The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 146: THE LAND TAX INCREASED.

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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

THE LAND TAX INCREASED.

On the 13th of November Lord North moved in the commons that the land-tax should be raised to four shillings in the pound. An amendment was moved by the opposition that it should be three shillings instead of four; but this was negatived by a large majority, and the original motion was carried. War with America had been warmly advocated by the country gentlemen, and some of the opposition sarcastically congratulated them upon this enviable first-fruits of their coercive measures; while others attempted to gall them by declaring that it would prove a perpetual mortgage on their estates. To say the least of it, it was an ungracious return made by Lord North for their support, and it seems to have had the effect of considerably cooling their fiery ardour for war.