young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

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Hiseafe of paying the tax is great alfo, by the time of demanding it, which is juft atthe moment when he may be thought difpofed to confume, becaufe he can afford it,which is certainly the cafe with the great mafs of mankind. Taxes on property, andefpecially on land, are much inferior in this refpeft. So far as they are advanced bythe tenant, and drawn back when he reckons with the landlord, they are eafy to thelatter: but they are exadlly, in the fame proportion, burthenfome to the tenant, whohas to advance, out of his own pocket, another man’s tax, which is palpably unjuft.We do not feel this much in England, becaufe the tenantry are commonly rich enoughnot to regard it; but in other countries, V'here they are poor, it is a great oppreffion.At the time alfo of demanding the tax from the landlord, who farms his own eftate, hiseafe is never confulted ; he has to pay the tax, not becaufe he has fold his produce, forhe muff pay, though his land fhould not produce a fingle farthing; not becaufe he buys,and thereby fhews that he can afford it, but merely becaufe he poffeffes, which by nomeans proves an ability to pay at all: nay, he pays without poffeffing more than thename, while another receives the profit; all which fhews, that land-taxes are grofsly de-ficient in this effential requiiite. It is fair, however, to admit, that a land-tax, paid inkind, like tythes gathered, are eafy of payment; enormous as other objections are tothem, in this refpeft they have merit. But no flate, in modern ages, can take taxes inkind ; and if let, and confequently made an engine of private and perfonal pique or re-fentment, they become one of the moll horrible and deteftable oppreflions, fit to beendured byilaves only. Perfonal taxes are as bad ; a man’s having a head, or beingborn to a title, is no proof that he is able to pay a tax, which is demanded of him, at atime that marks neither receipt nor payment.

3. Encouragement of hidujiry .—Taxes may be laid in fuch a manner as to difcourageand opprefs induftry, or, on the contrary, to be in this refpeCt harmlefs; and under thishead, is to be included the inveftment of capital. If any branch of national induftry beoverloaded with duties, the profits arifing from it will be fo much leffened, that men willnot inveft their capitals in employments thus injurioufly treated. The firft objeCb to beconfidered is, what branch of human exertions and induftry is nationally moft beneficial?The writers and ftateiinen * of all nations (how much foever they blunder prattically)are theoretically agreed upon this point. There is no queftion, that agriculture is, of allother employments, the moft important; and a country will be profperous, in propor-tion to the capitals inverted in that purfuit. This decides the merit of land-taxes;in the degree they take place, the profit of poffeffing land is diminifhed, and confequentlycapitals are baniflied. If a land-tax be equally affeffed, a man’s improvements are taxed,which he will calculate before he lays out his money, and never invert; it in a manner thatlays him direflly open to the operation of fuch duties. Thus the lands of fuch a coun-try will be in the hands of men who have no other capital; and experience uniformlytells us, how important it is to the welfare of agriculture, to have land in rich hands.Taxes upon confumption, may be made utterly deftruftive of any branch of induftry byinjudicious methods of laying them ; or by carrying them to too great a height; but inthis cafe, the duty fails fo much in its produce, that the government fuffers as much asthe employment. The tax upon leather, in France , was ruinous; the fame tax in Eng-land is levied without difficulty. The inconvenience of excifes chiefly flows from the ne-ceffity of larger capitals being in the hands of manufacturers, to enable them, not topay, but to advance the tax, which they draw back in the price of the commodity ; thereal payment being thus thrown, as it always ought to be, on the confumer. This cir-* Except Colbert, Monf. Necker, and Mr. Pitt.

vol. iv. 3 g cumftance