46 RATES AND TAXES 



in the search for the original national 

 revenues from the land. 



Besides the demesne lands, however, there 

 were certain revenues of a feudal character 

 which pertained to the Crown as represent- 

 ing the nation. The meaning of these 

 feudal payments had been lost, and the 

 whole feudal system in its essence destroyed 

 by the time of Elizabeth. But for the 

 difficulty of finding a substitute, all these 

 revenues would have been abandoned in 

 1 6 10. They were in effect surrendered in 

 1660. In this case it was proposed that the 

 lands relieved should be burdened with a 

 corresponding tax, but again it was found 

 that the practical difficulties, having regard 

 to the claims of bona-Jide purchasers, during 

 the period when the dues had been falling 

 into abeyance, were so great that in the 

 end Parliament gave the King an excise 

 duty on certain things instead. The value 



