130 



Universality of Taxation. — Ploughing. 



VOL.V. 



For tlio Farmers' Cabinet. 



Universality of Taxation. 



Mr. Editor, — I have read, with very 

 great pleasure, in the pages of the Cabinet, 

 the excellent address delivered by the Presi- 

 dent of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, 

 at their late exhibition, and cannot but envy 

 those who were able to be present at such " a 

 feast of fat things." His view of the ques- 

 tion of high wages is, I am convinced, cor- 

 rect, and the declaration of the late Mr. 

 George Walker, that " his farm-work was 

 done twenty per cent, cheaper in this country 

 than in England," is only corroborative of 

 what I have heard that gentleman say, " I 

 need only to be informed what is the rate of 

 wages in any country, to enable me to form 

 a correct estimate of its prosperity and hap- 

 piness, these being always in exact propor- 

 tion, whether high or low." And it is pro- 

 verbial, that where low wages are, there are 

 poverty and discontent — witness the present 

 state of England and the whole continent of 

 Europe — these being the cause of that stream 

 of emigration, which is ever pressing towards 

 our shores. 



The President's estimate of the difference 

 in the value of land in this country and in 

 England, is correct, as is also the difference 

 in the rate of taxation, if it be confined to 

 direct taxation, while the indirect impost, 

 which falls upon every thing that can be seen, 

 felt, and understood, soon swells the amount 

 far beyond the limit which he has assigned to 

 it ; for after " the tax-gatliercr and tything- 

 man have made their appearance and taken 

 from the farmer fifty-three per cent, upon his 

 rent," then comes domestic taxation, which, 

 silently and imperceptibly, robs him of a great 

 portion of the means of his existence, and 

 renders him incapable of paying to his labour- 

 ers a sum more than sufficient to procure 

 them a bare subsistence ; and were it not that 

 labour is there obtained at about one-third 

 part of its value, the farmer would not be 

 able to subsist at all. No one in this country 

 can conceive to what an extent taxation is 

 carried in England ; were they not indeed a 

 " nation of shopkeepers," they must long since 

 have sunk under it; their industry and perse- 

 verance have alone supported them. 



The following sentiment in the President's 

 address, does him honour — may he long live 

 to witness its truth and justness, and rejoice 

 in his country's welfare and prosperity ! " De- 

 pend upon it," says he, "there is no surer 

 sign of national prosperity than high wages ; 

 and God grant that for many a long year it 

 may be the lot of our countrymen, who sub- 

 sist by tlie labour of their hands, to work well, 

 to be paid well, and to live well.''^ 

 But I must copy from an English publica- 



tion,* the following delicious morsel on the 

 " Universality of Taxation ;" it is sufficient 

 to convince every one of the preference due 

 to this country over all others in the world ; 

 but it ought, at the same time, to operate as 

 a warning to us how we indulge in a too 

 great fondness for " national glory," a sin, by 

 which all the old governments of Europe 

 have been reduced to a state of poverty and 

 confusion, and which will, in the end, prove 

 the ruin of many of them. 



"We can inform Brother Jonalhan what 

 are the inevitable consequences of being too 

 fond of glory : — Taxes upon every article 

 which enters into the mouth or covers the 

 back, or is placed under the foot — taxes upon 

 every thing which is pleasant to sec, hear, 

 feel, smell or taste — taxes upon warmth, light 

 and locomotion — taxes on every thing on 

 earth, and in the waters under the earth — on 

 every thing that comes from abroad, or is 

 grown at home — taxes on the raw material, 

 and on every fresh value that is added to it 

 by the industry of man — taxes on the sauce 

 which pampers man's appetite and on the 

 drug which restores him to health — on the 

 ermine which decorates the judge, and the 

 rope which hangs the criminal! — on the poor 

 man's salt, and the rich man's spice — on the 

 brass nails of the cofiin, and the ribbons of 

 the bride — at bed or board, couchant or levant, 

 we must pay. The school-boy whips his 

 taxed top — the beardless youth manages his 

 taxed horse with a taxed bridle, on a taxed j| 

 road: — and the dying Englishman, pouring * 

 his medicine, which has paid seven per cent, 

 into a silver spoon, which has paid fifteen per 

 cent., flings himself back upon his chintz 

 bed, which has paid twenty-two per cent. — 

 and expires in the arms of a taxed apothe- 

 cary, who has paid a license of one hundred 

 pounds sterling, for the privilege of prac- 

 tising his calling! His whole property is 

 then immediately taxed from two to ten per 

 cent. ; and, besides the probate, large fees are 

 demanded for burying him in the Chancel ; 

 his virtues are handed down to posterity upon 

 taxed marble, and he is at length gathered to 

 his fathers — to be taxed no more !" W. 



Ploughing. 



The whole series of furrows on an Eng- 

 lish statute acre, supposing each to be nine 

 inches wide, would extend to 19,8G0 yards ; 

 and adding twelve yards to every two hun- 

 dred and twenty for the ground travelled over 

 in turning, the whole work of one acre may 

 be estimated as extending to 20,416 yards, or 

 eleven miles and nearly five furlongs. 



* Sydney Smith's Works, 8vo. 1830. 



