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 sutferiim 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 this 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 money
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 age 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 in
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 Commissioners, 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., constituted 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 Newspaper press is n a
considerable degree. They give the tones mad the dttordau-
cies are, in fact, very inconsiderable.

P. TIIP. .IIORN►XG POST.

It is of no consequence with which of them we bee,in. We
take this, not because it i; the hest, nut because it has the most
extensixe sale, for in that we understand it is surpard; hot
because it i- the most impudent, and blows the loudest trumpet
in its own
\%e do not mean to trace the history of this print, from the
time 0r its repuhlican zeal, in the days of the Friends of the
Peu;il:., through its maw ki!-Ir ndvarwes to Addington, it; prompt
elm:r•ol cf the cause of \lr. Vitt, nod its hesitation about till-
Creuxille., and Foxes, till we rarive at its present hearty rind
Loquacious efforts in favour of the present Alinkters. It is its
pre,•rit character w ith which we are vuncerlicd, and to that we
shall cardiac our,elvem.

.. .
it it more barefacealy Ministerial than any of the Morning
Papers, and almost cqaals The Cuurier in the grossness of its
ad:dation. All the transaction,: of the present V.inktry it ha,,
api.viod..ll. The attack on Copennageo, t ;te rklet sin Co:Anvil,
the reis•c:ion of the Raissiati arid Austrian otTet • of mediatioo,
Lord Lake's Pervion, hale ail been acts, C very one of which
WWI ;dime .uilit it-nt to save the citun,r.. The Ministers
selves are preci,el‘ the wisest w,tl ablest num in the nation.
There is not one of them that is not tit fur: very thing, but each
is fittest for that exact plate which he holds. The Duke of
Portlawl is a very pillar. an Atlas of State, and he is at the
head of them. Lord Ha .% kc-bury was long, ago declared, by a
good judge (Mr. Pitt), to have an hrrediturq aptitude for qiire.
lie was declaved by the same wonderful statesman to be more
Fortin:idly acquainted IN ith sod fitted fur the duties of the Sc.
cretar, far the Foreign Department than any other man in the
station, one mils (meaning Mr. Fox) excepted. But admiral)! N
fitted as he mi;:lit be for the duties of the Foreign Department,
wonderful it is, and happ', for the nation, that he is still more
admirably iitted for the iimks of the Home Department, in tlu,t
accordingly he is placed : and what surpasses admiration is,
Vint, even after Mr. Fox is in his grave, we have foand a wan
still better qualified for the o:lice of Secretary for the Foreign
I)rpartinent, not u ithstanding the enlitgium of Mr. Pitt, than
Lord Haw keshory, that is, Mr. Canning, a man who unites in
his own person all human excellencies, the perfection of oratory,
the depth of at isdina, and Herculean rigour. As for Mr. Per-
cr‘al, is the most astonishing specimen of a heaven-born
Miaister that was ever exhibited, for he has contrised in his
blue-hag among his briefs to bud the profound, liberal, inge-
Mous, and comprehensive doctrines of political economy, and
e%ery speech that he make,4, and every measure that he devises
gi'e proof how thoroughly he is acquainted with them. Of
the Doke of Vor!, The Morning- Poq has nothiwr particular to
say. He i. etutilly the favourite of all Administrations and of all
Nevsspapers.

Niaou4 the general principles which Thu Morning p„kf
e..pou,t•!. is this : that to enable those admirable llini,tet: to do
any "goad, money, abundance of muney, Is akmlutely noc"sary.
Therefore let the people 110%1*:: grudge to pay laves. IVhoeyer
complains of 111,, taxes i; a villain, a friend tot' Bonaparte, and
;CI enemy of his country. Sinecure p!acc‘, are iit'c,"-
3ry, not perhaps to reward merit, w :tic It is it: Own row a 4,
liut fit ..,ectire plenty of friends to the Nile; :end the Constitution
in these dang-,erotF times. See what a defender of the prero,.;:. •
ti re Lord Itedesdale is ! how invaluable are such tnen as tii,. !
Anil w here should we find them if there were co sinecures ? The
pres%itre of taxation, the progress of poverty, thy g:rowtli o'
p:mperi-u, might arrest attention, might create alarms. and
pradtice inquiries, \l ore it not for the •,:ltitary mice of sash
tarn, who Si die cunlplaiuts, %1110 brow,beat the eomphiners.
and have a large pack of retaiueri. al o ays ready to open upon
them.