7D8

THE NATUKE AND CAUSES OF

from it by the favour of the assessors; and this exemptionsometimes occasions some little variation in the rate of par-ticular houses, though that of the district is always the same.Improvements of rent, by new buildings, repairs, &c. go tothe discharge of the district, which occasions still furthervariations in the rate of particular houses.

In the province of Holland* every house is taxed at twoand a half per cent, of its value, without any regard either tothe rent which it actually pays, or to the circumstance of itsbeing tenanted or untenanted. There seems to be a hardshipin obliging the proprietor to pay a tax for an untenantedhouse, from which he can derive no revenue, especially sovery heavy a tax. In Holland, where the market rate of in-terest does not exceed three per cent, two and a half percent, upon the whole value of the house must, in most cases,amount to more than a third of the building-rent, perhaps ofthe whole rent. The valuation, indeed, according to whichthe houses are rated, though very unequal, is said to be al-ways below the real value. When a house is rebuilt, im-proved, or enlarged, there is a new valuation, and the tax israted accordingly.

The contrivers of the several taxes, which in England have,at different times, been imposed upon houses, seem to haveimagined that there was some great difficulty in ascertaining,with tolerable exactness, what was the real rent of every house.They have regulated their taxes, therefore, according to somemore obvious circumstance, such as they had probably ima-gined would, in most cases, bear some proportion to the rent.

The first tax of this kind was hearth-money; or a tax oftwo shillings upon every hearth. In order to ascertain howmany hearths were in the house, it was necessary that thetax-gatherer should enter every room in it. This odiousvisit rendered the tax odious. Soon after the revolution,therefore, it was abolished as a badge of slavery.

The next tax of this kind was, a tax of two shillings uponevery dwelling house inhabited. A house with ten windowsto pay four shillings more. A house with twenty windowsand upwards to pay eight shillings. This tax was after-ward so altered, that houses with twenty windows, and withless than thirty, were ordered to pay ten shillings, and thosewith thirty windows and upwards to pay twenty shillings.The number of windows can, in most cases, be counted from

* Memoiiei conctinaut l<i» Dioiu, itc. p. 3)3.