And in this committee every member (though it is looked upon as the peculiar province of the chancellor of the exchequer) may propoſe ſuch ſcheme of taxation as he thinks will be leaſt detrimental to the public. The reſolutions of this committee (when approved by a vote of the houſe) are in general eſteemed to be (as it were) final and concluſive. For, though the ſupply cannot be actually raiſed upon the ſubject till directed by an act of the whole parliament, yet no monied man will ſcruple to advance to the government any quantity of ready caſh, on the credit of a bare vote of the houſe of commons, though no law be yet paſſed to eſtabliſh it.
The taxes, which are raiſed upon the ſubject, are either annual or perpetual. The uſual annual taxes are thoſe upon land and malt.
I. The land tax, in it's modern ſhape, has ſuperſeded all the former methods of rating either property, or perſons in reſpect of their property, whether by tenths or fifteenths, ſubſidies on land, hydages, ſcutages, or talliages; a ſhort explication of which will greatly aſſiſt us in underſtanding our antient laws and hiſtory.
Tenths, and fifteenths[1], were temporary aids iſſuing out of perſonal property, and granted to the king by parliament. They were formerly the real tenth or fifteenth part of all the moveables belonging to the ſubject; when ſuch moveables, or perſonal eſtates, were a very different and a much leſs conſiderable thing than what they uſually are at this day. Tenths are ſaid to have been firſt granted under Henry the ſecond, who took advantage of the faſhionable zeal for croiſades to introduce this new taxation, in order to defray the expenſe of a pious expedition to Paleſtine, which he really or ſeemingly had projected againſt Saladine emperor of the Saracens; whence it was originally denominated the Saladine tenth[2]. But afterwards fifteenths were more uſually granted than tenths. Originally the amount of theſe taxes
