luxury in one country than another, but an overgrown estate in either is a luxury at all times, and as such is the proper object of taxation. It is, therefore right to take these kind tax-making gentlemen upon their own word, and argue on the principle themselves have laid down, that of taxing luxuries. If they, or their champion Mr. Burke, who, I fear is growing out of date like the man in armour, can prove that an estate of twenty, thirty, or forty thousand pounds a-year is not a luxury, I will give up the argument.

Admitting that any annual sum, say for instance, one thousand pounds, Is necessary or sufficient for the support of a family, consequently the econd thousand is of the nature of a luxury, the third still more so, and by proceeding on, we shall at last arrive at a sum that may not improperly be called a prohibitable luxury. It would be impolitic to set bounds to property acquired by industry, and therefore it is right to place the prohibition beyond the probable acquisition to which industry can extend; but there ought to be a limit to property or the accumuiation of it, by bequest. It should pass in some other line. The richest in every nation have poor relations, and those often very near in consanguinity.

The following table of progressive taxation is constructed on the bove principles, and as a substitute for the commutation tax. It will reach the point of prohibition by a regular operation, and thereby supercede the aristocratical law of primogeniture.

TABLE I.

A tax on all estates of the clear yearly value of fifty pounds, after deducting the land tax, and up

The foregoing table shows the progression per pound on every progressive thousand. The following table shows the amount of the tax on every thousand separately, and in the last column, the total amount of all the separate sums collected.

An estate of 50%. per annum at 3 per pound pays 0 12

7 5 0

After 500.-the tax of sixpence per pound takes place on the second 500/-consequently an estate of 1000l. per annum pays 21/ 158. and so on.

Total Amount.

£ s.

per pound

7 51

21 15

14 10

37 10

59 5

50 0

109 5

75 0

184 5

100

0

284 5

150 0

431 5

200 0

634 5

8th 1000 at 5

250

At the twenty-third thousand the tax becomes twenty shillings in the pound, and consequently every thousand beyond that sum can produce no profit but by dividing the estate. Yet formidable as this tax appears, it will not, I believe, produce so much as the commutation tax; should it produce more, it ought to be lowered to that amount upon estates under two or three thousand a-year.

On small and middling estates it is lighter (as it is intended to be than the commutation tax. It is not till after seven or eight thousan

a year that it begins to be heavy. The object is not so much the produce of the tax, as the justice of the measure. The aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.

As an instance of its screening itself, it is only necessary to look back to the first establishment of the excise laws, at what is called the Restoration, or the coming of Charles the Second. The aristocratical interest then in power, commuted the feudal services itself was under by laying a tax on beer brewed for sale; that is, they compounded with Charles for an exemption from those services for themselves and their heirs, by a tax to be paid by other people. The aristocracy do not purchase beer brewed for sale, but brew their own beer free of the duty; and if any commutation at that time were necessary, it ought to have been at the expense of those for whom the exemptions from those services were intended; instead of which it was thrown on an entirely different class of men.

But the chief object of this progressive tax (besides the justice of rendering taxes more equal than they are) is, as already stated, to extirpate the overgrown influence arising from the unnatural law of primogeniture, and which is one of the principal sources of corrc.. at elections.

It would be attended with no good consequences to inquire how such vast estates as thirty, forty, or fifty thousand a-year could com mence, and that at a time when commerce and manufacture were not in a state to admit of such acquisitions. Let it be sufficient to remedy the evil by putting them in a condition of descending again to the community, by the quiet means of apportioning them among all the heirs and heiresses of those families. This will be the more necessary, because hitherto the aristocracy have quartered their younger children and connections upon the public, in useless posts, places, and offices, which when abolished will leave them destitute, unless the law of primogeniture be also abolished or superseded.

A progressive tax will, in a great measure, effect this object, and that as a matter of interest to the parties most immediately concerned, as will be seen, by the following table; which shews the net produce upon every estate, after substracting the tax. By this it will appear, that after an estate exceeds thirteen or fourteen thousand a-year, the remainder produces but little profit to the holder, and consequently will pass either to the younger children, or to other kindred.

TABLE III.

Shewing the net produce of every estate from one thousand to twenty-three thousand pounds a year.

The tax on beer brewed for sale, from which the aristocracy are exempt, is almost one million more than the present commutation tax, being by the returns of 1788, 1,666,152 and consequently they ought to take on themselves the amount of the commutation tax, as they are already exempted from one which is almost one million greater,

N. B. The odd shillings are dropped in this table.

According to this table, an estate cannot produce more than 12,370%.
clear of the land-tax and the progressive tax, and therefore the dividing
such estates will follow as a matter of family interest. An estate of
23 0007. a-year, divided into five estates of four thousand each and one
of three, will be charged only 11297. which is but five per cent., but if
held by one possessor will be charged 10,630.

Although an inquiry into the origin of those estates be unnecessary,
the continuation of them in their present shape is another subject. It
is a matter of national concern. As hereditary estates, the law has
created the evil, and it ought also to provide the remedy. Primo-
geniture ought to be abolished, not only because it is unnatural and
unjust, but because the country suffers by its operation. By cutting
off (as before observed) the younger children from their proper portion
of inheritance, the public is loaded with the expense of maintaining
them; and the freedom of elections violated by the overbearing influence
which this unjust monopoly of family property produces. Nor is this
all. It occasions a waste of national property. A considerable part
of the land of the country is rendered unproductive by the great
extent of parks and chases which this law serves to keep up, and this
at a time when the annual production of grain is not equal to the
national consumption.* In short, the evils of the aristocratical
system are so great and numerous, so inconsistent with everything
that is just, wise, natural, and beneficent, that when they are con

See the reports on the corn trade.

sidered, there ought not to be a doubt that many, who are now classed under that description, will wish to see such a system abolished.

What pleasure can they derive from contemplating the exposed condition, and almost certain beggary of their younger offspring? Every aristocratical family has an appendage of family beggars hanging round it, which in a few ages, or a few generations, are shook off, and console themselves with telling their tale in alms-houses, workhouses, and prisons. This is the natural consequence of aristocracy. The peer and the beggar are often of the same family. One extreme produces the other; to make one rich many must be made poor; neither can the system be supported by other means.

There are two classes of people to whom the laws of England are particularly hostile, and those the most helpless; younger children and the poor. Of the former I have just spoken, of the latter I shall mention one instance out of the many that might be produced, and with which I shall close this subject.

Several laws are in existence for regulating and limiting workmen's wages. Why not leave them as free to make their own bargains as the law-makers are to let their farms and houses? Personal labour is all the property they have. Why is that little, and the little freedom they enjoy, to be infringed? But the injustice will appear stronger, if we consider the operation and effect of such laws. When wages are fixed by what is called a law, the legal wages remain stationary, while everything else is in progression; and as those who make that law, still continue to lay on new taxes by other laws, they increase the expense of living by one law, and take away the means by another.

But if those gentlemen law-makers and tax-makers thought it right to limit the poor pittance which personal labour can produce, and on which a whole family is to be supported, they certainly must feel themselves happily indulged in a limitation on their own part, of not less than twelve thousand a-year, and that of property they never acquired (nor properly any of their ancestors), and of which they have made so ill a use.

Having now finished this subject, I shall bring the several particulars into one view, and then proceed to other matters.

The first EIGHT ARTICLES are brought forward from page 143. 1. Abolition of two million poor-rates.

2. Provision for two hundred and fifty-two thousand poor families, at the rate of four pounds per head for each child under fourteen years of age; which, with the addition of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, provides also education for one million and thirty thousand children.

3. Annuity of six pounds (per ann.) each for all poor persons, decayed tradesmen, and others (supposed seventy thousand (of the age of fifty years, and until sixty.

4. Annuity of ten pounds each for life for all poor persons, decayed tradesmen, and others (supposed 70,000) of the age of sixty years. 5. Donations of twenty shillings each for fifty thousand births.

6. Donations of twenty shillings each for twenty thousand marriages. 7. Allowance of twenty thousand pounds for the funeral expenses of persons travelling for work, and dying at a distance from their friends. 8. Employment at all times for the casual poor in the cities of Lon don and Westminster.