THE AGRICULTURAL QUESTION. THOUGH we are inclined to think the clamour of the Agriculturists somewhat too partial as to their peculiar interest in the profit of the common capital of the Country, we do not maintain that their opponents may not also, in some of the following insertions, carry the force of their feeling a little further than they ought. But their complaints are more responsive than primary. The first and loudest cry was from the land; and although much doubt may be entertained, if Commerce and Trade are not equally entitled to legislative consideration, in the altered state of our capital in currency, no question can offer itself as to the quarter in which the greater degree of patience has been exercised, and the more hopeful reliance placed in the resources and approaching improvement of our national wealth and industry. But we leave the matter open to temperate discussion. It appears, by some of the documents we insert, that the Farmers are rather favoured than otherwise, as to their quota of taxation. Is there any fallacy in the assertion? In what point is the statement erroneous? We are open to fair correction. We first extract from a little Pamphlet in the shape of an "Address to the Clergy on the subject of Tithes," the following "Table for an Income Tax." We leave the adoption of the main question to the Legislature, thinking at the same time, that data of this kind are not without their value to the highest departments of our fiscal concerns. What follows, as to the lighter weight of Taxation on the Farmer, has a great deal of truth in it, as we conceive; but betrays a force of feeling upon the question a little too high for the proper temperature of financial inquiry. PROPOSED SCALE OF INCOME TAX, In lieu of the Assessed Taxes and the Taxes on Salt, Malt, Leather, Candles, To be increased or decreased as circumstances may require by a per centage, without any new Tax. As the Funds are not subject to any particular Tax, NOR THE LAND, except those charges to which it was subject when purchased, and as the owners of both would in such case be relieved from the Assessed Taxes, no objection can REASONABLY be made to the above, and it would save millions in the discharge of a host of Surveyors, Surchargers, &c. TO THE CLERGY OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. "Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden Thunders in the stores of Heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the Men who owe their greatness to their Country's Ruin.” THE great land-owners of this kingdom, plead, as an excuse, for their imposition on His Majesty's subjects, the payments of heavy taxes, as if the burthen of taxation fell exclusively on them! Being in a great measure driven from the use of such general terms, by the strong reasoning of the Public; being obliged to admit that those taxes, which have originated, or been increased, during the war, fall more on the consumers of food, than on either the owner or occupier of the soil, and that if taxation falls on both consumer and grower, it as much disables the consumer to give even the old natural price, as it does the grower to sell at such old natural prices; being also obliged to admit that the owners of the soil, (perhaps to increase the rents,) are continually passing Acts of Parliament, to exempt the occupier from taxes;-that they are already exempted from any duty on their male servants; from turnpike tolls; that their mansions, (modern farm houses) are rated in the lump with the farm at a mere nothing, and that their dairy lights, whether attached or detached, are exempt from window duty, and their horses are now exempt from duty altogether; that the poor are generally to be found in towns and manufacturing districts, where they have emigrated for employment, rather than in the farming districts, where manual labour is comparatively trifling, and that the enormous poor rates, (which consequently exist principally in those large towns and manufacturing districts,) are not caused by wages being lower than before the war, but because the prices of their food are higher, and it is well known that those employed in agriculture are not more than one in ten defeated at all these points, they have been put to the rout for some exclusive taxation. Some son of the Clod has, however, set them in high spirits, and from one end of the Kingdom to the other, the sound of "Tithes and Land Tax," is echoed and re-echoed, as the real cause why the land (not the land-owner I suppose) should be protected, i. e. why the market for its produce should be monopolized; what will those great men say, when they read that tithes and land tax are no burthen on them, and it is to this point that I intend calling your particular attention; as the land tax is linked in with the tithes, I shall speak of them together, the receivers of one being indirectly accused as well as the other of being the locusts which swallow up the riches of the Country. The high blooded Gentry who abuse the Government, and incessantly exclaim against taxation and the expense of the Clergy, should recollect, that the greatest part of the lands (if not all) were at some former period vested in the Crown and the Ecclesiastics, and that they were from time to time parcelled out to individuals, reserving the land tax to one, and the tithes to the other; so at this day if a man purchases an Estate, he inquires the yearly value which he can receive for the occupation of it as rent; and generally gives thirty years purchase for the estate. As some of these Land-owners may be blinded, either by prejudice or ignorance, I will suppose a circumstance, and take such nominal sums as shall be easy to calculate: suppose A has an estate to sell, which if tithe free and land tax redeemed would let at a rent of 5001. a-year; at thirty years purchase B would give 15,000l.; but if such estate were liable to a land tax of 1001. a-year, and to 1007. a-year tithe, then the rent would be only 3007.,` which at thirty years purchase would only produce 90001. If therefore, these sums be at all correct, i. e. if the tithe of an estate be one-fifth, and the land tax another fifth, the purchaser of an estate, (worth to a Farmer 500, a-year,) viz. 3007. rent for his landlord 1007. a-year land tax to the Crown, and 1007. a-year tithes to the Parson, would give only 90007., or three-fifths of the sum (15,000l.,) which he would give if the estate were tithe free and land tax redeemed, and consequently in point of fact, holds in his own right and pays for, only three-fifths of the land which he purchases; holding onefifth as a Trustee for the Crown, and the other fifth as a Trustee for the Parson. M m It so happens that this is not seen, and the general complaint is, that the demand of the Crown and the Parson is a grievous burthen. What! a grievous burthen!! Can it be called a grievous burthen to hold for ever 60001. at 31. 68. 8d. per cent, interest?. and yet that is the fact, for the 2007. a-year which the purchaser of such an estate pays to the Crown and the Parson, such purchaser retains 60007., and which is always to remain without being called in. Let us see what the difference would have been if the same estate had been tithe free and land tax redeemed, but subject to a mortgage, the interest of which at 5 per cent. would amount to the like sum of 2007. a-year. The rent in such case would be the full 5007., and 15,000l. would be the purchase money at thirty years purchase, but the purchaser instead of retaining 60004., would in this case only retain 4000l. which might be called in at any time, by the mortgage, and perhaps oblige such purchaser to sell the estate again to a great loss; yet with all these disadvantages he could not go to Parliament for Corn Bills to enable him to pay off his mortgage; that, would be too bare-faced a fraud, though not greater than that of requiring such a protection on account of tithe and land tax; nor should it be forgotten that this very land tax and tithe were payable and paid, when Wheat sold for 6d. a gallon and less. Perhaps the Land-owners will say, that at that time the charges were not so heavy; perhaps not, but I will venture to say they were in proportion much heavier; if the produce of the three-fifths of any estate to which the purchaser is entitled, rises cent., or cent. and a half per cent., why not the produce of the two-fifths which remain in, and are the right of the Crown and the Parson, to rise in the same proportion? And yet I am certain it has not done so. The Farmer too complains of the Parson and of the land tax!-this is the best joke of all!! The Farmer complains!! We know it, but of what has he to complain? Is it that he pays his rent in three sums instead of one! or that he is exempted from a great share of the taxes without his landlord's forbearing to add it to the rent? What is it to the Farmer what charges are on the estate of this landlord; if this landlord cannot, or will not, buy a farm free from incumbrances; if he has not money enough to pay for the farm he purchases and suffers an incumbrance to be made or continue on it, what is that to the Farmer I would ask? Such a farm as the above is worth yearly (we say) to the Farmer 500l., What difference is it to him, whether he pays 100l. to the Parson for tithes, 100l. to the tax man for land tax, and 3007. to his landlord, or whether he pays the whole 500l. to his landlord? We see that in the former case his landlord must pay 15,0001. for such a farm, and in the latter only 90007.-Is not 60001. then a sufficient renumeration for the 2001. a-year? Perhaps if he paid the whole 5007. to his landlord, he might be compelled to pay his share of the taxes, and to support the poor Parson in another way. Really, gentlemen, it is too bad that these Land-owners should complain, (as many of them do,) of the Government and the Clergy for taking their lawful land tax and tithes, and abuse the people because they do not tamely submit to a robbery of sixpence a day on each person or 91. 2s. 6d. ayear, which on a family of eight persons amount to the large sum of 731. yearly, and on a population of 18 millions, to the enormous annual amount of 164,250,0007.!!!—and all this to remunerate them for the tithes and land tax, which they do not pay !! without more than an equivalent in land!!! and which existed when Wheat did not bring sixpence a gallon! And to remunerate them for taxes of which they do not pay their due share with those who support them, those who are the purchasers and consumers of their produce!!! It is this robbery of 164,250,000l. and not the Government Taxation of 60,000,000l. that impoverishes the Country, and which causes that 60,000.000l. to be so severely felt. It has been ascertained that in the united Kingdom there are sixty millions of acres of Land in cultivation, one acre may produce a crop worth 607. another 401. another 201. some are Fallow, &c. but average the whole at only 57. an acre, and the produce amounts to three hundred millions of pounds, one half of which at the least, (i. e. 150 millions,) is an increase since the war commenced, and yet the landowners are not satisfied. As the importation price is now fixed at ten shillings a bushel, one shilling advance on that, is ten per cent. on food generally, or a tax of thirty millions year ly!!! The agriculturists, however, have the modesty to ask an advance of two shillings on the import price, or a tax of sixty millions yearly, which added to the one hundred and fifty millions as above is only, two hundred and ten millions!!! and yet these are the men (many of them,) who complain of 10,000l. being allowed to the Duke of York, and talk of the distresses of the People. What hypocrisy !!! JUSTICIA. CORN LAWS; WITH TABLES TO ILLUSTRATE THEIR PRESSURE ON THE CONSUMER. IN presenting to our readers the following Tables respecting the Corn Laws, we disclaim all party feeling on that great question. They were forwarded to us by an accompanying letter, which we prefix to their insertion. We leave them to that sober and equitable spirit of examination which best becomes a very difficult and complex subject of inquiry, one of the most so, indeed, that the legislature of an Empire so free, and so diversified in its interests and relations as is ours, can have submitted to its attention; premising only that the Agriculturists, Landlord and Farmer, have much fever of feeling to abate, before any reasonable hope can be entertained of their case being presented to the public counsels through any other medium than passion, partiality, and a tone of distrust in their country, bordering pretty closely on revolutionary discontent and menace. We begin, indeed, to suspect that this roar from the land, may make good the old proverb that they cry loudest who are the least hurt." We are reluctant to say so, but they force us to it. Sir John Barley Corn and Farmer Bull are fine hearty fellows with their pipes at their fire side, but make alas! a sad squeak of it with the penny-whistlers of sedition and metaphysicks. SIR, Notwithstanding I consider your statement of the Agricultural Case the best which has appeared in print, yet I think even you are not quite correct; you admit, or rather contend for, one grand principle, of which, those styling themselves agriculturists, appear totally ignorant ; namely, that the increasing population, being employed profitably is the source, and not the effect, of agricultural prosperity. The very thing they are striving for, is a proof of it. If Corn were not cheaper abroad, restriction would be useless; this proves that they themselves look to the HOME Market as the best. The Agriculturists complain of Trade and Commerce being protected and not Agriculture. Every thing that benefits Trade and Commerce improves the home Market for land produce, or why is good Wheat now selling at 10s. per bushel instead of 18d. as in 1655. All this you see clearly, but you have stumbled on the taxation falling unproportionably heavy on the Agriculturists, The fact is, that no class has so many exemptions, and taxation is on them unproportionably light. The very expence of importing foreign corn is at the lowest 6d. per bushel, even at the port of delivery, to say nothing of a further conveyance and distribution of it; and you will see by line No. 4 in the inclosed Table, that 6d. a bushel is (in effect) a tax on the consumers for the benefit of the land-owner of twentyone millions, which is far more than all the agricultural taxes. Falso inclose you a little publication proving to a demonstration that the land tax, tithes, and indeed any old burthens on land, cannot by possibility be any reason for protection; that such charges are indeed, advantageous to the purchaser of an estate. You will also find in it a proposed scale of Income, which I think will meet the approbation of yourself and your readers, provided the assessed taxes, and the other charges there mentioned be repealed. If I can convince you that the Agri. culturists (who neither pay taxes for male servants, houses, turnpikes, and very little for windows or house rent) are taxed equal to other persons who pay heavy postages, commercial and other stamp duties, duties on slave horses; that is, on horses used strictly for professional and trading purposes; male servants, &c. &c. I think I shall be doing great good, which is all I desire. Wotton-underedge, Jan. 1822. R. AGRICULTURAL BAROMETER. SHEWING at one view, that an increase of sixpence in the bushel of wheat is a tax on food generally of fifteen millions a-year. That an increase of two shillings per bushel in the price of wheat, as requested by the Agriculturists, is a tax of sixty millions yearly, with the fair proportion for rent, with which the Landlords are not content, but claim the whole of the advance for themselves. N. B. The Corn Bill which existed before the War was a 488. Bill. The present Corn Bill is thirty-four shillings higher, or an extra tax of one hundred and twenty millions should the Agriculturists get the other two shillings, it will be a tax of one hundred and eighty millions!!! THE following Table shews, at one view, the effect of any legislative or artificial rise of any given sum in the price of Wheat per bushel, on the average value of the produce of every acre of land, and in the gross; also on the Quartern Loaf, on the Consumption of each Individual on the average as a Poll Tax, and on the Pockets of the Consumers of the whole produce; and contains occasional remarks on the gradual progress of this impost, and the insignificance of the Government Taxes, when compared with Corn-Law Taxation. |