The Sun.
London, England, 1832-11-22 00:00:00

Holland." It would be absurd to reason against
trash of which this is almost the best specimen.

Times.

A paper, which is no doubt intended by those
concerned in the circulation of it to attract great

notice, has been recently sent to us. The object
is to feel the public pulse as to the measure of
substituting a property-tax for some others
which now press with much alleged severity upon
the country. The writer seems to be rather gra-
tuitous in his assumptions of what a property-
tax would do for us, or to argue inconsiderately
against the principle of our present taxes, from
the injudicious manner in which that principle
has in some cases been resorted to. It is un-

questionably true, for the most part, that the
scale of taxation now in force bears with more

weight upon the minor transactions of life, and
consequently upon the humbler classes of society,
than on those better fitted to endure such ag-
gravated pressure. The stamp duties, it is very
justly stated in this production, amount upon a
bond of 101/. to 21., or 40s. per cent.; whereas
on one of 10,001/.they do not exceed 151., or 3s.
per cent. A receipt stamp for 5/. is 3d., for
2,000/. it is 10s., being ss. per cent. on the first
sum, and only 6d. per cent. upon the second. It
were needless to multiply examples of the same
vice in the method of graduating our taxes, yet
one or two more may bring the matter home to
the feelings of families in the middle and hum-
bler ranks of life, and thereby help to raise a more
combined and effectual opposition to the conti-
nuance of such injustice. The probate duty is, in
its actual form, a monstrous and revolting wrong.
The taking out probate upon the decease of a
poor testator, who leaves behind him no more
than 1,0001., exacts from his representatives a
charge of 301., or 60s. per cent. upon the whole
capital, which sum must be paid immediately,
and before any effectual steps can be taken to
realize the assets out of which alone it might
with certainty be forthcoming ; whereas, on
10,0001. the probate duty does not exceed 1101.
or 225. per cent., while a landed estate worth
1,000,000/. sterling pays literally nothing. The
assessed taxes exhibit the same partiality in fa-
vour of the very opulent classes, though not in
an equal degree. But we do not coincide with
the authors of the paper before us, in main-
taining that the indirect taxes, viz., those on
consumption, operate iniquitously against the la-
bouring classes—that is to say, there appears to us
less trace of a similar preference of the affluent
to the poor than in the stamps and assessed
taxes. However, it is obvious that the objec-
tions above enumerated do not go to to the na-
ture of the taxes in question so much as to
their unjust apportionment, the latter fault be-
ing scarcely avoidable under a Government
composed of the rich, or their delegates, and a
Parliament which never did represent the body
of the nation. The natural remedy for vices
affecting the distribution of an impost would
seem, in common sense, to .be a more equitable
distribution. But this step of reasoning has
been jumped over in the present project, and,
without so much as an attempt to impugn the
principle of the existing burdens, whether direct
or indirect, we are assured that " the antidote

to this glaring injustice (to wit, an undue
pressure upon the poor) is the substitution of
an equal property-tax, sufficient for the exi-
gencies of the State, in lieu of all existing
taxes." Now we for the present say nothing
—nothing certainly in condemnation—of a tax
on ascertained property, if fairly and judi-
ciously imposed, in contradistinction, however,
to a tax on precarious income and on floating
or indeterminate property, or, when proved to
be absolutely necessary, in substitution of other,
if found to be oppressive or pernicious, im-
posts. But to show our readers what species
of tax it is which, under the name of "pro-
perty " tax, our fiscal projector recommends to
them, we let the pamphlet (for it is a pamphlet)
speak for itself:—
" This tax to be a certain rate per cent, upon all pro-
perty, landed, funded, or capital employed in trade, from
the highest to the lowest ; and in such cases where in-
comes are derived from other sources than those above-
mentioned, as professional men, clerks, &c., a certain rate
per cent. upon their incomes. The minimum at which
taxation should commence to be about 751. per annum ;
for it may be presumed that a man earning less than that
cannot pay 101. a year rent for his house, with levies; and
it is fair that the same rule which excludes him from any
influence in the representation of the country should also
excuse him from any participation in its taxes.
" The consequences resulting from an equal property
tax, all other taxes being repealed, would be immense re-
lief to the manufacturing, commercial, and agricultural
productive classes. The taxes from all articles of con-
sumption being removed, the poor would be enabled to
live much better than at present, upon wages as low, or
even lower than they now obtain. The free importation
of foreign productions would, by degrees, induce foreign
nations to take more of our manufactures in exchange,
particularly if produced at lower prices; thus the de-
mand for labour would be increased, and the poor-rates,
consequently, reduced ; an improvement in the manufac-
turing districts would speedily operate most favourably
upon the agricultural interest ; and though foreign corn
would he brought into our markets to a great extent, the
farmer would make up the loss in the price of his corn by
producing a greater quantity of other commodities, for
which he would meet a ready and profitable sale; for our
hitherto impoverished mechanics would, under an im-
proved state of trade, be enabled to buy more beef, mut-
ton, bacon, &c. ; but it is, perhaps, doubtful whether less
corn would he required to be grown, much more being
consumed by the increase of all descriptions of live stock,
besides the increase in the consumption of malt, when
chat duty shall be repealed. It may, therefore, be fairly
inferred that land and rents will not be materially affected;
for the improvement experienced by the farmer in the
great demand for live stock would be counterbalanced by
the reduction in the price of corn ; while, at the same
time, the additional burdens imposed upon the landed
proprietor would prevent his reducing his rents."
It may be as well to inform our projector, in
limine, Ist, that a tax on capital employed in
trade—being neither more nor less than a tax
on trade itself, and on the least tangible or sub-
stantial of all kinds of property, being moreover
one which never can be apportioned or adjusted
without an inquisition into private dealings,
altogether insupportable in a commercial coun-
try, will never again be tolerated here. The
same may be said of commercial profits and of
professional emoluments. The attempt to levy
them could only be successful by means of a
most cruel inquisition, and the liberal revenue
obtained through individual industry in one year
might be followed, through sickness or misfor-
tune, by impaired comforts or absolute poverty
the next. The tremendous outcry against the
former income tax, because of its grinding pres-
sure upon the commercial and professional com-
munity, was the real occasion of its overthrow;
and we repeat our conviction that no Finance
Minister will dare to propose another. It
such a ponderous engine as a property tax
shall ever again be wielded against the Bri-
tish nation, it must be confined to property
(whether permanent or terminable) of a fixed
and definite nature. Land, or houses on lease,
money on mortgage, on bond, or other per-
sonal security (instruments negotiable for the
ends of commerce excepted), money in the
public funds, life interests issuing out of land or
money,—these are all perhaps fit subjects of a
property tux, ' if, after every becoming effort
ie