100 Origin of Taxation in England....On periodical Criticifn. 
enfive: and Igrid was not above ten years 
purchafe. 
he valuations were apparently mode- 
ates: 3 but the mode ef taxing the prin- 
cipal, as it may be called, feems ftrange. 
Wiodern taxes affeét the revenue, not the 
principal. Yet, it by ploughs we under- 
ftand the oxen ufed, the articles are of an- 
nual production ; and there feems reafon 
to think that a fifteenth of {pirituals and 
temporals implies revenue only. 
The ambition of Edward I. and IJI. 
and Henry V. carried taxes to an extreme 
extent. Even fo early as 1297, a tax was 
propofed on the clergy of one half of their 
goods, on the laity the fixth part, on bo- 
roughs onethird; but its excefs occafi- 
oned its rejection. Yet taxation was car- 
ried fo far that he who was worth twenty 
fhillings was obliged to pay four pence to 
the king ; which, valuing income as then, 
at one tenth on the capital, was a tax of 
one fixth. The duties were equally ex- 
orbitant. In 1298 the parliament, among 
other grievances, -remont{trated againtt 
the forty fhillings a fack upon wool: and 
ilate that the wool of England amounts 
to almoft the value of half the land, and 
the duty on it to a fifth part of the value 
of ail land. Inthereign of Edward IIT. 
this duty is eftimated at 60,000}. equal 
in efficacy to ten times that fum in mo- 
dern currency. It feems hence to follow, 
that the revenue from land, or its annual 
value, was computed at 300,000l. or three 
millions of modern currency; and that 
the wool:was wo orth about half that fum. 
The accuracy of this remonftrance may 
be doubted, for the data muft have been 
vague; but it would be an enterprize 
worthy of a patriotic parliament, to efti- 
amate the value of landed, commercial, 
sand ether property, and compare it with 
the national debt, as is done in the affairs 
wf the Eaft India company *. 
- It is unneceflary to proceed with an 
account of tenths and fifteenths, half 
tenths and half fifteenths, further than 
to obferve, that, under the Tudors, 
#wo fifteenths never conitituted what 
was peculiarly termed a /ubjidy, being 
2s. 8d. in the pound on moveables ; while 
lands and effeSts were taxed 4s. in the 
pound, or twotenths. In the reign of 
HenryVIUII. a fubfidy was about 120, eal 
a tenth of the clere rey 25,084]. in 1531 a 

* By a recent calculation of the minifter, 
on propofing the tax on legacies, the landed 
tental of England and Scotland may amount 
to 25 millions; the value, at 28 years pur- 
chafe, to 700 millions ; the perfonal property 
¥s) be 6co mNlions; total 1,300 millions. 

[Feb 
moiety of all the goods and lands of the 
church yielded 475,000]. or nearly half a - 
million. Itis computed that the revenue 
of the lands of the monaferies and other ° 
religious foundations feized by thaf’prince, 
would now amount to fix millions annually. 
Yet this prize prevented not the conttant 
impofition of frefh taxes: and when we 
confider the infatiable avarice, and fan- 
guinary tyranny of the Tudors, wé are 
es inclined to pity than to blame, the 
houfe of Stuart, whofe misfortunes were 
chiefly owing to their being the heirs of 
an overftrained prerogative, and to the 
general error of gove rnments, the want 
of conceffion and accommodation to the, 
{pirit of the times. 
The old chroniclers, from William the 
conqueror down to the laft ages, repeat- 
edly declaim that the country was ruined 
by fuch and fuch taxations. ‘This idea. 
may well excite a fmile, for the taxes, 
though excefiive, were merely temporary, 
ane cnly continued for one, two, or three 
eurs, whereas modern taxes are eternal, 
ae truly ruinous. Toa certain degree, 
taxation promotes induftry and profperity, 
and aéts both as a ftimulus to national 
wealth, and as a fecurity to property ; 
the flate being, as it were, pledged to the 
individual, who pays his queta towards - 
its fupport. In Turkey the taxes are 
trifling ; but a bafhaw pillages his pro-_ 
vince at pleafure, and is then fqueezed by: 
the court. Let it not, however, he in- 
ferred that taxation cannot be pufhed too 
it 1s, as the en proverb fays, 
the laft ftraw “that overlo oads the camel ; - 
a {mall addition, if ill- = may ents 
turn the whole. It is not what the peo- 
pie can pay, but what they chine to pay, 
that merits conficeration. A deficit in 
the taxes muft occajion, as we have feen 
by recent experience, the fall at once of 
national! credit, and of the ftate. Depo- 
ailve 
-pulation is ftiil a greater evil, and is a 
neceflary confequence - of 
tion; for none will pay 
excellive. taxa- 
y more for any go-~ 
vernment. or climate, than what they 
are worth. 
Se + 
For the Moxtily I 
MR. EDITOR, 
r ‘HE eftablithment of literary jour- 
nals nas ce rtainly been an event of 
the greateft confequenes in the republic 
of letters, It has been the means of 
diffiing knowledge far and wide, and 
of kindling a love of learning,swhere the 
feeds of genius would otherwife, in all 
likelihood, have perifhed in wretched tor 
pidity. It has alfo been of infinite fer- 
vice 
ARINC, 
