The National Register. — London, England, 1819-06-20 00:00:00

r* 4 , ( 7 1 - 0,A.7/"7"*",/ e T\utkt JJ•tar - (onat •i_torpoiti 1 OW Bing, Con4titution anti dog. No. 1191.—Vot. XII.] SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 1819. benefits. We are no advooetes for 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 hand remon strance should not be withheld, whenever it is loudly called Tor, and on the other, that it's voice should be attended to. Can there then, we ask, be found a heart which does not sympathise with our own, or' a tongue which will not unite in executing, at a lime like this, the revival of the war-ta: upon Malt, a tax so inequijahly, so partially, and so heavily affecting the staple commodity of our native soil ? Is it not enough that we have been impoverishing ourselves and enriching foreigners by the expentli tare of nearly fourteen millions, this very year, for their corn, to the heavy and celamitont depression of our own domestic growth, but that this evil is now to be augmented by damping and crushing even the little demand which still etistad I We re member the strenuous exertions of Mt. Coke at the time when the war duty was attempted to be con tinued, and the Tributes of thanks and gratitude which were on every side meet justly offered him. 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 prerperity of agriculture at home, what avails it, that what was but lately barren sheep-walks, is now seen waving With golden harvest, and future navies for Old England's safeguard, lifting their stately heads on 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 has so long and so incorrigi bly marked the public counsels of our ill-fated country. Again, it is very justly to be observed of the present taxes 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 an generally allowed him by his employers, the agricultural labourer has been lung drivers, and we .person nothing which die old husbandanen, who were born and reared in England's better days, la ment more. Tea has been the wretched substitute to which the poor have fled. Upon ten they break fast, upon tea they dine, upon tea they sup; and the Government therefore pounces upon tea as a fit object 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 powerful nutritive, and assists many a misera ble being in society to forget his cares, and to warm his nose. Let 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 Property- Tax ; that it is an eligible mode of taxation because it mules the rich pay like geetkinen. A more i' a lse or a more mischievous opinion never was con ceived. But we are as yet, thank God, not driven to discuss this question ti:rther, tlioagh, it' general report be true, it was loug balanced by ot.r wise and prudent rulers abether that abominable imposts should not be evil) tried. Their ;dares were, however, in jeopardy, and that leas saved us, at • least, it' we are to call it being saveil, f u r after what has lately lei...sed in the Legislature we dare not assert diet if Ministers had been boll onaegli to try it, it tsould not have been tarried. We trr+ [Paws 93d. .. - London Cosuisr of Wednestay:— " The proceedings in the House of Commons during the last two evenings with respect Wits ptm vileges„ furnish matter for deep meditation. 4s. moseedly we shall not be suspected of any dispositien to countesses* a dangerous or improper infringe. ment open these privileges; own liba not basentem ed among the number et thaw who would seek tit degrade the House in the estimation of the eon n %- by holding. up Its proceedings in any way that may tend to give them an air of ridicule, or to lower them to the familiarity of the rabble. Rut when we say thus much, we must add, that ROW of obese ef. facts are likely to flow from candid, free, and intre pid strictures upon what plume within its wails. It' the publicity of its debates be, as it is allowed to be, a great national good, the liberty of examinin7, these Mates is almost inseparable from the perfect and entire enjoyment of that good. There is at least. as mach talent, as much general information, as much erudition out of Parliament as in it, and by the collision of the intellect of the country with the intellect of the legislature, the path of sound prac tical wisdom has frequently been discovered, n-1.1 the march of mischievous error resisted. The pliso lic press of England, taken as a whole, is the roo.t enlightened of any in the world. It reckons among its contributors and supporters, inen whose opinicni could derive only an accidental importance from station, if they were delivered from the floor of either House of Parliament. And why, we would ask, with all possible deference, why is this repugnanee to admit itsoontroul, now displayed with so much vehemence ? Why is it directed exclusively ogni-»t I that portion of the press least obnoxious to it in fair ' ness ? Is it from the comments of the d'ail'y paper, upon what passes is Parliament that such danger is ' apprehended ; from the sentiments of individual whose condition in asciety, whose education, and principles, must always be a security against bile and malevolent aspersions ? We do hope, with the utmost sincerity, that no attempts will be made to enforce the threat: , which have been fulminated. We do hope, the House of Commons will feel, that as the great and solemn council of the nation, the na tion has a vital interest in all in proceedings, and that interest, when excited in the breasts of fre,2 me^, cannot be expected to hide itself in the silence and timidity of slaves. If the comments of the English Press, upon the deliberations of the English Parliament, are to be watched with a feverish ,jea lousy, it were hewn- that Parliament should delibe rate with closed doors ; for it would he a mockery m my to the nation, you shall know what we do, ).4: you shall not dare 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 wisdom, nor hint at our fallibility. These, surely, are not the terms upon which we ought se hold and exercise the ri;ht of a free people, to dis cuss the conduct of our representatives. They are not time terms, we will add, by which .tam lyre- Nntatives would long continue to be the 'organs of a tree people." Extract of a letter from the agent to Lloyd's at Gibraltar, 'dated 2iith May :—" Intelligence has been received here from Tarifa of the loss of a Pa triot hermaphrodite privateer, ea Saturday the 2..:c1 instant, MI a reef of sunken rocks awe that place, in bearing down under a press of sail to cut off a Spa nish brig that had aac•hnred clew to Tarifa, called' Len 'Tres, or Quatra Herr:mow, which she had chased from off Santi Petri. Seme of her crew were drowned, the remainder tont: to their boat, and rowed off towards the Barbary shore; but bouts being immediately manned with soldiers, and sent in pursuit, succeeded iu capturing them, 7 in num ber, including the Captain, named Brown. One of the officers in resisting was shot.—The French agent at this place has received a letter from Marseilles, dated the 4th inst., einninunicating the unpleasant intelligent* of a Swedish vessel, called the it ontiaa dies, having mired there on the :loth ult., front Suza rod Tunis, from which hitter place she sailed on the 20th ult., with the plague on board, of which sonic of theerew and passengers had died, and others were then infected. The infected persons were lamb:alit the Lazaretto, and the vessel put under a strict quarantine guard. All other necessary i igor ma um:mores were enfor•ax:d to prevent arty bad tea witiotwc• =tilting." PEACE-TAXATION. A GAIN ST the general systtetn of peace-taxation we Lave already eatered our solemn and decided protest, a protest not dictated by party spirit, but by a feel ing of compassion for a Leave and patriotic people, and by a fearful anticipation of the evils which Must the 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 ane to be imposed, not for any absolute necessity that exists (f n. their adoption, for it' the sinking fund be seized, and made available to the current expences of the establishment, a surplus of at least two millions is already provided, and another million might easily be added by economy and retrenchment), but for an object which, after the horrible and wanton sacrifices which this country has made, in her last two wars, both of life and treasure, our heart shudders and our blood runs cold to contemplate, namely " To pal us in a Grooming altitude to,mect the czigenciss of a new War." Now without charging upon our rulers a motive so diabolical and inhuman, as a wish or dia.. position to plunge our exhausted, and all but bank rupt state, into the horrors and miseries of fresh hos tilities, we may yet urge that the very attitude and defiance, of itself alone, often brings on a contest, and is at least an incentive and even challenge to others to assume a cart espondiag position. We sea it in individuals, audit is not less true of nations The busitiess of peace, and the object of those who love it, should always be to conciliate mutual confts deuce and affection, by the total avoidance of every thing which can create distrust. A spirit of proved defiance is not less adverse to tranquillity than it is to social happiness. We are not insensible to what is due to national honour, but we differ, lota animo tapir tole, Marie, with the present administration as to the best way of supporting it. We are not t.ss anxious than they can be that our resources should be most carefully husbanded, and that we should not tbrget that as long us pride, and ambition, and 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 from their influenceand aggressions. But we must most loudly deprecate the doctrine that a govern ment is therefore to squeeze the last possible firthing from the pockets of its subjects, fur the parpose of having a large revenue at its own dis po.;al, instead of leaving the earnings of honest industry, or the .proceeds of substantial property in the hand); oftbeir proper and rightful owners. The principle itself is an outrage upon the social compact, and it has been not less beautifully than truly remarlsed by Nfontesquieu, that " though moderate taxation tarp . favourable to civil liberty, yet that a rich tfr easray and a star p; n pimple are not only destructi:e of liberty, hut flute the strongest fea tures of d,:spotistit, and the most damning testimonies of misrule." Bat it' our objections be thus strong against tl,e whale system of peace taxation, for the purpose of accumulating revenue—what can we say, how can we attempt to express our abhorrence of the items upon which these fresh imports have been hail ! We may be told that opposition is now and complaints idle. But the act of abip-r.ioney had Len some time passed, and yet Vac r.s.itigir.cc of flatarden was not without its 4. 1 / 4 );