202 PEOTECTION TAXES ON FEEE TEADE PEICES 



intermingled. A comprehensive measure of local govern- 

 ment is alleged to be the only ultimate remedy; but mean- 

 while the plea is made a subterfuge to evade that relief, 

 the justice of which the proposed reform itself concedes. 



Taxation of land mainly consists in (1) the Land Tax ; 

 (2) Local Taxes. It is often contended that landlords have 

 evaded payment of the Land Tax by reducing it to insig- 

 nificance. But, in the first place, the true representative 

 of the Land Tax for national purposes is Schedule A of the 

 Income Tax. In the second place, the evasion of payment 

 is not by realty but by personalty. In its existing form the 

 Land Tax dates from 1692, when a new assessment was 

 made ; but it undoubtedly represents a part of the ancient 

 subsidies, scutages, hidages, and tallages. Present in- 

 equalities, increased by partial redemptions, sprang from 

 the politics of the Revolution ; the counties in which it 

 was heaviest were most attached to the House of Stuart. 

 The Land Tax, following the practice of the ancient 

 subsidies, which it represents, originally applied to person- 

 alty as well as to realty, but the difficulty of assessing 

 the former proved so great, that in 1833 the net receipts 

 only amounted to 5,2 1-W., and in that year an Act was 

 passed abolishing its application to personalty. So far as 

 the Land Tax is concerned, it is personalty, not realty, that 

 has evaded j)ayment. It is not, however, by abolition of the 

 Land Tax, which at the best would afford but partial relief, 

 that landlords should seek redress. The Land Tax is an 

 old tax, subject to which estates in this country have all 

 been acquired. 



Local Taxation consists of old and new rates. The 

 old rates were the following (1) Poor Rates, (2) County 

 Rates, (3) Highway Rates, (4) Church Rates. To these 

 must be added other rates which fell upon land, such as 



