is made, as has been shown, in an invariable manner between the nine provinces of the kingdom. On the 31st of December all the revenue liable to taxation is added up in each province as determined by the Cadastre, (survey of lands.) This total sum of revenue divided by the amount fixed for the province, gives the per centum of tax to be paid under this head for the year. It is evident, therefore, that with the increase of buildings, improvements, and consequent valuation of lands, that this tax, the amount of which was fixed arbitrarily years ago, is now much lighter upon the real property of the country than at the time of its establishment. The number of proprietors in Belgium who pay this tax

is about 848,000.

2. Personal tax.-This tax is established by the law of June 28, 1822, upon the six following bases: 1, rental; 2, doors and windows; 3, fire-places; 4, furniture; 5, domestics; 6, horses. The law carefully defines these bases

and determines the amount of the tax as follows:

1st basis-rental.-Article 2. "The personal tax upon rentals shall be 4 per cent. upon the annual gross rental of every dwelling or building."

2d basis-doors and windows.-Article 13. "The following tariff shall be paid for every door or window opening upon streets, courts, gardens, waters, or canals: For doors and windows of the ground floor and windows of first and second stories, in towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants, for each door or window, 17 cents; in towns of over 5,000 souls, but under 10,000, 21 cents for each door or window; in towns of 10,000 souls and over, but under 25,000. 25 cents for each door or window; in towns of 25,000 and over, and under 50,000, for each door or window, 34 cents; in towns of 50,000 and over, for each door or window, 464 cents. Windows of the higher stories and doors and windows of cellars which are used as dwellings, pay, in towns under 5,000 inhabitants, 17 cents each, and in towns over 5,000 inhabitants, 21 cents.

3d basis-fire-places.-When there is but one fire-place in a building, 17 cents; when there are two, each pays 32 cents; when three and more, up to twelve, for each 74 cents.-(Article 19.)

4th basis-furniture. This tax is 20 cents for every $20 of valuation of furniture.-(Article 25.)

5th basis-servants.-For each domestic in the service of an individual or a family, the tax is $2 97. Where only one female servant is employed, the tax is only $1 69. For workmen or work women employed at the same time as domestics, the tax for each is $1 74.

6th basis-horses.-Upon horses of three years old and upwards the tax is as follows: For every pleasure horse kept by an individual or family, $8 48; for every horse kept by stage proprietors, riding-school owners, or livery-stable keepers, serving for the transportation of persons, $2 12; for horses exclusively destined for agriculture, manufactories, mills, professions, and trades, and which are also employed attached to spring vehicles, the tax for each is $2 87; for the horse of every soldier or functionary kept in accordance with the regulations of his service, when employed for other service than that prescribed by the regulations, the tax is $2 87; for every horse kept by a soldier or functionary in excess of the number fixed by the regulations, the tax is $8 48.

Horse merchants, or those whom the public recognize as such, at their places of residence, duly licensed, and who are not keepers of livery, if they have less than ten horses, pay $8 48; if they have ordinarily more than ten, they are liable to pay $16 96.

By a modification of this law, under date of March 12, 1837, horses employed as saddle horses or with spring vehicles pay $3 only, if employed principally or habitually by physicians, surgeons, veterinary doctors, manufacturers, commercial travellers, and farmers, in the exercise of their calling. Also horses used for the service of the militia, when employed on other occasions as saddle horses or with spring vehicles. The same tax is also paid for saddle or carriage horses

but employed habitually for professions not designated above, when they are indispensable for the exercise of those professions.

Exceptions. After having defined the bases and determined the amount of the tax, the law of June 28, 1822, and other subsequent laws, lay down the obligations of all those liable to taxes, prescribe the penalties in case of contravention, regulate the mode of collecting, and fix the cases of exemption, the principal of which are the following:

Upon the first four bases given are exempted:

1st. Dwellings of an annual rental of $8 48, and those rented by the week for less than 25 cents.-(Law of June 28, 1822.)

2d. Buildings used for manufactories or mills, barns and stables serving for agricultural purposes; churches, schools, public establishments of instruction or charity; lastly, buildings employed for the public service for the state, provinces, cities, or villages; but those parts of these buildings inhabited or employed for other than the public service indicated, are to be taxed.—(Law of June 28, 1822, and of June 28, 1832.)

3d. The proprietors or lessees of houses which are not occupied, save by guardians, and contain no furniture belonging to either, the portion occupied by the guardian in such case is considered as a distinct dwelling, and the guardian is subjected to the tax corresponding thereto. If, on the contrary, the house contains furniture belonging to the owner or lessee, it will then be considered as inhabited and the taxes collected for the whole house. Nevertheless, the owner or lessee of a house which has remained unoccupied a whole year, that is, from the 1st of January to the 31st of December of the previous year, shall be exempted from the personal tax for the current year, even when it has contained furniture, provided that the tax for the past year has been paid upon this dwelling. (Law of June 28, 1822.)

The following are also exempted from the personal tax under the second basis: 1st. Doors and windows serving to light or air garrets, cellars, or other places which do not serve as dwellings.-(Law of June 28, 1822.)

2d. Windows in roofs or coverings.-(Idem, idem.)

The following are also exempted from the personal tax under the third basis: 1st. Fire-places, exceeding twelve in number, in each house or dwelling.(Law of June 28, 1822, of December 29, 1831, and December 30, 1832.)

2d. Ovens for baking bread in the rural villages and in cities, when separated from dwellings or buildings; also fire-places condemned by stoppage of the chimneys to which they correspond.-(Law of June 28, 1822,)

The exemptions under the fourth basis are, furniture exposed for sale or hire in shops, magazines, workshops, or manufactories, or repositories of manufacturers, sellers, or hirers of these articles.

The exemptions under the fifth basis are:

1st. Workmen or workwomen employed in work of agriculture strictly, when they contribute household work with that in the fields.

2d. Nurses while acting in the capacity of wet nurse, and servant girls under 1 fifteen years of age.

3d. Tutors and governesses charged with instruction and education of chil*dren; secretaries, clerks, and gardeners, provided none of them are at the same $ time employed in domestic service.

4th. Seamstresses, house cleaners, and others of the like, provided their work does not exceed three days per week with the same tax-payer.

5th. Servants employed by the day or by the week, living at home and serving several families or persons living by themselves.

6th. Guardians, male or female, of houses during the absence of their mas

@ters.

7th. Workmen or work women employed in the exercise of professions or e trades, living or not with their employers, provided they are exclusively em

ployed at their trades, and not employed at the same time in personal or household service.

8th. And, finally, all journeymen and apprentices and day laborers, who perform no domestic service, such as journeymen or apprentice carpenters, masons, painters, &c., &c.-(Law of June 28, 1822.)

The tax is not collected under the 6th basis, for horses exclusively employed for agriculture, manufactories, mills, professions or trades, without ever serving for the uses indicated for those subjected to the tax, nor for the horses of ecclesiastics in the rural villages; nor for the horses of those in military or other public service, when within the number determined by the regulations, in so far as they do not serve for other uses than those indicated in the regulations.— (Law of June 28, 1822.)

Besides the preceding exemptions, the art. 49 (which I quote entire) of the law of June 28, 1722, has the following:

In addition to the exemptions stipulated to the preceding articles, in conformity to the law of July 12, 1821, there shall be granted in villages whose population in the agglomeration of houses, or within the limits of the town, village, or hamlet, shall be more than 10,000 souls, a partial exemption of the personal tax upon the following basis, to wit:

In towns of from 10,000 to 25,000 inhabitants." For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 42.40 francs ($8 48) and over, but below 53 francs, ($10 60,) the total amount of the tax under the 2d, 3d, and 4th bases.

"For those occupying a building or dwelling whose annual rent or value is 53 francs ($10 60) and over, but under 63.60 francs, ($12 72,) one-half of the tax under the first four bases.

"For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 63.60 francs and over, but under 74.20 francs, ($14 84,) a quarter of the amount of tax under the four first bases.

In towns of 25,000 to 50,000 inhabitants.-" For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 42.40 francs and over, but under 53 francs, ($10 60,) the total amount of the tax under the four first bases.

"For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 53 francs and over, but under 63.60 francs, ($12 72,) the total amount of tax under the 2d, 3d, and 4th bases.

"For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 63.60 francs and over, but under 74.20 francs, ($14 80,) the half of the tax under the four first bases.

"For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 74.20 francs and over, but under 84.80 francs, ($16 96,) one-quarter of the taxes under the four first bases."

In towns from 50,000 to 75,000 inhabitants.—“ For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 42.40 francs and over, but under 63.60 francs, ($12 72.) the whole of the tax under the four first bases.

"For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 63.60 francs and over, but under 74.20 francs, ($14 80,) the whole of the tax under the 2d, 3d, and 4th bases.

"For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 74.20 francs and over, but under 84.80 francs, ($16 96,) one-half of the amount of the tax under the four first bases.

"For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 84.80 francs and over, but under 95.40 francs, ($19 08,) one-quarter of the amount of the tax under the four first bases."

For towns over 75,000 inhabitants." For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 42.40 francs and over, but under 63.60 francs, ($12 72,) the total amount of tax under the four first bases.

"For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 63.60 francs and over, but under 84.80 francs, ($16 96,) the total amount of tax under the 2d, 3d, and 4th bases.

"For those occupying a house or dwelling of an annual rent or value of 84.80 francs and over, but under 95.40 francs, ($19 08,) one-half of the amount of the tax under the four first bases.

"For those occupying a dwelling or building of an annual rent or value of 95.40 francs and over, but under 106 francs, one-quarter of the amount of the tax under the four first bases."

ARTICLE 50. Those liable to taxes, to whom a partial exemption of the personal tax is accorded under the four first bases, in conformity with the preceding article, shall have the privilege of liberating themselves by purchase from the remainder of the tax.

"This purchase is fixed in such cases at 8 per cent. of the gross annual value for those who shall have obtained remission of one-half, and at 12 per cent. of the same value for those to whom shall have been accorded exemption of one■quarter of said tax."

The product of the personal tax, as it figures upon the budget of 1862, is 1,910,000 francs. To this must be added 10 centimes additional and extraordinary centimes, or per cent., making the whole amount 2,101,000 francs.

The number of tax-payers under this head was, in 1861, 402,115.

3. Tax on licenses, ("Droit de Patente.")-This tax originated in the law of May 21, 1819, when Belgium was a part of Holland. The law lays down 1 the principle that no person can exercise in his name any profession, commerce, trade, industry, or traffic not exempted by law, without being provided with a patent, (or license,) and with this restriction, that every one in the exercise of his calling should conform himself to the regulations of the general and local police. The law then names the professions or callings not subjected to the patente, the amount of the tax, the mode of classing professions not especially designated by the law, the classification of those subject to the tax, the professions which subject each partner or associate to the tax, and those which are subjected to a single tax even when carried on by a company.

As has been seen, the bases of this tax are the professions, traffic, and trade or occupation followed. The tax varies according to the degree of importance of each of these professions in itself, and then according to the importance of the business of each tax-payer in the divers categories. The law names 495 professions or trades, divided into 15 lists, and whose classification is regulated, some with certain exceptions mentioned further on, according to two distinct tariffs.

The tariff A, applicable to all towns and villages, comprehends the professions, trades, traffic, and occupations upon the exercise of which, more or less, the population has no influence.

The tariff B, applicable to other professions and callings, varies in six different degrees according to the rank assigned to each locality.

The tariff A covers 17 classes and each of 6 series. The tariff B, 14 classes. The most elevated tax under this license law is $84 60, and the lowest is 21 cents.

The only exception to this rule is for peddlers and foreign packmen, whose tax may amount to $160 40, (double tax of the first class of tariff A;) for joint stock companies, whose tax is fixed at 13 per cent. of the annual dividend; for flouring mills, or those grinding rye, barley, rapeseed, &c., whose tax, based upon the annual rent or value, is 2 to 4 per cent.; and for the undertaker (entre preneur) of plays, &c., whose tax is regulated according to special bases, (price and number of places, &c.)

The general law of 21 May, 1819, has been modified

1st. By the law of 6 April, 1823, which subjects the tax to additional

centimes, or per cent.; reduces the tariffs A and B; exempts certain professions and trades; lowers to 13 per cent. the tax on dividends of joint stock companies, which was 2 per cent.; and gives to the tribunals of correctional police attributions touching all contraventions, in respect of this tax, prosecuted in the name and by the department of receipts.

2d. By the law of 18 June, which regulates the license tax of pedlars. This law owes its origin to the extension which this species of commerce has taken within some time past, and the abuses which had crept in and given rise to urgent complaints on the part of the local traders, those subjected to charges which itinerant traders, for the most part, escaped, and who could only sustain themselves with difficulty against their rivals, who were, in part, foreigners. These complaints increased after the suppression of public vendues by the law of 24 May, 1838, and the introduction of sales by packmen in taverns, coffeehouses, and other localities.

3d. By the law of 19 November, 1842, which diminished the license tax of boatmen, and replaces, by other provisions, the list No. 16, annexed to the law of 6 April, 1823. The law of 19 November, 1842, has been itself modified by that of 28 December, 1858, which reduces by 50 per cent. the license tax of foreign and indigenous boatmen.

4th. Finally, by the law of 22 January, 1849, which exempts certain categories of workmen working alone, reduces the tax in favor of the same artizans who follow their trades with a single workman, and augments by 5 per cent., to compensate for the losses resulting from these modifications, the different taxes of tariffs A and B, with the exclusion of the three last degrees of each of these tariffs.

The same law fixes at one and two-thirds per cent. on the amount of yearly profit the tax on joint stock companies, and determines what is to be understood by "profit."

Exemptions.-The professions exempted from the license tax by the law of May 21, 1819, are enumerated in article 3 of that law. The exemptions apply especially to persons attached to the service of churches, of the state, of towns, of hospitals, poor-houses, institutions of public charity, &c., &c., to lawyers, masters of post stations, (for travelling by post,) artists, painters, or engravers, &c.; under certain restrictions, to cultivators of the fields, proprietors of mines or minerals; under certain restrictions to sub-schoolmasters and sub-schoolmistresses, to servants, journeymen, workmen, and apprentices working at their master's house; to day laborers, porters, &c., &c.; to those who prepare or manufacture articles exclusively for their own use, to weavers of flax or hemp who employ not more than two looms, and finally, to a great number of small artisans, the designation of whose occupations would be too long to enumerate. To these exemptions the law of April 6, 1823, has added the owners of stallions, and the weavers of fabrics of all kinds, when not employing more than two

looms.

The law of 19 November, 1842, exempts sixteen categories of proprietors, boatmen, or commanders of vessels afloat.

Finally, as has been shown, the law of 22, 1849, frees from the license tax one hundred and forty-eight professions, when those exercise them alone, or assisted only by their wives and their children.

The law of the budget of ways and means for this fiscal year estimates the value of the product from licenses at..

But in addition is levied ten additional extraordinary centimes, ten per

cent.......

.$730,000

73,000

The number of taxpayers under this head, in 1861, was 286,565.

803,000