Book V. TAXES, ETC., AFFECTING THE FARMER. 779 



4801. For the viode in ivhich rent should be paid, and the terms of payment, we refer to the succeeding 

 B3ok. 



Sect. XI. Taxes and other Burdens which affect the Farmer. 



4802. Farmers are subjected to the payment of various taxes besides the rent paid to the 

 landlord; some of them imposed for local purposes, and others for the general expenses 

 of the state. The real amount of such burdens every careful tenant ought accurately 

 to know before he bargains for his lease. They may be classed under the following 

 heads : parochial, national, and miscellaneous. 



4803. Parochial taxes are for the support of the clergyman, for the maintenance of the poor, and, in 

 Scotland, for providing a parochial schoolmaster. The mode of supporting the clergy in England, by 

 paving them a tenth part of the produce of the land in kind, is higMy injurious to agriculture, and a bar 

 to improvement. It is a great bar to improvement, because an improving farmer, one more enlightened 

 or more spirited than his neighbours, would pay more tithe by means of his outlay and his exertions, but 

 it is not certain that he would likewise receive more profit. The produce would be more, but the expense 

 would be greater. Nothing can be more obnoxious than a law by which, when a person expends a large 

 sum, either in reclaiming wastes, or augmenting the fertility of land already cultivated, he should be 

 under the necessity of yielding up one tenth of its produce to a person who has been liable to no share of 

 the expense, who has run none of the risk, and who has sustained none of the labour attending the 

 improvement. A commutation of tithe, therefore, instead of its being exacted in kind, would be one of 

 the greatest benefits that could be conferred on agriculture ; and there is not the lea>t difficulty in efi'ect- 

 mg it, by giving to the tithe-owner either a proportion of the land, or by converting the tithe into a 

 perpetual corn rent. Both these plans have been adopted in a variety of cases, by local acts in England, 

 and they ought now to be enforced as a general system. 



4804. An assessiuent for the maintenance of the poor is another parochial burden, which is annually 

 increasing, and which, if not speedily regulated upon proper principles, will inevitably absorb a very large 

 proportion of rent in England. Indeed, there are instances where, between the years ]815 and 182!^, it 

 has absorbed the whole. This tax is the most dangerous of all for the farmer, on account of its fluctu- 

 ation ; and, indeed, it may be said that it never falls, but continually rises. During infancy, in sickness, 

 and in old age, assistance may be necessary; but, as Malthus justly observes, the poordaws hold out 

 support to the vicious and idle, at the expense of the prudent and the industrious. These payments 

 also destroy the spirit of independence, and those ideas of honest pride which stimulate a man to use his 

 utmost exertions in support of himself and his family ; and, on its present footing, the boon is administered 

 by the parish officers with caution and reluctance, and received by the poor with dissatisfaction and 

 ingratitude. 



4805. The tithes and the poor-rates are charges upon the land, and in fact come from the landlord's 

 pocket rather than from the tenant's ; but in their operation are often oppressive to the tenant, by rising 

 in the course of the lease much higher than they were at the commencement; and as a farmer's rent is 

 always considered by the overseer to be his income, he is charged on that ; while the tradesman, who 

 realises three times the amount, is only charged to the poor on the amount of rent of his house. 



4806. In Scotland, the poor are in general maintained hy voluntary contribtitions ; but when these are 

 not found to be sufficient, the proprietors of the parish, with the clergyman and vestry, or kirk-session, are 

 directed to make a list of the indigent persons in the parish, and then to impose an assessment for their 

 relief, one half to be paid by the proprietors, and the other half by the tenantry. 



^807. The national burdens in general, as the duties on houses and windows, and other assessed taxes, 

 or assessments for the support of militia-men's wives and families, for the conveyance of vagrants, or the 

 prosecution of felons, fall no heavier upon the farmer than upon other classes of the community. 



4808. There are various miscellaneous burdens affecting the farmer, as statute assessments (or bridges, 

 which are of such public utility, that moderate rates for their maintenance, properly applied, cannot be 

 objected to: statute labour on the highways; constable dues, which are seldom of much moment; 

 charges of the churchwardens, including the repairs of the church ; and in some populous parishes, there 

 is sometimes a burial-ground tax. All tliese are paid by the occupiers. In some places, also, there i& a 

 sewer tax, chargeable on the landlords, where it is not otherwise settled by express contract. 



4809. The vexations to which farmers in England are subjected, from various uncertain burdens, operate 

 as a premium to Scottish agriculture. It is ingeniously and justly remarked, that physical circumstances 

 are much more favourable to agriculture in England than in her sister country ; but these advantages are 

 counteracted by the accumulation of moral evils, which might be removed if the legislature were to bestow 

 on matters connected with the internal improvement of the country, and the means for promoting it, a 

 portion of that attention which it' so frequently gives to the amelioration or improvement of our foreign 

 possessions. It ought to have been the business of the late Boai-d of Agriculture to endeavour to prevail 

 on the legislature to relieve agriculture from its moral and political evils ; but, instead of this, they set 

 about procuring and distributing statistical and professional information, comparatively of very inferior 

 utility ; and after receiving from government nearly 50,000/., or, for any thing we know, more, left agricul- 

 ture where they found it. Even in the particular line which the Board adopted, Marshall was a much 

 more effectual instrument of agricultural improvement. 



Sect. XII. Other rarliculars requiring a Farmer's Attention, uith a View to the 



Benling of Land. 



4810. A variety of miscellaneous particulars require consideration before a prudent farmer 

 will finally resolve to undertake the cultivation of a farm ; as, the nature of the property 

 on which the farm is situated ; in particular, whether the estate is entailed, and to what 

 extent the possessor of the estate is authorised to grant a lease ; the character of the 

 landlord, and, in case of his decease, that of his family, and of those whom they are likely 

 to consult ; the real condition of the farm in regard to the enclosures, drainage, build- 

 ings, &c. ; the crops it has usually produced, and the manner in which it has been 

 managed for some years preceding ; the general state of the district, in regard to the price 

 of labour, and the expense of living ; the character of its inhabitants, in particular of the 

 neighbouring fai-mers and labourers, and whether they are likely to promote or to dis- 

 courage a spirit of improvement ; the probability of subletting to advantage in case of 

 not liking the situation, of finding a better bargain, or of death. The chances of settling 

 one's family ; as of marrying daughters, or of sons' making good marriages. The social 

 state of the farmers, or those that would be considered one's neighbours ; the number and 



