diminished in pro- 
 portion to their rise in value ; the situation of Producers in their character 
 of Consumers should therefore never be lost sight of. The conclusion may 
 be, that decrease in the cost of production and consequent increase in con- 
 sumption on the removal of a system of Taxation disadvantageous in so many 
 respects to Producers, will extend their means of Profits and also maintain in 
 a due degree the previous nominal amount of them. The maintenance of the 
 nominal amount may be important so far as it concerns the Producers rela- 
 tively to other Classes possessed of Incomes of fixed nominal amounts, which 
 otherwise might obtain for a time some advantage ; but even if fixed Incomes 
 should derive a temporary advantage, it is not a sufficient objection against 
 ihe diffusion of a general benefit that some will participate of it more than 
 others. Incomes which are not fixed may, as capable of being increased, 
 be compensated thereby, in the end, for that temporary advantage which fixed 
 Incomes may on some occasions enjoy ; considering too that there are times, 
 such as the period of the late War, when, from a reverse state of circum- 
 stances, fixed Incomes are subjected to a comparative disadvantage. The 
 evils which have arisen from changes in the extent of circulating medium and 
 in the value of Money which it is probable the present mode of levying Taxes 
 has much aggravated, and the consequent fluctuations which have taken place 
 in the relative values of fixed Incomes and of Incomes not fixed, will be greatly 
 abated by the substitution of an Income Tax. 
 
 In speaking of a reduction of Wages, it may mean rather in the rates, rather 
 in the individual amounts, than in the aggregate sum of them, for as the change 
 in the system of Taxation will remove impediments to Production, it will fol- 
 low that Labor will be more fully and constantly in employ, and that though 
 the rates of Wages, taken individually, may on exemption of them from Tax- 
 ation be reduced, the total amount of the Earnings of all the Laborers may be 
 undiminished, if not increased. 
 
 If the Rents and Profits of the Agricultural and Trade Classes, &c. have been 
 overrated in the foregoing Estimate, the amount of Wages may have been pro- 
 portionably so ; but as in that case, Taxation on those Rents and Profits 
 is also overrated, so they would then require proportionably less reimburse- 
 ment from reduction on Wages, and more of the Tax and less of Reimburse- 
 ment would be the lot of Income derived from the Revenue. 
 
 In anticipating a reduction of Wages on a decrease of Prices ensuing their 
 exemption from Taxation, there is a presumption that those Wages had pre- 
 viously been duly proportionate to Rents and Profits, and as adequate to the 
 
APPENDIX. 41 
 
 due maintenance of the Laborers as the state of Trade and Agriculture would 
 admit; if however the present rates of Wages would not bear much, if any, 
 diminution, although increased in value by reduction in Taxation on Commo- 
 dities and Prices, the Income Tax would rest in a greater degree on that Income- 
 on which it had been directly imposed, on that Net Income out of which, as be- 
 fore observed, all Taxation must ultimately be paid. According to the represen- 
 tations lately put. forth of the impoverished state of the Agricultural Laborers, 
 their Wages are inadequate to the due support and maintenance of themselves 
 and families, and they are partly paid in an objectionable way —out of the 
 Poor Rates. The imposition of an Income Tax might be the period for com- 
 mencing and the means of effecting an equitable adjustment with those 
 Classes by which to establish them on their proper relative footing. 
 
 On the Rate of Increase of Prices arising from the present Taxes on Article 
 of Consumption and Use. 
 
 To what extent Prices of different articles raised by Taxation, acting on each 
 other in multifarious ways with a great accumulation of weight, have ulti- 
 mately advanced the expence of living, has been variously, and cannot perhaps 
 be precisely calculated. Those Taxes on Articles of Consumption and Use 
 which necessarily raise prices, as being leviable only by means of an increase 
 of prices, may be taken at nearly £40 millions ; as Wages in general have been 
 raised in some proportion to those Taxes, as other expences of production 
 than that of Labor have also been proportionably augmented, and as the Ad- 
 vancers of the Taxes, though unequally and often inadequately compensated, 
 have in general obtained Interest at some rate, if not any further Profit, on 
 their, advances, the accumulated amount of increase of Prices beyond those 
 Taxes may be taken as in the following Calculation, at 40 per Cent, of those 
 
 Taxes. 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Supposing Wages have on the whole been increased at the rate of} 
 
 25 per Cent, of the Taxes, taken at £40 millions, the increase may > £10 
 be assumed at* j 
 
 Increase of other expences of Production, taken at 10 per Cent, of 
 £40 millions of Taxes 
 
 Interest and Profit on advance of the Taxes taken at 5 per Cent 
 
 Total £16 
 
 A greater rate than 25 per Cent, of the Taxes on Expenditure may be supposed to 
 fall indirectly on Wages, but the reimbursement to the Laborers by the increase of the 
 amount of wages may perhaps not exceed that rate. 
 
 3 F 
 
42 APPENDIX. 
 
 After adding this amount to the amount of the whole of the Taxes raised — 
 £50 millions, it may be assumed from the aggregate — £66 millions, — that up- 
 wards of one-fourth of the rates of Prices (taking them on the average, the rate 
 being in some articles more and in some less) that upwards of one-fourth of 
 the total ex pence of living (assuming the expenditure to be equal to the total 
 amount of Income, and the total Income, including the Income derived from 
 the Revenue, to be £245 millions) is occasioned by the present Taxes. If 
 the calculation might be made in a compound ratio in consideration of the al- 
 leged reciprocal effects of the prices of different articles, the rate of increase 
 would appear much higher ; some writers, adopting this rule, have stated that 
 the effect of the reciprocation is so great, that the aggregate amount of the in- 
 crease of the Prices beyond the indirect Taxes is as great as, or greater than 
 the amount of those Taxes, from which it would follow that more than 
 one-third part of the total expence of living is created by the Taxes. 
 
 Estimate of the Number of Persons chargeable to the late Property Tax or 
 to a future Income Tax, and a Classification of them. 
 
 The Property Tax Accounts do not furnish any conclusive information of 
 the number of persons who contributed to it. From the plan of charging and 
 levying the Duty on Profit at the source of its production or acquirement in 
 the hands of the first possessor only, a large proportion of persons was not re- 
 quired to make any returns, and was not entered in any Assessments, the 
 Duty being deducted from them by those out of whose Receipts or Profits 
 their Incomes were paid, by which plan, on the other hand, a large propor- 
 tion of persons was assessed under two or more Schedules, some in the same 
 place, others in various places. 
 
 One of the printed accounts of the year 1 805 affords the only materials 
 for an estimate of the number of persons charged either under each Schedule 
 or in the aggregate ; it is stated to contain the number of persons who had 
 been brought into charge, distinguishing each Schedule under which their 
 Income had been assessed, and the total number of persons who had been ex- 
 empted. The numbers for each County are also given. 
 
 The total numbers of the several Counties are stated as follows : 
 
 Total Number 
 of Persons Total 
 
 Sen A. Sch. B. Sch. C. Sch. D. Sch. E. brought into Number 
 
 Charg-e. exempted. 
 
 1,163,955 490,543 47,330 217,586 5,302 1,285,242 280,080 
 
 It will be found that the total of the numbers of the several Schedules is 
 1,924,716, which may be assumed to have been more nearly the total num- 
 ber of the Assessments, so far as the Account which is incomplete, extends. 
 
APPENDIX. 43 
 
 As the Act required that persons entitled to exemptions should neverthe- 
 less be brought into assessment and the exemptions be afterwards granted to 
 them, the stated number of persons brought into charge (1,285,242) includes 
 the number exempted (280,080) by deducting the latter, the number of per- 
 sons contributing to the Duty would appear, 1,005,162 ; but it is slated in 
 the account that it does not include Scotland or the Public Offices,* or that 
 part of the Duty paid by the Parties into the Bank of England after they had 
 received their full Dividends.f By making additions to the respective num- 
 bers given, bearing the same proportion thereto as the amount of Income of or 
 Duty charged on the numbers omitted bears to the amount of the Income or 
 Duty charged on the numbers given, the total numbers will appear as fol- 
 lows, viz. : 
 
 Total number 
 
 of Persons Total 
 
 Sch. A. Sch. B. Sch.C. Sch. D. Sch. E. brought into Number 
 
 Charge. exempted. 
 
 1,293,000 529,000 180,000+ 235,000 63,003 1,500,000 330,000 
 
 The total of the numbers of the several Schedules will be found to be 
 2,300,000, which may be assumed as nearly the total numberof all the Assess- 
 ments. Deducting the estimated number exempted (330,000) from the esti- 
 mated total number of persons brought into charge (1,500,000) there would 
 remain 1,170,000 as the total number of persons contributing to the Duty. 
 But it is conceived that the number stated in the account to be the total num- 
 ber of persons brought into charge much exceeded the real number, and that 
 it is the total number of the Assessments under the several Schedules, reduced 
 to the number of persons charged, so far as the mode of preparing the enume- 
 rations would admit of such reduction being made by the numerous Officers 
 who prepared them, each of whom included in his enumeration all the persons 
 charged in his parish or district, although many were also charged in other 
 places or districts. Further reasons might be offered for a conclusion that the 
 i eduction of that excess of numbers in the accounts of 1805 which arose from 
 repeated enumerations of the same Persons, could not have been made to a 
 sufficient degree, but an explanation of them would add too much to this de- 
 
 * The number given in the above account is of those Offices of a Public Nature 
 which are not under Government. 
 
 f In the year 1805 the Duty was not stopped at the Bank of England, &c. but some 
 persons elected to pay it there, and others at their Residences ; the number stated in 
 the account is the number of the latter only. 
 
 J The total number of Dividend Warrants issued half-yearly at the Bank of England 
 has been stated to be nearly 300,000 ; the number of persons estimated as above shewn 
 doubtless falls far short of the real number under this particular Schedule. 
 
44 APPENDIX. 
 
 tail ;* considering, therefore, only, in a general way, the great proportion oi 
 Individuals who must have been charged under the same Schedule in different 
 Parishes in the same District and County, or in different Districts and Counties, 
 as well as under two or more Schedules, the repeated enumeration of many of 
 whom in aggregating the several Parochial and District Returns, could not have 
 been avoided, it may be inferred that the mode of making up the Account must 
 have led to results very excessive, and too vague to be relied on, and that it is 
 impracticable to approximate the actual number by any estimate made from 
 those accounts ; but it is conceived that the number may be estimated (and 
 for the reason given with respect to the estimate of the amount charged) f 
 from the Accounts of the Income Tax, the numbers charged to which are 
 arranged therein in Classes. Though the classification in the Income Tax 
 Accounts of the number of persons may be imperfect, inasmuch as from the 
 amounts of their Returns of Income being deficient, many of them are classed 
 lower than they would be if their Returns had been made to the full amount, 
 yet it might be assumed that the total number charged was less deficient than 
 the total amount charged, as it may be supposed that persons did not so ge- 
 nerally evade making Returns as they escaped the full Assessment by making 
 Returns deficient in amount. But as the Property Act operated more exten- 
 sively than the Income Act, both in more effectually preventing evasion and 
 in not allowing exemptions to Incomes under £50 derived from Property be- 
 longing to the parties charged, and as a great addition must be made for the 
 augmentation in the number of Incomes of all classes, arising from the in- 
 crease of wealth and population from the period of the Income Act 1801 to 
 the latter period of the Property Act 1814, it is assumed that the number of 
 Incomes charged to the Property Tax to the number of Incomes charged to 
 the Income Tax was, in respect of the Classes charged to both Taxes, as the 
 Amount of the former to the latter; the numbers in the Classes of Income 
 exceeding £50 are in the following Estimate computed in that ratio; the ag- 
 gregate number of those Classes charged to the Property Tax appears there- 
 fore very nearly double the number charged to the Income Tax. Persons 
 having Incomes less than £50, wholly or partly derived from Property, 
 
 * The number given in the account under Schedule A. is conceived to be a very great 
 exaggeration (particularly in respect of Houses) of the number of those persons who 
 only should be included, viz. the Owners; for the Occupiers being the persons nominally 
 charged, it is apprehended that whatever number of Houses, &c. any single Owner pos- 
 sessed, the number given is in general the number of Occupiers of those Houses ; this is 
 evidently the case with respect to the number for the Metropolis for it exceeds 110,000 
 under Schedule A., which was not much short of the whole number of Houses therein 
 at the period of the account. 
 
 t Second Part, page 210. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 45 
 
 (Sched. A. and C.) form a very large proportion of the total number charged 
 to the Property Tax. The total number charged under all the Schedules 
 must be almost conjectural, but it may perhaps be safely assumed at less than 
 900,000. 
 
 
 Number 
 
 of Persons 
 
 in the 
 
 Income Tax 
 
 Accounts. 
 
 Estimated 
 
 number 
 
 chargeable 
 
 to the 
 
 Property Tax 
 
 Mean 
 ' Income 
 of each 
 
 Class. 
 
 Total 
 
 estimated 
 
 Income 
 
 of 
 
 each Class. 
 
 Number 
 
 of Persons 
 
 computed 
 
 from the 
 
 Mean Income 
 
 of each Class. 
 
 £ £ 
 50 and under 100 148,314 
 
 281,539 
 
 £ 
 75 
 
 £ 
 21,170,000 
 
 282,266 
 
 100 „ 
 
 150 72,379 
 
 137,395 
 
 125 
 
 16,400,000 
 
 131,200 
 
 150 „ 
 
 200 33,857 
 
 64,270 
 
 175 
 
 11.050,000 
 
 63,142 
 
 200 „ 
 
 500 43,210 
 
 82,024 
 
 350 
 
 25,020,000 
 
 71,485 
 
 500 „ 
 
 1,000 15,154 
 
 28,766 
 
 750 
 
 19,440,000 
 
 25,920 
 
 1,000 „ 
 
 2,000 6,953 
 
 13,198 
 
 1,500 
 
 17,780,000 
 
 11,853 
 
 2,000 „ 
 
 5,000 3,792 
 
 7,198 
 
 3,500 
 
 21,810,000 
 
 6,231 
 
 5,000 and up 
 
 wards 1,059 
 
 Totals 324,718 
 
 amount of Income £80? 
 
 2,010 
 
 10,000 
 
 mills. 
 
 Mean 
 Income. 
 
 20,330,000 
 
 2,033 
 
 
 616,400^ 
 
 £153,000,000 
 
 Total 
 Number o 
 
 594,130 
 
 Total 
 
 mills. £153 
 
 
 Estimated Amount of Income less lhan ^50 
 chargeable under Schedules A. &. C. 
 
 1 
 
 f Persons. 
 
 
 £5,580,000 
 
 
 +£25 
 
 223.200 
 
 Classes of £50 & upwards . . 616,400 
 
 Total.. 839,600* 
 
 By the Summary of the Population Returns of the year 1811 the number 
 of Families is divided into three Classes, as follows, viz. 
 
 1st. Families chiefly employed in Agriculture 895,998 
 
 2nd. Ditto chiefly employed in Trade, Manufacture and Handicraft 1,129,049 
 3rd. Ditto not comprized in the above 5 1 9, 168 
 
 2,544,215 
 
 * This classification being- exclusive of the estimated diminution of chargeable In- 
 come under Schedules C. and E. (between £5 and £6 millions) which has taken place 
 since the late Property Tax, a proportionate number of persons should be added to 
 give the full estimated number charged to that Tax : — this addition might extend the 
 number of the classes above £50 to nearly 650,000, and the total number to nearly 
 900,000. 
 
 f The mean Income is less than the probable average total Income of all the Per- 
 sons within this class, as many of them have other Incomes under Schedules B. and D. 
 
46 APPENDIX. 
 
 This Summary is exclusive of Persons employed in the Army, Navy, and 
 Seamen in registered vessels, the number of whom is stated at 640,500 ; some 
 addition should be made on this account to the number of Families charge- 
 able ; also for increase of population from 1811 to 1814, the last year of the 
 Property Tax, and (for the purpose of this estimate) for Families resident 
 Abroad, not included in the Population Returns, but who deriving Incomes 
 from Great Britain were chargeable to the Property Tax, making a general 
 Total which may be taken at 3 millions of Families or Persons in possession of 
 Incomes chargeable or exempt from charge.* From the whole of the com- 
 putation it may be assumed that much less than 1 million of Families, or 
 Heads of Families, were charged to the Property Tax, and upwards of 2 mil- 
 lions of Families, consisting of the lowest Classes, were not charged to it. 
 
 The Census of 1821 shews a great increase of population in the respective 
 Classes. 
 
 Summary of Returns, 1821. 
 
 Families. 
 
 Employed chiefly in Agriculture 978,656 
 
 Ditto in Trade, Manufactures, Mechanical Employments, &c 1,350,290 
 
 In all other Situations 612,488 
 
 2,941,434 
 
 The increase of the number of Families employed in Trade appears much 
 greater than the increase of the number employed in Agriculture ; the rates of 
 increase are as follows : 
 
 Agricultural Classes ^ The number of Persons employed in 
 
 Trade J the Army, Navy, &c— 
 
 Other Classes T 2 T In 181 1, was 640,500 
 
 In 1821 319,300 
 
 Average rate of Increase taken } 
 
 on the aggregate Number > T 2 F Difference... 321,220 
 of Families ) 
 
 though too small to bring their aggregate Income into a chargeable limit, yet the mean 
 Income as a divisor does not probably give an excess in the number of persons among 
 whom the estimated total amount of the very small Incomes attainable for charge under 
 Schedules A. and C. is divided. 
 
 * As the estimate from the Income Tax Account gives the number of Persons 
 chargeable, and the Population Summary gives the number of Families, and as in 
 many Families there is more than one Person with a chargeable Income, some allow- 
 ance should be made also on that account. 
 
APPENDIX. 47 
 
 The rate of increase of the whole Population, computing according to the 
 number of Persons, was about one-seventh.* 
 
 Allowing for a proportionate increase of the number of Families or Persons 
 chargeable to an Income Tax, if revived on the plan of the late Tax, the totals 
 number might not be less than 1 million ; and the number of Persons or Fa- 
 milies exempt would bp about 2J millions. 
 
 The Population Returns shew the ages in classes of about five-sixths of the 
 whole number of Persons ; the number of males of 20 years of age and up- 
 wards rather exceeds 3 millions, addingto which the proportion of one sixth for 
 the number whose ages are not given, the total may be taken at about 3 J mil- 
 lions. Assuming that all male persons of those ages possess Income of some 
 description and amount (a deduction must be made for a number of absolute 
 Paupers, but the number of Males under the age of 20 and of Females who 
 acquire or possess Incomes of some kind, and which number should be added, 
 may not be very distant from it) the result nearly corresponds with the total 
 number which it is estimated are at this period in possession of Incomes. 
 
 Dr. Colquhuon, in his Treatise on the Wealth of the British Empire, divides 
 the Population of the United Kinsdom into 7 classes or ranks, amongst whom 
 his estimated total Income of £430 millions is distributed. The two inferior 
 classes comprehend Working Mechanics, Artisans, Laborers, Servants, Pau- 
 pers, &c. whose Incomes are of the lowest amount ; the five superior classes 
 comprehend those Families or Persons the whole of whom may be considered 
 
 as possessed of Incomes of £50 and upwards. 
 
 Families. 
 
 The Number of the 5 highest Classes is 858,086 
 
 Deducting therefrom the proportion which Dr. C. estimated for"! „.„ ~~~ 
 Irelandf J 
 
 Total number of Families with Incomes of £50 and upwards 628,086 
 
 This result nearly corresponds with the result of the computation made 
 from the Income Tax Accounts. 
 
 * The Census of 1831 (published since this Estimate was first printed) shews an 
 increase of f beyond the population of 1811. The Returns as yet published for 1831, 
 do not give the numbers in Classes and under other Heads as given for 1811 . 
 
 •J- It would seem by the Census (1821) that the proportion of the Population of 
 Ireland to that of United Kingdom is greater than it formerl y was or was reckoned 
 t be — that at present it is nearly one-third. Dr. Colquhoun in forming his aggregate 
 number of Families and Persons of the United Kingdom assumed the proportion at not 
 much more than one-fourth, and therefore the deduction here made is only in that pro- 
 portion. 
 
48 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Graduated Scales of Charge.* 
 
 The Rates of Charge in each Class of the following Scales might be supposed 
 to increase gradually from ihe lowest to the highest Incomes within it, and the 
 gradation could be made more or less minute as the extent of it mi^ht 
 require ; for this purpose every Class could be subdivided into as many 
 minor Classes, as mi^ht be necessary. 
 
 The Incomes are arranged in Classes chiefly for the purpose of shewing 
 the limits of the Rates on them respectively; there might in framing the 
 Scales be no classification, but one graduated series of charges under each 
 Scale, commencing with the lowest chargeable Income, and increasing gradu- 
 ally up to that amount of Income with which the maximum Rate would begin. 
 It is necessary that the gradation should be as regular and minute as possible, 
 in order to lessen the inducement to commit evasion, which an irregular or too 
 wide a gradation, in a greater degree, holds out, that is, to return the Income 
 much lower than it should be in order to be charged at a much less rate. 
 
 The maximum and minimum Rates of each Class are affixed to it, together 
 with its mean Rate; the latter has been used for computing the produce of 
 the Duty. 
 
 
 Series A. 
 
 
 
 
 1st Scale. — Schedules A. & C. 
 
 
 
 Charge. 
 
 Estimated Amount Rates of 
 of Income. Charge. 
 
 Mean 
 Rates. 
 
 Estimated Gross 
 Charge of Duty. 
 
 Under £50 
 
 £5,530,000 Ml 
 
 
 . . 
 
 £50 and under 100 
 
 11,210,000 to 5perCt. 
 
 2i 
 
 £280,250 
 
 100 „ 200 
 
 14,530,000 5 to 10 „ 
 
 n. 
 
 1,089,700 
 
 200 „ 500 
 
 13,240,000 10 to 15 „ 
 
 12i 
 
 1,655,000 
 
 500 „ 2,000 
 
 19,710,000 15 to 20 „ 
 
 m 
 
 3,449,250 
 
 2,000 and upwards 
 
 22,310,000 20 „ 
 
 
 4,462,000 
 
 £86,580,000 
 
 £10,936,200 
 
 Schedules B. D. & E. 
 
 £50 and under £200 £22,870,000 
 
 200 „ 500 11,770,000 
 
 500 „ 5,000 27,790,000 
 
 5,000 and upwards 9,570,000 
 
 £72,000,000 
 
 to 5 per Ct. 2J 
 
 £571,750 
 
 5 to 10 „ 7| 
 
 882,750 
 
 10 to 15 „ I2| 
 
 3,472,750 
 
 15 .... „ 
 
 1,435,500 
 
 Schedules A. & C. 
 
 £6,362,750 
 10,936,200 
 
 Total ..£17,298,950 
 
 * Vide Observations on these Scales, Second Part, page 231. 
 

 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 49 
 
 
 Series A. 
 
 , continued. 
 
 
 
 
 2nd Scale Schedules A. & C. 
 
 
 
 
 Estimated Amount 
 
 Rates of 
 
 Mean 
 
 Estimated Gross 
 
 Classes. 
 
 of Income. 
 
 Charge. 
 
 Rates. 
 
 Charge of Duty. 
 
 Under £100 
 
 £16,790,000 
 
 to 5 per Ct. 
 
 2J 
 
 £419,750- 
 
 £100 and under 150 
 
 8,680,000 
 
 5 to 10 „ 
 
 n 
 
 651,600 
 
 150 „ 200 
 
 5,850,000 
 
 10 to 15 „ 
 
 12* 
 
 731,750 
 
 200 „ 500 
 
 13,240,000 
 
 15 to 20 „ 
 
 m 
 
 2,317,000 
 
 500 „ 2,000 
 
 19,750,000 
 
 20 to 25 „ 
 
 22J 
 
 4,434,750 
 
 2,000 and upwoads 
 
 22,310,000 
 
 25 .... „ 
 
 .. 
 
 5,557,500 
 
 £86,580,000 
 
 
 
 £14,112,350 
 
 Schedules B. D. & E. 
 
 
 
 £50 and under £150 £17,670,000 
 
 to 5 per i 
 
 Ct. 21 
 
 £441,750 
 
 150 „ 200 5,200,000 
 
 5 to 10 „ 
 
 n 
 
 390,000 
 
 200 „ 500 11,770,000 
 
 10 to 15 „ 
 
 12* 
 
 1,471,250 
 
 500 „ 5,000 27,790,000 
 
 15 to 20 „ 
 
 17* 
 
 4,863,250 
 
 5,000 and upwards 9,570,000 
 
 20 .... „ 
 
 •• 
 
 1,914,000 
 
 £72,000,000 
 
 
 
 £9,080,250 
 
 
 Schedules A, 
 
 . & C. . . 
 
 . 14,112,350 
 
 
 
 Total . . 
 
 £23,192,600 
 
 3rd Scale. — Schedules A. & C. 
 
 
 
 Under £100 £16,790,000 
 
 5 to 10 per < 
 
 Ct. 7J 
 
 £1,259,250 
 
 £100 and under 150 8,680,000 
 
 10 to 15 „ 
 
 12i 
 
 .1,085,000 
 
 150 „ 200 5,850,000 
 
 15 to 20 „ 
 
 171 
 **5 
 
 1,033,750 
 
 200 „ 500 13,240,000 
 
 20 to 25 „ 
 
 22* 
 
 2,979,000 
 
 500 „ 2,000 19,710,000 
 
 25 to 30 „ 
 
 27J 
 
 5,420,250 
 
 2,000 and upwards 22,310,000 
 
 30 .... „ 
 
 -• 
 
 6,693,000 
 
 £86,580,000 
 
 
 
 £18,470,250 
 
 Schedules B. D. & E. 
 
 
 
 £50 and under £100 £9,950,000 
 
 to 5 per 
 
 Ct. 21 
 
 £248,750 
 
 100 „ 200 12,920,000 
 
 5 to 10 „ 
 
 n 
 
 969,000 
 
 200 „ 500 11,770,000 
 
 10 to 15 „ 
 
 m 
 
 1,471,250 
 
 500 „ 1,000 9,150,000 
 
 15 to 20 „ 
 
 m 
 
 1,601,250 
 
 1,000 „ 5,000 18,640,000 
 
 20 to 25 „ 
 
 22* 
 
 4,194,000 
 
 5,000 and upwards . . 9,570,000 
 
 35 .... „ 
 
 •• 
 
 2,392,500 
 
 £72,000,000 
 
 
 
 £10,876,750 
 
 
 Schedules A. 
 
 &C. .. 
 
 18,470,250 
 
 
 
 Total.. 
 
 £29,347,000 
 
 3o 
 
50 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Series A. continued. 
 4th Scale Schedules A. & C. 
 
 
 Estimated Amount 
 
 Rates of 
 
 Mean 
 
 Estimated Gross 
 
 Classes. 
 
 oflucome. 
 
 Charge. 
 
 Rates. 
 
 Charge of Duty. 
 
 Under £50 
 
 £5,580,000 
 
 5 to lOperCt. 
 
 H 
 
 £418,500 
 
 £50 and under 100 
 
 11,210,000 
 
 10 to 15 „ 
 
 12± 
 
 1,401,250 
 
 100 „ 150 
 
 8,680,000 
 
 15 to 20 „ 
 
 w 
 
 1,519,000 
 
 150 „ 200 
 
 5,850,000 
 
 20 to 25 „ 
 
 22J 
 
 1,316,253 
 
 200 „ 500 
 
 13,240,000 
 
 25 to 30 „ 
 
 27i 
 
 3,641,000 
 
 500 „ 2,000 
 
 19,710,000 
 
 30 to 35 „ 
 
 32i 
 
 6,405,750 
 
 2,000 and upwards. . 
 
 22,310,000 
 
 35 .... „ 
 
 
 7,778,500 
 
 
 £86,580,000 
 
 £22,480,250 
 
 Schedules B. D. & E. 
 
 £50 and under £100 £9,950,000 
 
 to 5 per Ct. 
 
 H 
 
 £248,750 
 
 100 
 
 150 7,720,000 
 
 5 to 10 
 
 5> 
 
 n 
 
 579,000 
 
 150 
 
 200 5,200,000 
 
 10 to 15 
 
 J> 
 
 12* 
 
 650,000 
 
 200 
 
 500 11,770,000 
 
 15 to 20 
 
 » 
 
 m 
 
 2,059,750 
 
 500 
 
 1,000 9,150,000 
 
 20 to 25 
 
 J> 
 
 22i 
 
 2,058,750 
 
 ,000 
 
 5,000 18,640,000 
 
 25 to 30 
 
 J> 
 
 27| 
 
 5,126,000 
 
 ,000 and 
 
 upwards . . 9,570,000 
 
 30 .... 
 
 J> 
 
 
 2,871,000 
 
 
 £72,000,000 
 
 £13,593,250 
 
 Schedules A. & C. . . 22,480,250 
 
 Under £50 
 £50 and under 100 
 100 „ 150 
 
 150 „ 200 
 200 „ 500 
 
 500 
 
 2,000 
 
 2,000 and upwards 
 
 
 chedules A. 
 
 Total. 
 &C. 
 
 £36,073,500 
 
 5th Scale. — S 
 
 
 £5,580,000 
 
 10 to 15 ] 
 
 per Ct. 
 
 12* 
 
 £697,500 
 
 11,210,000 
 
 15 to 20 
 
 ?> 
 
 17* 
 
 1,961,750 
 
 8,680,000 
 
 20 to 25 
 
 »> 
 
 22i 
 
 1,953,000 
 
 5,850,000 
 
 25 to 30 
 
 »» 
 
 27J 
 
 1,608,750 
 
 13,240,000 
 
 30 to 35 
 
 ?> 
 
 32| 
 
 4,303,000 
 
 19,710,000 
 
 35 to 40 
 
 9> 
 
 37J 
 
 7,391,250 
 
 22,310,000 
 
 40 .... 
 
 )i 
 
 
 8,924,000 
 
 ^86,580,000 
 
 ^26,839,250 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 51 
 
 Series A. continued. 
 5th Scale continued. — Schedules B. D. & E. 
 
 Classes. 
 
 Estimated Amount Rates of 
 of Income Charge. 
 
 Mean 
 
 Rates. 
 
 Estimated Gross 
 Charge of Duty. 
 
 £50 and under £100 
 
 £9,950,000 
 
 5 to lOperCt. 7J 
 
 £746,250 
 
 100 „ 150 
 
 7,720,000 
 
 10 to 15 „ 
 
 12J 
 
 966,000 
 
 150 „ 200 
 
 5,200,000 
 
 15 to 20 „ 
 
 17* 
 
 910,000 
 
 200 „ 500 
 
 11,770,000 
 
 20 to 25 „ 
 
 22i 
 
 2,648,250 
 
 500 „ 1,000 
 
 9,150,000 
 
 25 to 30 „ 
 
 27J 
 
 2,516,250 
 
 1,000 „ 5,000 
 
 18,640,000 
 
 30 to 35 „ 
 
 32J 
 
 6,058,000 
 
 5,000 and upwards . . 
 
 9,570,000 
 
 35 .... 
 
 
 3,349,500 
 
 
 ^72,000,000 
 
 £17,193,250 
 
 
 
 Schedules A. 
 
 &C. .. 
 
 26,839,250 
 
 
 Total . . 
 6th Scafe.— Schedules A. & C. 
 
 ^44,032,500 
 
 
 
 Under £50 
 
 £5,580,000 
 
 10 to 20 per Ct 
 
 . 15 
 
 £837,000 
 
 £50 and under 100 
 
 11,210,000 
 
 20 to 25 „ 
 
 22i 
 
 2,522,250 
 
 100 „ 150 
 
 8,680,000 
 
 25 to 30 „ 
 
 27J 
 
 2,387,000 
 
 150 „ 200 
 
 5,850,000 
 
 30 to 35 „ 
 
 32J 
 
 1,901,000 
 
 200 „ 1,000 
 
 23,530,000 
 
 35 to 40 „ 
 
 37J 
 
 8,823,750 
 
 1,000 „ 5,000 
 
 20,970,000 
 
 40 to 45 „ 
 
 42J 
 
 8,912,500 
 
 5,000 and upwards . . 
 
 10,760,000 
 
 45 .... „ 
 
 B. D. & E. 
 
 
 4,842,000 
 
 
 £86,580,000 
 
 £30,225,500 
 
 
 Schedules 
 
 
 £50 and under £100 
 
 £9,950,000 
 
 5 to 15 per C 
 
 t. 10 
 
 £995,000 
 
 100 „ 150 
 
 7,720,000 
 
 15 to 20 „ 
 
 m 
 
 1,351,000 
 
 150 „ 200 
 
 5,200,000 
 
 20 to 25 „ 
 
 22J 
 
 1,170,000 
 
 200 „ 500 
 
 11,770,000 
 
 25 to 30 „ 
 
 27J 
 
 3,236,700 
 
 500 „ 2,000 
 
 17,520,000 
 
 30 to 35 „ 
 
 321 
 
 5,694,000 
 
 2,000 „ 5,000 
 
 10,270,000 
 
 35 to 40 „ 
 
 37J 
 
 3,851,200 
 
 5,000 and upwards. . 
 
 9,570,000 
 
 40 .... „ 
 Schedules A. 
 
 &C. . 
 
 Total . 
 
 3,828,000 
 
 
 £72,000,000 
 
 £20,125,900 
 
 
 
 . 30,225500 
 
 
 .£50,351,400 
 
52 
 
 I 
 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Series A. continued. 
 
 
 
 
 
 7th Scale. —Schedules A. & C. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Estimated Amount Rates of 
 
 Mean 
 
 Estimated Gross 
 
 Classes. 
 
 
 of Income. Charge. 
 
 Rates. 
 
 Charge of Duty. 
 
 Under £50 
 
 £5,580,000 15 to 20perCt. 
 
 m 
 
 £976,500 
 
 £50 and und 
 
 er 100 
 
 11,210,000 20 to 30 „ 
 
 25 
 
 2,802,500 
 
 100 
 
 150 
 
 8,680,000 30 to 35 „ 
 
 321 
 
 2,821,000 
 
 150 „ 
 
 200 
 
 5,850,000 35 to 40 „ 
 
 371 
 
 2,193,750 
 
 200 
 
 500 
 
 [13,240,000 40 to 45 „ 
 
 42| 
 
 5,627,000 
 
 500 
 
 5,000 
 
 31,260,000 45 to 50 „ 
 
 *n 
 
 14,848,500 
 
 ,000 and upv 
 
 rards,. 
 
 10,760,000 50 .... „ 
 
 
 5,380,000 
 
 £86,580,000 £34,649,250 
 
 Schedules B. D. & E. 
 
 £50 and under £100 
 
 £9,950,000 
 
 5 to 20 per Ct. 
 
 m 
 
 £1,243,700 
 
 100 „ 150 
 
 7,720,000 
 
 20 to 25 „ 
 
 22J 
 
 1,737,000 
 
 150 „ 200 
 
 5,200,000 
 
 25 to 30 „ 
 
 27| 
 
 1,430,000 
 
 200 „ 500 
 
 11,770,000 
 
 30 to 35 „ 
 
 321 
 
 3,825,200 
 
 500 „ 1,000 
 
 9,150,000 
 
 35 to 40 „ 
 
 m 
 
 3,431,200 
 
 1,000 „ 5,000 
 
 18,640,000 
 
 40 to 45 „ 
 
 42J 
 
 7,922,000 
 
 5,000 and upwards . . 
 
 9,570,000 
 £72,000,000 
 
 45 .... „ 
 
 Schedules A. & C. . 
 Total . . 
 
 4,306,500 
 
 
 £23,895,600 
 
 
 
 34,649,250 
 
 
 £58,544,850 
 
 
 Series B. 
 
 
 
 
 1st Scale. Schedules A. & C. 
 
 
 
 Under £50 
 
 £5,580,000 
 
 to 5 per Ct 
 
 2* 
 
 £139,500 
 
 £50 and under 100 
 
 11,210,000 
 
 5 to 10 „ 
 
 H 
 
 840,750 
 
 100 „ 500 
 
 27,770,000 
 
 10 to 15 „ 
 
 m 
 
 3,471,250 
 
 500 and upwards . . 
 
 42,020,000 
 
 15 .... „ 
 
 
 6,303,000 
 
 £86,580,000 £10,574,500 
 
 Schedules B. D. & E. 
 
 £50 and under £200 £22,870,000 to 10 per Ct. 5 £1,143,500 
 
 200 „ 2,000 29,290,000 10 „ .. 2,929,000 
 
 2,000 and upwards . . 19,840,000 12J „ . . 2,480,000 
 
 £72,000,000 £6,552,500 
 
 Schedules A. & C. . . 10,754,500 
 
 Total ..£17,307,000 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 53 
 
 Series B. continued. 
 
 
 
 2nd Scale. — Schedules A. & C. 
 
 
 
 Estimated Amount Rates of 
 
 Mean 
 
 Estimated Gross 
 
 Classes. of Income. Charge. 
 
 Rates. 
 
 Charge of Buty.^ 
 
 Under £50 £5,580,000 5 to 10 per Ct. 
 
 n 
 
 £418,500 
 
 £50 and under 200 25,740,000 10 to 15 „ 
 
 12| 
 
 3,217,500 
 
 200 „ 500 13,240,000 15 to 20 „ 
 
 17* 
 
 2,317,000 
 
 500 and upwards.. 42,020,000 20 „ 
 
 
 8,404,000 
 
 £86,580,000 
 
 £14,357,000 
 
 Schedules B. D. & E. 
 
 £50 and under£150 £17,670,000 5 to 10 per Ct. 7| £1,325,250 
 
 150 „ 1,000 26,120,000 10 to 15 „ 12± 3,265,000 
 
 1,000 and upwards.. 28,210,000 15 .... „ .. 4,231,500 
 
 £72,000,000 
 
 Schedules A. & C. 
 
 £8,821,750 
 14,357,000 
 
 Total ..£23,178,750 
 
 3rd Scale. — Schedules A. & C. 
 
 Under £100 
 
 £16,790,000 
 
 10 to 15 per Ct. 12J 
 
 £2,098,750 
 
 £ 100 and under 200 
 
 14.530,000 
 
 15 to 20 „ 17| 
 
 2,542,750 
 
 200 „ 500 
 
 13,240,000 
 
 20 to 25 „ 22J 
 
 2,979,000 
 
 500 and upwards . . 
 
 42,020,000 
 
 25 .... „ 
 
 10,505,000 
 
 £86,580,000 
 
 £18,125,500 
 
 Schedules B. D. & E. 
 
 £50 and under£150 £17,670,000 5 to 10 per Ct. 
 
 150 „ 200 5,200,000 10 to 15 „ 
 
 29,290,000 15 to 20 „ 
 
 19,840,000 20 .... „ 
 
 200 „ 2,000 
 2,000 and upwards . . 
 
 £72,000,000 
 
 Schedules A. & C. 
 
 n 
 
 12* 
 17* 
 
 £1,325,200 
 
 650,000 
 
 5,125,700 
 
 3,968,000 
 
 t 
 
 £11,068,900 
 18,125,500 
 
 Total ..£29,194,400 
 
54 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Series B. continued. 
 4th Scale.— -Schedules A. & C. 
 
 
 Estimated Amount 
 
 Rates of 
 
 Mean Estimated Gross 
 
 Classes. 
 
 of Income. 
 
 Charge. 
 
 Rates. Charge of Duty. 
 
 Under £50 
 
 £5,580,000 
 
 10 to 15 per Ct. 
 
 12J £697,500 
 
 £50 and under 100 
 
 11,210,000 
 
 15 to 20 „ 
 
 17J 1,961,750 
 
 100 „ 150 
 
 8,680,000 
 
 20 to 25 „ 
 
 221 1,953,000 
 
 150 „ 500 
 
 19,090,000 
 
 25 to 30 „ 
 
 27J 5,249,750 
 
 500 and upwards. . 
 
 42,020,000 
 
 30 .... „ 
 3. D. & E. 
 
 .. 12,606,000 
 
 
 £86,580,000 
 
 £22,468,000 
 
 
 Schedules ] 
 
 
 £50 and under £100 
 
 £9,950,000 
 
 5 to lOperCt. 
 
 , 7J £746,200 
 
 100 „ 150 
 
 7,720,000 
 
 10 to 15 „ 
 
 12J 965,000 
 
 150 , 500 
 
 16,970,000 
 
 15 to 20 „ 
 
 171 2,969,700 
 
 500 „ 2,000 
 
 17,520,000 
 
 20 to 25 „ 
 
 22J 3,942,000 
 
 2,000 and upwards . . 
 
 19,840,000 
 
 25 .... „ 
 
 Schedules A. & 
 To 
 
 4,960,000 
 
 
 £72,000,000 
 
 £13,582,900 
 
 
 
 C. . . 22,468,000 
 
 
 tal . . £36,050,900 
 
 5th Scale. — Schedules A. & C. 
 
 Under £50 £5,580,000 
 
 15 to 20perCt. 171 £976,500 
 
 £50 and under 100 11,210,000 20 to 25 
 100 „ 200 
 
 200 „ 500 
 500 and upwards.. 
 
 £50andunder£100 
 
 100 „ 200 
 
 200 „ 2,000 
 
 2,000 and upwards . . 
 
 221 2,522,250 
 
 14,530,000 
 13,240,000 
 42,020,000 
 
 25 to 30 „ 
 30 to 35 „ 
 35 .... „ 
 
 271 
 32J 
 
 3,995,750 
 
 4,303,000 
 
 14,707,000 
 
 £86,580,000 
 
 £26,504,500 
 
 Schedules B. D. & E. 
 
 
 
 £9,950,000 
 12,920,000 
 29,290,000 
 19,840,000 
 
 5 to 15 per 
 15 to 25 „ 
 25 to 30 „ 
 
 o\J • • • • ,, 
 
 Ct. 10 
 
 20 
 271 
 
 £995,000 
 2,584,000 
 8,054,700 
 5,952,000 
 
 £72,000,000 
 
 £17,585,700 
 
 
 Schedules A. 
 
 &C. .. 
 
 26,504,500 
 
 
 
 Total . . 
 
 £44,090,200 
 

 APPENDIX. 
 
 Series B. continued. 
 6th Scale. — Schedules A & C. 
 
 55 
 
 
 Estimated Amount Rates of 
 
 Mean Estimated Gross 
 
 Classes. 
 
 of Income. Charge. 
 
 Rates. Charge of Duty. 
 
 Under £50 
 
 £5,580,000 20 to 25 per Ct. 
 
 22| £1,255,500 
 
 £50 and under 100 
 
 11,210,000 25 to 30 „ 
 
 27± 3,082,750 
 
 100 „ 200 
 
 14,530,000 30 to 35 „ 
 
 32J 4,722,250 
 
 200 „ 500 
 
 13,240,000 35 to 40 „ 
 
 37J 4,965,000 
 
 500 and upwards . . 
 
 42,020,000 40 .... „ 
 
 .. 16,808,000 
 
 
 £86,580,000 
 
 £30,833,500 
 
 
 Schedules B. C. & E. 
 
 
 £50 and under £100 
 
 £9,950,000 5 to 20perCt. 
 
 12J £1,243,700 
 
 100 „ 150 
 
 7,720,000 20 to 25 „ 
 
 22J 1,737,000 
 
 150 „ 500 
 
 16,970,000 25 to 30 „ 
 
 27J 4,666,700 
 
 500 „ 1,000 
 
 9,150,000 30 to 35 „ 
 
 32J 2,973,700 
 
 1,000 and upwards . . 
 
 28,210,000 35 „ 
 
 9,873,500 
 
 
 £72,000,000 
 
 £20,494,600 
 
 Schedules A. & C. 
 
 30,833,500 
 
 Total . . £51,328,100 
 
 7th Scale.— Schedules A. & C. 
 Under £50 £5,580,000 20 to 30 per Ct. 25 
 
 £50 and under 150 
 150 „ 200 
 
 200 „ 500 
 
 500 and upwards . . 
 
 19,890,000 
 
 5,850,000 
 
 13,240,000 
 
 42,020,000 
 
 30 to 35 
 35 to 40 
 40 to 45 
 
 40 • • • • 
 
 32} 
 
 37 5 
 42i 
 
 
 £86,580,000 
 
 
 
 Schedules B. 
 
 D. & E. 
 
 £50 and under £100 
 
 £9,950,000 
 
 5 to 25 
 
 100 „ 150 
 
 7,720,000 
 
 25 to 30 
 
 150 „ 500 
 
 16,970,000 
 
 30 to 35 
 
 500 „ 1,000 
 
 9,150,000 
 
 35 to 40 
 
 1,000 and upwards . . 
 
 28,210,000 
 
 40 .... 
 
 
 £72,000,000 
 
 
 £1,395,000 
 6,464,250 
 2,193,750 
 5,627,000 
 
 18,909,000 
 
 £34,589,000 
 
 27| 
 32| 
 37j 
 
 Schedules A. & C. 
 
 £1,492,500 
 2,123,000 
 5,515,200 
 3,431,200 
 
 11,284,000 
 
 £23,845,900 
 . 34,589,000 
 Total ..£58,434,900 
 
 N. B. Refer to p. 251 for Estimate of the total Net Receipt or Produce of each Scale 
 after deducting from the Gross Charges of Duty— the Charges of Management, Allow- 
 ances for Children, &c. 
 
56 APPENDIX. 
 
 Comparative Estimate of the total Rent or Annual Value of Lands and 
 Houses in the several Counties of England and in Wales and in Scotland 
 in the Years 1692 and .1814, viz. the first Year of the Land Tax and the 
 last Year of the Property Tax. 
 
 The annual Land Tax Acts for 1797 and previous years, directed that all 
 Personal Estates and all Offices and Pensions should be charged at the rate of 
 4«. in the pound on the yearly value or amount thereof, and to the end that 
 the entire fixed quota of every County, &c. should be fully raised, that all 
 Lands, Tenements, &c. should be charged, and that they should be rated at an 
 equal pound rate, not fixing the rate specifically, only providing that it should 
 in no instance exceed 4s. in the pound; it is nevertheless conceived that, in 
 fact, Lands and Tenements have ever been the principal, and in most places 
 the sole subject of charge. 
 
 The Tax raised on Personal Estates appears to have been of late years, if 
 not from the commencement, very inconsiderable, not much exceeding £5,000, 
 and though the Tax on Offices and Pensions was raised to a large amount in a 
 few Districts in aid of the quotas fixed upon them respectively for some years 
 previous to 1798, when it was separated from and no longer formed part of 
 the fixed quotas then made leviable on Lands and Tenements only and sub- 
 jected to redemption, it maybe supposed that the Tax on Offices, &c. con- 
 stituted but a very trifling part of the quotas in the earliest years of the Land 
 Tax, so that almost the whole of the quotas at that period, may be assumed to 
 have been raised on Lands, Houses, and the other Properties connected there- 
 with, excepting perhaps in the Metropolis, where the greatest proportion of 
 Public Offices were exercised. 
 
 As the enumeration in the Land Tax Act of the several Properties charge- 
 able, viz. Lands, Tenements, Mines, Quarries, Tithes, &c. is the same as is 
 contained in Schedule A. of the late Property Act, the following comparative 
 estimate (p. 58) of the Rental of the years 1692 and 1814 is made from the 
 quotas of Land Tax of the respective Counties as fixed by the Act of the former 
 year, assuming as " £500,000 was by the valuation in 1692 considered equal 
 " to Is. in the pound of the Rent of Estates of that period," that the quotas 
 which for that year were at 4s, in the pound give one-fifth of that Rent; at 
 the same time it may be conceived that under the Land Tax Act, as under the 
 Property Act, Lands and Tenements were, from deficient Estimates or Valu- 
 ations, not charged on the full Rental throughout all parts of the Kingdom, 
 even in the earliest period of it. 
 
 As the proportions of the quotas charged on Lands in 1692 are not distin- 
 guished from the proportions charged on Houses and other Properties, the 
 Compare cannot be given with that distinction. 
 
 By this Compare, it will appear that the Real Property of the whole King- 
 dom increased in nominal value in the ratio of very nearly 1 to 6 from the 
 
APPENDIX. 57 
 
 period of the Revolution to the latter end of the late War. By making due 
 allowance for the diminished value of money the increase in real value of the 
 Property will be attained. 
 
 It will also appear that the increase of value of Property in the different 
 Counties has been in general in the ratio of their distance from the Metropolis; 
 this result accords with the probability that the Counties nearer to the Metro- 
 polis were at the earliest period of the Compare in a state of more improved 
 and more extensive cultivation than the more distant Counties. As all the 
 Counties have been since brought to a more equal state of cultivation, the 
 distant Counties will appear to have received the greatest ratio of improvement. 
 
 The Compare of the different parts of the Metropolis itself, viz. City of 
 London, City of Westminster, and part of the County of Middlesex, accords 
 also with the probable ratio of improvement in them respectively : the Land 
 Tax quotas for the Metropolis have been principally raised on Houses, the 
 Compare shews that a much greater addition has been made to the number 
 of Houses in Westminster, and a still greater addition to the number in the 
 County of Middlesex than has been made to the number in the City of 
 London. 
 
 The ratio of increase has been much greater in Scotland than in any other 
 part of Great Britain, being nearly 28 to 1, and more than quadruple the 
 average ratio of increase in the Kingdom in general. It has been observed 
 " that the quotas given in by the different Counties in 1692, were influenced 
 " by the degree of their loyalty to the new Sovereign of that period," if so, 
 the comparative smallness of the quota of Land Tax of Scotland not amounting 
 to one-fortieth part of that of South Britain, may be partly attributable to that 
 circumstance and not wholly to comparative inferiority of value of Land, &c. 
 The Rental of Scotland in 1814 was nearly one-eighth of the Rental of 
 England and Wales. 
 
 There is so much similarity between many of the provisions of the Land Tax 
 Act and those of the late Property Act, that theformer has evidently been the basis 
 of the latter; it may then be alleged in favor of the late Property Tax, both as 
 to its principle and plan, that it was in a great degree derived from an ancient 
 mode of Taxation established by an Act which was renewed and sanctioned 
 every year for upwards of a century by Parliament, and which continues in 
 operation, with scarcely any change in its enactments, to the present period. 
 
 If the Land Tax Act had been fully and strictly enforced with all its powers 
 for raising the Tax on Personal Estates, viz. on Goods, Wares, Merchandize, 
 Estates in ready Money, in Debts, &c. for which purpose the whole of them 
 must have been constantly investigated and valued, it would have been far more 
 obnoxious than the most objectionable part of the late Property Act is alleged 
 to have been. 
 
 3h 
 
58 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 COUNTIES. 
 
 Bedford 
 
 Berks 
 
 Bucks 
 
 Cambridge 
 
 Chester 
 
 Cornwall 
 
 Cumberland 
 
 Derby 
 
 Devon 
 
 Dorset 
 
 Durham 
 
 (East Riding 
 York 1 North „ 
 
 ( West „ 
 
 Essex 
 
 Gloucester 
 
 Hereford 
 
 Hertford 
 
 Huntingdon 
 
 Kent 
 
 Lancaster 
 
 Leicester 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Monmouth 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 Northampton 
 
 Northumberland . . . 
 
 Nottingham 
 
 Oxford 
 
 Rutland 
 
 Salop 
 
 Somerset 
 
 Southampton 
 
 Stafford 
 
 Suffolk 
 
 Surry 
 
 Sussex 
 
 Warwick 
 
 Westmorland 
 
 Wilts 
 
 Worcester 
 
 Total Amount 
 
 of the Quotas ol 
 
 Land Tax 
 
 in the several 
 
 Counties.* 
 
 Estimated 
 
 Amount of Rent 
 
 or Annual Value 
 
 of Lands and 
 
 Houses, &c. in 
 
 1692. 
 
 Amount ot Rent 
 
 or Annual Value 
 
 of Lands, &c. 
 
 charged under 
 
 Schedule A. of 
 
 the Property Act 
 
 in 1814. 
 
 Middlesex. .. 
 London 
 Westminster. 
 Wales 
 
 England and Wales. 
 Scotland 
 
 Great Britain 
 
 £ 
 
 28,555 
 40,844 
 47,143 
 32,695 
 28,599 
 31,943 
 
 3,714 
 24,094 
 82,583 
 33,080 
 10,598 
 19,111 
 26,348 
 46,035 
 89,397 
 47,312 
 20,409 
 42,283 
 15,497 
 82,553 
 20,990 
 34,685 
 71,907 
 
 9,812 
 84,307 
 47,670 
 14,549 
 27,277 
 38,722 
 
 5,525 
 29,057 
 72,473 
 54,941 
 27,121 
 73,506 
 66,133 
 60,048 
 39,790 
 
 3,045 
 51,657 
 33,582 
 
 £1,619,500 
 • 108,901 
 123,399f 
 
 93,846ft 
 43,937 
 
 £ 
 142,775 
 204,220 
 235,715 
 Ki3,475 
 142,995 
 159,715 
 
 18,570 
 120,470 
 412,915 
 165,400 
 
 52,990 
 
 95,555 
 131,740 
 230,175 
 446,985 
 236,560 
 102,045 
 211,415 
 
 77,485 
 412,765 
 104,950 
 173,425 
 359,535 
 
 49,060 
 421,535 
 238,350 
 
 72,745 
 136,385 
 193,610 
 
 27,625 
 145,285 
 362,365 
 274,705 
 135,605 
 367,530 
 330,665 
 300,240 
 198,950 
 
 15,225 
 258,285 
 167,910 
 
 £1,989,673 
 47,i54 
 
 £2,037,627 
 
 £8,097,950 
 544,505 
 616,995 
 469,230 
 219,685 
 
 £9,948,365 
 239,770 
 
 £ 
 
 364,277 
 
 719,890 
 
 662,872 
 
 705,372 
 
 1,114,928 
 
 922,259 
 
 737,438 
 
 883,370 
 
 1,924,912 
 
 726,264 
 
 885,580 
 
 1,051,148 
 
 1,172,756 
 
 2,536,521 
 
 1,584,108 
 
 1,315,726 
 
 629,156 
 
 583,657 
 
 3i5,964 
 
 1,687,443 
 
 3,139,043 
 
 <J51,908 
 
 2,096,611 
 
 298,981 
 
 1,516,651 
 
 947,578 
 
 1,291,413 
 
 751,626 
 
 790,867 
 
 138,216 
 
 1,083,702 
 
 2,308,723 
 
 1,240,547 
 
 1,200,325 
 
 1,151,305 
 
 1,589,702 
 
 919,350 
 
 1,269,757 
 
 289,582 
 
 1,215,619 
 
 820,021 
 
 £45,555,168 
 3,383,999 
 1,068,775 
 1,312,600 
 2,223,969 
 
 £10,188,135 
 
 £53,644,511 
 6,652,655 
 
 £60,297,166 
 
 • The separate Quotas fixed hy the Land Tax Act for Cities and Towns, being Counties of them- 
 selves, are here added to the Quotas of the Counties at large. 
 
 + Whatever Public Offices were charged to the Tax in 1692, were, it may be supposed, almost wholly 
 exercised in the Cities of London and Westminster ; to whatever amount they were charged, as it is not 
 known, and therefore no deduction is made on account of it, the estimated value of Houses in those 
 Cities for that year is proportionably overrated. 
 
 t Including £30,754 6s. 3d. for the District of the Palaces of Whitehall and Saint James's, supposed 
 to consist partly, if not principally of Duty charged on Offices exercised therein. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 59 
 
 Account of the Amount of Rent from Land in the different Counties of England, $c. so far as the same 
 is shewn by the Property Tax Accounts of the Fear 1814; of the average Rent per Acre in each 
 County; also of the Amount of Rent of Land Tithe-free, with a view to deduce therefrom the probable 
 effect on the amount of Rent of the exemption from Tithes. 
 
 COUNTIES. 
 
 Bedford 
 
 Berks 
 
 Bucks 
 
 Cambridge 
 
 Chester 
 
 Cornwall 
 
 Cumberland . . . 
 
 Derby ,. 
 
 Devon 
 
 Dorset ....... 
 
 Durham 
 
 York 
 
 Essex 
 
 Gloucester 
 
 Hereford 
 
 Hertford .. ; .. 
 Huntingdon . . . 
 
 Kent 
 
 Lancaster 
 
 Leicester 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Monmouth 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 Northampton.. . 
 Northumberland 
 Nottingham . . . 
 
 Oxford 
 
 Rutland 
 
 Salop 
 
 Somerset 
 
 Southampton , . . 
 
 Stafford 
 
 Suffolk 
 
 Surry 
 
 Sussex 
 
 Warwick 
 
 Westmorland . 
 
 Wilts , 
 
 Worcester 
 
 Middlesex . 
 
 London 
 
 Westminster 
 Wales 
 
 Amount of 
 Annual Rent or 
 Value of Lands. 
 
 £ 
 316,595 
 502,096 
 548,630 
 541,325 
 805,141 
 629,259 
 561,468 
 707,250 
 
 1,360,812 
 564,377 
 543,411 
 
 3,503,980 
 
 1,109,829 
 971,410 
 524,781 
 397,539 
 277,463 
 961,368 
 
 1,463,183 
 807,558 
 
 1,865,086 
 231,113 
 
 1,102,352 
 846,171 
 £99,951 
 604,220 
 589,594 
 123,296 
 823,845 
 
 1,491,734 
 707,127 
 862,973 
 826,228 
 437,958 
 641,736 
 838,993 
 260,945 
 964,611 
 609,746 
 
 £31,985,154 
 517,669 
 
 £1,827,638 
 
 England & Wales . . £34,330,461 
 Scotland £5,075,242 
 
 Estimated 
 
 Number of Acres 
 
 cultivated.' 
 
 198,700 
 398,977 
 512,400 
 258,000 
 616,000 
 252,829 
 478,240 
 481,148 
 
 1,280,000 
 689,000 
 480,000 
 
 2,596,426 
 
 1,212,307 
 771,500 
 761,440 
 446,500 
 189,300 
 819,780 
 
 1,021,100 
 540,000 
 
 1,693,120 
 284,480 
 951,054 
 505,000 
 817,200 
 412,120 
 411,920 
 55,000 
 758,388 
 900,000 
 
 1,023,350 
 639,040 
 700,000 
 385,947 
 843,360 
 498,000 
 135,040 
 678,000 
 525,000 
 
 Average Rent 
 per Acre, 
 
 d. 
 2 
 
 H 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 i 
 
 "4 
 
 n 
 n 
 
 n 
 
 1 
 
 2 4 
 
 Amount of 
 Annual Value 
 
 of Lands 
 Tithe-free.+ 
 
 26,219,666 
 
 204,520 
 
 3,695,693 
 
 42 
 
 I 7| 
 
 I io| 
 
 30,120,079 £1 
 5,043,450 
 
 Great Britain £31,405,703 | 35,163,529 l£l I 2 I 4f 
 
 £ 
 
 214,871 
 
 125,554 
 
 364,255 
 
 131,029 
 
 20,561 
 
 2,481 
 
 99,737 
 
 258,417 
 
 40,409 
 
 60,861 
 
 60,702 
 
 1,840,338 
 
 78,869 
 
 333,318 
 
 14,203 
 
 93,597 
 
 208,328 
 
 13,942 
 
 100,346 
 
 565,661 
 
 1,202,960 
 
 33,249 
 
 123,777 
 
 724,787 
 
 311,433 
 
 388,864 
 
 359,891 
 
 73,127 
 
 97,449 
 
 96,064 
 
 30,580 
 
 218,516 
 
 66,418 
 
 44,948 
 
 41,451 
 
 396,863 
 
 69,417 
 
 233,785 
 
 208,008 
 
 £9,349,146 
 95,442 
 14,095 
 
 £9,458,683 
 5,075,242 
 
 £14,533,925 
 
 # The number of Acres is taken from an Estimate made up some yearssince by <he Board of Agricul- 
 ture, it was then supposed to underrate the numbers generally. The rate of deficiency, if any, of the 
 number of Acres may however be supposed not to exceed the rate of deficiency in the amount of the Rent 
 or Annual Value of Lands brought into charge, and the average Rent per Acre appearing in the compare 
 is therefore (and for reasons betore offered p. 1, App.) considered as less than the actual average Rent 
 per Acre at the latter period of the Property Act; the averages of the several Counties taking them 
 comparatively, may however be accurately shewn by the Compare. 
 
 + Exemption from Tithes being regarded as one of the causes of comparatively high Rents, the amount 
 of the annual Rental of Lands Tithe-free is added to the compare for the purpose of observing any effect 
 of it on the average Rent per Acre in those Counties where the Lands are most fret; from Tithes; but 
 it in to observed that other causes affecting the Rents may so far predominate, that the precise effect of 
 exemption from Tithes may not in all cases be discernible. 
 
60 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Comparative View of the Income and Population of the different Counties of 
 same is shewn by the Property Tax Accounts of the Year 1814; also the Number 
 and Manufacture, and all other Families, taken from the Population Returns of 
 
 COUNTIES. 
 
 Bedford 
 
 Berks 
 
 Bucks 
 
 Cambridge . . , 
 
 Chester 
 
 Cornwall 
 
 Cumberland . . . 
 
 Derby 
 
 Devon ....... 
 
 Dorset 
 
 Durham 
 
 York 
 
 Essex ....... 
 
 Gloucester 
 
 Hereford 
 
 Hertford 
 
 Huntingdon . . . 
 
 Kent 
 
 Lancaster 
 
 Leicester 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Monmouth 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 Northampton . . . 
 Northumberland 
 Nottingham . . . 
 
 Oxford 
 
 Rutland 
 
 Salop 
 
 Somerset 
 
 Southampton . . . 
 
 Stafford 
 
 Suffolk 
 
 Surry 
 
 Sussex 
 
 Warwick 
 
 Westmorland . . , 
 
 Wilts 
 
 Worcester 
 
 Middlesex . 
 London . . . 
 Westminster 
 Wales 
 
 England & Wales 
 Scotland 
 
 Great Britain 
 
 Amount of 
 
 Rent & Profits 
 
 derived from 
 
 Lands only 
 
 charged under 
 
 Schedules 
 
 A. &B. 
 
 £ 
 
 545,365 
 
 879,406 
 
 960,750 
 
 950,395 
 
 1,410,151 
 
 1,096,049 
 
 981,938 
 
 1,244,680 
 
 2,374,252 
 
 988,407 
 
 986,831 
 
 6,226,960 
 
 1,944,369 
 
 1,698,100 
 
 921,461 
 
 695,669 
 
 486,113 
 
 1,679,418 
 
 2,551,033 
 
 1,415,278 
 
 3,245,796 
 
 398,963 
 
 1,921,762 
 
 1,483,481 
 
 1,671,671 
 
 1,049,650 
 
 1,032,074 
 
 215,906 
 
 1,439,935 
 
 2,611,224 
 
 1,241,317 
 
 1,510,753 
 
 1,444,338 
 
 768,318 
 
 1,107,196 
 
 1,464,433 
 
 455,185 
 
 1,680,201 
 
 1,067,476 
 
 £55,846,304 
 814,958 
 
 4,801 
 3,206,548 
 
 £59,872,611 
 7,245,582 
 
 £67,118,193 
 
 Amount of 
 
 Rents of Houses 
 
 and other Profits 
 
 charged under 
 
 Schedule A. 
 
 £ 
 
 47,682 
 217,794 
 114,242 
 164,047 
 309,787 
 293,000 
 175,970 
 176,120 
 564,100 
 161,887 
 342,169 
 1,196,445 
 474,279 
 344,316 
 104,375 
 186,118 
 
 48,501 
 
 726,075 
 
 1,675,860 
 
 144,350 
 
 231,526 
 
 67,868 
 414,299 
 101,407 
 291,462 
 147,406 
 201,273 
 
 14,920 
 259,857 
 816,989 
 533,420 
 337,352 
 325,077 
 1,151,744 
 277,614 
 430,764 
 
 38,637 
 251,008 
 210.275 
 
 £13,570,014 
 
 2,868,961 
 
 1,068,775 
 
 1,309,969 
 
 496,331 
 
 £19,314,050 
 1,577,413 
 
 £20,891,463 
 
 Amount of 
 Profits of 
 
 Commerce, 
 Manufacture, 
 
 Trade, &c. 
 charged under 
 Schedule D. 
 
 £ 
 94,797 
 299,704 
 222,982 
 239,687 
 289,309 
 230,112 
 179,753 
 210,583 
 757,444 
 241,634 
 253,631 
 
 1,719,886 
 603,935 
 367,243 
 61,851 
 262,989 
 108,401 
 
 1,626,229 
 
 2,292,080 
 319,608 
 373,672 
 102,571 
 523,011 
 185,204 
 436,404 
 314,501 
 312,809 
 30,939 
 279,933 
 
 1,329,266 
 923,714 
 516,720 
 453,485 
 
 1,564,533 
 372,059 
 669,370 
 52,575 
 376,071 
 272,303 
 
 £19,471,998 
 
 4,117,539' 
 
 8,397,500 j 
 
 2,740,206' 
 
 300,808" 
 
 £35,028,051 
 2,744,796 
 
 £37,772,847 
 
 Total Amount 
 of the three preced- 
 ing Columns. 
 
 £ 
 
 . 687,844 
 
 . 1,396,904 
 
 . 1,297,974 
 
 . 1,354,129 
 
 . 2,009,247 
 
 . 1,619,161 
 
 . 1,337,661 
 
 . 1,631,383 
 
 . 3,695,796 
 
 . 1,391,928 
 
 . 1,582,631 
 
 . 9,143,291 
 
 . 3,022,583 
 
 . 2,409,659 
 
 . 1,087,687 
 
 . 1,144,776 
 
 643,015 
 
 . 4,031,722 
 
 . 6,518,973 
 
 . 1,879,236 
 
 . 3,850,993 
 
 569,402 
 
 . 2,859,072 
 
 . 1,770,092 
 
 ,. 2,399,537 
 
 . 1,511,557 
 1,546,156 
 
 . 261,765 
 
 . 1,979,725 
 
 . 4,757,479 
 
 . 2,698,451 
 
 ,. 2,364,825 
 
 . 2,222,900 
 
 ,. 3,484,595 
 
 ,. 1,756,869 
 
 . 2,564,567 
 
 , . 546,397 
 
 . 2,307,280 
 
 .. 1,551,054 
 
 £88,888,316 
 
 21,322,709 
 
 4,003,687 
 
 £114,214,712 
 11,567,791 
 
 £125,782,503 
 
 If the amount of Wages and of all other Incomes or parts of Incomes exempted or 
 
 distinguished in Counties, the proportions of the Inoome of the several Counties, &c. 
 
 •]- A large proportion of these other Families must be Fundholdersand Public Servants 
 
 and Trade Income of each County in proportion to its amount, leaving still the propor- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 61 
 
 England, Spc. distinguishing Agricultural Income from Trade Income, so far as the 
 of Families chiefly employed in Agriculture, the Number chiefly employed in Trade 
 1821. Also each County'' s proportion of the total Income and of the total Population. 
 
 COUNTIES. 
 
 Bedford 
 
 Berks 
 
 Bucks 
 
 Cambridge 
 
 Chester 
 
 Cornwall 
 
 Cumberland 
 
 Derby 
 
 Devon ........ 
 
 Dorset 
 
 Durham 
 
 York 
 
 Essex 
 
 Gloucester 
 
 Hereford 
 
 Hertford 
 
 Huntingdon 
 
 Kent 
 
 Lancaster 
 
 Leicester 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Monmouth 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 Northampton 
 
 Northumberland 
 
 Nottingham 
 
 Oxford 
 
 Rutland 
 
 Salop 
 
 Somerset 
 
 Southampton . . . 
 
 Stafford 
 
 Suffolk 
 
 Surry 
 
 Sussex 
 
 Warwick 
 
 Westmorland , . . 
 
 Wilts 
 
 Worcester 
 
 Middlesex . . 
 London .... 
 Westminster 
 Wales 
 
 Number 
 
 of 
 
 Families 
 
 chiefly 
 
 employed 
 
 in 
 Agriculture 
 
 Number 
 
 of 
 
 Families 
 
 chiefly 
 
 employed in 
 
 Trade and 
 
 Manufacture 
 
 England & Wales . . 
 
 Scotland 
 
 Great Britain 
 
 10,754 
 14,769 
 16,640 
 15,536 
 18,120 
 19,302 
 11,297 
 14,582 
 37,037 
 14,821 
 
 9,427 
 63,830 
 33,206 
 23,170 
 13,558 
 13,485 
 
 6,435 
 30,869 
 22,723 
 13,028 
 34,900 
 
 6,020 
 36,368 
 18,974 
 11,567 
 13,664 
 15,965 
 
 2,410 
 18,414 
 31,448 
 24,303 
 18,285 
 30,795 
 14,944 
 21,920 
 16,779 
 
 5,096 
 24,972 
 14,926 
 
 764,339 
 
 C 9,393 
 
 74,225 
 
 847,957 
 130,699 
 
 978,656 
 
 4,827 
 
 8,773 
 
 8,318 
 
 6,964 
 
 27,105 
 
 15,543 
 
 13,146 
 
 20,505 
 
 33,985 
 
 10,811 
 
 20,212 
 
 137,048 
 
 17,160 
 
 35,907 
 
 5,633 
 
 7,935 
 
 2,937 
 
 30,180 
 
 152,271 
 
 20,297 
 
 15,845 
 
 6,147 
 
 26,201 
 
 11,695 
 
 20,565 
 
 21,832 
 
 8,971 
 
 1,034 
 
 17,485 
 
 27,132 
 
 19,810 
 
 42,435 
 
 17,418 
 
 46,811 
 
 15,463 
 
 39,189 
 
 3,801 
 
 16,982 
 
 18.566 
 
 Number 
 of all other 
 Families. 
 
 956,939 
 
 161,356 
 
 41,680 
 
 1,792 
 4,158 
 3,909 
 3,103 
 6,799 
 16,357 
 7,361 
 7,317 
 19,692 
 4,680 
 16,301 
 39,818 
 9,263 
 13,079 
 2,726 
 4,750 
 1,025 
 24,890 
 28,179 
 3,481 
 8,015 
 1,955 
 11,928 
 4,883 
 10,996 
 3,107 
 3,905 
 492 
 5,737 
 14,957 
 13,829 
 8,060 
 6,851 
 27,051 
 6,182 
 4,155 
 1,541 
 5,730 
 5,514 
 
 Total 
 
 Number of 
 
 Families. 
 
 363,568 
 91,122 
 30,801 
 
 17,373 
 
 27,700 
 
 28,867 
 
 25,603 
 
 52,024 
 
 51,202 
 
 31,804 
 
 42,404 
 
 90,714 
 
 30,312 
 
 45,940 
 
 240,696 
 
 59,629 
 
 72,156 
 
 21,917 
 
 26,170 
 
 10,397 
 
 85,939 
 
 203,173 
 
 36,806 
 
 58,760 
 
 14,122 
 
 74,497 
 
 35,552 
 
 43,128 
 
 38,603 
 
 28,841 
 
 3,936 
 
 41,636 
 
 73,537 
 
 57,942 
 
 68,780 
 
 55,064 
 
 88,806 
 
 43,565 
 
 60,123 
 
 10,438 
 
 47,684 
 
 39,006 
 
 Proportion 
 
 of 
 
 Total 
 
 Income. 
 
 182nd part 
 90*A „ 
 96th „ 
 92nd „ 
 62nd „ 
 11th „ 
 94th „ 
 11th „ 
 34th „ 
 90th „ 
 79th 
 13th „ 
 41st „ 
 b2nd „ 
 llbth „ 
 109th „ 
 194th „ 
 
 31** » 
 \9th „ 
 66th „ 
 32nd 
 
 220th „ 
 43rd „ 
 70th „ 
 52nd „ 
 83rd „ 
 81^ „ 
 [80th „ 
 63rd „ 
 26th „ 
 46th „ 
 53rd „ 
 b6th „ 
 36th „ 
 71** „ 
 49th „ 
 
 230th „ 
 b4th „ 
 81** „ 
 
 Proportion 
 
 of 
 
 Total 
 
 Number of 
 
 Families. 
 
 1,159,975 
 190,264 
 
 1,350,239 
 
 485,491 
 126,997 
 
 612,488 
 
 2,084,846 
 261,871 
 146,706 
 
 2,493,423 
 447.960 
 
 2,941,383 
 
 169th part 
 
 106th „ 
 
 101st „ 
 
 114th „ 
 
 56*n „ 
 
 blth 
 
 92nd „ 
 
 69th „ 
 
 32nd „ 
 
 91th „ 
 
 64*A „ 
 
 12th „ 
 
 49th „ 
 
 40th „ 
 
 134*A „ 
 
 112*/* „ 
 
 ~!82rcd „ 
 
 34th „ 
 
 14** „ 
 19th „ 
 50^ „ 
 
 208th „ 
 39th „ 
 82nd „ 
 68th 
 16th 
 
 101st 
 
 141th „ 
 70*A „ 
 39th „ 
 bOth „ 
 42nd „ 
 53rd „ 
 33rd „ 
 61th „ 
 48th 
 
 281st „ 
 6lst „ 
 Ibth „ 
 
 5_ 
 
 7 
 
 « 
 
 ■H- 
 
 i*r 
 
 20 
 
 * 
 
 not attained for charge under Schedules A. B. and D. were added to the Compare and 
 might not appear maferially altered. 
 
 whose Income derived from Taxation may be supposed to be paid out of the Agricultural 
 tions of Income of the several Counties the same as they appear in the Compare, 
 
62 APPENDIX. 
 
 Exemplification, in the case of the Malt Tax, of the vexatious and injurious 
 Effects in the Process of Trade or Manufacture of the Procedure of some 
 of the Taxes on Commodities. 
 
 [Referred to in the Observations " On the Procedure of Taxation,' 1 p. 28, First Part of 
 
 this Work.] 
 
 ** It is a fact that notwithstanding- the vast increase of population, the more general 
 " diffusion of wealth and the growing 1 demand for most other articles of comfort and 
 u luxury during the present century, the demand for Malt Liquor has remained about 
 " stationary since 1800! The circumstances which have led to so extraordinary a 
 '•* result ought to excite the attention of every one who feels any interest in the pros- 
 " perity of Agriculture, or in the well being of the Laboring Classes. And if it should 
 " be found that this state of things has been brought about, not by the poverty of the 
 ** mass of the people, or by any preference on their part of English Gin to their old and 
 " favorite beverage, but by the oppressive Taxes that have been laid upon it, and the 
 " still more oppressive regulations under which it is supplied to them, will any one pre- 
 i( tend to say, that a system productive of such consequences— a system fatal alike to 
 " Agriculture, to the Revenue, and to the health, morals and comforts of the great mass 
 '' of the people, ought not immediately to undergo a thorough reform ? 
 
 * We beg to call the attention of our readers to the Table which we have extracted 
 * from the Official Returns printed by order of the House of Commons, being an ac- 
 " count of the Total Quantity of Malt in England and Wales in each Year, from 1787 
 « to 1828 both inclusive, the Rates of Duty and the Total amount of the Duty. 
 
 is This Table shews, conclusively, that the consumption of Malt has been substan- 
 " tially stationary for about forty years! Rut it is evident that had there not been 
 " some very powerful counteracting causes, this singular result could not have taken 
 " place. The Population of England and Wales, which according to the Parliamentary 
 " Returns amounted to about 9,100,000 in 1801, had increased to about 12,100,000 in 
 " 1821 ; and it must, supposing the previous rate of increase to have continued, have 
 " amounted to about 13,300,000 in 1827 ; being an addition of 4,200,000 persons, or 
 c< of 46 per Cent, to the population existing in 1801. The quantity of Malt manufac- 
 " tured in 1800 and 1801, was, owing to the scarcity of those years, considerably 
 ** below au average- but the consumption of 1802 and 1803 amounts at a medium to 
 " very near 3,400,000 quarters or 30,400,000 bushels, being at an average a supply 
 " of three bushels and twenty-one pints to each person. Now it is plain that had the 
 " consumption not fallen off, the quantity of Malt consumed in the year ending the 
 <l 5th of January 1828 ought to have amounted to 5,553,000 quarters or 44,424,000 
 t( bushels, whereas it only amounted to 3,137,000 quarters or 25,096,000 bushels 
 ft yielding at an average considerably less than two bushels to each individual of the 
 " population, or more than one bushel and twenty-one pints less than the quantity 
 " falling to the share of each in 1802. 
 
 li It would be vain to attempt to lay any thing like a detailed history of the Malt 
 " Acts before our readers. There were very recently about forty of them in exist- 
 il ence ; and their enactments were so contradictory and vexatious, that the manu- 
 " facturer could not advance a step without subjecting himself to penalties and prose- 
 " cutions which no sagacity could either foresee or avoid. Every successive increase 
 " of Duty having proportionably increased the temptation to its evasion, new devices 
 
APPENDIX. 63 
 
 " were resorted to in order to defeat the efforts of the Smuggler. Nor, had those 
 '' checks been properly devised, should we have objected to them. We do not con- 
 " sider the imposition of a Tax on Malt as improper ; nor are we sure that it can be 
 " justly objected to as being- too high. But in devising" checks for the prevention of 
 " smuggling, the framers of the Malt Acts have gone far wholly to destroy the 
 " manufacture. They have multiplied regulations, prohibitions and penalties, until 
 " they have entangled the honest as well as the fraudulent trader in an inextricable 
 " labyrinth. 
 
 " But it will be said, that whatever might have been the case formerly, these re- 
 " marks are now inapplicable — that the Malt Acts have been consolidated — and that 
 " all the objections that might have been made to their multiplication have fallen to 
 " the ground. In point of fact, however, it is by courtesy only that the Act of the 
 " 7th and 8th George IV. cap. 52, can be called a consolidated Act. It enacts afresh 
 " every one of the vexatious restrictions contained in the former Acts, and several new 
 *' ones besides. The following statements will shew that we are not exaggerating its 
 " defects. 
 
 M Malting is in itself, a very simple process. It consists in wetting the barley, till 
 " it begins to sprout, and then checking the vegetation process suddenly by the heat. 
 " This produces a saccharine substance in the grain which is the essence of Malt. 
 
 li Before any person can commence business as a Maltster he must take out a 
 " licence, renewable annually. But the mere possession of a licence does not 
 11 authorize him to take a single step in the way of his business. Before attempting 
 " to construct, use or alter cisterns, frames, kilns, or utensils of any sort, he must 
 " give a written notice to the next Exciseman. Neither is it enough that this func- 
 " tionary should be privy to his plans. The form and fashion of all the principal 
 " implements which the manufacturer may have to make use of is fixed by statute. 
 " Though he were to discover that he might either expedite his business or improve 
 " the quality of his malt by making an alteration in his machinery, he is prohibited 
 ** from doing so. The law has prescribed the sort of implements the manufacturer 
 " shall use, and however ill contrived, clumsy or costly, he dares not change or 
 " amend them. We could easily excuse the regulations about cisterns and so forth, 
 " were the manufacturer allowed to use them, when once constructed, as he may 
 " think proper. But the Maltster can do nothing without giving twenty-four hours 
 " previous notice to the Excise. And it is fixed (7th and 8th Geo. IV. §. 21) that no 
 " grain shall be put into the cistern except between the hours of 8 o'clock a. m. and 
 " 2 o'clock p. m., though it may be taken out of the cistern any time between 7 a. m. 
 " and 4 p. m. ! 
 
 " The Maltster must cover his barley with water 40 hours, and not more than 55 
 " hours, or forfeit a penalty of £100 ; or else he must, before wetting, intimate to the 
 *' officer that he intends to immerse the grain 65 hours ; but should he afterwards on 
 " observing the effect of the wetting, think it expedient to draw off the water a little 
 M sooner, it is not in his power— it being specially enacted that grain put into a cistern 
 11 under the notice in question, shall continue to be covered with water for and until 
 " the expiration of the 65 hours as aforesaid ; and any Maltster who should, in order 
 " to save his grain from being spoiled, take it out before the specified time, is for every 
 '< such offence to forfeit and lose the sum of £100 (§. 24). 
 
 '* A Maltster is entitled to change the water upon his grain ; but he must previously 
 " intimate his intention to the officer, specifying the hour when he intends to draw off 
 " the water, taking care that it shall be between 8 o'clock a.m. and 2 p. m. • on con- 
 
64 APPENDIX. 
 
 " dition however that the grain be again completely covered with water within an hour 
 ? from the period when it was begun to be drawn off. 
 
 " If the Exciseman imagine that the grain is closer in the cistern than it ought to be 
 " (for even the degree of its density is fixed by statute), he may measure it, and if he 
 " report that there is an increase of ■£$ part over the statutory allowance, the Maltster 
 « shall for every such offence forfeit £100 (§. 33). 
 
 " It is ordered (§. 29) that if any Maltster shall use more than one cistern, ' he shall 
 " * empty or take all such corn or grain from and out of all such cisterns, at one and 
 " { the same time.'' If he should neglect this rule, and empty one cistern before he be- 
 ** gins emptying another, he will be visited by the penalty of £200. When one cistern, 
 f* or a number of cisterns have been emptied, no more cisterns can be emptied in the 
 *' same place, until after a period of 4 days or 96 hours have elapsed. This regulation 
 lt is also enforced under a penalty of £200. 
 
 " The grain being at length got out of the cistern, must be deposited in couch 
 " frames , in a particular way, and must remain in them for a certain fixed period; and 
 '* it is enacted, that if the malt when laid in the couch frames shall be any way more 
 " than 30 inches deep, a penalty of £100 shall be inflicted (§. 32). If the malt require 
 t( sprinkling, which is the case with six-sevenths of all that is made in England, it 
 " must not be done until the grain has been 288 hours from the cistern. In addition 
 si to all this, every Maltster is bound, under a penalty of £200, to keep a barley book, 
 " accessible at all times to the Excise Officer, containing entries of all the barley he 
 ft buys, the name, sirname and residence of those from whom he bought it ; and con- 
 f* taining also a detailed statement of all the malt he makes, the names and addresses 
 " of the individuals to whom it has been sold, the quantities disposed of to each, with 
 " a notification of the hour as well as the day when each transaction took place 
 « §. 47, &c.) 
 
 " Formerly no officer could enter a Maltster's premises but on request, and, if in the 
 " night, in the presence of a constable, any obstruction being visited with a penalty of 
 " £26. But now an officer may enter by night or by day, as the case may be, any 
 " obstruction being visited with a penalty of £200. 
 
 '* If any one will glance, however cursorily, over the statute of 7 and 8 of George IV. 
 " cap. 52, he will find some scores of enactments, quite as vexatious and oppressive as 
 *f any of those now specified. It contains in all 106 penalties, amounting altogether to 
 " the sum of £13,500 ! The trade is, in fact, from the impossibility of complying with 
 " the regulations, entirely at the mercy of the Officers. 
 
 " We have already alluded to the process termed sprinkling, and to the regulation 
 " that it shall not take place till the grain has been 12 days, or 288 hours, out of the 
 " cistern. But according to the opinion of the most experienced Maltsters, this pro- 
 " cess ought generally to take place upon the 8th or 9th day. They affirm that the 
 " effect of the prolongation is not only the loss of interest on the capital employed, 
 " but great injury to the quality of the malt. They state, that about the 8th or 9th 
 " day a mould is frequently generated, and that, when this occurs before sprinkling, 
 *' the malt becomes dead, and loses its spirited quality. This was the view of the 
 " matter taken by the Committee of the House of Commons on the Malt Duties in 1806. 
 " They state that ' the regulations of the 42 George 111. cap. 48, increase the expence 
 " c of making sprinkled malt one-fourth ; that a limitation against sprinkling till 
 ** ' after the 7th day in winter, and the 5th in summer, would equally prevent fraud, 
 " ' and would, at the same time, afford great relief to the Maltsters of the greatest 
 * ' part of England.' The Legislature has however thought proper, notwithstanding 
 
APPENDIX. 65 
 
 * the representations of the Trade and the Committee, to persevere in the system thus 
 " universally condemned. 
 
 «* But the question, as to sprinkling, becomes of infinitely greater importance when 
 " viewed in connexion with the Act 7 and 8 George IV. cap. 52. The sprinkling occa- 
 " sions the malt to swell or increase in bulk j the increase, or outcast, as it is techni- 
 " cally termed, varying with the varying quantity of the grain, but being always in 
 " proportion to the latent saccharine matter. The outcost in the Shropshire and Staf- 
 " fordshire barley is estimated at one-tenth ; in some parts of Yorkshire and Derbyshire 
 " it is estimated at one-twelfth ; in Dorsetshire it is supposed to be about one-fifteenth ; 
 " differing in different places according to the endless differences in the barley. But 
 " though sprinkling be required in the preparation of by far the largest portion of the 
 " malt used in England, still it is not required, and is seldom or never practised in malt- 
 " ing the fine barley raised in Norfolk, Hertfordshire, and part of Wilts, amounting to 
 " about a tenth part of the malt manufactured in England. 
 
 " However oppressive and vexatious in other respects, the duty under the old malt 
 " Acts was levied upon the barley wetted in the cistern, as was, perhaps, as near an 
 " ad valorem duty as the case would admit of. But the statute of the 7 George IV. has 
 " put an end to this practice ; and the duty is now levied upon the finished malt, or upon 
 " the malt after it has been sprinkled. Had it been necessary to sprinkle all grain, 
 ** this change would bave been of less importance ; but as the finer kinds of barley do 
 " not require to undergo this process, the effect of the change is plainly to add to the 
 " duties laid on the inferior species proportionally to their outcast. A bushel of Herts 
 " or Norfoik malt made without sprinkling or increase, yields more saccharine matter 
 " than a bushel of Yorkshire, or other barley, expanded by this necessary operation, 
 " into a bushel and one-tenth of malt. So well is this known in the trade, that cceteris 
 " paribus, all sprinkled malt diminishes in value according to the increase of ils bulk, 
 " though without this increase its value would be still less, as the saccharine principle 
 " would not be sufficiently evolved. Even under the old Acts the inferior sorts of bar- 
 " ley paid a higher duty in proportion to their value than the superior sorts ; but under 
 " the late Act, the duty being levied on the inferior species after their volume is in_ 
 " creased by sprinkling, the excess of duty affecting them has been trebled. 
 
 " The regulations thus briefly described, may, to state their operations in a few 
 " words, be said to have, at one and the same time, the effect of unnecessarily fettering 
 " the operations of the Maltster, of deteriorating the quality, and adding to the price, of 
 " his malt, and of putting him wholly in the power of the Officer of the Excise. The 
 " consequence of such a state of things is, that many most respectable persons, and 
 " much capital, have been driven from the trade •, that fraud and corruption pervade 
 " all its departments j and that the business of malting is infected with all those abuses 
 " which inevitably beset every business conducted on fictitious and contradictory 
 " principles. - " 
 
 3 I 
 
66 APPENDIX. 
 
 Extracts from Reports of Speeches in the House of Commons, March 25, 1830 on a 
 Motion of W. P. Thompson, Esq. M. P. for a Select Committee to inquire into 
 the Expediency of making a Revision of the Taxes. 
 
 W. P. Thompson, Esq. (novo Vice-president of the Board of Trade J 
 
 " Revenue did not, according to the judgment of sound observers, depend on the 
 " amount of what passed actually into the Exchequer, but entirely of the manner, both 
 " in regulation and in quantity, in which that revenue was drawn from the pockets of 
 " the people. Such were the opinions of eminent philosophers in this and other coun- 
 " tries. Of Frenchmsn he could quote Vauban, Sully, Turgot, and others, who pointed 
 " out the suffering which the people had endured from misplaced taxation. Sully said 
 " that in one impost to pay 30,000,000 of francs into the Exchequer, 120,000,000 were 
 " actually taken from the people. Turgot, in referring to the expence of certain road- 
 " works, to realize 10,000,000 (francs) for the Exchequer,, 40,000,000 was the actual 
 " cost to the public. Eminent authors, when looking to the declining state of Spain, 
 " dated it from the imposition of the alcavala. Turning to English authorities, — the 
 " Hon. Member quoted Adam Smith, to shew the only true principles upon which taxa- 
 " tion ought to proceed, — they had on record the opinions of eminent men upon the 
 " general principles which ought to govern taxation. Keeping them in view, he pro- 
 " posed to see how far they applied to any portion of the Taxes which the people of 
 " this country were now called upon to pay, and so applying whether it was proper 
 " they should be continued to their present extent. * * * He should trouble the House 
 " with a detail of Taxes upon such articles as he considered in the light of the raw 
 " material, which pressed hard upon the industry of the country — many of them unfit 
 " to be the objects of Taxation, and others exposed to such obnoxious and harassing 
 " and expensive regulations as made them, in a national point of view, not worth the 
 * trouble and expence of collecting. * * * He could not conceive how any Hon. Mem- 
 " bers could meet their Constituents who were daily sending up complaints of the 
 u severity of Taxation, and calling for some alteration in the mode of collecting it, if 
 " they refused to enter into an inquiry, out of which no harm could, and from which 
 lt some good might, arise. On the one hand, if they granted this inquiry, they would 
 " shew to the people, that they were anxious to remove their distress by affording them 
 " the articles most necessary to their subsistence and comfort at a cheap rate, — to the 
 f* country, that they were anxious to meet the claims of the national creditor, and to 
 " preserve inviolate the public faith, — and to the world, that as a legislative body they 
 " were anxious to relieve those they governed, and to introduce a more improved sys- 
 " tem of finance to meet the necessities of their situation. On the other hand, if they 
 " refused this inquiry, they could only do so under the notion that Parliament was in- 
 " competent to conduct it ; and by such conduct they would abandon the most impor- 
 " tant portion of their rights, and would send the people discontented and dissatisfied 
 H away." 
 
 Lord Viscount Althorp, M.P. (now Chancellor of the Exchequer.) 
 " Much had been said about a Property Tax, and he believed that on that point he 
 " differed considerably from his friends about him. Still he had no hesitation in say- 
 " ing, that, to grant relief to the productive population by a reduction of Taxes, and to 
 
APPENDIX. 67 
 
 xi im ose a Property Tax to meet the deficiency thus occasioned, would be a very good 
 " measure. (Hear^ hear.) That was his own individual opinion. It might be alleged 
 " that he was inconsistent in what he now said, when his present was contrasted with 
 " his former opinion : and, perhaps, it might seem to many that he was so. But the 
 " country was now in a situation very different from that in which it was formerly 
 " placed ; and he would say to the Land Owner, that if a Property Tax of 10 per Cent . 
 ** were imposed, he would be the gainer: because he thought that the Land Owner, in 
 " consequence of the existing distress, and the large sums which he was obliged to 
 " advance for the maintenance of the poor, lost considerably more than 10 per Cent, on 
 " his Rents. He was perfectly convinced, that it was the il 1 arranged state of the Taxes, 
 " more than the amount of the Taxes, that pressed heavily on the country." 
 
 Extract from a late Publication " On Financial Reform." * 
 
 " By prescribing the processes of fabrication, the Manufacturer is not allowed to 
 " manage his trade in the way his skill and experience point out as the best j but he 
 " is compelled to conform to such methods of pursuing his art as he finds taught in 
 " Acts of Parliament. Thus the unseen injury arising from excise taxation, by its 
 " interference with the free course of manufacture, is much greater than is suspected 
 " by the public. The consequence of the activity and invention of the manufacturer 
 " being repressed is, that the consumers of their goods pay increased prices, not only 
 " for the duties imposed on them, but for the additional expence incurred by absurd 
 " and vexatious regulations ; and, in addition to this, goods are generally very inferior 
 " in quality to what they would be if no duties existed. 
 
 " As an Income Tax would chiefly fall on Rent, Tithes, Interest Money, and Divi- 
 " dends, the large revenue which it would yield from the moment it was imposed, 
 " would not be accompanied by any shock to industry j it would produce no interrup- 
 " tion to the usual operations of manufactures and trade • it would not diminish the 
 " amount of capital employed on them, nor of the wages paid to the workmen ; nor 
 " would it have any influence in raising the prices of goods j and consequently it could 
 " have none hi diminishing the market for them."f 
 
 # By Sir Henry Parnell, Bart. M. P., Chairman of the Select Committee on Public Income, &c. 1828, 
 and late Secretary at AVar. 
 
 + Other appropriate Extracts from the above Publication, strongly recommendatory of the adoption 
 of an Incnme Tax, are inserted in pages 108 and 119 of this Work, as indicating the strong prevalence 
 
 of Opinion in favor of that particular mode of " Financial Reform." 
 
68 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Statement of the Number and Amount of the present Duties and 
 
 Taxes. 
 
 The Numbers of Articles or Heads of present Taxation as given in the 
 Public Accounts made up to 5th January 1832, in the different Revenue 
 Departments, are as follows : — 
 
 Customs (enumerated) . 165 
 
 Excise 19 
 
 Total, 
 
 Stamps.... 22 
 Taxes .... 14 
 225 
 
 Post 1 
 
 Other branches . . 4 
 
 A great variety of unenumerated Articles of Customs are included under 
 the head of " all other Merchandize," the total amount only of which is 
 distinguished in the Public Accounts, and is stated in the following Extract 
 from them. 
 
 The Articles or Heads on each of which the Net Receipt of Duty exceeds 
 £10,000, are as follows :— 
 
 CUSTOMS. 
 
 £ 
 
 Almonds 17,135 
 
 Apples not dried . . . , 10,620 
 
 Barilla and Alkali 16,999 
 
 Bark, Oak and Cork Tree 26,992 
 
 Bristles 26,415 
 
 Butter 121,256 
 
 Cheese 68,224 
 
 Cocoa 12,700 
 
 Coffee 559,432 
 
 Cork 16,284 
 
 Corn, Grain, &c. &c 541,158 
 
 Currants 328,131 
 
 Dye and Hardwoods 62,424 
 
 Eggs 20,372 
 
 Figs 21,492 
 
 Furs 28,468 
 
 Glass 15,817 
 
 Gum t . . . . 20,619 
 
 Hats of Chip, &c 26,523 
 
 Hemp 105,176 
 
 Hides 33,365 I 
 
 Indigo 31,686! 
 
 Iron 20,463 j 
 
 Leather Gloves , , 21,848 
 
 £ 
 
 Lemons and Oranges 63,831 
 
 Linens, Foreign 21,697 
 
 Liquorice . . , 21,941 
 
 Madder 18,582 
 
 Molasses 156,577 
 
 Nutmegs 18,846 
 
 Nuts 15,597 
 
 Oil 100,316 
 
 Pepper 93,372 
 
 Platting of Chip or Straw .... 13,316 
 
 Prunes 10,328 
 
 Rasins 168,384 
 
 Rice 30,325 
 
 Seeds 148,935 
 
 Silk 213,847 
 
 Skins , 18,548 
 
 Spelter 10,129 
 
 Spirits 3,041,655 
 
 Sugar 4,219,049 
 
 Tallow 137,866 
 
 Timber 1,189,379 
 
 Tobacco and Snuff 2,333,841 
 
 Turpentine 65,229 
 
 Wax (Bees) 10,261 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Customs continued — £ 
 
 Wines 1,356,208 
 
 Wool, Cotton 472,776 
 
 Woollen Manufactures 11,031 
 
 Coal and Culm exported ...... 52,928 
 
 Per Centage Duty on Exports. . 57,855 
 
 Coal and Culm Coastwise .... 64,380 
 
 Canal and Dock Duty 49,863 
 
 Duties Collected in Isle of Man 21,861 
 Remittances from the Planta- 
 tions, &c 13,277 
 
 Articles enumerated but less 
 than £10,000 each in Amount, 
 including Fines and Forfei- 
 tures 348,898 
 
 All other Merchandize 85,646 
 
 Total Net Receipt £16,810,173 
 
 Excise. 
 
 £ 
 
 Auctions 218,216 
 
 Bricks and Tiles 365,237 
 
 Candles* 470,659 
 
 Glass 516,375 
 
 Hops 148,594 
 
 Licences 793,890 
 
 Malt 4,136,857 
 
 Paper 656,943 
 
 Printed Goods 58,969 
 
 Soap 1,138,262 
 
 Spirits British 3,413,432 
 
 Starch 78,805 
 
 Tea 3,344,913 
 
 Vinegar 18,905 
 
 Articles enumerated but less 
 
 than £10,000 each in Amount 5,321 
 
 £15,355,378 
 Payments exceeding Receipts . . 190,855 
 
 £15,164,523 
 
 Law Costs recovered and Fines 7 cava* 
 
 and Forfeitures $ b4 > 740 
 
 Total Net Receipt.. . .£15,229,263 
 
 Stamps. 
 
 £ 
 
 Deeds 1,388,319 
 
 Probates of Wills 803 494 
 
 Bills of Exchange 466 095 
 
 Bankers' Notes 34,'205 
 
 Compositions for Duties in Bills 
 
 and Notes 75,263 
 
 Repealed from 5th January, 1832. 
 
 Stamps continued— £ 
 
 Receipts 200,426 
 
 Marine Insurances 220,394 
 
 Licences and Certificates 154,148 
 
 Newspapers 451,657 
 
 Almanacks 28,039 
 
 Medicines 34,638 
 
 Legacies 1,138,468 
 
 Fire Insurances 762,221 
 
 Gold and Silver Plate 74,288 
 
 Cards 14,400 
 
 Advertisements 156,898 
 
 Stage Coaches 422,480 
 
 Post Horses 231,864 
 
 Articles enumerated but less 
 
 than £10,000 each in Amount 6,998 
 
 Total Net Receipt £6,664,295 
 
 Taxes. 
 
 Land Tax 
 
 Assessed Taxes. 
 
 £ 
 1,161,313 
 
 £ 
 
 Windows 1,178,344 
 
 Inhabited House Rent 1,357,041 
 
 Servants (Domestic and Trade) 295,111 
 
 Carriages (Private and hired) . . 392,948 
 Horse for riding or drawing 
 
 taxed Carriages 356,356 
 
 Other Horses and Mules 61,485 
 
 Dogs 181,002 
 
 Horse Dealers 13,543 
 
 Hair Powder 14^378 
 
 Armorial Bearings 54^889 
 
 Game Duties 125,431 
 
 Per Centage on Compositions 25,909 
 
 Ditto on Arrears 1 420 
 
 Total Net Receipt £5,219,170 
 
 Post. 
 
 £ 
 
 Unpaid Letters 1,697,895 
 
 Twopenny Letters 110 432 
 
 West Indies and British North 
 
 America 50,181 
 
 Postage of Letters received by 
 
 Windowmen of the Foreign 
 
 ° ffice 60,161 
 
 Passage Money, and Freights 
 
 by the Packets 43 471 
 
 Miscellaneous Receipts 22*154 
 
 Total Net Receipt £1,989,294 
 

 70 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Other Branches. 
 
 £ 
 Duties of Four Shillings in the 
 
 Pound on Offices and Duty 
 
 on Personal Estates* 28,014 
 
 One Shilling Duty on Offices 
 
 and Pensionsf 7,446 
 
 Sixpenny Duty dittof 3 ,797 
 
 Total Net Receiptf £39,257 
 
 Hackney Coaches, and Hawkers 
 and Pedlars 
 
 70,£93 
 
 # These Duties are assessed and collected with 
 the Land Tax. 
 
 + These Duties were repealed from 25th March, 
 1832, so far as regards the Salaries, Pensions, &c. 
 paid out of the Public Revenue, which have there- 
 fore been subjected to proportionate Reduction. 
 
 Woods and Forests. 
 
 £ 
 
 Amount Collected by the Re- 
 ceivers of the Land Revenue 
 in England Wales and Ireland, 
 in Alderney and Isle of Man 219,374 
 
 Rents not included in Receivers' 
 
 Accounts 12,106 
 
 By Sale or Exchange of Crown 
 
 Lands, &c.&c 94,128 
 
 By Sale of Bark, Timber, &c. . . 48,162 
 
 £373,770 
 
 Small Branches of the King's? 
 Hereditary Revenue £ 
 
 £ 
 6.820 
 
 Surplus Fees of Regulated Of- ) £ 37 q^q 
 fices , ) 
 
 Abstract of Gross and Net Receipts and of the Net Produce of the Public 
 Revenue in the Year ended 5th January, 1832. 
 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Branches. 
 
 Gross Receipt. 
 
 Drawbacks, 
 Repayments, Dis- 
 counts, Bounties, and 
 Allowances. 
 
 Net Receipt. 
 
 
 £ 
 18,168,497 
 
 16,900,263 
 
 6,945,560 
 
 5,228,937 
 
 2,064,334 
 
 528,766 
 
 1,358,318 
 
 1,671,000 
 
 281,265 
 
 6,219 
 
 75,040 
 
 £ 
 16,810,173 
 
 15,229,263 
 
 6,664,295 
 
 5,222,718 
 
 1,989.294 
 
 528 766 
 
 
 
 Taxes • 
 
 Post 
 
 Other Branches 
 
 
 
 
 £49,836,351 
 
 £3,391,842 
 
 £46 404 509 
 
 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 71 
 
 Abstract continued — 
 Ireland. 
 
 Branches. 
 
 Gross Receipt. 
 
 Drawbacks, 
 Repayments, Dis- 
 counts, Bounties, and 
 Allowances. 
 
 Net Receipt . 
 
 Customs 
 
 Excise 
 
 Stamps 
 
 Post 
 
 Other Branches , 
 
 Ireland , 
 
 Great Britain . . . 
 
 United Kingdom. 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 £ 
 1,477,448 
 
 £ 
 20,548 
 
 £ 
 1,456,900 
 
 2,193,079 
 
 8,808 
 
 2,184,271 
 
 482,040 
 
 7,696 
 
 474,344 
 
 256,976 
 
 18,907 
 
 238,069 
 
 4,539 
 
 » 
 
 4,539 
 
 £4,414,082 
 
 55,959 
 
 4,358,123 
 
 £49,836,351 
 
 3,391,842 
 
 46,444,509 
 
 £54,250,433 
 
 £3,447,801 
 
 £50,802,632 
 
 Net Receipt. 
 
 £50,802,632 
 
 Charges of Manage- 
 ment. 
 
 £3,615,368 
 
 Net Produce. 
 
 £47.187.264 
 
 Statement of the Total Amount of the Principal and Annual Charge of the 
 Funded and Unfunded Debt of the United Kingdom, on the 5th January, 
 1832. 
 
 Total Amount of 
 FUNDED DEBT. Capital or 
 
 Principal Stock 
 unredeemed. 
 Great Britain (exclusive of £1,450,235 standing in the > /» 70 o «i« a-v 
 
 names of the Comissioners) 5 * 7 ^><>10,40/ 
 
 Ireland ; 32,927,428 
 
 Total Amount (of which £497,329,679 is at 3 per Cent.) £755,543,885 
 
72 APPENDIX. 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN. Annual Charges. 
 
 Long Annuities , £1,193,033 
 
 Life Annuities 777,108 
 
 Other Annuities 1,369,241 
 
 Interest of Accumulated Stock under Land Tax Redemption ) , ~ A - 
 
 Actsf ,...\ l °' 847 
 
 Charges of Management 273,296 
 
 Total of Annuities, &c 3,623,525 
 
 Interest on Unredeemed Capital 22,865,891 
 
 Total Amount of Charge £26,489,416 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Long Annuities £ 68 
 
 Life Annuities £ 7,038 
 
 Interest on Unredeemed Capital £1,161,774 
 
 Total Annual Charge £1,168,880 
 
 Total Annual Charge of United Kingdom £27,658,296 
 
 UNFUNDED DEBT. 
 
 Amount of Exchequer Bills outstanding on 5th January, 1832 . . £27,133,149 
 
 2ti 
 
 f This accumulated Stock arises from the Consideration paid for Redemption of 
 Land Tax under the Act of 53 Geo. 3, on Houses contracted for at 18 times the amount 
 of the last annual Assurance thereon, and from double Assessments made annually on 
 Lands, either, as the Contractors chose, for 18 years, or, until such double Assessments 
 vested in Stock, amount with the accruing- Dividends, to the usual Sum of Stock 
 necessary for Redemption in all other Cases, that is, until the amount of the accruing 
 Dividends shall exceed the amount of the Land Tax redeemed by one-tenth of it. 
 Many persons availed themselves of these proffered terms and mode of Redemption, 
 (which are adverted to in the Third Part of this Work,) but as the provision, giving 
 the option of them, was limited to a very short period, the Amoun t o f Land Tax con- 
 tracted for under it, did not amount to a very considerable Sum. 
 
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