HEARTH TAX. This impost was a tax imposed in England at a rate of 2s. for each hearth; it was levied upon all houses unless the occupier (a) was exempt from paying church or poor rates, or (b) was certified as living in a tenement under the value of 20s. per annum, and not having land to that value, nor possessing goods to the value of L I o. It was first levied in 1662, but owing to its unpopularity, it was repealed in 1689, although it was producing f I 70,00o a year. The principle of the tax was not new in the history of taxation, for in Anglo-Saxon times the king derived a part of his revenue from a fumage, or tax of smoke, levied on all hearths except those of the poor. It appears also in the hearth-penny or tax of a penny on every hearth.