every direct taxation, exposed to a most
serious disadvantage. His income cannot be concealed, and it is returned
by others than himself. The farmer or tenant, who has no interest in the
matter, returns his landlord's rent. The trader, shopkeeper, or merchant
estimates and returns his own income. The possessions of the first, and
their annual rental, are universally known, and concealment as to them
is impossible or sure of detection; the gains of the last are entirely
secret, and wrapped up, even to the owner, in books or accounts,
generally unintelligible in all cases but those of considerable
merchants--to all but the persons who prepared them. Whoever is
practically acquainted with human nature will at once perceive the
immense effect which this difference must have on the amount of the
burden, in appearance the same, as it affects the different classes of
society.

And the result of this difference appears in the most decisive manner,
in the amount of the sums paid by the different classes of society, as
shown by the income tax returns. From them, it appears that the
contributions from commerce, trades, and professions of _all sorts_, is
not _quite half_ of that obtained from landed property. The first is,
in round numbers, L2,700,000; the second, L1,500,000.[30] But let it be
recollected that the L1,541,000 a-year, which, in 1845, was paid by
professional men of all descriptions, in Great Britain, included,
besides merchants and traders, the whole class of professional men not
traders, as lawyers, attorneys, physicians, &c. At the very lowest
computation their share of this must amount to L341,000 a-year. There
remains then L1,200,000 as the contribution of trade and commerce, of
all kinds, from Great Britain, while that from land is L2,670,000
a-year, or _considerably more than double_. Can it be believed that this
is founded on a fair return of incomes by the commercial classes? Are
they prepared to admit that their property and income, and consequent
interest and title to sway in the state, is not half of that which is
derived from land? Or do they shelter themselves under the comfortable
assurance that their real income is incomparably greater, and that they
quietly escape with a half or a third of the income tax which they ought
to pay? We leave it to the trading class, and their abettors in the
press, to settle this question with the commissioners of income tax
throughout the country. We mention the fact, t