INCIDENCE OF RATES AND TAXES 137 



Act may well have been a relief to the 

 tenants ; and the evidence seems to show 

 that in no case had rents been raised in 

 consequence. In yet another way the 

 burden of rates may be seen to fall, partly 

 at any rate, on the tenants. The farmer, it 

 is said, if he cannot get the rates practically 

 deducted from the rent in one place, will 

 go to some other place. So far as it 

 operates, this mobility of farmers' capital 

 no doubt mitigates the inequalities that 

 would otherwise result. And between dif- 

 ferent localities the rents tend to be so 

 adjusted that rates and rents together put 

 the tenants on about the same footing. 

 That is, of course, again only a tendency 

 that is liable to be counteracted ; but even 

 supposing it operates to the full extent, 

 you will observe it only applies to the 

 equalisation of differences. So far as the 

 burden is the same, there is no such mode 



