CHAPTER VIII. 



QUESTIONS OF TAXATION. 



It is very difficult to get a clear view of the 

 actual degree of land taxation in England. 

 Often not even the landowner himself has an 

 appreciation of all the burdens on the land he 

 occupies, because he may not pay them all 

 directly year by year. For instance, in pur- 

 chasing he may have paid a higher capital price 

 in return for some impost being redeemed, and 

 he neglects to take that into account as a tax. 

 Or he may neglect to take into account the burden 

 on the estate of Succession Duties. Amid a 

 bewildering maze of complexities, the surest way 

 of getting down to the actual position of the 

 land (a) as a source of wealth, and (b) as a source 

 of public revenue, is to search out the burden 

 on the land itself, not on the holder for the 

 time being, and seek to compare it with the 



