COMMUTATION OF TAXES. 



and enjoy their pleasures with much smaller returns than those which 

 they at present require. 



The taxes which yield the largest returns are those on colonial articles, 

 tea, sugar, and tobacco ; those of our home taxation are the excise on 

 malt, and the assessments on houses and windows. A moment's reflec- 

 tion will assure us, that by far the larger proportion of these are levied 

 from the pockets of the labouring and middle classes ; and in regard 

 to the latter tax, we fear too much partiality has been shown to persons 

 who ought to contribute the most freely towards its amount. But 

 what are the arguments of the Whigs and Tories on this subject ? They 

 admit, that the middle classes bear a larger proportion of the public 

 burthens they are fully sensible, and do not venture to deny that a 

 hosier's shop in Regent-street pays as much in house taxes as the 

 noble possessor of a Baronial Hall is called upon to contribute for his 

 dwelling. They are also aware that the greatest consumption of 

 colonial produce is by the working classes, and that consequently the 

 income arising from those taxes must be derived from that class of 

 persons who are the greatest consumers ; but then they state that the 

 wealth of the country is not in the hands of the aristocracy, but in the 

 numerous small properties of which the people are possessed. By 

 this argument, therefore, we take them ; and upon the admission of 

 the fact on our part is the gist of the question that we argue, because 

 the Whigs and Tories, if by taking the position that the middle classes 

 are taxed in the most heavy proportion, because they are bonajide the 

 most wealthy class, then we have the acknowledgment that wealth 

 ought to be the primary object on which taxation should bear; and 

 having so far settled this point, we shall endeavour to shew that, 

 although the aristocracy may not be the body with whom the chief 

 wealth of England is concentrated, yet it is in their hands that the 

 large tracts of country are invested. It is they who enjoy the various 

 privileges appertaining to extensive possessions ; and if by their own 

 arrangements, or those of their ancestors, the absolute production of 

 those possessions have been bartered and conveyed to other hands, 

 yet the public cannot recognise any arrangements which have been 

 transacted as private bargains between man and man, and which are 

 no more entitled to public consideration than is the question whether 

 the profits of a particular trade are enjoyed by a single tradesman, or 

 distributed between himself and a dozen partners, to whom he has 

 disposed of their various shares. A house of business is an estate, and 

 is rated at a certain value. If the proprietor of such a property were 

 to attempt to shew, that because his partners claimed a portion of the 

 profits which were returned from that house, that its value must be 

 thereby depreciated because it did not produce to him the whole profit 

 which was made, such an argument would make but a shallow case 

 to go before the commissioners of taxes ; yet it bears the same analogy 

 as the landowners claiming exemption from taxation, because they or 

 their forefathers have mortgaged, or in other words disposed for 

 bond Jide cash received a large proportion of the profits of their land. 

 They have admitted partners, and with those partners they must 

 adjust the claims of taxation, and not with the nation. 



But there is a method by which these evils may be met, and there 



