THE WEALTH OF NATION'S.

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posal of every part of vvliat is due to them. A gentleman ofgreat fortune, who lived in the capital, would be in danger ofsuffering much by the neglect, and more by the fraud, of hisfactors and agents, if the rents of an estate in a distant pro-vince were to be paid to him in this manner. The loss ofthe sovereign, from the abuse and depredation of his tax-gatherers, would necessarily be much greater. The servantsof the most careless private person are, perhaps, more underthe eye of their master than those of the most careful prince;and a public revenue, which was paid in kind, would sufferso much from the mismanagement of the collectors, that avery small part of what was levied upon the people wouldever arrive at the treasury of the prince. Some part of thepublic revenue of China , however, is said to be paid in thismanner. The Mandarins and other tax-gatherers will, nodoubt, find their advantage in continuing the practice of apayment which is so much more liable to abuse than any pay-ment in money.

A tax upon the produce of land which is levied in money,may be levied either according to a valuation which varieswith all the variations of the market price; or according toa fixed valuation, a bushel of wheat, for example, being alwaysvalued at one and the same money price, whatever may bethe state of the market. The produce of a tax levied in theformer way, will vary only according to the variations in thereal produce of the land, according to the improvement orneglect of cultivation. The produce of a tax levied in thelatter way, will vary not only according to the variations inthe produce of the land, but according both to those in thevalue ol the precious metals, and those in the quantity ofthose metals which is at different times contained in coin ofthe same denomination. The produce of the former willalways bear the same proportion to the value of the real pro-duce of the land. The produce of the latter may, at differenttimes, bear very different proportions to that value.

When, instead either of a certain portion of the produce ofland, or of the price of a certain portion, a certain sum ofmoney is to be paid in full compensation for all tax or tithe ■the tax becomes, in this case, exactly of the same nature withthe land-tax of England. It neither rises nor falls with therent of the land. It neither encourages nor discourages im-provement. The tithe in the greater part of those parishes'which pay what is called a modus in lieu of all other tithe,