Star.
London, England, 1803-11-26 00:00:00

huge itnrs,-.llhume ^roaring on the body politic; ycn
imiy yet leifen it v,tih la:cty, hitt if you tuffer it to
go on increding till it burps, its toptiire will exhiaili
the iirength, it it dues not tcrininatc tae exitt;:nce 41f

the paticat.
" This meafure appears to me not only porliirle,
but ealily praaicabie ; at.d not only practicable, bat
highly ufetul to the Stat.: ; and not only highly ufeful
to the State, but prctitahle io every individual itait
paying taxes. It would be highly uleful to the State,
not only from the ell.d it would have on the Cabinets
of Europa, but from the effeds elpecially which it
would have upon onttlives.—lt would check the
luxury of all ranks ; for though luxury may, in A
commercial late, be ufeful to a certain extent, yet
it always ends in ruin when carried too far ; it de.
bares me is minds by teaching them to value things
not in themfelves ellimable ; and it effeminates their
bodies by habituating them to deftrudiva indulgences.
It would have another aid a mat irpoortant efFed—
, it would preferve to the country the middle clefs of
its people, whom .enormous taxation is daily reducing
to the lowell, or compelling to emigration—for mile-
rabic at home, and impotent abroad, will this nation
become, when it lhall be compared of none but the
very rich and the very poor.
" The payment of the National neht would, I have
fail, be profitable to every individual paying rue:— •
this, at the lira vi:se, appears to be a paradoxical
affertion ; but it is as certain a truth, as that every
man is richer who fell, part of his property to pay
his debts, than he atould he if he made a frellt mort-
gage upsn it every year, by which, in addition to
the intereft of his debt, he would have an attorney's
bill to dircitarge. A cantidet able portion of the tax
which any man now pays to Government never
reaches the Exchequer of the kingdom. I don't mean,
by this obf rvation, to call any irnpatation of ditho•
flour upon men enraed in the management of taxes,
and of the public re s ; they are neceirary parts of
the great machine ot Go-cram:era, and are very pro-
perly paid for their fervtce ; my %rill-lig, that by pal-
ing the dcbt and takinta, ci the taats impaled for the
payment of the intercit of it, the fervices of inch men
might be lets wanted.
" I propofed, my Lards, this fubjed to pu'Aic
confideration five years ago, in my Addrefs to the
People of Great Britain (of which publication, by
the by, ab-ve thirty thoufand copies were difp:rfed
in Great Britain and Ir:land, with whateffed to

the Public it becomes n st me to fay), and I will not
trouble your dthips with a repetition of what I
(fated in that Addrefs. One thing only I think it
very Important to recommend, if ever the meafure
iitelf, or an efficaciout aixproxirnation to the mei
Cure thonld be adopted—that is be extended to every
dials and to every indisidual in the kingdom pale:.
hog pt operty, in a jai propot Lion to what he poffelres.
—The true principle of Taxation teems to me to be
this—that every roan fhould pay for the proteCtion of
his property by the State, in etaCt proportion to the
value of the property proteded ; jolt as merchants,
who rilk their goods on board a veffel, pay an info-
ranee in proportion tp the value of the goods infured.
This is to plain and equitable a principle, that every
man is capable of underflanding, it, and no one is
able, on reafonable grounds, to objet to it. I at trail
never yet met with a perfon worth an hundred
pounds, who, when the (-Fiefdom was put to him (and
I have put it to mane), did not acknowledge it to be
perfectly right, that he thould pay one or two pounds
out of his hundred towards the liquidatiop of the
National Debt, provided that every man words an
hundred thoufand pounds paid one or two thoufand
pounds for the fame propofe. Common people arc
as acute as their lapel iors in didinguithing between
Jutlicc and Oppretlion ; and I think to well of human
nature in general as to believe, that there is in all
claire' loch a refpea for Jultiee, that no Statefman
need fear to propofe to his country any meafure
founded on the balls of Jollier, and evidently become
necelfaty for the prefcrvation of the State.
" The principle here mentioned, is as applicable
to our present mode of railing the Supplies, :,s it is
to the payment of the National Debt, and were it
adopted, the Supplies would be far more abundant.
I have never yet heard a fubflantial rcafon given
why the taxation Illoold drip at a property of tixty,
or even of ten pounds a year. A man of ten pounds
A year is as able to pay (1 meats with as little priva-
ration of his comforts) ten fhiliings annually, as a
man of five hundred a year is to pay five hundred
thillings. If we tt ace the matter to the bottom, and
fpeak of luxuries, as diainguithed from necelFaties,
we (hall find every thing comparatively fpeaking to
be a luxury. Bread is a luxury to thrift who feed
on the bark of frets ; beer is a luxury to hint whole
beverage has been water ; v ine is a loam,' to him
whole ordinary hevcrage is beer ; and a favage in
America with t blanket on his fhoulders, is a man
of luxury, compared with his neighbour who has
none. Our inimitable Bard has expelled thi. idea
in better language than I can ufe, where he
inrru-
duces Lear arguing with his daughter about what
waa waft/ for his Rate :
o,rearon not the need : our !Jaren ben re
Are In the poor, it thing rupci-C,:t.tis;
Allow not Nature more th.as
Man's Hie Is cheap as beafts.
" What portion of each man's property may .be
requifite for the difcharge of the National Debt, by
inftahnents in the cootie of four or five year,, cannot
at prcfent, I think, be afcertained w itl ) any degree of
cert rimy. Iha c leen calculations of the property
of the kingdom in land, bodes, money, cattle, truer.
chandize, &c. ; but the data on which theft calcula.
tinny were founded, were tisoarbitrat ily A-rimed to ren.
der the conchilion umeteeptionable. But whether an
hundredth, or a fiftieth, or a twenty .ttit part of the
whole lhould br required, I am clratly of opinion

that•no man of gond leak set uld murmur at the p.ty-
ment of it, when he confidered that Cud) tAymeitt
would not only lave the but be a recuniaty
caving to bin-dell. A p7runiary la% cam to a roan':
lelf, is a ciuctimflance likely to artok the Atlcl•
tic'n of every individual ; in truth, the
fav'ng of the Country is an ohjat of more in:-
pottance, as it comptizes eset y other. For if the
Country is fubsitted, free‘lom will be Iva ; ant
with its freedom, will pctith its ingenuity, itc
try, its commercial cot:A-pi i i.e. and its m trtial tl it rt ;
all the copious liiurccs iif clomeflic happiiirfs, 41:1 of
national confequvnee will be choked up fin ever."