lity. Apart from certain minor
alterations, the really vital change was the extension in 1894 of the
old Probate Duty into a comprehensive impost (entitled the Estate Duty)
applicable to all the possessions of a deceased person. This
"Inheritance Tax"--to give it its scientific title--operates as a
complementary property tax, and is thus an addition to the contribution
from incomes derived from large properties. By graduation the charges on
large estates in 1908-1909 (before the proposal for further increase in
1909-1910) came to 10% on L1,000,000, and reached the maximum of 15% at
L3,500,000. From the several forms of the "Inheritance Taxes" the
national revenue gained L14,500,000, with 4-1/2 millions as a
supplementary yield for local finance. The immense expansion of direct
taxation is evident on comparing 1840 with 1908. In the former year the
Probate and legacy duties brought in about one million; the other direct
taxes, even including the "House duty," did not raise the total to
L3,000,000. In 1908 the direct taxation of property and income supplied
L51,500,000, or one-third of the total receipts as against less than
one-twentieth in 1840.

But though this wider employment of direct taxation--a characteristic of
European finance generally--reduced the _relative_ position of the
taxation of commodities, there was a growth in the absolute amount
obtained from this category of duties. There were also considerable
alterations, the result of changes in the views respecting fiscal
policy. At the close of the Great War the excise duties were at first
retained, and even in some cases increased. After some years reforms
began. The following articles amongst others were freed from charge:
salt (1825); leather and candles (1830); glass (1845); soap (1853); and
paper (1860). The guiding principles were: (1) the removal of raw
materials from the list of goods liable to excise, (2) the limitation of
the excise to a small number of productive articles, with (3) the
placing of the greater part (practically nearly the whole) of this form
of taxation on alcoholic drinks. Apart from breweries and distilleries,
the excise had little field for its work. The large revenue of
L35,700,000 in 1907-1908 was derived one-half from spirits
(L17,700,000), over one-third from beer, while most of the remainder was
obtained from business taxation in the form of licences, the raising of
which was one of the features of the budget in 1909. As a fee