The National Register. — London, England, 1808-03-20 00:00:00

178 " verauce from one of the heaviest calamities, from an " impost the most unjust, the must impolitic, the must op " pressive, the most vexatious, the most inconsistent with "every rational principle of taxation that eser was inflicted 44 upon a sutferii m and injured people." These were his Oords, taken dam a upon the spot by a hearer of the de bate. Yet this same Lox, as soon as lie himself was in power, with an effrontery peculiarly his ow u, stood up to vindicate the most violent enhancement of this im post. Ili. argument in its favour was orthy of the last days of Mr. Fox. It added insult to oppress:on. " 'there no‘v," he said, " were no taxes to be had which were not " bad. Ever) . tax sv hid) had been imposed fors's dozen " years past, he had regarded as exceptionable." Good God'. did Mr. l'ox believe th i s representation to be true; did he regard the country as in so deplorable a condition that it had for twelse sears been accumulating tax upon tax, after every just and proper source of taxation had been exhaus!cd ; :1;i1 he behold it in this unparalleled state of suffering, and vet make not one effort to relieve it from the accumd load: Was it brought to that state of ruin in which no tax remained but that which Mr. Fox had only three years before descriVst! as " the most unjust, the 14 most impolitic, the most oppressive, the most vexations, " the must inconsistent with every rational principle of " taxation that ever was inflicted upon a saki-big and injured nation ;" And did Mr. Fox proceed mercilessly to impose this tax, while one farthing of the people's mone y was misapplied, %%hile his colleagnes in office were draw ing tens of thousands annually for doing nothing ? lie did ! and let the nation never 'forget him, and those who along with him, could declaim upon the oppressions of the people, while they were not gaining by them, but as soon as they were, would render their little finger thicker Man their predecessors loins. The injustice and inequality of this tax, has been fre quently animadverted upon, and is fully understood. It Is so contrived that the great weight of it falls upon the middling and inferior orders, while the high and opulent are unfairly relieved. The man of OW. a year is as hea vily taxed as the man of 10,000!. though the suffering to the one and to the other bears no proportion. The hell - less woman, who has an annuity w hich will expire next year, is obliged to paw the same proportion of it, as the landed gentleman. of . his rent which continues for ever.— The fruits of a man's earnings are as heasily taxed as the rent of a landed estate, t hough the landed estate remains to support the family of its owner; the fruits of a man's earnings perish not only with his life, but with his health. This inequality is enormous. The man's earnings can hardly ever be worth more than ten years purchase, very often cannot be worth half so much. The rent of land may he fairly estimated at thirty )ears purchase; that is, it is at least, three and very often six times more valuable than personal earnings. A property, therefore, which is three times, or six times more valuable than personal earnings, is yet taxed at the same Snit. Personal earn ings, therefore, are taxed three times or six times higher than the rent of land. Every view strikes its w ith the op pression and injustice of this mode of taxation. The rent of land is strictly income ; it is the produce (if a capital which, after the tax, remains unimpaired. The earnings of the man who has no other fund, arc capital and income all in one. It is out of these earnings alone, that his ca ital can be created, that any provision for his old a g e or fatuity can be made. This sacred fund becomes the prey of the property tax, while the landed or monied capital of the rich man stands exempt. Is it a light circumstance, too, that a man's earnings arc the fruit of pain, privation, and solicitude ; the rent of land, or the interest of money, comes without trouble ? This inequality would be of im portance, were it not eclipsed by the more enormous ine qualities of which this impost is guilty. Who can bear to compare the sale of the clothes of a man's children, the curtailing each of a pound of bread a day, or the inabi lity to gelid them to school (not to speak of the infinite ARCH 20. gradations of suffering), with the giving a grand enter tainment or two less in the year ; the dismissing two or three useless horses, or a score of dogs ? Here starts up that sapient politician Lord Henry Petty, and informs us that a rising scale of taxation, proportioned to the rise of incomes, must by no means be thought of, because it would destroy subordination, anti rank ! This argument goes to say, that in order to preserve rank and subordination, the higher orders must be spared, till the middling and the lower are actually trodden down upon the ground. To please Lord llcur , every thing must he taken from the middling and lower orders, leav ing the higher, as much as possible, exeinpt ; a process by which, by and bye, the, higller orders would be all in all, and aristocracy would rule uncontrouled. We ask for such a scale of taxation as would leave the different ranks i n this country in that happy order which they have long preserved ; feeling distiuctiv, that taxation was for sonic time proceeded in a manner calculated to destroy this or der, and to sink the middling and industrious classes below that degree to which the country owes all its prosperity. Lord Henry Petty tells us, that our wish can by no means be gratified, lest subordination and rank should be af fected. We, therefore, understand Lord Henry. lie de sires, by the baneful influence of taxation (a slow, but a sure lorocess), to bring the people of this country under thraldom to a pampered, fat, and overgrown aristocratic. Every friend to humanity would rather see it in the hands of an absolute monarch ! To the small and declining number of those who retain any value for freedom, there is something in this tax re volting beyond expression. Not only are their circum stances subjected to an odious inquisition, alai exposure, to which it is a wonderful phenomenon that a spirited nation could ever have been brought to submit, but the property of every man is actually laid at mercy, being :,able to be charged at the arbitrary discretion of a few Commissioners. In theory, this constitutes a state of the most perfect sla very. No man enjoys any thing but at the will of his as sessors. We have the derisive privilege of appealing from one set of Commissioners to another exactly like tinin, who, if our appeal does not please them (and this it seldom does) have the very serious privilege of charging the coin. plainer double. This is a contrivance which prevents them from being much troubled with appeals! The poor suf ferers must quietly pocket their injuries for fear of worse consequences. Al hen this tax was first introduced, when the Cos ernment was yet timid respecting it, anti the Pro ple jealous, pains were taken to inculcate delicacy and ten derness on the part of the C o mmissioners, and they were observed. It is the nature, however, of these quali ties to wear oft. .1 greater and a greater degree of license and severity has every year been assumed. An actual tyranny is now exercised, of which it is the nature to in crease; and Englishmen have but one alternative before them, either an ettectual alteration of this pernicious law,. or an utter extinction of that security in the enjoyment of the fruits of their industry which 11., c o nstituted the pride and the prosperity of out hitherto enviable country. REVIEW OF POLITICAL DECLAIMERS. No. XII. TIIL MORNING PAPERS. We stated in the last Number of TH r. N ATI() NI 41. R EGISTrn, our intention of offering some remarks on the four principal Morning Papers. In considering the influence of the NelN •papa press on the public mind, these deserve the more particular at tention, that it is from them all the other papers, both in too a and country, are, in a great measure, matte up. What the i Morning Papers, therefore, are, the Newspap er p ress is n a considerable degree. They give the tone s mad the dttordau cies are, in fact, very inconsiderable. THE NATIONAL REGISTER.