The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-02-28 00:00:00

FINANCE.

The Earl of WARWICK rose, pursuant to no.
lice, to draw the attention of the House to a subjett
to which he hail Alluded on a sormer day. It was a
stahjed dry and difficult in its nature, and from the
little pitACtice and pretension he had as a Parlia-
mentary speaker, he could not be expefted to ex•
pand or enliven it much. In the present critical
state, however, of this country, and the civilised
world, when no rational hope could be entertained
of any solid and permanent peace,till France was dis-
abled from putsuilig her system of aggrAnlisernent
and of plunder, and when the protraOton of the war
must every day Aggravate the burdens which Alt rm.!),
weighed so heavily upon the people, he felt it his dirty
1 to exert whit poor Abilities he possessed, to alleviate
and equalize those burtbens, as the most elfeeturd
means of enabling the country to prosecute die con-
test with vigour and eff.ift, for it was not easy to
lot ewe its termination ; and the longer it continued,
the heavier must the burden of taxation press upon
the people. Indeed, in his opinion, it would be im-
possible to go on under the Financial System at pre-
sent pursued by His Majesty's Government; and,
under that coovietion, he nad turned his mind to the
subjeft, and had happily hit upon one hitherto
wholly unthought (Wand entouched, which, if adopt-
ed, would furnish toe only fair mode of taxation,
that of equally and equitably distributing the pres-
Isure of the present burdens on the shoulders of
all His klajesty's subjeas. The Noble Lord
1 here took a piper mat of his pocket, and ob-
served, that, it the House allowed him to read
it, they would dud his system developed in fewer
words than he could otherwise convey its bearings
and tendency to their Lordships. His Lordship then
proceeded to reed the paper, and to thew that the
drift of his system was to tax capital ; tha: property
could not be accurately defined; that it could be de-
scribed only by its sign, labpor ; and to Labour only,
as its sole source, was Al property to be referred.
This should, therefore, be the criterion of all
taxation, and not income or peopetty. which
was now made the chief objea ot taxation.—
lu illustrate this position, the Noble Lord einemd
into a variety of calculations, founded on the
amount of the population, and of the expenditure of
the country. The population he took at twelve
millions and a halt for Great Britain, and the ex.
penditure at above thirteen hundred millions an-
nually. He divided the population interviewee, who
expended from sixpence to twenty shillings per clay ;
and entered into calculations to prove that, by 3 tax
of ten shillings only per cent. on that expenditure,
there might be raised thirteen millions and a halt,
which iiitwo millions snore than is now raised by
tlv_i Property Tax, which is universally fit to be on.
equaily burdensome and oppressive, while the por-
tion wide's he assessed on each individual, would
scarcely. if at all, he felt The Noble Lord would
not &Agin the House, by entering, minutely, into
bis psneh, as they would be better understood by
referrire to the paper, which he should now lay or
the Table, and which he moved to be referred to a
Cormektee to consider and report.

Lord CRtIVILLE observed, th it on account
of its informality, the motion could nut be entertain-
ed by the Home ; for the piper to which the No.
ble Earl hail alluded, was not regularly before the
House, and therefore could not be made the subjea
of discussion and in•:cs!igition. He Vidia convinced
that the Noble Earl tea, aauated by the purest sense
of duty to the public, in iihruitting his plan to tiro
House; but, upon con I,'et nion, lie seas equall7
convinced, that the Noble Earl and the House must
soon perceive that such it system WAS wholly im.
pra.!lii able. In point of theory, no doulit' it was
siliple and comprehensive; hut all the financial
knowledge and experience v. hich a length of wars
had acquired, only tended to prove, that when such •
systems were attempted to be brought into ornatce,
they were attended with ten times more 4.l4ficully
and inconvenience, than those which they were in-
tended to displace. So far from that boasted sim-
plicity being conducive to fajlitate the collection,
and enlarge the amount of the reveniv, it was found
necessary, as in the Property Tax, to vary the
principle of it into a multiplicity of modes of opa-
-1 ration, in order to get at the amount of what pro-
perty could be made liable to it.
The Earl of WARWICK would not allow that
his plan would weigh mote heavily on the poorer
classes ; one the contrary, it would Alva the em-
ployers only, not the employed.
'the Earl of SELKIRK reminded the Noble
Earl, that when he computed the population of ti.e
country at twelve millions and a half, he took into
the account women and children, who were not sup-
posed to contribute.
The Earl of WARWICK contended, that he
meant it only to affea men.
On the ivlotion for referring the Paper to a Com-
mittee, Lords GRENVILLE and HOLLAND
again objeaed to its irregulatky, and suggested to
amend the motion thus, that it be aefurred to a
Committee to consider of the best mode that can be
deviled for increasing the revenue.
The question was then put upon this motion, and
negat:ved without a division.—Adjourned.