The National Register.
London, England, 1808-03-20 00:00:00

PRICE Sd.

1 patrons, and oujoyers of the taxes, and their retainers ; a
tribe, alas ! by far too numerous, and too powerful in this
countrY. They will be described as an intemperate class
of men belonging to the Dock-yard at Portsmouth r a
question with which we have luckily nothing to do. It is
not the character of the complainers, hut the reality of
the cause for complaint, in which the country is interested.
to fact it is part of the hardship and. cruelty of this case
that it is one in which the modest, and most unworthy
sufferer cannot be the first to utter his complaint. He
strives to conceal his necessities. He struggles to save
appearances. He widish to conceal even }ruin his friends
the weight of his poverty. llis family secretly cut off, one
after another, their en.hivrents, and spend their days and
nights in noxiety. Their articles of property and even of
fitrititure gradually disappe:ir : and what, in its ultimate
consequences, is, perhaps, the most depioralite of all, the
education of his young ones must be alennh•ned, because
what shout(' pay for sending, them to school he is esliged
to give the tax-gath:rer. This hst ciceene.tanca is of a
magnitude to command the at!eniihn even of the most tin.:
feehne. It is the children of such fairdies, as this we have
just now described, who grow op to evecoto some of the
most important. offices of the community ; who (el, in a
great meashre, what is called the middling rank of society.
If they are reared withiJut that education which prepares
them to fill that station, a blank is left in suciviy which
nothing can supply. Tile country receives a blow in AS
most vital part. A rare of nobles may he lost and re-
places! in little time, and with tittle didicoltv. But a mid-
(fling rank once lost, and Hut condition of a country is
overthrown. Wherever a middling rank is large and
flourishing, there the country is opulent and proshative.
Wherever a middling' rank is wanting, the country is
wretched ; and happiness :11141 prosperity in difihrent coun-
tries will be found in the exact proportion, which the mid-
dling rank in earls hears to the other two. lu Turkey there
is no middling rank : in Austria and Russia 4. is "%cry. small.
It was and is considerably larv.tr in France. In ;,wit7er-
land a%d Ilolland it was formerly large. In Great Britain
it has hitherto been largest of a!!. Exactly in the same
order may naiional ',nivel:ly and happiness he traced.
This is the class which the Property Tax, in conjunction
with others, is hastening to destroy. It is, too, one or
the misfortunes of the case, that it is hastening to effec-
tuate this melancholy catac.rophe by a hidden and silent
process. By the concealment and patience of the indi-
viduals, the calamity may be in a great measure accom-
plished, (the approximation is already deplorable be•
fore those who have a i.ief influence to avert it, can be ren-
dered sensible of the evil.

The conduct of Mr. Fox, in regard to Mgr tax, is in-
structive and• memorable. We need not mention 'the
remarkable circumstaneec of its introduction. When it
was repealed by Mr, Addington, now Lord Sidmonth, the
language used by Mr. Fox ought to be held in everlasting
remembrance. " Ile congratulated the cotuktiry ea dela..