The National Register.
London, England, 1816-04-08 00:00:00

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No. 431.-a—VoL. I X.

POL TIC.I L DI SQUISITION.

REVIVAL OF PUMIC ECONOMY.

Wl. have reveral times intimated, that, considering
the Properiy Tax in a financial point of view, we thought
it might be so toodified, as to be rendered a productive
stiurce of public revenue, and to reach only" the higher or-
ders of society. On that ground we should have felt dis-
posed to recommend its adoption, had not the faith of Go-
verutnent been pledged to suffer it to expire at the return
of
peace, anti had not the voice of the country, instead
of giving up that pledge, imperiously called for its re-
demption. Financial advantage, we conceived, ought to
be saeriliced to public faith. The one, even setting aside
the morality of the Case, was but a temporary good: the
other, a rooted rock, on which states and administrations
might stand unshaken by the storms of revolutions and of
ages. We abstained, therefore, from supporting the tax,
and saw the triumph of the country with joy. Had we
been aware, however, of all the beneficial consequences
which result from the loss of that impost, our neutrality
towards it would have been changed into hostility the
most open, and the most active. These consequences are
now daily unfolding themselves. The principle of eco-
nomy is not only recognised, but carried into effect with
vigour and sincerity. Instead of creating new burthens
to till up the clam left in their financial system, Minis-
ters seek fear resources where they ought, in wholesome
retrenchment. With a degree of self-command which
dots them honour, they introduce the pruning knife into.
their own measures, and lop off every branch of expendi-
ture which may be spared, without impairing the strength
anti the greatness of the State. They abandon their in-
tention of calling upon Parliament to defray the excess
of the Civil List. They frame bills for the suppression
of those offices which a Committee of Inquiry pronounced
useless a year or two ago, but which were suffered to exist as
long as there was a superabundance of revenue to sup-
port them. They court advice on every point in which
reductions may be proposed, and whatever surplus of
expenditure may still remain to provide for, they intend
to do it without pressing on the people either f,r the
principal or the interest. These are certainly important
advantages. It may be said, that they have been
wrenched from the hand of power, and that they are
due to the spirit of the nation, and not to the wisdom
or economical disposition of its Ministers. This may be
true to a considerable extent ; but when it is considered,
that although defeated in the attempt to renew the Pro-
perty Tax, they might (and indeed the Opposition expect-
ed they would) have shifted their ground, and so framed a
new series of duties, or so modified the reduction of those
in force, as to divide and foil opposition, whilst they in-
sured an undiminished revenue, some credit may be
given to the uprightness of their intentions, and some
praises bestowed on the mode of conduct which they
have adopted. It is natural that men, who have lung
wielded the vast resources of a country, exerting all her
means in a contest in which triumph was the liberation
of the world, and defeat national annihilation—it is na-
tural that such men, accustomed to an administration so
enlarged beyond all natural proportions, should at the
hour of peace, be still extravagant and yet sincere in
their notions of economy. It does not always happen,
however, that they should attend to remonstrance, or
welcome instruction. It is more likely that, creatures
of prosperity, and inured to power, they should feel in-
dignant at a repulse, and should endeavour to obtain by
art anti intrigue an equivalent fin- what they have lost
in open enterprise. This system has been disdained by
Ministers. They have been sufficiently great to consi-
der that they must be wrong when the voice of the
country opposed them. They have been sufficiently
unprejudiced as to seek out their own error, and suffi-
ciently honest, to set about repairing it themselves.
To deny their claim to respect would, therefore, be a
wilful abnegation of justice. The trust placed in their
hands is awful. It is under the influence of their coun-
cils and the exertion of their energy, that the power and