Financial Reform. 71 



The following is the result of the alterations proposed : 

 Sale of the Crown lands, Corporation, and other national 



property, produces 232,000,000/. j the annual interest 



of which, at three and one-half per cent., is . . 7,500,000 



Naval expenses saved by chartering vessels, and abolition 



of marines, &c. &c. . , . 5,800,000 



Army reduced to 10,000 infantry, saving thereby 

 Customs and Excise, saving in the collection of 

 Stamps, do. do. 



Pension List, Patent Offices, and Civil List 

 Board of Trade abolished, Ordnance, Victualling Offices 

 and Dock- Yards reduced 



6,000,000 

 3,000,000 

 1,000,000 

 2,000,000 



1,500,000 

 26,800,000 



Entire present expenditure . . 48,500,000 



Deduct therefrom .... 26,800,000 



Clear future Revenue . . . 21,700,000 



This revenue of 21,700,OOOZ., we propose to raise by the stamps, post- 

 office, and a property-tax; the whole system of customs, excise, assessed 

 taxes, and miscellaneous revenues being entirely abolished : 

 Stamps, the average amount of, with reduction in manage- 

 ment ... . . . . 7,500,000 



Post-office, average produce of . . 1 ,500,000 



Balance of revenue required to be raised by a property-tax 12,700,000 



21,700,000 



A tax upon real property is the most equal, just, and cheap method 

 of providing the revenue of the State, and, in facility of collection, Is 

 much superior to our present intricate, inquisitorial, and expensive 

 establishments. We propose, then, to levy a tax upon real property, to 

 the amount of 12, 700,000 L, and to graduate the amount of payment, by 

 all ranks of proprietors, upon clear principles of natural justice. The 

 amount of revenue now proposed to be raised by a property-tax is for the 

 payment of the interest of the national debt : and we therefore inquire, by 

 and for whom was this debt contracted? The Aristocracy. Our late 

 wars have been defensive wars, undertaken to defend the mansions, furni- 

 ture, and plate of the lords and gentry ; to defend Blenheim, Stow, and 

 Lowther Castle ; and not to defend the famished million. In a country 

 possessed of aristocratic institutions, the burthens of the State ought to 

 be borne by the upper ranks ; for property accumulates and has an attrac- 

 tion towards title. The value of an English peerage, from the facility 

 of rich intermarriages alone, may be estimated at the rate of two hundred 

 thousand pounds j and a Dukedom is a magnet of power to draw millions 

 to itself. It has been usual in all countries to levy taxation by the grada- 

 tions of rank and privilege : thus, in Prussia, the lands of the church were 

 rated at 45 per cent., whilst the lands of lay proprietors were rated at 

 15 per cent. 5 lands of the Knights of Malta and the Teutonic Order, at 

 20 percent.; those by any noble tenure, at 38 per cent., and those by 



