The Sun.
London, England, 1818-05-19 00:00:00

FOR TEM SUN.

MR. EDITO.R,---11101IIg our .'!;:ational Taxes
have of lave years increased to an alarming amount,
yet every rational man !Dust-41110%v that they have
been broug,lit on by an unavOidahlc necessity, and
ate the price we have paid for the coutinnance of
every thing that is dear to its. But that this great
increase of taxation is not the canse, as some Poli-
ticians venture, to assert, of the high price of all
'Articles of necessity, and of course of the distress
brought upon the Poor, wants demoustration.—
It has been asserted, that Government might
safely go on to tax to an unlimited extent ; that it
was only taking the money out of one man's
pocket sod placing it in that of another; that
whether A or 13 was the possessor was immaterial
to the Public. This may be a plausible maxim ;
but there is a fallacy at the bottom. When it was
asked whya pail of water won't' not be heavier wii h
a brace of carp in it than without, a Stanger by
shrewdly remarked, make the experiment the ba-
lance. was brought, and the proposition proved to
be groundless. In pursuance of the above Maxim,
however, we have been Casting the carp into the
bucket out of smother, in other words, we
have gone on to tax till we are arrived at our ne
plus ultra ; the proof is brought home to us from
a (politer least expected ; in short, we have made
the experiment, and the poor are starving. Their
wages are not adequate to their wants, and the
farmer,cannot afford Jogive them such as are ; he
too fekls the pressure of taxation, and finds it ne-
cessary:to retrench, and carry on his business with
fewer hands ; the detnand for labour fails, and
the poor • rates increase. To rectify this
growiLg evil a new Bill has been brought into
Pat liament, which, if it does away the expensive
laws attendant on settlement cases, will cer-
tainly do a great deal of good ; but in other mat-
ters it leaves us pretty much as we were ; the
branches are pruned a little, but the root of the
evil is left untouched ; the farmer will still be
ovurburthened, and the poor man will still he
left to go six miles to a visitor, when he knows
before he sets our that the visitor will do nothing
fur him, yet he most go to him before the Jus-
tice, who lives in the same parish, perhaps, with
the pauper, can interfere ; and how is the Justice
to know the exact distance between the pauper's
hoose and the visitors ? for, frivolous its this
qnestion- may seem, I have reason, from expe-
rience, to know that it may occasion a dispute,
whereas, .that we should be obliged to go to the
visitor at all is vexatious, occasions additional ex-
pence, trouble, and loss of time, and can answer
tin good end whatever.

It seems to be lett doubtful in this Bill whether
a man paying rates and not /icing in the Parish
may vote or. not at the vestry. Such superficial
regulations in these laws, will, I am afraid, do
nothing effectual. We are come to this point,
that the land can no longer support the manu-
facturing pour as well as its Aron ; and to put
things on a better tooting must require some time,
and also a plan of a more substantial nature. A
fund must be rai•ed for their future maintenance,
and. who ought •to raise that fund, bitt the very
men who' are to receive the benefit of it. I
stated in a former letter. (in your Paper of
the 19th of March) that every master slta,hl be
obliged to deduct slimething flout every unmarried
servant's wages, • where they were more than
enough to furnish him with apparel necessary to
his 'situation, which should he placed in a Savings
Bank, and should entitle him to a proportionate
snottily after a certain age, or in case of in-
firmity. And I now repeat it in the hope of
pressing it on time minds of those who are able to
enforce it, for enforced it must be to be of any
adequate avail. But it will he said, perhaps, that
compulsion will not do in a land of liberty. How
does it do with the servants' tax ? !low with the
soldiers' and sailors' stoppages ? We talk of liberty
and often loose the substance to catch at a
shadow. Who is so free as the man that main-
tains himself in independence ? That every able-
bodied man should maintain himself through life,
and not he a burthen on the industry of (others,
is so reasonable, that I will venture to say, that
no young man of an honest disposition would ob-
ject ta it, but, on the contrary, would rejoice that
he could lay by his earnings to so satisfactory a
purpose. .

It innst he n sordid And selfish villain who can
,say, I will du nothing fur myself, the parish is
bound to maintain me

For such, the law should provide punishments
proportioned to the degree of guilt, which punish-
ments should never be remitted. Prin6piis °lista
is a maxim that would save many !rum the
gallows,

What is the law of God ought to be the law
of man.
In the sweat of his brain is he to eat bread.
He that will not provide for his own is worse
than an infidel.

And not only is be to provide for his own, but
he is to obtain by latroisr some superfluity if he
can, that he may have to give to him that needed!.
ThisinAplies however, of course, that employment
is al-wayi to be had, and a provision for a con-
stant supply of this is what-. is wanted ; it is a
siireqtrq..rton, for without it, the industrious able-
bodied man and the cripple must be alike desti-
tute: Yet we hear sonic Gentlemen say they do
not approve of relieving the ahle-bodied labourer,
Let those Gentlemen then tell us • how he is to
live when nobody will hire him ?
April 29. A COUNTRY MAGISTRATE,

STATEMENT OF THE ODDS ON THE DERBY AND
OAKS STAKES.—Matt IS.
DEBBY.
2 to 1 apt Prince Paul.
t to t agst c. by Semi, out of Hyale.
7 to I agst c. by Orville, out of Allecretta.
10 to 1 agst Mr. Watson's c. oUt of Fire-shade.
10 to 1 agst c. by Seymour, out of Rosanna.
12 to 1 .agst Mr. Lake's Castanet, cult.
14 to 1 agst Brucher to Milton.
OAKS.

Taken-7 to 4 apt Fnnny.
7 to 2 agst the Briseis filly.
6 tot agst. Lou.
to 1 agst Lord Staiwell's Phantom filly.

The Duke of CAMBRIDGE made his entrance, in
full.st ale, into Cassel un the 611 i of May ; on the
following day the Princess AUGUSTA of HESSE
was solemnly betrothed to his Royal Highness,
and on the 7th the marriage was solemnized.—
The Duke and Duchess are expected to reach
London on Thursday next.

PARLIA MENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, MONDAY, MAY 18.

The (loose proceeded in Appeals.—Lord %VAL-
sINGHAM took the oaths and his seat.—Ti,e :bird
reading of the Labourers' Wayses Bill was, on the
motion of the Earl of 14AUDEHDALK, postponed
for two montbs.—A Petition WUS presented by
the Earl of LAUDERDALK from the Bing(' of In-
verness, complaining of the silt-election of the
Corporate Hotly, and the misman3gement of the
Revenues of the Burgh.—Ordered to lie on the
table.