QUESTIONS OF TAXATION. 175 



summed up as this : The present taxation is 

 very burdensome (if land were treated as a 

 business proposition, intolerably so) ; it is 

 comparatively higher than that of any other 

 country of importance in the world ; it gives in 

 return less benefit than that of any other country 

 in the world. Yet landowners have been so 

 cowed into acquiescence that the most that is 

 asked, as a rule, is that no further oppression 

 should be attempted, and that some present 

 taxes should be exacted from the capital fund 

 instead of the revenue fund of an estate ! 



It seems rather a hopeless undertaking, then, 

 for an outside critic to suggest a thorough revi- 

 sion of the land taxation policy, which most 

 agricultural landowners have ceased to hope for. 

 But throughout I have made it a basis of this 

 discussion that the restoration of British land 

 to legitimate use is a matter for the nation to 

 look to, with as much tenderness as possible for 

 all legitimate vested interests and political 

 prejudices, but with the determination that 

 a substantial betterment must be achieved in 

 some wise, whatever timidities, stupidities, or 

 passions stand in the way. I have a suspicion 



