THE TAXATION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE Is an inquiry into

the nature and tendency of many of our taxes, rather than a comprehensive or even a complete review of our fiscal system. The plan Mr. MARTIN has pursued is to class the principal items of our taxation under four leading heads,-1. Taxes which destroy the morals or lessen the comforts of the people; 2. Taxes which press on industry or on the internal trade of the kingdom ; 3. Taxes on articles of Colonial or Foreign com- merce, which do not so immediately affect internal trade or the comforts of the people; 4. Taxes on the Rich or on Property. He then, in the manner adopted in the Spectator's Supplement, when treating of the Excise and Stamps, proceeds to consider seriatim the different articles, arranged under each head. In this analysis, lie brings together from various sources a great many statistical facts connected with each different tax, especially those facts which show how invariably the revenue on articles of consump- tion falls with an increase and rises with a decrease in the rates of duties. In the number of these details, and in the neatness of their typographical exhibition, the principal value of the work con- sists; for Mr. MARTIN does not add much to our stock . of know- ledge, either practical or scientific. His opinions are frequently crude or superficial ; and he seems not to possess science enough to enable him to maintain consistency in his statements. Thus, when arguing in favour of the Corn-laws, he not only represents the "poor and county rates, land taxes, tithes," &c., but even the "malt and hop taxes, as exclusive burdens on the land." In another place, he affirms that a land-tax falls neither upon the landlord nor on the cultivator, but on the consumer of agricultural produce.

Besides the chapters already enumerated, there is one entitled " Corn-laws no Tax," and another containing a slight account of the "Taxation of the Transmarine parts of the Empire." The conclusion to which Mr. MARTIN finally comes is, that the follow- ing are the taxes "for which substitutes ought immediately to be found."

House and Window £2,535,384 Malt and Hop 4,507,926' Paper 677,103 Glass 531,493 Soap 1,138,261 Bricks 300,000 Advertisements 172,000 Almanacks and Pamphlets 30,029 Stage-coaches 422,479

£10,314,675

This deficiency Mr. MARTIN would supply by a Property or rather an Income-tax : yet it may be questioned whether an income-tax be not as bad as the worst of the taxes he would abo- lish. "If the inquisitorialness of a tax on property or income be found insuperable," he would then extend "the system of stamp licences to every trade, profession, &c." To which, as we have al- ready observed in the Supplement on Taxation, there is the objec- tion of inequality.

A dealer, for instance, who gained 2,000/. or 3,0001., would pay no more than another who gets but 2001. or 300/. The Government attempt, in the case of the learned professions, to graduate according to the length of time the individual has practised, is but a clumsy plan. To take the rent of the house, the size of the premises, or the number of persons employed, would be little better, and very vexatious. A test, derived, like that upon maltsters, from the quantity of business done, is only practicable where the trade is subject to the Excise. Any graduation founded on an inquiry into the receipts would be a bastard and partial income-tax. It would not extend to a man's whole income, but merely to that portion of it derived from his occupation; and both stipen- diaries and persons living on their property would escape.—Spectator's Key to Political Knowledge, No. 3, p. 17.

Mr. MARTIN is exceedingly complimentary to ourselves.. He- not only refers to our labours on the subject of Taxation, in terms of high commendation, but makes several extracts with due acknowledgment, and probably some without. All, however, is not assent. He differs with us on the incidence of the House and Window-tax; yet even then he contradicts with a compliment; and the following "lengthened remarks" are given as "due to a statement coming from a journal of such high character and talent as the Spectator." It is alleged in palliation of the House and Window tax, that they do not affect the tenant, but fall upon the landlord. This assertion is easily replied to. If a person be desirous of renting a house, his first question to the landlord is, "What is the rent you demand?" The answer is, 100/. a year. The intend- ing tenant then immediately inquires, "Pray how much are the taxes?" and is informed 25/. If the tenant agree to take the house for a term of years at.a rent of 100/. a year, he certainly does not consider the 25/. taxes to be any part of the landlord's profits; he does not pay them to the landlord; he struggles as much as possible to get rid of, or to diminish" those taxes (the landlord never troubles himself on the subject); and if they be repealed, the atheu et remains in his own pocket, the landlord having clearly no right to a farthing of the proceeds. If the House and Window tax fell on the latter (as the Spectator ingeniously contends), he would not separate it from his rent—he would he interested in the matter, and he would not allow the tenant to benefit by a remission. More- over, if a tenant have mnitted to pay the House and Window tax: for a year, and privily by night withdraw all his chattels therefrom, the Government can- not seize on the empty house, which is alone the properto of the landlord, in order to meet the defalcation. If the editor of the Spectator enter a grocer's shop and require a pound of tea to be furnished him, for which he pays 5s. (one half of which is a tax levied by the Government), he surely does not consider that the duty of 2s. 6d. out of 5s. falls on the glocer,—its incidence is on the consumer, the editor and his family. A house is like any other commodity offered for sale ; its fixedness makes no difference, fur a large wooden dwelling- hence on rollers is liable to a tax as woll as if it were built of brick or stone, provided it have a certain number of windows and be rated at a.certsin value. If a man be desirous of speculating in the stage-coach business and hires a coach for a year from a builder in Long Acre, the builder lets the carriage for the year required as a landlord would a house ; but the tax levied on stage- coaches is not paid by the builder—he has nothing to say to it : the speculator who rents the carriage pays the tax while using the coach, as the tenant does for a house; but neither can consider the house-builder or the coach-builder as the persons who pay the impost levied by the state : in all the three cases given (the consumer of tea, the stage-coach driver, and the shopkeeper), the taxes fall on the consumer. Why is it that tithes form so obnox-ious a charge? Do they fall upon the wealthy proplietor, or upon the industrious cultivator? Certainly not on the former. When a man is desirous of taking a them, he ascertains what the tithe is as soon as he hears the amount of rent. The lay or clerical impropriator does not look to the landiord—be looks to the farmer for the payment of tithe; and if he choose to remit his demand, or to lessen it, the benefitis to the tenant, not to the first owner.—P. 88, 89, 90.

It is scarcely necessary to observe on the more than verbal loose-

ness in these passages—on the overlooking of the very essential dif- ference between rent and profit (which is the point really at issue)— on the confounding real with apparent or legal incidence—or on that confusion of ideas which induces Mr. MARTIN to maintain that the House-tax does not fall on the landlord because he 'does not directly pay it, whilst he instances the case of tea, where the pay- ment by the person really taxed is clearly indirect. Even, how- ever, as he puts his case, the rejoinder is as easy as the reply. The landlord "never troubles himself on the subject" of the House and Window taxes, because he has faith in their permanency : the payment to him would be very troublesome, and, if made by an agent, expensive; whilst the tenant would naturally object to the plan, for the Legislature haying charged these taxes upon the occupier, any neglect of the landlord might subject the tenant to have his (roods seized. During the time their repeal seemed inevitable, the landlord, however, did not "separate them from his rent :" several agreements were made at that period, which stipulated that in case of repeal the rent should rise by the amount of the tax ; so that the landlord did not intend to allow the tenant to benefit by a remission."

There is no analogy between houses, tea, and stage-coaches.

The two* latter are produced at the lowest cost; and if the supply fell short so as to create a monopoly price, the competition of pro- ducers would bring more of the commodity to market till the balance was adjusted. But the advantages of situation, whether in business or fashion, cannot so easily be brought to a level. No competition can take place between landlords in London and in the wilds of Cumberland—little between those of Regent Street and Hoxton ; and it would be difficult to get up a rival Grosvenor Square at Hockley-in-the-Hole. Hence arise ground-rents, dis- tinct from building-rents, or the return to the speculator's invest- ment; and it is upon these ground-rents as a monopoly price that the taxes on houses finally fall. When the speculation fails, the tax falls- upon the speculator, owing to the fixed nature of his pro- perty; which cannot, like the stage-coach Mr. MARTIN instances, be transferred to another road, or laid down altogether, at a much less loss than a persistence in running it would occasion. But did any person, either through an act of Parliament or the nature of things, possess the monopoly of conveying passengers on a well- frequented road, his fares would be raised to a monopoly price; and the tax on stage-coaches at present paid by the public, and not by the " speculators," as Mr. MARTIN asserts) would fall on his monopoly profits. if„ on the other hand, a stage and all its appliances of horses, drivers, cads, &c., partook of the " fixedness" of a house, if it could not be moved from an overstocked road, or discontinued altogether,—not only would the tax on stages fall on the speculator, but competition would still further diminish his profits, and perhaps entirely destroy them.

The incidence of tithes does not depend on scientific investiga- tion—it is palpable to the pocket. In the case of two farms, alike

* Teats not a good instance, as it is in fact subject to a monopoly. It may be questioned if the greater part of any present reduction would not go into the pockets of the East India Company. Mr. MARTIN, in this case, however, is consistent with him. self; for he holds that although the Company's teas are double the price of those with whieh private traders would supply us; yet their goodness is also double. The obser- vations in the text would better apply to soap or paper.

in all other respects save that one is tithe-free and the other not, Iemby, as Shainaguava; this was an extraordinary man for a savage, and stood

the rent of the former always exceeds that of the latter by the time kingdom.

amount of the tithe. English Bill, as he called himself, was very useful to us on many occasions; We have already praised the statistical tables with which the he was a thin slight man, about five feet five inches in height, and thirty years work abounds. The value of these documents of course depends of age; with a meagre aspect, a keen, restless, and quick eye, an infinite fund upon their accuracy. We have tested several of them, and are bounded impudence when necessary; but so great was his command over him- bound in justice to award them the praise of correctness. Had Mr. self, that he could heal! things to all men ; he was intrusive where he could be MARTIN added a complete :table of the different sums received so with impunity, but he knew in an instant when it was right to be respectful during the past year from each item subjected to taxation, his vo- and cautious. lume would have been a vade mecum of the Statistics of Taxation. lie seldom failed in carrYing any point he desired, by uniting to the most art- As we have already intimated, the science of the subject must be ful cunning no unparalleled perseverance. With the junior officers, he was a sought elsewhere.