The National Register.
London, England, 1816-02-11 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

PSG

the State, than seems to be possessed by the generality of mo-

dery politicians.
When it was first urged to Mr. PITT, that "if two persons
"have each 5001. a year, one of which derives his income from
" land, the other from industry, they ought not to be both
" taxed equally at fifty pound; he replied, somewhat
" haughtily—The argument assumes that each having 450/.
left, tha impost is unequal. But what does the tax do?
" Are they not left in relation to each other precisely as they
" were before? The tax creates no new inequality. To emu-
" plain of it, is to war against the distribution of property,
" air! the institutions of Society."
No man knew better how to veil a fallacy under a rheto-
rical figure than Mr. PITT, and no man perhaps would have
been more ready to detect it when attempted to be so con-
cealed by others. We sincerely regret for the country that
this able man is not now living. We should think be would
riot commit a breach of faith with the public ; we are certain
he would not go beyond a temporary bill. if lie maintained
the income-tax upon principle as a permanent measure, we
should hope that some speaker would retort with arguments
such as now occur to ourselves, as we read the former page,
from the account of the debate, December 14, 1799.
" The institutions of society are not in question, and can-
" not be the subject of complaint. No, it is the cruelty of that
" system of finance, which overlooks the means of the subject
" as a part of the artificial union of society, when it imposes
" a tax peculiar for its pretensions to equality. The
" powers of the vast conclave of Europe assembled in Con-
" gross, cannot alter the value of permanent compared with
" casual income, nor make a life estate equal to a freehold.
" But it'is the duty of those who govern a state, to know the
" relations which- subsist between all its subjects, and the
" probable means of meeting taxation before taxes are int-
" posed. To tax all by the same rule according to their
". incomes, with the false profession of taxing all according
" to their means, is to confound the distintions of society,
" and pervert the order of Nature for the mere caprice of fi-
" nancial experiment. The man possessed of inheritance
" may expend his whole income and leave a fortune to his
" children, and so may the lifeholder Without children ;
" but the professional man and the trader can do this, in no
" one instance, with propriety. To live hereafter, he must
" save for the present ; and it is by the savings of the indus-
-8; trious only, that the wealth of the country, and the future
means of taxation are improved. To deprive him of the
" means of saving, is to bring upon laborious industry an old
.age of poverty. To take from him one tenth of his earn- •
" ings, is, in most cases, to rob him of all means of saving.
" Leave taxation as it was, previous to this odious and un-
" just tax, and every man has the means of retrenching and
" saving., and of paying to the State just in proportion to his
" own I...afontil enjoyments. Whether this be according to
" his means, above or below it, he treats the State as he
" treats himself; and with every bottle of wine that he eon-
" sumes, he knows that at least, one glass in ten, or perhaps in
three, is drunk for the King."
" But, suppme he saves one-half, instead of expending
" his whole income, is he nut at liberty in a land of freedom'
"to de this ? Must he ask the tax-gatherer, and the man
" that comes round quarterly with the book in hand, and
" the ink-lioni at his button-hole? Must he give one-tenth
" of his property, if he be a freeholder, or if a trader, the
rr means of raising capital for his trade, and a fond for his
" children, or his old age, because the finance minister, tired
commodities, like .Pro-
standard, and cputounda

FEB.II.

truth, and the infallible_ conelusions of numerical

" science ?"
" Suppose him a mere miser ; What, then ? Does he hoard
irc to-dar, .his son must expend to-morrow. Does he live by
" the merest of his accumulating loans ? The man who can
" afford to pay this interest, converts the money into com-
" modifies, in every hand through which it circulates; and
" every commodity is, or ought to be, taxed according to the
" due proportion which it will bear."
" By taxing commodities, it is therefore obvious, that no.
" expenditure escapes, while useful economy, the parent of
" all public wealth and private happiness, is not checked ;
" and even the misery of the rich man cannot prevent his
" circulating capital from assisting the State, while it is
" moving quickly for his own avarice. If it be hoarded, it
" ceases to be wealth ; it lies dead, and cannot fairly be
-" touched ; for when it shall revive, it will become pro-
" ductive. But to make an odious tax against hoarding bank-
" notes, would surely betray the wildest of all Quixotism ;
" the purest ignorance of all human conduct."
" Tax commodities, and every man pays according to his
" means and his will combined. Tax income ; oppression ne-
" ces.sarily invades the right of private economy ; confounds
" the value of temporal eternity with the brevity of life,
" the frailty of the human frame, and the instability of fbr-
" tune. For what ? Because a minister is ignorant that expel:.
" diture is a more just source of taxation than income,
" as it is in the end more fruitful. To preserve the useful insti-
" tutions cf society, men must be left to the free enjoymentof
" their money, and even of their private caprices, wh; n not itiju
" lions to public morals; or the minister's ignorance of hums=
" nature and political economy necessarily converts t. 'ratios
" into*tyranny.'

SATURDAY'S LONDON GAZETTE.
Foreign-W:lv, Fettruery 10, 1816.
His Royal Highness the Prince Regent has been pleased, in the name
and on the behaff of his Majesty, to appoint Jamei Buchanan, Esq. to be
his Majesty's Consul at New York.
His *Royal Highness the Prince Regent has also be pleas:Al, in ttt:
name and on thellehalf of his Majesty, to appoint William Dawskya,
to be his Majesty's Consul in the state of Maryland.

BA NK RUPTS.
W. BRADLT.Y, Reading, woollen-draper, to surrender Feb. 26, 27, Mani%
e. 3. at the Broad Face Inn, Reading. Att. Mr. Eyre, Gray's Inn-square.
C. FAIR, Liverpool, ship-broker. Feb. 27, 28, March 23, at the York Hoe
tel„ Liverpool. Att. Mr. Windle, John-street, Bedford-row.
3.OUrnAM, Liverpool, brewer. March 7, s, and 23, at the George Inn,
Liverpool. Atts. Atkinson and Wildes, Chancery-lane.
W,NEwcosto, Vine-street, Westminster, brOker, Feb. 17, 24, March ‘.!:.7,
at Guildhall. Atts. Mayhew and Price, Symond's-Inn.
M. Enwartns. Freshford, Somersetshire, clothier, Feb. 28, 29, Marz'..l
at the Full Moon Inn, Bath. Att. Mr. Young, Charloue-row,
Mon House.
S. IlanvEY, Windsor, Berkshire, draper, F7b. 17, 24, March 23, at Guild.
ball. Att. Mr. Parton. Walbrook.
I. PRICE, Stepney, undertaker, Feb. 13.24, March 23, at Guildhall. Mt.
Mr. Crory . Great Suffolk-street, Borough.
T. MYLP.s, Bloxworth, Dorsetshire, horse-dealer, Feb. 26, 27, March 20,
at the Black Bear Inn, Devizes, Wiltshire. Atts. Millett and Son, Mid;
dle Temple-lane.
W. F. IVnouonTr, Tonbridge, Kent, banker, Feb. 20, 27, March 25, IA
Guildhall. A. Mr. Sudlow, Monument-yard.
N. Luseurst, Kingsbridge. Devonshire, scrivener. Feh. 22, 23, March
23, at the King's Arms Inn, Kingsbridge. Atts. Devon and Tooke,
Gray's-Inn. •
J. Cawsow, Liverpool, broker, March 4,5, 23, at the Star and Carter. 1.4.
verpool. Atts. Cooper, Lowe, and Bowier, Southampton-buildings,
Chancery-lane.
C. LAN Es, Boston, Lincolnshire, innkeeper, Feb. 22, 23, March 23, at the
Woolpack Inn, Boston. Atts. Lodington and Hall, Temple.
A. and J. RUSSELL, Penrith, Cumberland, grocers, Feb. 23, 24, Marti!
23, at the George Inn, Penrith. Atts. WonLworthand Co. Staple-Ina.
J. AYRE, Sunderland, victualler. Feb. 24, 29. March 23, at the BOP*
Bishop•Wearmnuth, Durham; Atteßell said Brodedit 11011
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