QUESTIONS OF TAXATION. 171 



with general conclusions regarding the rate of 

 land taxation derived from an examination of 

 estate books, and from the statements of experts. 

 All the evidence agreed in pointing to a rate of 

 land burden in England far higher than that 

 of any important country — than of Germany, for 

 instance, or of France, or of Belgium. 



Yet it was difficult to find, even among those 

 who are directly interested in the land, advo- 

 cates of a thorough-going reform, which, to be 

 thorough-going, would need to get right down to 

 bedrock, and deal not only with national taxes, 

 but with local rates. Most agricultural land- 

 owners have come to think that any change 

 made by any government must be for the worse. 

 They have resigned themselves to the fact that 

 the landlord must be baited for the benefit of 

 the popularity -hunting politician, and are, in 

 the majority, content to hope that nothing 

 worse is in stock for them than the evils they 

 already suffer. They seem to agree that a real 

 reform of land taxation in Great Britain — a 

 reform which would take some of the burdens 

 off agricultural land — was not " practical pol- 

 itics " now, and need not be discussed. 



