The Statesman.
London, England, 1824-02-11 00:00:00

FOR THE STATESMAN.

TO TUC RT. HON. F. J. ROBINSON, CHANCILLOR OF THE
EXCIISQOsIt.
LETTER L

gla —ln the hope that this address may meet your eye'
and that you may be induced to give the matter the consi-
derlition it pre-eminently deserves, 1 venture the following
remarks.
When Dr. Price wrote his celebrated Treatise on civil li-
berty, and alarmed the nation with toe prospect of a--
preaching rain, on account of tne excessive taxation laid.
on the people, the amount of the duties on Stamps, in-
cluding cams, dire, advertisements, bonds, leases, inden•
tures, newspapers, aim snack,, &it.. was 2ltant_tt. ; and
the total amount of ad the Taxes was rather less than
twelve millions. . _ _

In-
the year ending January 1524, the amount of the
ditties on Stamps, including the Legacy Daly, to which
duty my observations will for the present be confined, was
upwards of Six Millions, being more than half of the whole
revenue of the coition?, including the Customs, the Excise,
the Post-Office, the Assessed Taxes, and the Lind Tax, at
the time Dr. Price wrote ; At which time we were carrying
on an extensive and formidable war in a distant quarter
of the globe for the subjugation of our brethren of
America . _ _ _ _ _

The Legacy Tax, Sir, emanatinz from the disciples of the
Pitt-school, is of all other burthens the most uncongenial
to the principles of the British Constitution ; and if now,
for the first time, proposed, would meet with universal re-
probation. The proposers,indeed,of that mea,ure could never
have supposed the lengths to which it has been carried.
When I speak of the Legacy Tax, 1 include the
tax on shares of personal estates, which, consistent
with the unjust principles on which the Tax was created,
has at length, by subselnent enactments, extended
to shares of estates directed by testators to be sold. The
inquisitorial powers conferred by the Acts of Parliament
nuder which these duties are imposed, are exercised in
their full latitude by the Gentlemen at the 'mid of this de-
partment at Somerset House, and are utterly subversive of
the true principles of legislation. %Mit would you think,
Sir, of the conduct of a private individual, if, after the
decease of a near and dear relative or friend, he should
ask you to render him an account of the money that was
tound in the house—of the debts that lie owed—of the
debts that were owing to him—of the different species of
property of which he died possessed—that he were to ask
you to open the drawers of the deceased, and to permit him
to inspeet-hiateetamentary papers, hitherto deemed sacred,
and to disclose what legacies, specific or pecuniary, were
thereby bequeathed, and to whom—that he should require
the leintee to have a value put by sworn appraisers and
auctiotac.3 on the donations pf their departed friend—that
all aersuities for life must be valued accordiug to fractional
and decimal tables invented for the purpose—that the va-
luable collections of the virtuoso, his museum, his medals,
scarce coils, and unique cameos, must undergo the ordeal
of inquiry as to their value, and be submitted to the rude gaso
of unlettered lk ignorant hrokers?What, Sir, would you say
to impertinence ofsuch curiosity,and the unblushing imps-
deuce ui such demands ?—Yet all this is done under the
sanction of enactments purposely framed to meet every pos-
sible case. The Legacy Acts, those precious hantlings of
an administration that has laid more taxes on the people of
England than all the Ministers of every Government in the
World, during theist:le period of time, require the different
Registers of the Ecclesiastical Courts to transmit the wills,
proved within their several jurisdictions, and an account
of the letters of administration granted t 3 the represen-
tatives of persons dying intestate, to the office at Somerset
House, where Books are kept to make entries thereof ; aad,
within a very few weeks afterwards, the work of inquiry
begins. A printed letter is transmitted from the Legacy
Othce, demanding the particulars above enumerated.—As
you, Sir, and a great portion of the public may nut
be acquainted with the extent to which this inquiry is car-
ried, t shall first subjoin a few of Bit heads under which
the account is ordered to be arranged.
Cash in the House. Wearing apparel.
Cash at the Bankers. Jewels, Trinkets, and Orna-
Cash arising from the Sale of meats of the person.
the following Articles : Wine and other Liquors.
Household Goods anti Furui- Horses and Carriages.
ture. Farming Stock and Imple-
Plate, Linen and China. mews of Husbandry.
Books, Prints, and Pictures. Leasehold Estates.
And then must come an account of every species sod deno-
mination of Stcck in the finds. and sit your Bonds, Bills,
Notes, Securities for Money, Ships, and shares of Ships, and
the value of every Estate directed to be sold or mortgaged,
thus laying the affairs of every man in the Kingdom open to
the inspection of all maneer of clerks and other persons.--
AND ALL THIS, SIR, IN ENGLAND—ID England "the boast and
admiration of the world."—Time and space will notsuflice to

me to point out to you the numerous questions and difficulties
that arise upon the construction of many of the clauses of the
Act, and the trouble and vexatlon that ensue to the public there•
upon. It is sufficient for my present purpose to skew yon that
the Tax is, of all others, the most inquisitorial that can be
conceived ; ■nd I know of no measure that would add to that
popularity you have already acquired, than by bringing in the
Bill it not for its immediate, at least for its gradual aboli ion.
But at all eventi, as in the case of the late surcharges by the
surveyors of Taxes, which Government, to its infinite credit,
abolished. and thereby destroyed the golden prospects of those
disinterested gentlemen, it is greatly to be wished that you
would interpose to prevent the harm Elie inquiries,now carnet
en at Somerset House, on Me subject of arrears payable by
fiseentorsand Legatees long sihee in their graves. In cases
between subject and subject, the Statute cf Limitatiaus pre•
eludes all dormant claims of six years' state ; but the present
inquiries elm at the revival of claims for 2U years, and cause
infinite trouble. Let orders be Issued to stop these harrassiog
inquiries ; and the Books, like the Temple of Janus, be shut
for ever.
My nett letter shall contain an espose of some of the friar
ing inconsistencies of the Stamp Duties, and a plan for their
alteration. I am, Qtc. CIVIS.

We this day insert the letter of Ciois, on the abuses of
the Tax on Kills and Administrations; but for went of
room we must pos.poiae till to-morrow the !marks we
intended to offer on that subject.
The term of Mr. D. W. Harvey's confinements on account
of an alleged libel in the Sra&N Times. bavintex_pired.
that Gentleman was this day liberated frogs the King's
Bench Prison.