Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/69

Rh Decennial Settlement of the public revenue, is from henceforth fixed for ever.

'To enter into a detail of the advantages that will, in all probability, be derived from the various articles of this proclamation, by confirming the claims of all ranks of proprietors, and abolishing many inferior duties, would lead into a very wide field, which we could but imperfectly explore; but the great purpose of it, the permanent settlement of the land-tax, we consider as involving so much political truth with practical benefit, that we cannot pass it over without endeavouring to illustrate what it is impossible not to admire.

'It has frequently been a subject of controversy among philosophers and financiers, whether the taxation of land should be fixed according to a certain valuation, not afterwards to be altered, or formed on a scale which varies with each variation of the real rent of the land, and rises or falls with the improvement or declension of its cultivation. Government has, on the present occasion, adopted the former system; and we think, however specious the latter may appear, it is founded on a mistaken principle, as it in argument supposes that considerable improvements will arise, while in fact it at the same moment throws the strongest check upon every species of improvement and industry; namely, that the Government, which bears no part in the expense, shall bear away a share of the profits of improvement.

'Under the former system of land-tax, the revenue is rendered certain to the Government as well as to the Individual, and nothing is left to the arbitrary disposal of the one, or the evasion and dishonesty of the other; at the same time the strongest inducement is held out to the proprietor to improve the value of his estate, for as that is