^r^. Agricultural Intelligencen Atfgi 



J 5 



poiTeired of profeffional knowledge, or even capable of pro- 

 nouncing upon the evidence that will, of courfe, be laid before 

 them, then little doubt need remain but that thtiir report will 

 fatisfaclorily (hew that the barleys of North Britain are unable 

 to pay the fame tax as thofe raifed in the fouthern diftri£ls, 

 where foil and climate are conf/lTcdly better calculated for raif- 

 ing that grain in perfection. What is to be made of Scots bar- 

 ley, in the mean time, is a queftion not eafUy anfwered. An a£b 

 allowing a free exportation to any place where it could be vend- 

 ed, would have been but common juitice : as matters (land, it- 

 will lye on hand, a dead article, to the great lofs of the owners. 



A memorial, on the malt bufinefs, from a number of gentle- 

 men who met at Edinburgh in the month of April laft, was 

 fent us J but, with fubmiffion, we are in duty bound to remark,. 

 that the meafures recommended by them were not calculated to 

 procure the relief wanted. They propofed to let the Scotch tax 

 Itand as it was enacted, and to burden the public with a duty 

 upon all Englifli barley imported into Scotland. This, to a cer- 

 tain extent, might have benefited the farmer, but it would have 

 taken a fum exactly of the fame extent out of the pockets of the 

 public at large. In other words, Scotland would have paid 

 2o,oool. or perhaps 50,0001. more of taxes, merely that the malt 

 duty (liould not be put upon its ancient and eftablifhed footing. 

 But did it not occur to thefe gentlemen, that a decided opposi- 

 tion to the meafure would be ihewn by the Englifli members ? 

 If you tax our barley, we will tax your cattle ; and certainly the 

 reafons for each, if weighed in the fcale of public juftice^ would 

 have been nearly of the fame gravity. 



It is not an obje£l of this work to examine public meafures 

 farther than they afreft the intereft of agriculture ; and, in this 

 point of view, a few obfervations will not be irrelevant, on the 

 income or property tax, which will bear hard on many farmers. 

 We do not mean to inquire, whether in this cafe the tax is 

 not altogether precifely the fame thing as a new land tax, which 

 ought to have been impofed in the ratio marked out by the 

 articles of Union. But, leaving this point to political inquirers, 

 we confine our remarks to the tax, in fo far as it operates upon 

 the poflefibrs of land ; and here it may be pronounced to be par- 

 tial and oppreflive in feveral refpe£>s. 



In the firll place, it is partial, becaufe impofed in differervt 

 degrees upon the fame clafs of people, fome being rated at id. 

 others at 2d. 3d. &c. and many at 6(1. per pound of the rent 

 paid by them to the landlord, while every farmer below 60I. 

 efcapes altogether. Now, a fcale of this kind is not ufed in the 

 QoUedion of other public burdcris, but every perfon pays ac- 

 cording, 



