The Sun.
London, England, 1817-11-14 00:00:00

tsx tit cl-.1.0-rite per pournl tviii"cl; it
• Ooght -tb "he'HottrgeO—Ol'the scale of rents proper:
tot beloW "the hiininottn.id which the.
t;-tx is not to operale.---nor Of the exemPtiOti6 itr
of aglictiltine or 45filgi:Wiie tiray lie 'ex,
peotent to grato ; tor theie, piirpoles in thelkist
iost mice 'the v have submitted tO the
i•,:es ie;,s inteod'ed, and t:ie retOrn Of which
not by any means .conclude the•trestion„
bit, ve it open for discussion is hefor'e,
the'coffinintation ve,itild afford the relief
if tvas4iiiteffiled rO'produce ?
" tV)thltliect • 16 the valuators, . they Are not
to he s‘voro, tto::•e being BO latvfor.ndininislering.
arty 'tech thch, nor i's•t;tai I conceive material,.
ch:r-rge I.votrld'he established iniy
/11641u:41 widront httSi the opportimiry of
riispiiting it, should he thi.'k fit„and, for the par-
inc,e I have aheady inehtion;:d, minute ace ar:)7
wow lit i:Ot be reqiiisite j supposing., 'thy efore,' a
general valriar ion without reference to the pay-
ment of the existing taxes, there are few Parishes,
'a pp r hen d , that will not afford intelligent per-
sons competent to such a work, without the ne-
'ressity of• personally inspecting, every.dwelling-
b,ffise. l'here is in) intention of establishing local
Collifflissioners, as alluded to in your letter, this
country, .1 am sorry to 'Say;ortvt being sufficiently.
advanced for snbit 'UI • institution; the thities of
tviiicit are in England discharged gratuitously,
and hence may be seen how highly thu people of
that count ty'valne the privilege of being their
own assessors, the offer of which has excited such

an outcry . in this.
Au objection has been made against the pro-
: posed modtficatiou of the Window Tax, which
I should not notice did I not find it advanred by
the Maiquis of Downshire,ahrough the influence
of whose respectable Dame and high authority
this parricidal' ground of OpPositibn to a measure
(erhich I• must chn;cientioUsly bel:e've is.calcn-
f lite elieto afford relief to those Classes of society who
are most in tutl) has received aist,rength and
cteOt which do not by any means belong to it.
This. Noble Personage is repeesented` as haViug
stated, at a public meeting. in 'Hillsborough,
that the Wiwilow Tax, "lieu originally propos-
ed, was, under a solemn pledge given by ill r. Corry,
then in Office, (July to b(!'eotatintied as a War Td:x
now were troy such pledge given it imist.be'ca-
pable of proof, and when- it is stated to be a.
it inn pledge, and by so elevated ii persoo, it is to
be expecteo that the evideoCe its support of that
assertion will he clear and satisfactory, not Ca-
pable.of doubt, but suited ti the character and
des.:cription of the transaction.; notwithstanding,
e however, all my researchia, and-they haVte been
• Fe diligent and extensive, 1 have failed to distover,
in the history either of the tunes when it sltoadd
have
,taken place or of those that succeeded, a
tittle o! evidence sufficient to justify any reasonable
thinking man', much less the Noble Lord, for
whose talents and character I entertain'the high.;
est respect, objecting in liraine to a measure pvo-
fessing to be one of.teliel to the public, which, if
time Newspaper report be true, it vvas even ad-
initted by his Lordship he did not at the time per-
fectly understand.
" The Window Tax, as is well known, was first
imposed in the year 1719, and on referring to the
'.leurnals &'r the House of Comomoni for that pe-
riod, and to the Statute, Book, the resolution of
the Committee of Ways and Means agreed to by
the finesse, and. to the Act of l'arlivimept. founded
upon it, grant the duties upon Windows gene-
rimy. . without any test!, ye or coudition what-
soever;, which, it is to be presumed, Would not
have been the case bad Parliament entertained
this tax merelyas a cmitributiou for cart yiog on
the ‘var, but that. the same
.course would have
been pursued, as on similar occasions in Eng-
. laud, and the limitation would have been dis-
- tinctly expressed in the Act. These records
,theretore, b li:ekv, at least, there was no such Par-
liamenta! y pledge whielt anight be sufficient to
free futimre Paeliaments, or any suceedioge
Cell'or of the Exchequer from time charge of
tread) of faith for nut repealing the Tax on the
return of peace, because, supposing the pledge
to have, been offered by Mr. Corry, it does not
appear to have been accepted, or acted upon by
the Legislature, and therefore in no respect bind-
upon
• ",Following the inquiry, however, somewhat
further, fOr tire purpose of ascertaining on what
grooticf the clamour that has been raised. on this
point actually stands, it appears from the newspa-
pers of the day, (there being so far as I have
been able to discover no compilation of thej)e-
hates of Parliament for that period) that Mr.
Corry, upon ~introducing the measure of a Win-
dow Tax, which was' quite novel here, and after
'Teo:emending its.adoption to the House of Coin-.
mons, made ,utie of the following expressions :
and upon the return of peace if it were found
grievous or burdensome it might be take') off by
railiament."lbis is the only passage to be
found to the History of those times, as far as I
am informed, bearing Lyon the subject under dis-
cussion; and surely Mr. Cony might have said
the same of every oilier Tax iu existence without
constituting them war taxes; namely taxes which
were to continue only during the war, and then
absolutely to cease, or of subjecting himself to
the charge.of having given a solemn pledge that
they should he repealed on the retort) of peace ;-
his words cannot be understood'io that sense, nor
ciutl,l they have been so, intended by hint, because
Ise would have falsified his own acts, and those
cif Parliament, already teferred to, by which it
a'ppears that the Tax avas imposed Wiihout any
limitation or condition whatsoever, subject for its
cOnrinuance only to time will of Parliament. In
estimating the produce of this tax, Mr. Corry, as
informed, at first took it at 30,0001. min af-
terwards at 60,0001. both sums• too tosigoificaet
to- merit the appellation of a ts,ar. contribution.
There being therefore no such condition express-
ly annexed to the grant; or that can be fairly im-
plied, it must be taken as part of the ways and
means for defraying the annual charge -created by
the loan of that year, which amounted to
35.0,000/. aft(' consequently the absolute repeal
of the Tax, without a substitute, could not have
been in contemplation.
" But, if there were a shadow of doubt. upon
this point, the proceedings in the next year clear-
ly manifest the sense and -understanding enter-
tained by Parliament of this transaction. lu that