The National Register.
London, England, 1819-06-21 00:00:00

MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1819.

benefits. We are no advocates fur 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 baud remon-
stnatee should not be withheld, whenever it is loudly
called Sr, and on the other, that It's *Ere should
be attended to. Can there then, we ask, be found
a heart which does mot sympathise with our own, or
a tongue which will not unite in execrating, al a
time like this, the revival of •the war-tax upon Malt,
a tax so inequitably, so partially, and so heavily
affecting the staple commodity of our native soil ?
Is it not enough that we have been itnpmerishing
ousselves and enriching foreigners by the expendi-
ture of nearly fourteen millions, this very year, for
their corn, to the heavy and calamitous depressien
of our own domestic growth, but that this evil is.
now to be augmented by damping and crushing
even the litde demand which still existed ? We re-
member the strenuous • exertions tif "Mr. Coke at the
time when the war duty was attempted ,to be con•
tinned, and the tributes of thanks and gratitude
which were on every side most justly offered hits.
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 prosperity of
agriculttne at home, what avails it, that what was
but lately barren sheep walks, is now seen waving
• with golden harvest, and fuune oaavies for Old
England's safeguard, lifriog their stately heads cn
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. la► so long and so incorrigi-
bly marked the public counsela of our ill-fated
country. Again, it is very justly to be observed
of the present tuxes 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 so generally allowed him by his employers, the
agsiettltuml labourer has been long driven, and•wc
know nothing which the old husbandmen, who
were born und'reared in England's better days, la.
ment more. Tea has been the wretched substitute
to which the poor have fled. Upon tea they break-
fast, upon tea they dine, upon tun they cup; and
the Government therefore pounces upon tea es a lit
obj.'et 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 powerfid•iuttritive,. and assists many a misera-
ble being in society•to finget his cares, and to warm
his nose. l.et 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 Propjrty-
Tax ; that it is an eligible mode of tax.ttion because
it makes the rich pay like gentiznien. A more
fclee or a more mischievous opinion never was con-
ceived. Hut we are as yet, thank God, not driven
to discuss thii question fitrther, though, if general
report be true, it was long balanced by our Arise
and prudent rulers whether that alanninable imposts
should not be apiin tried. Their places were,
however, in jeopardy, and that has savod us, ut
least, it we are to fail it being sawed, for after what
has lutCy passed in the Leoislattsr,e we dare not
assert that if Ministers had been bold enough to
try it, it would nut have been carried.