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are various in different districts, so that it is impossi- 

 ble to form any general estimate of their amount. 

 In some parts of the country, I was told, that the 

 local taxes were equal to the Grand Steuer in their 

 district ; in some, that it was higher ; and in others, 

 that it did not amount to one-tenth. Among the 

 cultivators, I heard much complaint of the heavy 

 tax on the distilleries. As far as the tax operates to 

 diminish the consumption of the Grain, or other 

 products of the land from which spirits may be ex- 

 tracted, it is a burden on the land ; but I have reason 

 to believe that, from the mode in which the tax is 

 collected, those who have distilleries on their farms, 

 by paying the tax at a high degree of strength, and 

 supplying it to the retailers at a lower strength, are 

 so far from being aggrieved, that they are really 

 benefited by the tax. 



The village Clergy have commonly a house, some 

 glebe land, and a fixed annual portion of Corn, which 

 in most cases is delivered to them by the lord, in 

 pursuance of an ancient arrangement. The quantity 

 has been long since defined, and not being subject to 

 any alteration is scarcely ever spoken of as a burden 

 on the land. 



The other taxes bear no more on the persons em- 

 ployed in agriculture than on those engaged in pur- 

 suits of a different kind. They are chiefly on the 

 consumption of foreign commodities attaching to the 

 consumers, from whatever sources they may draw the 

 revenues by which they are enabled to indulge in the 

 use of them. 



The Military Service is extremely onerous, as 

 every young man is compelled to serve three years, 

 from the age of twenty to twenty-four, as a soldier. 

 This, though not precisely a tax, and not peculiar to 

 the agricultural class, is a burden which perhaps 

 presses as much on the productive industry of the 

 country, as the heavier taxes that are collected in 



