The National Register.
London, England, 1816-02-26 00:00:00

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No. 4!2.:.—V0L. VIII.

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

Tin. INCOME TAN a perpetual BURTIIEN ; a Tax ..f
WAR, and not of PLACE. Its EXHAUSTING QUALi Y
01..MONSTRATED.

THE 'seamy-Tax has been considered in our two
last numbers, in several points of view, which, we be-
lieve, have no where else been sufficiently noticed ; and,
having been present at the Westminster Meeting on
Friday, we were glad to kind that our opinion has circu-
lated widely. One of our arguments was publicly adopted
by SIR FRANCIS BURDETT. It was, we confess, but ill
Suited to the audience which he addressed, and not well
saesorteel with that declamatory stile of party vehemence
which he is sure_to mix up with all his public speeches.
ft was that part in vinieli we have ridiculed the absurdity,
so happily adopted by his friend in the Morning Chronicle,
o'4, 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 he an anxiety for
defending the penuriousness of wealth, which imposes
privations upon itself for the benent of posterity.
Having discussed calmly the principles of the Property-
Tax, considered as an abeeement from the immediate
imenne 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-
leete:istent, not only with freedom, happiness, and the inn-
; rals of Society, but also with that inereetse of wealth in a
re.tonercial co..wry, which is " the tbuntain from which
tie current of all fature taxations flews, or else dries up:"
we proceed to consider it as connected with the eircula-
tien of money, and rate of prices ; by which we shall see,
that those who levy a tax of one-tenth, or any other gi-
ven proportion, upon income, seize at one grasp, and ±hr
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 call no longer increase the
amount of taxes, but by augmenting the rate or propor-
tion of the tax.
I fe wiaiTe rtoduce of the land, the value of the Stock,
the int'on'e of the pceple, are rated at different periods
in different sums °fluency; and this in a state of advanc-
ingciyitizatien, while the gold-mines of the world shall
be productive, will be increasing partly in real, and
tartly in nominal value. if, at one time, the rent of
Lead is one pound per acre on the average, and at another
it shall tx raised to two, it may either happen because
there is an actual increase in the value of the land, and it
prialtices more commodities, and minims more money to
circulate the increased quantity of eommodities; ur else,
beivune the value of money is depreciated by a mere in-
crease of the quantity of the money, without an increase
in prnrlnce. lf, also, the population of a country is
;itemised, whiell cannot well happen without an ince-case
t' its wealth, and, we may almost with eertainty say, rot
-vithout a great increase in the quantity of the mere
means of subsistence, which are derived entirely from agri-
eulture, the wealth of the country, and the power of sus-
teining taxation, will, by this means, be in7.l-_acrd;
trop the value of property, and the number cf the peo-
. e4e, we may fairlY estimate at all times the arterd pressure
of taxes upon tile tuition. Thus, if tle• -Thole value of
the property of al. le he at one t.:t.e 16 millions rte.-
:jog, and toe tax 1.. eoe,tx)ol. with a population of live
anion persens, it is Elisions, that if the property were
n•rett.eel to 32 millions, argil the population raise--. to ten
militant, taxes to the amount of a million might fie levied

the
qupp that in the Wen
it. minis;L. ••L. ntity.. t i • tf..v.. t
101 l v.-as broniitt into e . .ir the 13111 land, by
b?fter farming, was wit& Ink x ttcrester sto•!1: of
,ns, nna, eansoquently, to pro.hwe c•op!er sar,v)rt
fat nn inezeu.eing pixilation. the qu;:nti;-.y of money,
.whether of paper or rich in circulAtion thoald also
inermstrl in the like proportion, the burthcn of tam..
vef.y.li be greatly reduced. For instance, tie should
the 71 havo to double the first nide of ifi,oan,nont. 1w
eurroaing that two acres Were cultivated instead of.
orr: snlif the price of each buihe/ of corn, or mei+
11:ticle of Property, nerc Roubled by the ineretuge of
muicy in circulation, so ss to raise the prices to double
the :,-11:11;at of the former prrio,',. then we enntltl have
the whol • value quadrupled. ard the amount of ineorne
would be fi4,006,000/. populatiln would to
donblell only; for the increak. of price in the eurn wooll
bcS no addition to its power of sustniniN7 life ; ant the
population being ten millions, a gre.ucr prorrtion than