HOUSE-TAX. 351 



amount of trouble to its agents, but with excessive annoyance to 

 individuals. For instance, let a house-tax become overdue, no 

 effort is taken to reach the proprietor, but any property found in 

 or on the premises, is liable to seizure ; and thus the poor occu- 

 pant's goods or furniture may be levied on for tax, though he 

 himself be not the defaulter. In case of his not being possessed 

 of the money for ready payment, his little all may be seized and 

 sold, so that an honest tenant is actually made to suffer for the 

 neglect or dishonesty of his landlord ; and, as is generally the 

 case, if the property be sold for only one-tenth of its real value, 

 he is made to bear the worst consequences of an act of which he 

 is not guilty. Such a sufferer, in my opinion, rightly comes to 

 the conclusion that injury has been done him for the undue benefit 

 of the government. I confess I do not fully understand the prin- 

 ciple upon which the provision is based, unless it be granted that 

 it is with a view to relieve the tax-gatherer from the trouble which 

 is, by law, entailed on the ordinary creditor. I am aware that it 

 is said, the tenant has a remedy against the landlord, as he is in 

 the position of his debtor for house rent, and consequently can 

 retain the money he was compelled to advance, and thus repay 

 himself. This is all very well ; but supposing a dishonest landlord 

 should distrain upon the tenant's property, under pretext of the 

 latter's being indebted for rent, the poor tenant will be obliged 

 to pay a second amount, and then enter an action against the 

 proprietor for the recovery of the former, primarily paid for house- 

 tax. Now, in case his goods or furniture should have been 

 unavoidably sacrificed before the doors of the court-house, what 

 redress can he expect ? and how many annoyances will he have to 

 encounter ere he can obtain that redress ? I believe an easy 

 remedy can be provided, by at once exacting from one or more 

 tenants the amount of their rents, so as to make up the house-tax. 

 Sufficient, however, I think, has been said on this subject satisfac- 

 torily to prove that in many cases the people are made to suffer 

 through the neglect of the government, or on account of some 

 injudicious provision of the law, dissatisfaction being thereby 

 created throughout the whole extent of the land. Such enact- 

 ments, I must confess, are, in my opinion, rather too much " in 

 advance of the civilisation of the community." 



The above observations on the enforcement of the law in 

 general, and of the house-tax in particular, are also applicable to 



