Star.
London, England, 1806-04-01 00:00:00

he principally addreffed his obfervations for what
he had fail on a former night was mifqnderftood and
mifteprefented ; he therefore wifhed now to relate
what he then fail. The Noble Lord (Lord Henry
Petty) had properly called it a converfation, and not
a debate, to which the bufinefs of this evening would
lead. For his part, he did not mean an oppofition
to the meafures of the Noble Lord t it was never his
Jwaflice to profefs friendfhip and fuppurt, and at the
fame time to counterail the meafures of thole to
whom he avowed fupport. On whatever fide of the
Houfe he fat, he carried his principles with him;
he fincerely felt for the Noble Lord that friendfhip
and refpeft which he profeffed, but it was not the
office of a true fervant-of the public, nor of a faithful
friend, to fupprefs obfervations which appeared to
him to delerve confiderable. weight. There was
nothing Co ear,' as doing wrong at firil (he did
not mean moral crime, but error), but it was much
harder to get out of a wrong fyftern when one
has once adopted it. Nothing was caller than get-
ting. into a labyrinth, and nothing harder than
getting out of it again. There was no depart-
ment of Government in which it was more nerdfary to Baca with patience and attention to every
obfervation, than in the department filled by the
Noble Lord. It often happened, that from the ob-
fervations which were made, even by men compara-
tively ignorant, a Chancellor of the Exchequer might
take Come uleful hints ; he therefore requelted
the attention of the Noble Lord to what lie felt it
his duty now to offer. With relpeft to the Property
Tax, the fiat obfervation he bad to make was, that
that clafs which die-Noble Lord had himfelf declar-
ed, ought to be anempted from the would be
placed under lischaifficult and troublefoine eircum-
fiances that didliaMption would hardly be of any
ufe to them. 'Minna annuitants, and the (matter
tradefman, were called upon, in the fire place, to
pay the tax, and afterwards the Tax-office was au-
thorifed to make repayments, which they might re-
cover as well as they could. It was not yet `fettled.
by whit proofs of litigation they were to recover
back their money. Befides the difficultof getting
it back again, the small tradefman or the ftnall an-
nuitant would find a confideraWe difficulty in mak-
ing the depofit. He was fore there were many per-
fens .who might make tool. a year by their trade,
and yet would find it extremely difficult to get the
rum of ten pounds. whiCh they would be called upon
to pay by their property tax. As to the uoubk that
attended gettia back any thing from thofe tax offi-
cers, be f ed ahnoft every Gentleman was ac-
quainted wit it. For his part, he had often been
furcharged lay,the Commiffioners of ti* Income.
Tax in the country, and alit:out he wifintd to refit
fureltata,, he found it afoul he attended with Co
much trouble, that it was the A way to give up
the ftn'tY Alining", or fohatever-kwas, that the Com--
miffioners badovercharged. He confidered, that a
ppor man, who was entitled to the exemption,
.
mull
cell fo ones cis the Commillioners about ht, and lots
fqmuch time. that it would be hardly worth pro&
eating Ms right to repayment. He had another ob.
joltion to there repayments by the Tax.officers. Hti
' thought that the public money lhould be.lrft as fkort
a time as poMble at the Tax.officel t wberfas, _under
this Om, it would be always neceffery pa have so
confiderable fund depofited there, for the purpofe of
theft repayments, which would export the palahe
money to more hazard than was right, and might
afford the means of improper application of it, by
the perfons in whore hands it lbould fo lie. He had
another obßion to the Property Tax hilts prefect
Rippe. There WAS a conliderable portion ,of pro.
perry in the counuy, be meant the Unfunded Debt,
which paid nothng, and yet this debt amounted to
above twenty millions, bearing an annual:hum-A of
above a million. He had himklf been guilty of an
unintentional fraud towards the Government: ha
bad two Exchequer Bills of tool. eachin his poffef-
fion, which he had forgot to ppt in the Antement of
his property, and about which no queftions had ever
issen ailed him. He believed, that alutoft all the
Unfunded Debt was equally free from this Tax. It
had been impAd to the Noble Lord, as he thought
wrongfully, that Come of his expreffions appeared to
convey a gloomy profpeft of our financial refourees.
U there bad been any thing of gloom in his Rate.
aunt, Ise fboold have Rill preferred it to thole
bright pidures which he bad often witqeffed in that
Houfe, when Minifters pleated to Launch out in de-
fcriptions of the national profperity. He had many
reafons for believing that the country was not in that
Rate of profperity which bad been Co often deferib-
ed. When he law • country where the poor were
maintained, not by their own labour, but when other
clalfes of the community were obliged, in a manner,
to divide their incomes with them, and were taxed
to the amount of fie millions annually for their fop-
port, he could not believe that country to be in fuch
a high degree of profperity. He allowed, that in
the whole courfe of his life, he never law a greater
lbew of wealth and abundance in this metropolis'
than there is at prefect. ' That, however, was no
criterion of a nation, as there might be at the fame
time the greateft dißrefs in the provinces. It was
a very memorable fad, that the city of Paris alfo
exhibited the greateft figns of wealth and abundance
during the Regency of the Duke of Orleans, and
while the Miffiffippi fcheme was yet in exiftence ;
but as loon as that projeft utterly failed, this chi-
merical and imaginary wealth &I:appeared ; Paris
was ruined, and to was France. The appearances
of wealth and abundance which an immenfe citcu-
lation of paper may give, are deceitful, and may,
in a moment, be overturned. In this country, where
every thing is paid for in paper, no man can fay
pofitively what the amount of his property is. It
is diminifhed if the paper be depreciated, and it is
gone if the paper be difcredited. He law a molt
ferious danger that menaced all the property of the
country, and there was only one effeflual remedy
for it. That remedy was this, 44 Let the Bank of
England be bound to pay their notes in Cpecie, as
their charter required." Although the Legiflature
might be all-powerful, yet there were fOllllO things
which it was not competent to them to do. He did
not think it competent even to the Legillature to
oblige the nation to accept of paper in exchange
for property. Ai to the taxes which had been pro-
poled, his objettion was not to one, but to them
all. He obje6ed to them en inaji.(A
He meant the new texts, which were to provide
fair the ictereft of the Loan. As to the Sinking
Fund, although he had often heard it extolled to

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