the pound for lands, and 2 s. 8d. for goods; and for those of aliens in a double proportion. But this affeffment was also made according to an antient valuation; wherein the computation was so very moderate, and the rental of the kingdom was fuppofed to be fo exceeding low, that one fubfidy of this fort did not, according to fir Edward Coke 1, amount to more than 70000 /. whereas a modern land-tax at the same rate produces two millions. It was antiently the rule never to grant more than one fubfidy, and two fifteenths at a time: but this rule was broken through for the first time on a very preffing occafion, the Spanish invafion in 1588; when the parliament gave queen Elizabeth two fubfidies and four-fifteenths. Afterwards, as money funk in value, more fubfidies were given; and we have an instance in the first parliament of 1640, of the king's defiring twelve fubfidies of the com[311] mons, to be levied in three years; which was looked upon

as a startling proposal: though lord Clarendon fays*, that the speaker, ferjeant Glanville, made it manifeft to the house, how very inconfiderable a fum twelve fubfidies amounted to, by telling them he had computed what he was to pay for them himfelf; and when he named the fum, he being known to be poffeffed of a great eftate, it feemed not worth any farther deliberation. And indeed, upon calculation, we fhall find, that the total amount of thefe twelve fubfidies, to be raised in three years, is lefs than what is now raised in one year, by a land tax of two fhillings in the pound.

THE grant of fcutages, talliages, or fubfidies by the commons did not extend to fpiritual preferments; those being ufually taxed at the fame time by the clergy themselves in convocation: which grants of the clergy were confirmed in parliament, otherwife they were illegal, and not binding; as the fame noble writer obferves of the fubfidies granted by the convocation, which continued fitting after the diffolution of the first parliament in 1640. A fubfidy granted by the clergy was after the rate of 45. in the pound according to the valuation of their livings in the king's books; and 1 4

14 Inst. 53.

k Hift. b. 2.

Inft. 33.

amounted,

amounted, as fir Edward Coke tells us, to about 20000 1. While this cuftom continued, convocations were wont to fit as frequently as parliaments: but the last fubfidies, thus given by the clergy, were those confirmed by ftatute 15 Car. II. cap. 10. fince which another method of taxation has generally prevailed, which takes in the clergy as well as the laity in recompence for which the beneficed clergy have from that period been allowed to vote at the election of knights of the fhire"; and thenceforward also the practice of giving ecclefiaftical subsidies hath fallen into total disuse.

THE lay fubfidy was usually raised by commiffioners appointed by the crown, or the great officers of ftate: and therefore in the beginning of the civil wars between Charles I. and his parliament, the latter having no other sufficient revenue [312] to fupport themselves and their measures, introduced the practice of laying weekly and monthly affeffments" of a specific fum upon the several counties of the kingdom; to be levied by a pound rate on lands and perfonal estates: which were occasionally continued during the whole ufurpation, fometimes at the rate of 120000 l. a month, fometimes at inferior rates. After the restoration the antient method of granting fubfidies, instead of fuch monthly affeffments, was twice, and twice only, renewed; viz. in 1663, when four fubfidies were granted by the temporalty, and four by the clergy; and in 1670, when 800000 7. was raised by way of fubfidy, which was the last time of raising supplies in that manner (18). For, the monthly affeffiments being nowestablished

4

Inft. 33.

m Dalt. of fheriffs, 418. Gilb. hift.

of exch. c. 4.

n 29 Nov. 4 Mar. 1642.

• One of thefe bills of affeffment, in 1656, is preferved in Scobell's collection, 400. (17)

(17) Sir John Sinclair has given the proportions to be levied upon each county of an assessment of 70,000 l. a month in the year 1660, in his Hiftory of the Public Revenue, 1 part, 189.

(18) No fubfidies were granted after 1663, 15 Car. II. c. 9. & 10.

either by the laity or clergy
The learned Judge has been

misled by the title to the act of the 22 & 23 Car. II. c. 3. in the

VOL. I.

Dd

year

by cuftom, being raifed by commiffioners named by parlia ment, and producing a more certain revenue; from that time forwards we hear no more of fubfidies, but occafional affeffments were granted as the national emergencies required. Thefe periodical affeffments, the fubfidies which preceded them, and the more antient fcutage, hydage, and talliage, were to all intents and purposes a land tax; and the affeffments were fometimes exprefsly called fo P. Yet a popular opinion has prevailed, that the land tax was first introduced in the

P Com. journ. 26 Jun. 9 Dec. 1678.

year 1670, when he declares it was the last time of raising supplies by way of fubfidy; for the title of it is, "An act to grant a fab

fidy to his majesty for fupply of his extraordinary occafions." But although, among a great variety of other taxes, 1s. in the pound is to be raised upon land, yet the mode of collecting it is totally different from the former fubfidy affeffment: it is to be levied by exactly the fame plan and arrangements which were afterwards adopted in the 4 W. & M. And according to the regulations in the ftatute 4 W. & M. c. 1. and the valuation of eftates made at that time, the parliament every year at prefent renews the grant of the land-tax, and orders it to be collected. All the material claufes of the ftatute in the 22 & 23 Car. II. are copied verbatim in that of the 4 W. & M.; the act of Charles is not printed in the common edition of the Statutes at Large, but it is given at length in Keble's edition. And even then this scheme of taxing landed property was not a novelty, for it was first introduced in the time of the commonwealth. The fubftance of this plan may be feen in an act for an assessment to raise 60,000l. a month in Scobell's acts, 1656, c. 12.

To thofe who have leifure and opportunity, it might afford entertainment to inquire what was the difference of the affeffments returned into the exchequer in the years 1656, 1670, and 1692. For befides the prefent difproportion in the affeffment neceffarily arifing from a more improved cultivation of land in fome counties, it is commonly fuppofed that there was an original inequality in the valuation of eftates, from the liberality or fraud of the owners and affeffors in their representations of the value, according to their at tachment or averfion to the new government. 7

reign

reign of king William III; becaufe in the year 1692 a new affeffment or valuation of eftates was made throughout the kingdom: which, though by no means a perfect one, had this effect, that a fupply of 5000co / was equal to 1 s. in the pound of the value of the eftates given in. And, according to this enhanced valuation, from the year 1693 to the prefent, a period of above fourscore years, the land tax has continued an annual charge upon the subject; above half the time at 45 in the pound, fometimes at 35, fometimes at 25, twice at Is, but without any total intermiffion. The me dium has been 3 s. 3 d. in the pound; being equivalent with twenty-three antient fubfidies, and amounting annually to more than a million and a half of money. The method of [ 313 ] raifing it is by charging a particular fum upon each county, according to the valuation given in, A. D. 1692: and this sum is afsessed and raifed upon individuals (their perfonal eftates, as well as real, being liable thereto) by commiffioners appointed in the act, being the principal landholders of the county, and their officers (19).

II. THE other annual tax is the malt tax; which is a fum of 7500001. raised every year by parliament, ever fince 1697, by a duty of 6 d. in the bushel on malt, and a proportionable fum on certain liquors, fuch as cyder and perry, which might otherwife prevent the confumption of malt. This is under the management of the commiffioners of the excife; and is indeed itself no other than an annual excife, the nature of which species of taxation I fhall presently ex9 In the years 1732 and 1733.

(19) The commiffioners are appointed annually in the renewed act; but they cannot execute the office in any county, except in Wales, under a penalty of 50l. unless they have fome eftate or intereft in land within the county, of the clear value of 100 l. a year, and which was taxed for that fum at the leaft the year before. The affeffors and collectors are principal inhabitants appointed by the commiffioners. See the particular provifions of the ftatute in Burn's Juftice, title, Land Tax.

plain only premising at present, that in the year 1760 an additional perpetual excife of 3d. per bushel was laid upon malt; to the produce of which a duty of 15 per cent, or nearly an additional halfpenny per bufhel, was added in 1779 (20): and that in 1763 a proportionable excife was laid upon cyder and perry, but. fo new-modelled in 1766, as fcarce to be worth collecting (21).

THE perpetual taxes are,

I. THE Cuftoms; or the duties, toll, tribute, or tariff, payable upon merchandize exported and imported. The confi derations upon which this revenue (or the more antient part of it, which arofe only from exports) was invested in the king, were faid to be two; 1. Because he gave the subject leave to depart the kingdom, and to carry his goods along with him. 2. Because the king was bound of common right to maintain and keep up the ports and havens, and to protect the merchant from pirates. Some have imagined they are

Dyer. 165.

(20) And in the next year, a further additional duty of 6 d. a bufhel was laid upon malt. But by the confolidation act, 27 Geo. III. c. 13. these duties are repealed; and, in lieu of them, 944. is laid upon every bushel of malt in England, and half as much in Scotland. Sir John Sinclair states, that from Michaelmas 1787 to Michaelmas 1788, the net produce of the perpetual excife upon malt was 724,786 1.; the annual excise 603,3171.; the duties upon beer 1,666,1527.; upon British spirits 509,167.: fo that barley yielded a clear revenue of 3,503,4221. 3 Sinc. 125.

(21) Though the land-tax is fuppofed, and ftated in the annual act, to raise, at 4s. in the pound, an income of 1,989,673. 75. 10d. for England; and 47,954. 1s. 2 d. for Scotland; making in all, 2,037,6271. 9s. old. yet Sir John Sinclair fhews, with great appearance of accuracy, that it is fo uniformly deficient, that, upon an average, the whole amount ought not to be estimated at more than 1,900,000l. and that the annual malt tax, after two very favourable years, ending at Michaelmas 1788, did not average more than 600,ocol. 3 Part, 108. 117.

called