individuals, the confirmed prejudices of
great bodies of people, seem, indeed, at present,
to oppose to so great a change, such obstacles
as it may be very difficult, perhaps altogether
impossible, to surmount. Without,
however, pretending to determine whether
such a union be practicable or impracticable,
it may not, perhaps, be improper, in a speculative
work of this kind, to consider how far
the British system of taxation might be applicable
to all the different provinces of the empire;
what revenue might be expected from
it, if so applied; and in what manner a general
union of this kind might be likely to affect
the happiness and prosperity of the different
provinces comprehended within it. Such
a speculation, can, at worst, be regarded but
as a new Utopia, less amusing, certainly, but
no more useless and chimerical than the old
one.
The land tax, the stamp duties, and the
different duties of customs and excise, constitute
the four principal branches of the British
taxes.
Ireland is certainly as able, and our American
and West India plantations more able,
to pay a land tax, than Great Britain. Where
the landlord is subject neither to tythe nor
poor's rate, he must certainly be more able to
pay such a tax, than where he is subject to
both those other burdens. The tythe, where
there is no modus, and where it is levied in
kind, diminishes more what would otherwise
be the rent of the landlord, than a land tax
which really amounted to five shillings in the
pound. Such a tythe will be found, in most
cases, to amount to more than a fourth part
of the real rent of the land, or of what remains
after replacing completely the capital of the
farmer, together with his reasonable profit. If
all moduses and all impropriations were taken
away, the complete church tythe of Great Britain
and Ireland could not well be estimated
at less than six or seven millions. If there
was no tythe either in Great Britain or Ireland,
the landlords could afford to pay six or
seven millions additional land tax, without
being more burdened than a very great part
of them are at present. America pays no
tythe, and could, therefore, very well afford
to pay a land tax. The lands in America
and the West Indies, indeed, are, in general,
not tenanted nor leased out to farmers. They
could not, therefore, be assessed according to
any rent roll. But neither were the lands of
Great Britain, in the 4th of William and
Mary, assessed according to any rent roll, but
according to a very loose and inaccurate estimation.
The lands in America might be assessed
either in the same manner, or in according
to an equitable valuation, in consequence
of an accurate survey, like that which was
lately made in the Milanese, and in the dominions
of Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia.
Stamp duties, it is evident, might be levied
without any variation, in all countries where
the forms of law process, and the deeds by
which property, both real and personal, is
transferred, are the same, or nearly the same.
The extension of the custom-house laws of
Great Britain to Ireland and the plantations,
provided it was accompanied, as in justice it
ought to be, with an extension of the freedom
of trade, would be in the highest degree
advantageous to both. All the invidious restraints
which at present oppress the trade of
Ireland, the distinction between the enumerated
and non-enumerated commodities of America,
would be entirely at an end. The
countries north of Cape Finisterre would be
as open to every part of the produce of America,
as those south of that cape are to some
parts of that produce at present. The trade
between all the different parts of the British
empire would, in consequence of this uniformity
in the customs-house laws, be as free as
the coasting trade of Great Britain is at present.
The British empire would thus afford,
within itself, an immense internal market for
every part of the produce of all its different
provinces. So great an extension of market
would soon compensate, both to Ireland and
the plantations, all that they could suffer from
the increase of the duties of customs.
The excise is the only part of the British
system of taxation, which would require to
be varied in any respect, according as it was
applied to the different provinces of the empire.
It might be applied to Ireland without
any variation; the produce and consumption
of that kingdom being exactly of the
same nature with those of Great Britain. In
its application to America and the West Indies,
of which the produce and consumption
are so very different from those of Great Britain,
some modification might be necessary,
in the same manner as in its application to
the cyder and beer counties of England.
A fermented liquor, for example, which is
called beer, but which, as it is made of molasses,
bears very little resemblance to our
beer, makes a considerable part of the common
drink of the people in America. This
liquor, as it can be kept only for a few days,
cannot, like our beer, be prepared and stored
up for sale in great breweries, but every private
family must brew it for their own use,
in the same manner as they cook their victuals.
But to subject every private family to
the odious visits and examination of the tax-gatherers,
in the same manner as we subject
the keepers of alehouses and the brewers for
public sale, would be altogether inconsistent
with liberty. If, for the sake of equality, it
was thought necessary to lay a tax upon this
liquor, it might be taxed by taxing the material
of which it is made, either at the place of
manufacture, or, if the circumstances of the
trade rendered such an excise improper, by
laying a duty upon its importation into the