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

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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'alse 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, fur 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
Ithat 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."