TITHE COMMUTATION.

343

produce markets. But if all the land now subject to tithe were at once exempted, or the tithe on all commuted, (which is the same thing as respects its influence over cultivation,) the increased ap→ plication of capital and labour to this land which would follow its release from a tax on the gross produce, must so increase the stock of corn and other agricultural produce in the markets as to lower prices. The fall of prices would both lower the rent of lands now tithe-free, and prevent the rent of the land now tithed, from rising to the extent of the tithe at present raised from them. The landlords of both classes of estates, therefore, would suffer from a commutation. This, however, is what would occur only in case the whole of the agricultural produce consumed in the country were home-grown; in which case alone its prices are determined by the cost of production in this country, of which tithe is an element. But when, as has happened for some years past, a considerable proportion of the corn consumed is imported, the price is determined by the cost at which it can be imported; and in this case the additional produce which would be raised at home if the tithe were abolished or commuted, instead of lowering prices materially in our markets, would only come into use in place of an equal quantity now imported from abroad, and which an inconsiderable fall of the average price would probably keep out of the market. Under these circumstances, therefore, the tithe may be said to be chiefly, though certainly not altogether, paid at present by the landlord; and, consequently, would in that proportion go to him if remitted. Should any

alteration be made in the terms on which foreign corn is admitted, having the effect of lowering prices in this country, the loss would fall wholly upon the landlords, whom the present duty on imported corn, averaging as it has done, since 1828, 6s. 8d. per quarter, (or about 10 per cent. on the prices of this period,) just compensates in the aggregate for the payment of tithe. Whether they have a right to claim this compensation is another question, which we will not here attempt to determine.

These difficulties, however, should not prevent an immediate commutation of tithe-the most injurious and detestable of all possible taxes, since it operates as a penalty on the cultivation of the soil, and on the growth of food and the raw materials of industry, and inflicts an artificial sterility on a large portion of the surface of Britain.

The amount of Local Taxation, levied chiefly on land, in the shape of poor, county, highway, and church rates, acts as another hurtful restraint on the application of industry to agriculture, in as far as these imposts press with greater severity on that than on any other branch of industry.

It appears from a parliamentary document, that the total sum levied as poor-rate and county-rate in England and Wales, in the year ending 25th March, 1826, was 6,966,1577., of which there was levied,

LOCAL TAXATION.

From Dwelling-houses. 1,814,2287., or

From Mills, Factories, &c. 249,5657., or

The highway and church rates being levied on the same assessment must be supposed to press in the same unequal proportions on these different classes of productive investments.

The Highway-rates of 1825-6 amounted to 1,121,834/.
The Church-rates of the same year, to
Which added to the Poor and County rates, as

564,388%

6,966,157%.

8,652,3791.

of which it appears that the agriculturists paid more than seven-tenths-the owners of dwelling. houses more than five-twentieths, the owners of mus and factories only one twenty-seventh part, while the proprietors of capital invested in stocks in trade, the funds, mortgages, annuities, and personal wealth of all description, paid actually nothing whatever. But these taxes are levied for purposes of general public advantage, for the preservation of internal tranquillity and the security of property, through the suppression of mendicancy, vagrancy, and the crimes which unrelieved misery would be sure to engender-for the maintenance of the buildings consecrated to the national worship-for the necessary expenses of the local judicatures, and judicial proceedings,-and for the reparation of roads which are used by all classes of the people. These objects being equally beneficial to all, there can be no good reason why the owners of all property, however invested, should not contribute in equal proportions towards their

attainment. The total exemption of all personal property from contribution offers a premium to the unproductive employment of capital; while the unequal pressure of these imposts on different productive investments must evidently act as a factitious discouragement to the employment of labour and capital in that branch of industry which is most heavily burdened. And the placing no less than seven-tenths of a tax of this magnitude, levied for general national purposes, upon agriculture only, is an extraordinary instance of impolicy, since (as we remarked in the case of tithes) it operates as a penalty on the production of the first necessaries of life, for a people but scantily supplied with them.

If the plans were adopted which we suggested in the last chapter, for raising the necessary fund for the maintenance of the infirm poor, and such as are temporarily thrown out of employment, by a compulsory subscription from wages, and for exporting all the permanent surplus of labour to the colonies at their expense, the amount of the poor-rate would be greatly reduced, and its pressure completely equalized upon all property, since it would then enter in equal proportions into the elementary cost of all commodities. For the churchrate, it is to be hoped, that, having relieved the Irish from this payment, Government will shortly see the expediency of placing the maintenance of ecclesiastical buildings upon the church establishment, in England likewise. The highwayrate is comparatively trifling, and its levy and application is at the present moment undergoing the revision of the legislature. The county-rate

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347

might by some very simple corrections be imposed with greater fairness than at present upon the property for the protection of which it is chiefly

raised.

The enormous expense of the act of parliament which is now required for enclosing waste land. in which various parties are interested, is another serious obstacle in the way of the improvement of land in this country, and the increase of its productiveness. The cost of an enclosure act, and the accompanying expenses of survey and applotment, &c., rarely falls within a thousand pounds, and often exceeds five times that sum. It is obvious that the enclosure and effective tillage of many small tracts of waste land. must be prevented by the necessity of incurring this heavy outlay for merely obtaining the permission of the legislature. A general enclosure act, containing some simple and cheap machinery for determining the propriety of such a step, and adjudicating the respective claims of the parties interested, would tend materially to encourage the application of capital and labour in this most beneficial direction. The fact, that upwards of 4000 private enclosure bills have been passed within the last half century, strongly demonstrates the expediency of a general act for the purpose of saving the necessity of this awkward and expensive local legislation. Can anything be more strongly condemnatory of the present system of legislation, or rather of the want of system which characterizes our legislation, than the fact of 4000 acts of parliament having been passed in so short