QUESTIONS OF TAXATION. 163 



was rapidly supplanted by the factory as a 

 money-spinner, its best workers were drained 

 away by the attractions of the cities, its prod- 

 ucts lost all their protection, and had to com- 

 pete with foreign goods on terms of disadvantage. 

 But its burden of tithes, poor rates, local govern- 

 ment rates, succession duties, etc., were left in 

 all their old weight — in some cases increased. 

 Following what I fear is the English custom, 

 the country drifted from one era — that in which 

 agricultural and pastoral land was the chief 

 source of the country's wealth — to the industrial 

 era, without any attempt to ' take stock." 

 The land was left with its old burdens, but with 

 little of the old advantages. As a consequence, 

 it is in comparison with land in other countries 

 very heavily taxed for a very slight return in 

 community- conferred advantages. 



English agricultural land has from the com- 

 munity all the amenities of civilization, and it 

 has good roads of communication. But that is 

 all. In any other country of importance the 

 agricultural land has further advantages. A 

 protected market for its products is the greatest 

 and most common of these advantages. To 



