Star.
London, England, 1806-04-26 00:00:00

PROPERTY TAX.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
moved the Order nt the Day for committing the Pro-
perty Tax. Before the Speaker left the Chair, how-
ever, he begged leave to date to the Houfe two or
three principal amendments. As to the principle of
the Bill itlelf, he was aware that there were confider-
able differences of opinion, and that a few were hot.-
tile to it, fnr•whnfe opinions, however, be had the
highen refpeet. But upon that he would not enter at
prefent, but confine himfelf to the amendments it;
two prints of view ; full, in enntradiftioaion to the
provillons of the tax as it paged in former years, and
feeondly, as to the alterations in the •prefent Bill
WI% The chid dillinftions in the Bill from thofe
of the fame nature in former years, were the pio-
vitions to render is eglcaci'.us. Theta; tas railed

I* '

1119.11V17

•
to to per cent. all exceptions were taken away,. ez. 1
eept from annuitants and (mall traders under tool.
a year. All real property was to be taxed to per
cent but with regard to annuities from the funds,
of °poll land, a gradation was to be eftablifhed
betteed so and tool. and when under Sol. a year,
it was to he exempted altogether. He thonld add
here, that the mode of repaymeut would be found
its the Committee to be extremely Simple, as it only
required the procluelion of a certificate. He would
nut originally have propofed filch a mode of cols
Idling the tax, bad he nut been convinced upon
mature deliberation that it was an advantapous and
a practicable one. The inconvenience arida& from
it, would not be fo great as tome might be apt to
fuppofe, and every one mutt agree, that to the Com-
raiftioneis it would be a very coafiderable relief
indeed. There being the principal futures in which
the laden' meafure differed from former ones of the I
fame nature, he would now ntention a few alterations
which he propofed to make in the BR! itfelf. Alth.o
he was aware that this Was not a time in which ex-
emptions were to be 'entdtiplied, or in which sny
great relaxation eould*leipeded, yet, at the fame
tune, when he looked.otilte Situation of tome mem-
bers of the community, be found himfelf compelled to
leffen the burden en particular chafes. The firft in•
ftancein which be thought this indulgence ought to be
granted was with regard to the weekly wages of
bandicraftlmen, which might amount to more than
Sol. a year. ihen we confidered the cireundlances
in which thefe men often flood. when we confidered
that there high wages were often obtained at the ex-
pence of their comforts, their happinefs, and even
fometimes,'at the rick of their lives; when they en.
;aged for the fake of fuels high wages, they fogaged.
in trades which in their nature mull be pernicious to
the conftitution, it would be a hard matter indeed to
let taxation fall heavily on income acquired by fuels
means. Without, therefore, admitting the objedloll
to the taxing of labour of any kind, be certainly
thought that the burden ought not to be laid to a
great degree on this clefs. He would then propoli
a claufe, by which income of this kind, antounties to
no more than thirty &filings per week, or five &Mins
a day, should be exempted altogether. He likewife
propofed, that with regard to incomes arifing from
annuities from the funds or land, and from fmall
trades, the fcale (Mold be railed from tool. to ;Sol.
fo that the fcale would now fiend between std. a year
and isol. ;offend of tool. as it was before.
Sir R. BUXTON would not wore the Speaker's
leaving the chair, but he thought the good of the
landed iotereft ought not to be neglected. It' was
now heavily taxed.
Mr. WM. SMITH obferved, that be did not taint
to enter upon the difeutGon at prefent, but as he was
one who had oppofed the tax at the beginning, he
stated it to be underftood that he did not favour it,
merely becaufe it was propofed by his friends, and
he would, at a future time, declare his opinion. But
at the Conte time the embarraffments to which his
friends were reduced by the prefent critical Situation
of affairs, inclined him to give as little oPpofitioa u
potfible. The reamof the tax to to per cent. be '
did not confider as any great objection to the matinee .
Mr. WILBERFORCE thought that the exeMp-
tions ought to be extended to other claffes, but be
did not fpecify them, as he hoped the Noble Lord
himfelf would, upon further coofideration, find out
such as ought to receive this indulgence.
After a few words from Alderman Weep, Lord
Henry Petty, Mr. Ballard, and Mr. Vanfittart, the
Bill was committed and reported. Report ordered
to be eonfidered on Friday next.
STIPENDIAftIf CV sssss
The Stipendiary Curate Bill was thrown out after
a short debate—Majority againft the Bill 13. The
prefs of foreign intelligence compels n's to defer the
particulars of the debate on the above Bill until Mu-
ds y.—A dj owned.

LONDON.
SATURDAY, APRIL 26.
PIMP OP STOCKS THIS DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK.
Canfols, for money, 64—for May 6o}—.oasalatt at.
Luba+ Bills is. a pre®.
The difcaSons laft night in the Houk of Corp.
mons, particularly that regarding, an lnereafe of
Pay to Naval Officers, in which Lord. Gavials, for
the firft time, very much diftinguifhed himfelf, de-
ferve every attention. The propofed plan embraces
every clefs of perfons ferving in the Royal Navy, ex-
cept the Mailers and Surgeons, whole pay had beat
recently augmented.

Some judicious alterations, it wilt be feen alto, have
been made in the Property Tax.
It was reported in the City yellsrday, that the
King of Peussia has been affaffinated. This news
is not believed ; but certain it is, that throughout
his whole dominions, aid even among the Officers
of his Army, these are great murmurs again( the
proceedings of the Government.
To the arrangements repeaing India, which we
yeflerday communicated to the Public. we have to
add, that Sir DAVID BAIRD is fpoken of with confi-
dence as the Officer to be appointed to the Command
in Clhief at Bombay, with a feat in the Council, vice
Lieutenant• General Nice& Ls.

General SINCOR certainly relieves Sir DAVID
BAIRD, in the command at the Cape of Good Hope.
We are happy to announce the fafe arrival of the
Oporto convoy at Portfmouth. By letters received
by this fleet, we are informed that the French frigate
la Topa te is Rill in the Tagus.
About three weeks before the failing of the een•
voy, four frigates and a brig efcaped out of Cadiz.
The brig was captured on the day after they got out
by the HYDRA, and fome vefrels were fent in purfuit
of the frigates, which were fuppofed to have failed
for Teneriffe.

There were in Vigo on the 15:11 ult. two Spann.
and one French (tip of the line, and a frigate, ready
for fea, and under orders to fail. An embargo was
laid on all the trading each at that port, probably
to prevent, their intention from being conveyed tn
the 13titif►h tarn of war.

w-wrw

FRENCH AND DUTCH PAPERS.

We have reeelved Pala Journals to the rgels
La the Afireiteer of the 113th, a very Angular produetlon I.
felled, which we Lave laid before our Ruders. According to
OW Er4oesE, Hamm it only sesspird by, but not depitiwly on.
sporad to Pete& Ihe King of PROIWA has declared otberwili.
WWI of the two tens the lie
Frames demands of Auftria what Aaltria esonot give, peffellien
of Dalaretla. In codeine-nee of the Ruffians having occupied
Cott" it it caddy declared, ewe Brow, weekielk aMni
ellefeeeetn• q tie AR, hr kees reveesstied sal gemyeited t .bat the
Praia troy ose Iwo *nitro, is re/awe its fredStiers, and that the
AIONSTILIAN PIMONIZO, wue Witt ON 1101111 WAT •09411
IMVII las. greens UNTIL I."
Nereciesee easdeet en this ecealion reminds es of the Wolf
Eli the Lanais

TRENCH EXPOSE.
PARIS, APRIL 28.
England has declared war againft Praia. All
the King's flips have received orders to attack the
Praffian veils, and letters of marque have been
Wised to privateers. Is this a jet proceeding on the
girt of the Englifh Government ? Is it a politic one ?
Theft are queftions which it is not our intention to
examine. It is fufficient for us to difeover, that this
meafure is advantageous to France; that one of its
fief confequenete will be to Phut the North spina
tbe Intik trade ; and that there is little wifdom on
the part of England, in thing fn towards a confide.
table Power, whom the forces into a nearer cornice-
• Hon -with France ; and whom Ike determines to re-
move from her Councils the agents and the influence
of England. France and PrufGa united can, if they
*are. !hut the Sound. If England bad learned how
to accommodate her policy to eircurnftanees, the
would have maintained her party and her creatures In
credit at Berlin. She wonld have rendered the block-
ade of the ports of the North lets fevers. She would
have, in fad, premed the advantage which Ise de-
rives from the Pruffian flag; for commerce has occa-
ion for intermediate agents between the merchant
and the coalmen But, howentr, It may be, we can-
not confider this new political event but as tending to
accelerate peace ; for, affuredly, Pruffia is neither a
weak enemy for England, nor a weak ally for ftanee.
We know, that there art perfons who iticuftom thern-
&lees with difficulty to the idea of thefe connetlions
between France and iirtiffia, but they do not fee. that
the hefitation which was fief( thanifefted by the latter
Cabinet, depended upon temporary eireonslianees
which have neither altered the principles of the Lag,
nor there of his mot faithful and intelligent fervent..
if there was any thing which gave offence to France,
it could only be impthed to a frantic Minitler, who
was fold to England, who vfas formerly in her fer•
vice, and who quitted it for reafons which the dig.
sky of this Paper will not allow us to mention. It,
perhaps, may be fuppofed, that England, in the new
eiretwoliances in which Ate finds herftlf with regard
to Proffitt, bad no medium left her, and could not
avoid declaring war. But the occupation of Hanover,
Ptah, was the only means of preventing the
!tench from returning to that cottony; and if they
had returned, the freedom of the &Ilia trade would
not have been the greater. It may be Paid, that
PmEa has not only -Dm the ports of the Elbe and
the Wefer, as they were by the French, but that the
occupation was made in the name of the King, and
h; the fame form as if he bad determined to annex
this fine province in his van monarchy. Mowever
Awe is mg*, is fait, h paw that this was she Saimaa'
tkpnirofiei and it is very poffible, that the ceffion of
sAnfpach, and Nenfcbatd, may relate to tome
other principles of arrangement, fines the population
of all the three does not equal a fifth of the popula-
tion of Hanover. Some difeaffion, therefore, might
have taken place between Praia and England; and
the wifeft course would have been, not to have begun
by declaring war. Suppofing occupation to be equal
to final incorporation, England, inftead of avoiding
that confequence, makes it more certain—for, what-
ever loffes the Pruillan trade may experience during
two or three years war, the will be indemnified by
the more confiderable Infs which the trade of her
enemy will fußain ; and England fubmits to there
loffes for an intereft which the Englifh nation has
always difowoed. It has always confidered Hanover
as a foreign property, folely belonging to the Houfe
of Bruniwick. How happens it, that it has fo fud-
denly changed its principles in this rept& ?
" It appears, that M. Schimmelpenninck, the
Grand Peatonary of Holland, has entirely loft his
light. Who is to be his luceetTor What as& will
be produced by this change in the Magiitracy? There
queftions excite the ..:tention and anxiety of all the
Dutch, who are fincerely attached to the country.
his well known, that rite Emperor never gave any
pofitive fanaion to the late changes in the Conftitu-
tion of that country ; and that he Paid, on that occa.
fion, that the profpuity and liberty of nations could
only be allured by two modes of Government ; either
a tempered and contlitutional Monarchy ; or a Re-
public, ermaieuted according to the theory of liberty,
and which &mid be the true organ of the public will.
AU nations cannot, with fafety, leave to the people
the choice of their Reprefentatives ; and when a na-
tion has t. apprehend tltc effects of afßmbling the
people ; when the advantages which it expells are
, lefs than the inconveniencies which it forefees ; firth a
nation, which cannot find proteCtion under a repnbli•
can form of Government, has recoutfe to the prin-
ciples of a good and prudent Monarch. Under the
prefent Conftitution of Holland, the Grand Pen-
ttonary has mire power than the King has in Eng-
-1 : he has even more than the Emperor has m
France ; or than any Sovereign has in any c-untry :
~nd, what is without example in a Republic, their
Miginitteirce, ..r the Reprefentatives and Le-
paative Bodies, bar.: been nominated by the Great
Penftunary. The t:efeft of this Contlitution cannot
efeape the obfervat:ons of the fagacious. ghat can-
not be called a Rf; iIbEC, where the Reprefentative
and Legiflative 11.:eltes are not nominated by the
Electors : and if iltete be any fear of the Ele&ors, it
will be bell to tenonnce at once the Republican form
of Government. A Goys, anent, which, neither hav-
ing the advantages of a Republic, nor of a Monarchy,
combines all the ineonteniences of Loth, th.,,,te;
he abfointely yrofctibed. Such being the lunation of
Holland, the mutt be a gainer by any changes that
She mug make in her Conttitution. If the landhold-
ers, the merchant., due enlighsaled men, are of opi-
- • nion that they can have a repsefentatiun made by
I the choice of the !sulk without diffinaion of challis