The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156912   Message #3701326
Posted By: GUEST,henryp
12-Apr-15 - 06:46 AM
Thread Name: Folk songs about taxes?
Subject: RE: Folk songs about taxes?
Income tax was introduced into Great Britain by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger in his budget of December 1798.

Broadside Ballads Online from the Bodleian Collection

Ballad Work - Roud Number: V12856
Titles: That income tax! A popular parody on "Those evening bells"

That income tax - that income tax!
How every clause my brain it racks
How dear was that time to me,
Ere first I heard of schedule B.

Those untaxed joys are passed away
And many a heart that then was gay,
Is sleeping 'neath the turf in packs,
And cares not for the Income Tax.

And so 'twill be when I am gone,
That candid Peel will still tax on,
And other bards shall sadly ax,
Why not repeal that Income tax.