The National Register. — London, England, 1816-02-25 00:00:00

Our litinn, Coniftitution anb nairti. No. 425.—V0L. VIII. - SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1816. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. merely one million of taxes would be borne. It would allow two or more millions to be supported by the country, which originally could only bear 500,000 L per annum. Thr INcome. TAx a perpetual BURTIIEN ; a Tax of W An, and not of PEAcE. Its EXIIAUSTINO QUALITY DEMONSTRATED. We have put here an - imaginary case ; but it Will be very easy to make it referable to England in direct terms ; and we know not that we can do better than to state from public documents the progress of taxation uml its burthen in England. H E Iscome.-I'.x ha►s been considered in our two last inunbers, in several points of view, which, we be lieve, have no where else been sufficiently noticed ; and, having been present at the Westminster Meet* on • Friday, we were glad to find that our opiniiiit has circu lated widely. One of our arguments was publicly adopted by SIR Fn %NM.; BURDETT. It was, we eunfiss, but ill saited to the audience which he addressed, and not well assorted with that declamatory stile of party vehemence which he is sure to mix up with all his public speeches. It was that part in which we have ridiculed the absurdity, a) happily adopted by his friend in the Morning Chronick, of a tax to touch the pockets of the miser. In this it was not to be expected that his audience could feel any sympathy, wherever else there might be an anxiety Jim dclending the penuriousness of wealth, which imposes privations upon itself fin. the benefit of posterity. Having discussed eahnly the principles of the Property- Tax, considered us an abatement from the immediate income of any class of society, and shewn that it is pal pably unjust, and that it must lead either to gross par tiality, or a system of spies or inquisitions, absolutely in consistent, not only with freedom, happiness, and the mo rals of Society, but also with that increase of wealth in a commercial country, which is " the fountain from which the current of all future taxations flows, or else dries up we proceed to consider it as connected with the circula tion of money, and rate of prices ; bY which we shall see, that those who ievy a tax of one-tenth, or any other gi ven proportion, upon income, seize at one grasp, and for ever, on just so much, not only of the actual, but of the future, wealth of the country ; and that having once pos sessed themselves of it, they can no longer increase the amount of taxes, but by augmenting the rate or propor tion of the tax. The whole produce of the land, the value of the Stock, the income of the 'wide, are rated at different periods in diffi:rent sums of money ; tun' this iu a state of :ON:me '' in) , civilization, while the gold-mines of the world shall be productive, will be increasing partly in real, and partly in nominal value. If; at one time, the rent of land is one pound per acre on the average, and at another it shall he raised to two, it may either happen because In the year. 1790 Sir Francis Blake petitioned the House of Commons to be relieved from taxes, upon charging his landed estates with :36,000/. or such other sum as might be his proportion of the national debt, and to pay interest at 4 per cent. upon it. Had all the other proprietors of land joined in this petition they would have been wise, and they would be right in doing it at some future day. But for one to do it is somewhat absurd. He stated the landed revenue to be in the year 1600 equal to 6,000,000/. in 1688 equal to 14,000,000!., and in 1796 he calculated it at about 50,000,0001. although the Minister had estimated it ut 25,000,000 f. which is a much nearer calculation, as we believe the territorial revenue is now stated by the In come Tax returns at :i8,000,0001. though we should have thought it much higher. Now, supposing the debt to have remained fixed during that time, the bur then would have been greatly diminished; and knowing the population, and the proportionate rate of prices, poli tical economists have been enabled to calculate the exact portions of the burthen upon the people and the increase of the population. Thus we take an abstract from a work of mach learning on this important subject*:— row.— " Di% iile SUNDAY from the AVeek."—SHARESPEARc• " To determine the effect-of the decrement of the value of money and the increase of population on the burthen of taxes, at all times, the value of money is first to be taken as fixed, to gether with the quantity of commodities consumed by the in dividual on an average in anv country. This is the yearly ex pense of the people per head: which, multiplied by the number of people, gives the total expense. Leta tax of two shillings in the pound be laid on that gross sum. Suppose the popula tion fig c millions, that it is afterwards increased to seven mil linos and a half, the consumption of each individual, and the total stun collected remaining the same; the charge on each in dividual, which was before one-tenth of his income, will he reduced la the proportion of the to seven and a half, ur ten to fillet n, the measure becoming one-fifteenth, or Is. ail. in the pound only. It' the population had become ten millions, the charge and borthen would each have been reduced to half its former amount, or to one.ta entieth, that is, to a shilling in the pound.'• This is upon the supposition of the burthen being fixed ; but the amount of taxes could nut remain always fixed ; for taxes arc either levied by a fixed rate on com modities, as 101. per pipe on wine ; or at a per cent age or pound rent upon land or commodities according to their value ; and this will make a considerable ditkr ence in our future consideration of the effect of a tax. If it is calculated at 101. a pipe on wine tin instance, the tax is increased only by the greater consumption of wine, and it is greatly diminished by the increase of the price of wine. For instance, if a pipe cost tiol. and pay 101. duty, there is one-sixth of the value ; but if it in price to 1201. it is only one-twelfth; and here we see the greater advantage of raising taxes by a fixed rate, instead of ara according to the value of land or commodities. In the one case, the tax is every day growing lighter ; in the other, it is every day increasing. By taxing com modities in tale, as sat, leather, iron, lead, hemp, hops, &c. at so much per pound weight, the price inunediately rises ; and by degrees, all other prices rising, and the value money t'allE:g, the weight of taxes becomes greatly diminished. But give an ad ra!oreui duty, and there is no escapp from the burthen, except by a sudden thll in th: price, which also sinks i the total amount of the tax, and oecasions st new,one to be laid on. • We have now given in detail, and in arithmetical cal culations, upon principles which cannot err, the true source of the means by which we have been enabled to support a constant increase of hurthens, till of late, when prices began to tall ; and we have a clue not only to the ' increasing burthen of all taxes by a pound rate, such as the income-tax, but we may see that it anticipates all the future galas of the people, and throws them into the hands of the nnent irrevocably. Experience has shewn, that the income-tax, by increase of prices, rises every year, and thus renders the people incapable of making any new exertion in the time of danger. We may conclude, therethre, that it is very well adapted to a state of despotism and ntilitary government, where a t and continually increasing standing army is to he kept; but not to a free state, which hopes to have some re laxation in peace. Ima.word, it is a grievance from which • !See Ekmecnei q ( Odeirc c p. 413. there is an actual increase in the value of the land, and it produces more commodities, and requires more money to kir:ld:de the increased quantity of commodities; or else, because the value of money is depreciated by a mere in crease of the quantity of the money, without an increase in produce. If; also, the population of a country is increased, which cannot well happen without an increase its wealth, and, we may almost with certainty say, not without a great increase in the quantity of the lucre means of subsistence, which arc derived entirely from agri culture, the wealth of the country, and the power of sus taining taxation, will, by this means, be increased ; and from the value of property, and the number of the peo ple, we may fhirly estimate at all times the actual pressure taxes upon the nation. Thus, if the whole value of the property of a people be at one time Iti millions ster- H3e. and the tax be 500,0001. with a population of five min ion peons, it is obvious, that if the property were increased to :h millions, and the population raised . to ten minims, taxes to the amount of a million might be levied with the same facility. Supposing that in the mean time, while property was iacreusing in quantity, that is, supposing that as new head was brought into cultivation; or the old land, by better farming, was made to produce a greater stock of provisions, and, consequently, to produce ampler support fiat an in( reusing population, the quantity of money, whether of paper or gold, in circulation should also be increased in the like proportion, the hurthen of taxes would be greatly reduced. For in Lance, we should then have to double the first value of I 6,000,000/. by supposing that two acres were cultivated instead of one; and if the price of each bushel of corn, or each article of property, were doubled by the increase of money in circulation, so as to raise the prices to double the amount of the former period, then we should have the whole value quadrupled, and the amount of income would be 64,000,0001. The population would be doubled only; for the increase of price in the corn would be no addition to its power of sustaining bib ; and the population being ten millions, a greater proportion than !wry, by John Prince IS:nil/4 ' • . . • • . • . . , , ... . . . f• . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . i .: ..: . .. PRICE 9 ',d• time gives no relief, it sticks to the people's lxick, like the shirt of Nessus that destroyed Hercules, and as a matte:- of state policy, it grasps all present and future wealth, and tempts the crown to a constant increase of expenditure. To use homely language, it eats the calf in the cow's belly, and it kills the goose with the golden egg. It is peculiar ly a tax of extravagance, a tax adapted only to a war in which the existence of a .people is at stake. Wisely, therefore, :was it promised, that as it was imposed to mi.% the revolution in France, it should end with it; and we do hope, that having succeeded in happily placing the Bourbons on the throne, we may not be burthenod with it, for the mere purpose of keeping them on it in per.. petuity. We have supported it during war upon principle; and with the same view, and upon the same principles, we hope every loyal man, who wishes to be again prepared for war when it may be necessary, will now oppose it. 'they who wish to preserve the crown, will du the best r,ervice by not exhausting the people. unDav atuuonnentc IN furtherance of the intention lately announced to our Readers, we propose, in the future numbers of Tun NATIONAL REGISTER, to give, under the above Title, some short composition partaking of a Religious Charac ter, and possessing some conformity with the style of reading and thinking recommended for the CHRISTIAN. SABBATH. Without censuring the publication of a Sun-. day Newspaper, which we sanction by our practice; we may be permitted to say, that a short Essay, dedicated to the subject of RELIGION, would be, in our opinion, an appropriate addition to its contents; would act as a kind of qualifying and redeeming ingredient, and,. without . destroying the general interest of its columns, would render it more consonant to the wishes of the well-dis posed ; and, together with care in the selection of intel ligence, would constitute a passport into serious and re ligious flunilies. The young and the busy might be induced to pentse a short portion of a Newspaper, con taining sacred instruction, or inculcating useful advios, while their volatiVsy or avocations might render rheas averse to look into a religious quarto, and who could not begin a sermon without lasing reminded of the forma,. lities of Church service. In acting upon this impression, we shall avoid being obtrusive in our manner,. or tedious in our details. No puritanical solemnity will be memo mended, no asperity of remark indulged : we shall abstain from all discussions concerning creeds or confessions ; we shall neither censure nor support the tenets of airy sect. Brevity will be most scrupulously observed, and great variety of subject will be combined with strict tinily of design, and general tendency. Sometimes we shall ewer . upon a short crititism of a new religious tract, or volume of sermons, extracting from them valuable passages sometimes we shall state, ia a cursory and popular man ner, the principal evidences of our religion; at other times, we shall give a short account of the different sects into which religious opinions or ceremonies have divided the world; and, at others again, lay before tl.a reader a train of moral reflections, a biographical notice. of a religious cintracter, a religious poem, or any other composition whose tendency accords with what we hire in view. In these Essays there will Le no stateliness :it sob:amity of manner aimed at, no attempt at any thing recondite, profit:n(l, or' systematic. We mole no pre tensions to instruct those who either are already in-- structed, or believe themselves so, in religious matters;. we despsir of gaining the. attention of the man of busi ness, who is employed in examining the hat week's Casette, to Lind Ids debtor on the list et bankrupts; an& we Lou no claim to the car of the politician, who is sir much engaged with settling the aflitirs of Europe, that he has no time to think of higher' interests ; but to the young, the inexperenced, sad the doeile, we may con• vey usetid information, or impart momenta-as advise. We shall, by the means above-mentioned, remind theft that SUM') %V is still included in the week; that it brings. along within its periodical returns appropriate duties ; and that the communication of secular intelligence should not prevent the indulgence of those serious ret'ssations which the remission of secular employment, and the regu lar services of the clay, suggest. We shall supply some thing which the younger branches of a fami;y.may, rend to those more advanced, for the mutual benefit of both, confirmable to the Prayer-book or the Bible, a portion of which may have come under their review, and camps t ilths with the public worship to which the Church invites them. It is superfluous to say, that, to be of any use, ~:: . -s 1 7 ;, tlir urgl the the •rly wed itte Ts. Ih , yr :n lie la lJ tie -