1 66 History of the English Landed Interest. 



not take into account either the rise in the value of land, or the 

 fall in the value of the precious metals. It therefore sank, 

 until it came to be under twopence in the pound. In this 

 way the entire subsidy derivable from realty aud personalty 

 finally dropped as low as fifty thousand pounds.^ 



The circumstances surrounding the reimposition of this 

 particular form of impost henceforward strongly favour the 

 presumption that it was acceptable to the great body of the 

 English public. " It is not an unfair inference," sa^ s Mr. 

 A. Humphreys Owen, " that measures which approved them- 

 selves to Roundheads and Cavaliers in one generation, 

 and to the Whig Parliament of the next, were in the circum- 

 stances equitable and politic." ^ 



During the Commonwealth, a fresh system was designed, 

 which met with considerable success. A fixed sum was named 

 as the necessary subsidy, which was distributed among the 

 counties in proportion to their supposed wealth, and raised by 

 a rate levied in each district. The revenue thus derived 

 varied between £35,000 and £120,000 a month. But the 

 Commonwealth had naturally laid the heaviest charge on 

 those districts on which they could depend. The inhabitants 

 of the south and east of England had been loyal to Cromwell, 

 and for this loyalty they were made to smart by their un- 

 grateful rulers. So unfairly was this taxation imposed, that 

 at the Restoration the king's financiers for a time reverted 

 to the older and more equitable practice. Finding it unre- 

 munerative however, they resorted once more to Cromwell's 

 inequitable system, and probably solaced their outraged sense 

 of justice with the thought that the king's late enemies were 

 the sufferers. 



Throughout this period of their history, it is incorrect to 

 describe the subsidies as land taxation. Charles II. was too 

 grateful to his country squires for their past services, to demand 

 any further pecuniary sacrifices from them, though we think 

 it quite possible that the fervid loj^alty which had voted him 



^ Macaulay's History of England, ch. xix. 



* English Land and English Landlords, Appendix I., p. 467. G. 

 Brodrick. 



