420= 154 Taxation as affecting the Agricultural Interest. 
The Landlord's 
taxation. 
The farmer' 
taxation. 
three-fourths to the owner of the farm. These proportions have 
been adopted in the preceding Tables, and are assumed in that 
given on the opposite page, where I have selected as the uniform 
income for typical comparison a yearly revenue of 399/., a poin 
where, in consequence of the otherwise heavy pressure of middle' 
class taxation, a special abatement of 120Z. has been latel 
accorded in the case of income-tax. 
Such a Table as this necessarily ofTers but a very rough am 
general view of relative taxation. Were it extended to income 
of other dimensions, many further varieties would appear ; anc 
with larger revenues the percentage of indirect taxation woul( 
be materially lessened. If, however, the picture now presentei 
be even approximately correct, the British agriculturist must b 
acknowledged to bear a very considerable share of the taxatio: 
of his country. 
The landowner, even when he takes into consideration bot 
the stamp-duties attending the transfer of his property durin 
life and the relatively lighter ratio of his duties on successioi 
will still find himself paying in one respect on a lower seal 
than the capitalist of equal income, whose investments are i 
Bank Stock or in the Funds ; but he will place against this itei 
the extra, if somewhat irregular, liability of the land-tax chargi 
able on his acres, and the large sum diverted from his rental i 
the public service in the shape of local rates. By these tl 
balance is much more than redressed, his yearly taxes double 
and more than IG in place of little over 8 per cent, of his incon 
is thus spent for him by the kindly intervention either of centr 
or of local government authority. 
It may not be without interest in connection with the co 
trasts here drawn, to go one step further, and, in the case of t'j 
second agricultural tax-payers in this Table, to point out 
detail in what form his several taxes may be actually cont) 
buted. Such a tenant-farmer as that referred to in columni; 
may farm 600 acres, for which he will pay in rent and titb 
798Z. a year, while he employs 5000Z. of capital in his busine 
He may be supposed first to encounter the requirements oft 
State when, on succeeding to this sum, he proves his fathe 
will, and pays down a probate duty of 100/., and a legacy di 
of 50/. ; payments which, if regarded as spread over the probal 
thirty years of his tenancy, gives the first item of 51. per annuj 
His income-tax is a ligliter burden. From his gross n 
one-eighth is first of all deducted for tithes elsewhere charfj 
able, and his profits being assumed to be half his rent, hen 
then charged at l^-rf. in place of 'Sd. in the pound. Since, he- 
ever, by this assumption he is allotted an income just und" 
400/. a year, he has a further abatement allowed in the shape f 
