422 = 1.56 Taxation as affecting the Agricultural Interest. 
a full od. tax on 120Z. ; thus reducing his payment to 21. 17s. 
per annum. 
Less easily noted are his taxes on articles of consumption. His 
household supply of tea pays a duty of 6rf. in the lb., of coffee 
one of 2d., and of cun-ants and other fruits one of jt?. ; items on 
which together a yearly taxation of 21. 2s. is easily reached. 
On every pound of tobacco he smokes he pays ?>s. 3d. to the 
Exchequer ; and here he contributes 21. per annum. If but 
little wine — say four dozen a year — is used in his family, this 
still means a tax of some 16s. a year. More frequent will be 
the calls on his beer-barrel, through which, at 2c?. per gallon, he 
may pay 21. 10s. altogether. In an ordinary case he may at 
home and at market use 3 or 4 gallons of spirits, in one form or 
another, throughout the year, and thus pay 1/. 10s. ; but since a 
typical case must present in some degree all the usual features 
of a common average, this hypothetical farmer must be assumed 
to have occasional fits of greater and more irregular indulgence 
in these to consume another 4 gallons of spirits, and thus to pay 
1/. 16s. more. All these items would account for the 10/. 16s. 
entered in my Table. 
On every third letter that he posts (for the post-office can 
carry three letters for the cost of two stamps) the farmer pays a 
tax of one penny. A penny goes also to the Exchequer or 
every cheque he draws, and on every receipt-stamp he uses. A 
larger stamp is required on his bills or promissory notes, and ir 
one or two other of the transactions of his business ; so tha' 
30s. a year is soon totalled in such minor payments. He is 
hardly likely never to go to law, and, when he does, he pays ir 
court fees. He cannot use the services of a solicitor, a banker 
an auctioneer, or even of a hawker, pedlar, or vendor of paten 
medicines, without running some risk of having indirectly to con- 
tribute to the charges falling on these particular callings. In al 
these little matters half as much, or 15s. per annum^ may be al 
most imperceptibly reached. On his house, just above the limi 
of the tax, he may pay 13s. of inhabited house duty. He ma 
have for business or pleasure three dogs on his farm, and hep 
again a licence-duty of 15s. is exacted. His carriage, if it b 
but a two-wheeled dog-cart, costs the same annual sum, and hi 
groom or man-servant 15s. more. He has still one turnpike 
gate left on his way to market, and here he pays regularly ; 
local toll. This, with his share of market-dues and other loca 
imposts, soon reaches 26s. per annum, and thus his miscel 
laneous taxes of 71. 8s. are accounted for. 
His local rates remain. Like a keen man of business, I wil 
assume that when he took his farm he was successful in throwin,- 
on his landlord the rates then current ; which were a poor-rat 
