68 RATES AND TAXES 



view of legal symmetry, and, in the eye 

 of the law, and according to the reason 

 of the law, and in the language of the law, 

 it may have some meaning, but it has no 

 meaning that is pertinent in the question 

 of the practical taxation of land. 



Again, if we ask if the taxes imposed 

 by the State on land, seeing that they 

 have been continued for centuries, cannot 

 be regarded as a kind of rent charge, the 

 answer again is, if we refer to actual 

 history, that so far as the national taxes 

 are concerned, such taxes are on the same 

 footing as taxes on other forms of property. 

 Taxes on the rents of land were always 

 accompanied by similar taxes on other 

 forms of income, and, as we saw, a 

 hypothetical income was assigned to the 

 capital value of various kinds of mov- 

 ables for the purpose of taxation. But 

 we may go further in the case of land. 



