The National Register. — London, England, 1819-06-21 00:00:00

. • l;« 0 na top fl No. 1192.—V0L. XII.] PEACE-TAXATION. AGAINST the general system of peace-taxation we have already entered mac solemn and decided protest, a protest not dictated.isy party spirit, hut by a feel ing of compossion for a brave and patriotic people, and by a fearful anticipation of .the evils which must' be its inseparable attendants. These feelings have been by no means soothed, nor our•regrets at the inefficiency of the opposition these new taxes have met with softened, by the open declaration of • ministers that they are to be imposed, not for any absolute necessity that exists (for their adoption, fur if the sinking fund be mixed, and made available to .the carrent cxpences Of the establishment, a surplus of at least two millions is already provided, and another million might eta) be added by economy and retrenchment), but fur an object which, after the horrible and wanton sacrifices which this country has made, in her last two war, both of' life anti treasure, our heart shudders and our blood runs cold to contemplate, namely " put us in a becoming, aitiiade to toted Ike czigencies of a new War." Now without charging upon our rulers a motive so diabolical and inhuman, as a wish or ills position to plunge our exhausted, and all but bank rupt state, into thelorrors and miseries of fresh hos tilities, we may yet • urge that the very attitude and defiance, of itself alone, qften brings on a • contest, and is at least an incentive and even challenge to others to assume a corresponding position. We see it in individuals, and it is not less true of nations The business of peace, and the object of those who love it, should always be to conciliate mutual confi dence and atiletion, by the total avoidance of every thing which can create distrust. A spirit of proved defiance is not :cos adverse to tranquillity than it is to social happiness. IVe are not insensible to what is due to national honour,- but we difir, lute anima atque two Ma+ te, with the present administration as to the best way of supporting it. We are not anxious than they can be that our resources si;ou!il be most carefuily husbanded, and that we s::ould not forget that us long as pride, and ambition, oad wrong, shall exist upon the earth, so long will the scourges of war be employed as .the minis ters of their cause, and that no nation will be safe fi-om their influence and aggressmns. But we must . must loudly deprecate the doctrine that , a govern - ntent is therefore to srptecce the last possible lathing from the pockets of its subjects, for the,, purpose of having a large revenue at its own dis posal, instead of leaving the earnings of honest industry, or the proceeds of substantial prop2rty in the hands of their proper and rightful owners. The pr:ocipl e itself is irt outrage upon the social compact, and it has been not less I.:mtitifiilly than truly rtanatked by Monteequieu, that " though moderate taxation may be favourable to civil liberty, yet that u rich treasury and a s'arv;ng people are not only destructive of liberty, but form the strongest fem. tures of despot hrit, aral the most damning testimonies of misrule." llut if our oh;ections be thus strong against the whole system of peaze taxation, for the p.:.:pose of accumulating ; even tie--what stn we say, Low can vee attempt to express cur abhorreuee a t the items Avon which these fresh imports have been laid ! We may be told that opposition is now uselzms, and complaints idle. But the act of ship-money hail born some time passed, and yet the resistance of Hampden was not without its Our Wits, tonsititution ant; I EMIL MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1819. benefits. We are no advocates fur anarchy, we have no taste for setting subjects and their rulers together by the ears, but it is essential to our very existence as a nation, that on one baud remon stnatee should not be withheld, whenever it is loudly called Sr, and on the other, that It's *Ere should be attended to. Can there then, we ask, be found a heart which does mot sympathise with our own, or a tongue which will not unite in execrating, al a time like this, the revival of •the war-tax upon Malt, a tax so inequitably, so partially, and so heavily affecting the staple commodity of our native soil ? Is it not enough that we have been itnpmerishing ousselves and enriching foreigners by the expendi ture of nearly fourteen millions, this very year, for their corn, to the heavy and calamitous depressien of our own domestic growth, but that this evil is. now to be augmented by damping and crushing even the litde demand which still existed ? We re member the strenuous • exertions tif "Mr. Coke at the time when the war duty was attempted , to be con• tinned, and the tributes of thanks and gratitude which were on every side most justly offered hits. But, alas ! it will now be said, what avails the pa triotism of such a man in the senate, or his unparal leled and unwearied -labours for . the prosperity of agriculttne at home, what avails it, that what was but lately barren sheep walks, is now seen waving • with golden harvest, and fuune oaavies for Old England's safeguard, lifriog their stately heads cn spots where it was once contended that hardly a shrub could be reared, if the noblest employment of talent and wealth and industry is to be thus per verted and sacrificed to the support of that evil and inhuman policy which. la► so long and so incorrigi bly marked the public counsela of our ill-fated country. Again, it is very justly to be observed of the present tuxes that they are all such as must press most heavily on the poor. From the whole some and cheering beverage of beer, which used to be so generally allowed him by his employers, the agsiettltuml labourer has been long driven, and•wc know nothing which the old husbandmen, who were born und'reared in England's better days, la. ment more. Tea has been the wretched substitute to which the poor have fled. Upon tea they break fast, upon tea they dine, upon tun they cup; and the Government therefore pounces upon tea es a lit obj.'et for encreased Taxation. With respect to spi. rits and tobacco, we should shed no tears if the for mer were taxed even to prohibition ; but the latter is a powerfid•iuttritive,. and assists many a misera ble being in society•to finget his cares, and to warm his nose. l.et us not, however, be understood as advocating •the doctrine •that taxes can be im posed upon any part of the community without operating in their. influence upon the whole. It is one of the most absurd grounds in the world upon which some persons pretend to defend a Propjrty- Tax ; that it is an eligible mode of tax.ttion because it makes the rich pay like gentiznien. A more fclee or a more mischievous opinion never was con ceived. Hut we are as yet, thank God, not driven to discuss thii question fitrther, though, if general report be true, it was long balanced by our Arise and prudent rulers whether that alanninable imposts should not be apiin tried. Their places were, however, in jeopardy, and that has savod us, ut least, it we are to fail it being sawed, for after what has lutCy passed in the Leoislattsr,e we dare not assert that if Ministers had been bold enough to try it, it would nut have been carried. v• e 7 z -4 , [PnicE 9itt. I We extract the following observations from she London Courier of Wednesday:— , " The proceedings in the House of Commons during the last two erasing* with respect to its pri. 'lieges, furnish matter fo r de meditation. 4 kl- riuredly we shall not be s uspected of say disposition to countenance a damprous or impeoper infringe meet upon those privikga; ; we shall not be rank. ed among the number of those who would seek to degrade the House in the estimation of the country by holding up tts proceedings in any way that may tend to give them an air of ridicule, or to lower them to the familiarity of the rabble. But when we say thus much, we must add, that none of these ef fects are likely to flow from ;undid, free, and intre pid strictures upon what tresses within its walls. If the publicity of its debates be, as it is ,floured to be, a great national good, the liberty of examining these debates is ahnostintleparable from the perfect and entire enjoyment of that good. There itt at Jesuit as much talent, as much general information, much erudition out of Parliament as in it, and by collision of the intellect of the country with-the intellect of the legislature, the path of sound prac. ; 11 OW wisdom has frequently been discovered, and the march of mischievous error resisted. The puL lk press of England, taken as a whole, is the most enlightened of any in the world. It reckons among its contributors and supporters, men whose (Onions could derive only an accidental importance film station, if they were delivered from the floor of either House of l'arliament. And *by, we would ask, with all possible deference, why is this repugnance to admit its controul, now displayed with so m'tch vehemence ? Why is it directed exclusively against that portion of the press least obnoxious to it in fair ness ? .18 it from the comments of the daily rapers upon what passes in Parliament that such danger is apprehended ; froia the sentiments of inAlvirluele whose condition in society, whose education, and principles, must always be a security against base and malevolent aspersions? We do hope, with the utmost sincerity, that no attcmrs will be made to enforce the threats which have been :elatinated. We do hope, the House of Commons will feel, the: as the great and solemn council of the nation, the na tion has a vital interest in all is proceedings, and that interest, when excited in tae leeasts of tree me-, cannot be expected to hide itself in the silence and timidity of slaves. If the comments of the Englith 'Press, upon the delibsratier.s of the Ettelish Parliament, arc to be watcliA with a feverish jet 'lousy, it were better that Parliament should ileiibe. rate with rimed doors ; for it would be a mockery to say.to the itation, you shall know what ;re do, but you shall not shire to arraign it while it is doing; you shall not dare to expostulate with honest. but decorous freedom ; you shall not dare to question our wisiiom, nor hint at our fallibility. These, surely, are not the terms upon which we ought to hold and exercise the right of a free people, to tr., cuss the conduct of our representatives. They are not the terms, we will add, by which those reere sentatives would lime; continue to be the ergs's' of a free people." Etttraet of a le,tcr from the agent to Lloyd's at Gibraltar, dated f.sth May :—" Intelligence bus b en received here from Tarifa of the loss of a Pa ' triot herineplinidite privateer, on Saturday the 221 in , tart, on a reef of sunken rocks near that place, is bearing down under a press of sail to cut off a Spa nish brig dim. had anchored close to Tarifa, called Los Tres, or Quatra Hermanos, which she had chased front off Santi Petri. Some of her crew were drowned, the remainder took to their boat, and . rowed off towards the Barbary shore; but boats being imwediately manned with soldier•, and sent in pucsidt, succeeded in capturing. them. 72 in num ls.r, including the Captain, named Brown. One of the officers in resiN:ing was ~hot.—The PA:nch agent tliL place has received a Ictter fro,n Mar-cias, dated the ith lust., ctouttnuoicAting Oha ottpkasaat intelligence of a Swedish vessel, called the t outinit alien, having arrived there on the 30;11 alt , frna Siiza and Innis, I•rr.nt which latter place she sailed on the vOth ult., wilt the plague on board, of widen some of the crew an I pass-,mgers hail died, and others were then infected. The infected persons were lauded at the Lazaretto, and the vessel put under a strict quarantine guard. All other necessary :Igor (ins measures were enforced to prevent any bad cos. sequence! resultin;." , I