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delicti than the greater part of them are at present. Thevingtieme, I have already observed, is a tax very nearly ofthe same kind with, what is called the land-tax of England.The burden of the taille, it is acknowledged, falls finally uponthe proprietors of land; and as the greater part of the capi-tation is assessed upon those who are subject to the taille atso much a pound of that other tax, the final payment of thegreater part of it must likewise fall upoil the same order ofpeople. Though the number of the vingtiemes, therefore, wasincreased so as to produce an additional revenue equal to theamount of both those taxes, the superior ranks of people mightnot be more burdened than they are at present. Many indi-viduals no doubt would, on account of the great inequalitieswith which the taille is commonly assessed upon the estatesand tenants of different individuals. The interest and oppo-sition of such favoured subjects are the obstacles most likelyto prevent this or any other reformation of the same kind.Secondly, by rendering the gabelle, the aides, the traites, thetaxes upon tobacco, all the different customs and excises, uni-form in all the different parts of the kingdom, those taxesmight be levied at much less expense, and the interior com-merce of the kingdom might be rendered as free as that ofEngland. Thirdly, and lastly, by subjecting all those taxesto an administration under the immediate inspection and di-rection of government, the exorbitant profits of the farmers-general might be added to the revenue of the state. The op-position arising from tlm private interest of individuals islikely to be as effectual for preventing the two last as the first-mentioned scheme of reformation.

The French system of taxation seems, in every respect, in-ferior to the British . In Great Britain ten millions sterlingare annually levied upon less than eight millions of people,without its being possible to say that any particular order isoppressed. From the collections of the Abbe Expilly, andthe observations of the author of the Essay upon the legisla-tion and commerce of corn, it appears probable that France ,including the provinces of Lorraine and Bar, contains abouttwenty-three or twenty-four millions of people; three timesthe number perhaps contained in Great Britain. The soil andclimate of France arc better than those of Great Britain. Thecountry has been much longer in a state of improvement andcultivation, and is, upon that account, better stocked with allthose things which it requires a long time to raise up and

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