100,000
Very handsome indeed!
Very handsome indeed!
Edmund Burke
Care has not been wanting to introduce economy into that part of the service.
The author's great friend has made, I admit, some regulations : his immediate successors have made more and better.
This part will be han dled more ably and more minutely at another time: but no one can cut down this bill of extraordinaries at his pleasure.
The author has given us nothing, but his word, for any certain or considerable reduc tion; and this we ought to be the more cautious in taking, as he has promised great savings in his " Con siderations," which he has not chosen to abide by in
his " State of the Nation. "
On this head also of the American extraordinaries,
he can take credit for nothing. As to his next, the lessening of the deficiency of the land and malt-tax,
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conversant in that subject cannot avoid a smile. This deficiency arises from charge of collection, from
anticipation, and from defective produce. What has the author said on the reduction of any head of this deficiency upon the land-tax ? On these points he is absolutely silent. As to the deficiency on the malt tax, which is chiefly owing to a defective produce, he has and can have nothing to propose. If this defi ciency should be lessened by the increase of malting in any years more than in others, (as it is a greatly fluctuating object,) how much of this obligation shall we owe to this author's ministry? will it not be the case under any administration? must it not go to the general service of the year, in some way or other, let the finances be in whose hands they will? But why take credit for so extremely reduced a deficiency at all? I can tell him he has no rational gI'Oilnd for it in the produce of the year 1767; and I suspect will have full as little reason from the produce of the year 1768. _ That produce may indeed become greater, and the deficiency of course will be less. It may too be far otherwise. A fair and judicious financier will not, as this writer has done, for the sake of making out a specious account, select a favorable year or two, at remote periods, and ground his calculations on those. In 1768 he will not take the deficiencies of 1753 and 1754 for his standard. Sober men have hitherto (and must continue this course, to preserve this character,) taken indiffere11tly the mediums of the. years immediately preceding. But a person who has a scheme from which he promises much to the public ought to be still more cautious ; he should
? his speculation rather on the lowest medi ums ; because all new schemes are known to be sub
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ject to some defect or failure not foreseen; and which therefore every prudent proposer will be ready to al low for, in order to lay his foundation as low and as solid as possible. Quite contrary is the practice of some politicians. They first propose savings, which they well know cannot be made, in order to get a reputation for economy. In due time they assume another, but a different method, by providing for the service they had before cut ofl' or straitened, and which they can then very easily prove to be neces sary. In the same spirit they raise magnificent ideas
of revenue on funds which they know to be insuffi cient. Afterwards, who can blame them, if they do not satisfy the public desires ? They are great artifi cers ; but they cannot work without materials.
These are some of the little arts of great statesmen. To such we leave them, and follow where the author leads us, to his next resource, the Foundling Hospi tal. Whatever particular virtue there is in the mode of this saving, there seems to be nothing at all new, and indeed nothing wonderfully important in it. The sum annually voted for the support of the Found ling Hospital has been in a former Parliament lim
ited to the establishment of the children then_ in the hospital. When they are apprenticed, this pro vision will cease. It will therefore fall in more or less at different times; and will at length cease entirely. But, until it does, we cannot reckon upon it as the saving on the establishment of any given year : nor can any one conceive how the author comes to mention this, any more than some other articles, as a part of a new plan of economy which is to retrieve our affairs. This charge will indeed cease in its
own time. But will no other succeed to it? Has
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he ever known the public free from some contin gent charge, either for the just support of royal
dignity or for national magnificence, or for public charity, or for public service? does he choose to flat ter his readers that no such will ever return? or does he in good earnest declare, that let the reason, or necessity, be what they will, he is resolved not to provide for such services ?
Another resource of economy yet remains, for he gleans the field very closely,---1800l. for the Amer ican surveys. Why, what signifies a dispute about trifles? he shall have it. But while he is carrying it off, I shall just whisper in his ear, that neither the saving that is allowed, nor that which is doubted can at all belong to that future proposed administra tion, whose touch to cure all our evils. Both the one and the other belong equally (as indeed all the rest do) to the present administration, to any admin istration; because they are the gift of time, and not the bounty of the exchequer.
have now done with all the minor, preparatory parts of the author's scheme, the several articles saving which he proposes. At length comes the cap ital operation, his new resources. Three hundred thousand pounds year from America and Ireland. +Alas! alas! that too should fail us, what will become of this poor undone nation The author, in
tone of great humility, hopes they may be induced to pay it. Well, that be all, we may hope so too: and for anylight he pleased to give us into the ground of this hope, and the ways and means of this inducement, here speedy end both of the ques tion and the revenue.
the constant custom of this author, in all his
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writings, to take it for granted, that he has given you a revenue, whenever he can point out to you where you may have money, if you can contrive how to get at it; and this seems to be the masterpiece of his financial ability. I think, however, in his way of pro ceeding, he has behaved rather like a harsh step dame, than a kind nursing-mother to his country. Why stop at 300,000l. ? If his state of things be at all founded, America and Ireland are much better able to pay 600,000l. than we are to satisfy ourselves with half that sum. However, let us forgive him this one instance of tenderness towards Ireland and the colonies.
? He spends a vast deal of time* in an endeavor to prove that Ireland is able to bear greater impositions. He is of opinion, that the poverty of the lower class of people there is, in a great measure, owing to a want of judicious taxes; that aland-tax will enrich her tenants; that taxes are paid in England which are not paid there ; that the colony trade is increased above 100,000l. since the peace; that she ought to have further indulgence in that trade; and ought to have further privileges in the woollen manufacture. From these premises, of what she has, what she has not, and what she ought to have, he infers that Ire land will contribute 100,000l. towards the extraordi naries of the American establishment.
I shall make no objections whatsoever, logical or financial, to this reasoning: many occur; but they would lead me from my purpose, from which I do not intend to be diverted, because it seems to me of no small importance. It will be just enough to hint, what I dare say many readers have before observed,
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that when any man proposes new taxes in a co1mtry with which he is not personally conversant by res idence or office, he ought to lay open its situation much more minutely and critically than this author has done, or than perhaps he is able to do. He ought not to content himself with saying that a single article of her trade is increased 100,000l. a year; he ought, if he argues from the increase of trade to the increase of taxes, to state the whole trade, and not one branch of trade only; he ought to enter fully into the state of its remittances, and the course of its exchange; he ought likewise to exam ine whether all its establishments are increased or diminished; and whether it incurs or discharges debts annually. But I pass over allthis; and am content to ask a few plain questions.
Does the author then seriously mean to propose in Parliament a land-tax, or any tax for 100,000l. a year upon Ireland? If he does, and if fatally, by his te merity and our weakness, he should succeed; then I say he will throw the whole empire from one end of it to the other into mortal convulsions. What is it that can satisfy the furious and perturbed mind of this man ? _ is it not enough for him that such projects
have alienated our colonies from the mother-country, and not to propose violently to tear our sister-king dom also from our side, and to convince every de pendent part of the empire, that, when a little money is to be raised, we have no sort of regard to their an cient customs, their opinions, their circumstances, or their aifections'? He has however a douaeur for Ire
land in his pocket; benefits in trade, by opening the woollen manufacture to that nation. A very right idea in my opinion; but not more strong in reason,
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than likely to be opposed by the most powerful and most violent of all local prejudices and popular pas sions. First, a fire is already kindled by his schemes of taxation in America; he then proposes one which will set all Ireland in a blaze ; and his way of quench ing both is by a plan which may kindle perhaps ten times a greater flame in Britain.
Will the author pledge himself, previously to his proposal of such a tax, to carry this enlargement of the Irish trade? If he does not, then the tax will be certain; the benefit will be less than problematical. In this view, his compensation to Ireland vanishes into smoke; the tax, to their prejudices, will appear
stark naked in the light of an act of arbitrary power and oppression. But, if he should propose the bene fit and tax together, then the people of Ireland, a very high and spirited people, would think it the worst bargain in the world. They would look upon the one as wholly vitiated and poisoned by the other; and, if they could not be separated, would infallibly resist them both together. Here would be taxes, in
deed, amounting to a handsome sum; 100,000l. very effectually voted, and passed through the best and most authentic forms; but how to be collected? -- This is his perpetual manner. One of his projects depends for success upon another project, and this upon a third, all of them equally visionary. His fi nance is like the Indian philosophy; his earth is poised on the horns of a bull, his bull stands upon
an elephant, his elephant is supported by a tortoise; and so on forever.
As to his American 200,000l. a year, he is satisfied
to repeat gravely, as he has done an hundred times
before, that the Americans are able to pay it. Well, VOL I. 23
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and what then? does he lay open any part of his plan
how they may be compelled to pay without plung ing ourselves into calamities that outweigh tenfold the proposed benefit? or does he show how they may be induced to submit to quietly? or does he give any satisfaction concerning the mode of levying
in commercial colonies, one of the most important and difficult of all considerations? Nothing like To the Stamp Act, whatever its excellences may
think he will not in reality recur, or even choose to assert that he means to do so, in case his minister should come again into power. If he does, Iwill pre dict that some of the fastest friends of that minister will desert him upon this point. As to port duties he has damned them all in the lump, by declaring them* " contrary to the first principles of coloniza tion, and not less prejudicial to the interests of Great Britain than to those of the colonies. " Surely this single observation of his ought to have taught him little caution he ought to have begun to doubt, whether there not something in the nature of com mercial colonies, which renders them an unfit object of taxation when port duties, so large fund of rev enue in all countries, are by himself found, in this case, not only improper, but destructive. However, he has here pretty well narrowed the field of taxation. Stamp Act, hardly to be resumed. Port duties, mis chievous. Excises, believe, he will scarcely think
worth the collection (if any revenue should be so) in America. Land-tax (notwithstanding his opinion of its immense use to agriculture) he will not directly propose, before he has thought again and again on the subject. Indeed he very readily recommends for
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Ireland, and seems to think it not improper for Amer ica; because, he observes, they already raise most of their taxes internally, including this tax. A most curious reason, truly ! because their lands are aheady heavily burdened, he thinks it right to burden them
still further. But he will recollect, for surely he can not be ignorant of that the lands of America are not, as in England, let at rent certain in money, and therefore cannot, as here,be taxed at certain pound rate. They value them in gross among themselves and none but themselves in their several districts can value them. Without their hearty conc\n'rence and
co-operation, evident, we cannot advance step in the assessing or collecting any land-tax. As to the taxes which in some places the Americans pay by the acre, they are merely duties of regulation; they are small and to increase them, notwithstanding the secret virtues of land-tax, would be the most effect ual means of preventing that cultivation they are
intended to promote. Besides, the whole country heavily in arrear already for land-taxes and quit rents. They have different methods of taxation in the different provinces, agreeable to their several
local circumstances. In New England by far the greatest part of their revenue raised by faculty tazes and capitatiom. Such the method in many others. It obvious that Parliament, unassisted by the colonies themselves, cannot take so much as
single step in this mode of taxation. Then what tax it he will impose? Why, after all the boasting
? and writings of his faction for these four years, after all the vain expectations which they have held out to deluded public, this their great advo cate, after twisting the subject every way, after writh
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ing himself in every posture, after knocking at every door, is obliged fairly to abandon every mode of tax ation whatsoever in America. * He thinks it the best method for Parliament to impose the sum, and reserve the account to itself, leaving the mode of taxation to the colonies. But how and in what proportion? what does the author say? O, not a single syllable on this the most material part of the whole question l Will he, in Parliament, undertake to settle the proportions of such payments from Nova Scotia to Nevis, in no fewer than six-and-twenty different countries,varying in almost every possible circumstance one from an other? If he does, I tell him, he adjourns his reve
nue to a very long day. If he leaves it to themselves to settle these proportions, he adjourns it to doomsday.
Then what does he get by this method on the side of acquiescence? will the people of America relish this course, of giving and granting and applying their money, the better because their assemblies are made commissioners of the taxes? This is far worse than all his former projects ; for here, if the assemblies shall refuse, or delay, or be negligent, or fraudulent,
in this new-imposed duty, we are wholly without rem edy; and neither our custom-house officers, nor our troops, nor our armed ships can be of the least use in the collection. No idea can be more contemptible (I will not call it an oppressive one, the harshness is lost in the folly) than that of proposing to get any revenue from the Americans but by their freest and most cheerful consent. Most moneyed men know their own interest right well; and are as able as any finan cier, in the valuation of risks. Yet I think this finan cier will scarcely find that adventurer hardy enough,
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at any premium, to advance a shilling upon a vote of such taxes. Let him name the man, or set of men, that would do it. This is the only proof of the value of revenues ; what would an interested man rate them at? His subscription would be at ninety-nine per cent discount the very first day of its opening. Here is our only national security from ruin; a security upon which no man in his senses would venture a shilling of his fortune. Yet he puts down those arti cles as gravely in his supply for the peace establish ment, as if the money had been all fairly lodged in
the exchequer.
American revenue . . . . ? 200,000 Ireland. . . . . . . .
100,000
Very handsome indeed! But if supply is to be got in such a manner, farewell the lucrative mystery of finance! If you are to be credited for savings, with out showing how, why, or with what safety, they are to be made ; and for revenues, without specifying on what articles, or by what means, or at what expense, they are to be collected ; there is not a clerk in a pub lic office who may not outbid this author, or his friend, for the department of chancellor of the exchequer; not an apprentice in the city, that will not strike out,
with the same advantages, the same, or a much larger
plan of supply.
Here is the whole of what belongs to the author's
scheme for saving us from impending destruction. Take it even in its most favorable point of view, as a thing within possibility; and imagine what must be the wisdom of this gentleman, or his opinion of ours, who could first think of representing this nation in such a state, as no friend can look upon but with hor
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ror, and scarcely an enemy without compassion, and
afterwards of diverting himself with such inadequate, 'impracticable, puerile methods for our relief I If these had been the dreams of some unknown, un
named, and nameless writer, they would excite no alarm; then' weakness had been an antidote to their malignity. But as they are universally believed to be written by the hand, or, what amounts to the same thing, under the immediate direction, of a person who has been in the management of the highest af
fairs, and may soon be in the same situation, I
think it is not to be reckoned amongst our greatest consola
? tions, that the yet remaining power of this kingdom is to be employed in an attempt to realize notions that are at once so frivolous, and so full of danger. That consideration will justify me in dwelling a little longer on the difficulties of the nation, and the solu tions of our author.
I am then persuaded that he cannot be in the least alarmed about our situation, let his outcry be what he pleases. I will give him a reason for my opinion, which, I think, he cannot dispute. All that he be stows upon the nation, which it does not possess with out him, and supposing it all sure money, amounts to no more than a sum of 300,000l. a year. This, he thinks, will do the business completely, and render us flourishing at home, and respectable abroad. If the option between glory and shame, if our salvation or destruction, depended on this sum, it is impossible that he should have been active, and made a merit of that activity, in taking off a shilling in the pound of the land-tax, which came up to his grand desidera tum, and upwards of 100,000l. more. By this ma noeuvre, he left our trade, navigation, and manufac
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tures, on the verge of destruction, our finances in ruin, our credit expiring, Ireland on the point of be ing ceded to France, the colonies of being torn to pieces, the succession of the crown at the mercy of our great rival, and the kingdom itself on the very point of becomingtributary to that haughty power. All this for want of 300,000l. ; for I defy the reader to point out any other revenue, or any other precise and defined scheme of politics, which he assigns for our
redemption.
I know that two things may be said in his defence,
as bad reasons are always at hand in an indifferent cause ; that he was not sure the money would be ap plied as he thinks it ought to be, by the present min isters. I think as ill of them as he does to the full. They have done very near as much mischief as they can do, to a constitution so robust as this is. Nothing can make them more dangerous, but that, as they are ah'eady in general composed of his disciples and instru ments, they may add to the public calamity of their own measures, the adoption of his projects. But be the ministers what they may, the author knows that they could not avoid applying this 450,000l. to the ser vice of the establishment, as faithfully as he, or any other minister, could do. I say they could not avoid it, and have no merit at all for the application. But supposing that they should greatly mismanage this revenue. Here is a good deal of room for mistake and prodigality before you come to the edge of ruin. The difference between the amount of that real and his imaginary revenue 150,00l)l. year at least; tolerable sum for them to play with: this might com pensate the difference between the author's economy and their_ profusion; and still, notwithstanding their
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vices and ignorance, the nation might be saved. The author ought also to recollect, that a good man would hardly deny, even to the worst of ministers, the means of doing their duty; especially in a crisis when our being depended on supplying them with some means or other. In such a case their penury of mind, in discovering resources, would make it rather the more necessary, not to strip such poor providers of the little stock they had in hand.
Besides, here is another subject of distress, and a very serious one, which puts us again to a stand. The author may possibly not come into power (I only state the possibility): he may not always continue in it: and if the contrary to all this should fortunately for us happen, what insurance on his life can be made_ for a sum adequate to his loss? Then we are thus unluckily situated, that the chance of an American and Irish revenue of 300,000l. to be managed by him, is to save us from ruin two or three years hence at best, to make us happy at home and glorious abroad; and the actual possession of 400,000l. English taxes cannot so much as protract our ruin without him. So we are staked on four chances ; his power, its per manence, the success of his projects, and the duration of his life. Any one of these failing, we are gone. Projoria hoec si 0l0nafuissent. ' This is no unfair rep resentation; ultimately all hangs on his life, because, in his account of every set of men that have held or supported administration, he finds neither virtue nor ability in any but himself. Indeed he pays (through their measures) some compliments to Lord Bute and Lord Despenser. But to the latter, this is, I suppose, but a civility to old acquaintance: to the former, a little stroke of politics. We may therefore fairly say.
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that our only hope is his life ; and he has, to make it the more so, taken care to cut off any resource which we possessed independently of him.
In the next place it may be said, to excuse any ap pearance of inconsistency between the author's ac tions and his declarations, that he thought it right to relieve the landed interest, and lay the burden where it ought to lie, on the colonies. What! to take ofl' a revenue so necessary to our being, before anything
whatsoever was acquired in the place of it? In pru dence, he ought to have waited at least for the first quarter's receipt of the new anonymous American revenue, and Irish land-tax. Is there something so specific for our disorders in American, and something so poisonous in English money, that one is to heal, the other to destroy us? To say that the landed in terest could not continue to pay it for a year or two longer, is more than the author will attempt to prove. To say that they would pay it no longer, is to treat the landed interest, in my opinion, very scurvily. To suppose that the gentry, clergy, and freeholders of England do not rate the commerce, the credit, the religion, the liberty, the indcpendency of their coun try, and the succession of their crown, at a shilling
in the pound land-tax! They never gave him reason to think so meanly of them. And, if I am rightly in formed, when that measure was debated in Parlia ment, a very different reason was assigned by the author's great friend, as well as by others, for that reduction: one very dilferent from the critical and almost desperate state of our finances. Some people then endeavored to prove, that the reduction might
be made without detriment to the national credit, or the due support of a proper peace establishment; oth
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erwise it is obvious that the reduction could not be defended in argument. So that this author cannot despair so much of the commonwealth, without this American and Irish revenue, as he pretends to do. If he does, the reader sees how handsomely he has provided for us, by voting away one revenue, and by
giving us a pamphlet on the other.
I do not mean to blame the relief which was then
given by Parliament to the land. It was gro1mded on very weighty reasons. The administration cin tended only for its continuance for a year, in order to have the merit of taking off the shilling in the pound immediately before the elections; and thus to bribe the freeholders of England with their own money.
It is true, the author, in his estimate of ways and means, takes credit for 400,000l. a year, Indian Rev enue. But he will not very positively insist, that we should put this revenue to the account of his plans or his power; and for a very plain reason: we are al ready near two years in possession of it. By what means we came to that possession, is a pretty long story; however, I shall give nothing more than a short abstract of the proceeding, in order to see whether the author will take to himself any part in that measure.
The fact is this; the East India Company had for a good while solicited the ministry for a negotiation, by which they proposed to pay largely for some ad vantages in their trade, and for the renewal of their charter. This had been the former method of trans acting with that body. Government having only leased the monopoly for short terms, the Company
has been obliged to resort to it frequently for renew
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als. These two parties had always negotiated (on the true principle of credit) not as government and sub ject, but as equal dealers, on the footing of mutual
advantage. The public had derived great benefit from such dealing. But at that time new ideas pre vailed. The ministry, instcad of listening to the pro posals of that Company, chose to set up a claim of the crown to their possessions. The original plan seems to have been, to get the House of Commons to com pliment the crown with a sort of juridical declaration
of a title to the Company's acquisitions in India; which the crown on its part, with the best air in _the world, was to bestow upon the public. Then it would come to the turn of the House of Commons again to be liberal and grateful to the crown. The civil list debts were to be paid off; with perhaps a pretty augmentation of income. All this was to be
done on the most public-spirited principles, and with a politeness and mutual interchange of good ofiices, that could not but have charmed. But what was best of all, these civilities were to be without a far thing of charge to either of the kind and obliging parties. The East India Company was to be covered with infamy and disgrace, and at the same time was
to pay the whole bill.
In consequence of this scheme, the terrors of a
parliamentary inquiry were hung over them. A ju dicature was asserted in Parliament to try this ques tion. But lest this judicial character should chance to inspire certain stubborn ideas of law and right, it was argued, that the judicature was arbitrary, and
ought not to determine by the rules of law, but by their opinion of policy and expediency. Nothing ex ceeded the violence of some of the managers, except
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their impotence. They were bewildered by their pas sions, and by their want of knowledge or want of con sideration of the subject. The more they advanced, the further they found themselves from their ob ject. --A_ll things ran into confusion. The ministers
themselves. They disclaimed one another. They suspended violence, and shrunk from treaty. The inquiry was almost at its last gasp; when some active persons of the Company were given to understand that this hostile proceeding was only set up in terrorem ; that government was far from an
intention of seizing upon the possessions of the Com pany. Administration, they said, was sensible, that the idea was in every light full of absurdity; and that such a seizure was not more out of their power, than remote from their wishes; and therefore, if the Company would come in a liberal manner to the House, they certainly could not fail of putting a speedy end to this disagreeable business, and of open ing a way to an advantageous treaty.
On this hint the Company acted: they came at once to a resolution of getting rid of the difficulties which arose from the complication of their trade with their revenue; a step which despoiled them of their best defensive armor, and put them at once into the
of administration. They threw their whole stock of every kind, the revenue, the trade, and even their debt from government, into one fund, which they computed on the surest grounds would amount to 800,000l. , with a large probable surplus for the payment of debt. Then they agreed" to divide this sum in equal portions between themselves and the public, 400,000l. to each. This gave to the" pr0p1'i6 tors of that fund an annual augmentation of no more
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than 80,000l. dividend. They ought to receive from government 120,000l. for the loan of their capital. So that, in fact, the whole, which on this plan they re served to themselves, from their vast revenues, from their extensive trade, and in consideration of the great risks and mighty expenses which purchased these ad
vantages, amounted to no more than 280,000l. , whilst government was to receive, as I said, 400,000l.
This proposal was thought by themselves liberal indeed; and they expected the highest applauses for it. However, their reception was very different from their expectations. When they
brought_up their plan to the House of Commons, the offer, as it was natural, of 400,000l. was very well relished. But
? nothing could be more disgustful than the 80,000l. which the Company had divided amongst themselves. A violent tempest of public indignation and fury rose against them. The heads of people turned. The Company was held well able to pay 400,000l. a year to government; but bankrupts, if they at
tempted to divide the fifth part of it among them selves. An ex post facto law was brought in with great precipitation, for annulling this dividend. In the bill was inserted a clause, which suspended for about a year the right, which, under the public faith, the Company enjoyed, of making their own dividends. Such was the disposition and temper of the House,
that although the plain face of facts, reason, arithme tic, all the authority, parts, and eloquence in the kingdom, were against this bill ; though all the Chan cellors of the Exchequer, who had held that office from the beginning of this reign, opposed it; yet a few placemen of the subordinate departments sprung out of their ranks, took the lead, and, by an opinion
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qf some sort of secret support, carried the bill with a high hand, leaving the then Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer in a very moderate minority. In this distracted situation, the managers of the bill, notwithstanding their triumph, did not
venture to propose the payment of the civil list debt. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was not in good humor enough, after his late defeat by his own troops, to co-operate in such a design; so they made an act, to lock up the money in the exchequer until they should have time to look about them, and settle
among themselves what they were to do with it. Thus ended this unparalleled transaction. The author, I believe, will not claim any part of the glory
of it: he will leave it whole and entire to the authors of the measure. The money was the voluntary, free gift of the Company; the rescinding bill was the act of legislature, to which they and we owe submission: the author has nothing to do with the one or with the other. However, he cannot avoid rubbing _ himself against this subject merely for the pleasure of stirring controversies, and gratifying a certain pruriency of taxation that seems to infect his blood. It is merely
to indulge himself in speculations of taxing, that he chooses to harangue on this subject. For he takes credit for no greater sum than the public is already in possession of. He does not hint that the Company means, or has ever shown any disposition, if managed with common prudence, to pay less in future; and he cannot doubt that the present ministry are as well in clined to drive them by their mock induiries, and real rescinding bills, as he can possibly be with his taxes. Besides, it is obvious, that as great a sum might have been drawn fi'0m that Company, without affecting
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property, or shaking the constitution, or endangering the principle of public credit, or running into his golden dreams of cockets on the Ganges, or visions of stamp duties on Perwannas, Dusticks, Ifistbundees, and Hue bulhookums. For once, I will disappoint him in this part of the dispute; and only in a very few words recommend to his consideration, how he is to get off the dangerous idea of taxing a public fund, if he lev ies those duties in England ; and if he is to levy them in India, what provision he has made for a revenue establishment there; supposing that he undertakes this new scheme of finance independently of the Com pany, and against its inclinations.
So much for these revenues; which are nothing but his visions, or already the national possessions without any act of his. It is easy to parade with a high talk of Parliamentary rights, of the universality of legislative powers, and of uniform taxation. Men of sense, when new projects come before them, always
think a discourse proving the mere right or mere
of acting in the manner proposed, to be no more than a very unpleasant way of misspending time. They must see the object to be of proper magnitude to engage them; they must see the means of com passing it to be next to certain ; the mischiefs not to counterbalance the profit; they will examine how a proposed imposition or regulation agrees with the opinion of those who are likely to be affected by it; they will not despise the consideration even of their habitudes and prejudices. They wish to know how it accords or disagrees with the true spirit of prior
establishments, whether of government or of finance ; because they well know, that in the complicated economy of great kingdoms, and immense revenues,
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which in a length of time, and by a variety of acci dents have coalesced into a sort of body, an attempt towards a compulsory equality in all circumstances, and an exact practical definition of the
supreme rights in every case, is the most dangerous and chi
merical of all enterprises. The old building stands well enough, though part Gothic, part Grecian, and part Chinese, until an attempt is made to square it into uniformity. Then it may come down upon our heads altogether, in much uniformity of ruin; and
great will be the fall thereof. Some people, instead of inclining to debate the matter, only feel a sort of nausea, when they are told, that " protection calls for supply," and that " all the parts ought to contribute to the support of the whole. " Strange argument for great and grave deliberation! As if the same end may not, and must not, be compassed, according to its circumstances, by a great diversity of ways. Thus, in Great Britain, some of our establishments are'apt
for the support of credit. They stand therefore upon a principle of their own, distinct from, and in some respects contrary to, the relation between prince and subject. It is a new species of contract superinduced upon the old contract of the state. The idea of pow er must as much as possible be banished from it; for power and credit are things adverse, incompatible; Non bene conoeninnt, nee in nna sede morantnr. Such establishments are our great moneyed companies. To tax them would be critical and dangerous, and con tradictory to the very purpose of their institution; which is credit, and cannot therefore be taxation. But the nation, when it gave up that power, did not give up the advantage; but supposed, and with rea son, that government was overpaid in credit, for what
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it seemed to lose in authority. In such a case to talk of the rights of sovereignty is quite idle. Other es tablishments supply other modes of public contribu tion.
his " State of the Nation. "
On this head also of the American extraordinaries,
he can take credit for nothing. As to his next, the lessening of the deficiency of the land and malt-tax,
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conversant in that subject cannot avoid a smile. This deficiency arises from charge of collection, from
anticipation, and from defective produce. What has the author said on the reduction of any head of this deficiency upon the land-tax ? On these points he is absolutely silent. As to the deficiency on the malt tax, which is chiefly owing to a defective produce, he has and can have nothing to propose. If this defi ciency should be lessened by the increase of malting in any years more than in others, (as it is a greatly fluctuating object,) how much of this obligation shall we owe to this author's ministry? will it not be the case under any administration? must it not go to the general service of the year, in some way or other, let the finances be in whose hands they will? But why take credit for so extremely reduced a deficiency at all? I can tell him he has no rational gI'Oilnd for it in the produce of the year 1767; and I suspect will have full as little reason from the produce of the year 1768. _ That produce may indeed become greater, and the deficiency of course will be less. It may too be far otherwise. A fair and judicious financier will not, as this writer has done, for the sake of making out a specious account, select a favorable year or two, at remote periods, and ground his calculations on those. In 1768 he will not take the deficiencies of 1753 and 1754 for his standard. Sober men have hitherto (and must continue this course, to preserve this character,) taken indiffere11tly the mediums of the. years immediately preceding. But a person who has a scheme from which he promises much to the public ought to be still more cautious ; he should
? his speculation rather on the lowest medi ums ; because all new schemes are known to be sub
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ject to some defect or failure not foreseen; and which therefore every prudent proposer will be ready to al low for, in order to lay his foundation as low and as solid as possible. Quite contrary is the practice of some politicians. They first propose savings, which they well know cannot be made, in order to get a reputation for economy. In due time they assume another, but a different method, by providing for the service they had before cut ofl' or straitened, and which they can then very easily prove to be neces sary. In the same spirit they raise magnificent ideas
of revenue on funds which they know to be insuffi cient. Afterwards, who can blame them, if they do not satisfy the public desires ? They are great artifi cers ; but they cannot work without materials.
These are some of the little arts of great statesmen. To such we leave them, and follow where the author leads us, to his next resource, the Foundling Hospi tal. Whatever particular virtue there is in the mode of this saving, there seems to be nothing at all new, and indeed nothing wonderfully important in it. The sum annually voted for the support of the Found ling Hospital has been in a former Parliament lim
ited to the establishment of the children then_ in the hospital. When they are apprenticed, this pro vision will cease. It will therefore fall in more or less at different times; and will at length cease entirely. But, until it does, we cannot reckon upon it as the saving on the establishment of any given year : nor can any one conceive how the author comes to mention this, any more than some other articles, as a part of a new plan of economy which is to retrieve our affairs. This charge will indeed cease in its
own time. But will no other succeed to it? Has
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he ever known the public free from some contin gent charge, either for the just support of royal
dignity or for national magnificence, or for public charity, or for public service? does he choose to flat ter his readers that no such will ever return? or does he in good earnest declare, that let the reason, or necessity, be what they will, he is resolved not to provide for such services ?
Another resource of economy yet remains, for he gleans the field very closely,---1800l. for the Amer ican surveys. Why, what signifies a dispute about trifles? he shall have it. But while he is carrying it off, I shall just whisper in his ear, that neither the saving that is allowed, nor that which is doubted can at all belong to that future proposed administra tion, whose touch to cure all our evils. Both the one and the other belong equally (as indeed all the rest do) to the present administration, to any admin istration; because they are the gift of time, and not the bounty of the exchequer.
have now done with all the minor, preparatory parts of the author's scheme, the several articles saving which he proposes. At length comes the cap ital operation, his new resources. Three hundred thousand pounds year from America and Ireland. +Alas! alas! that too should fail us, what will become of this poor undone nation The author, in
tone of great humility, hopes they may be induced to pay it. Well, that be all, we may hope so too: and for anylight he pleased to give us into the ground of this hope, and the ways and means of this inducement, here speedy end both of the ques tion and the revenue.
the constant custom of this author, in all his
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writings, to take it for granted, that he has given you a revenue, whenever he can point out to you where you may have money, if you can contrive how to get at it; and this seems to be the masterpiece of his financial ability. I think, however, in his way of pro ceeding, he has behaved rather like a harsh step dame, than a kind nursing-mother to his country. Why stop at 300,000l. ? If his state of things be at all founded, America and Ireland are much better able to pay 600,000l. than we are to satisfy ourselves with half that sum. However, let us forgive him this one instance of tenderness towards Ireland and the colonies.
? He spends a vast deal of time* in an endeavor to prove that Ireland is able to bear greater impositions. He is of opinion, that the poverty of the lower class of people there is, in a great measure, owing to a want of judicious taxes; that aland-tax will enrich her tenants; that taxes are paid in England which are not paid there ; that the colony trade is increased above 100,000l. since the peace; that she ought to have further indulgence in that trade; and ought to have further privileges in the woollen manufacture. From these premises, of what she has, what she has not, and what she ought to have, he infers that Ire land will contribute 100,000l. towards the extraordi naries of the American establishment.
I shall make no objections whatsoever, logical or financial, to this reasoning: many occur; but they would lead me from my purpose, from which I do not intend to be diverted, because it seems to me of no small importance. It will be just enough to hint, what I dare say many readers have before observed,
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that when any man proposes new taxes in a co1mtry with which he is not personally conversant by res idence or office, he ought to lay open its situation much more minutely and critically than this author has done, or than perhaps he is able to do. He ought not to content himself with saying that a single article of her trade is increased 100,000l. a year; he ought, if he argues from the increase of trade to the increase of taxes, to state the whole trade, and not one branch of trade only; he ought to enter fully into the state of its remittances, and the course of its exchange; he ought likewise to exam ine whether all its establishments are increased or diminished; and whether it incurs or discharges debts annually. But I pass over allthis; and am content to ask a few plain questions.
Does the author then seriously mean to propose in Parliament a land-tax, or any tax for 100,000l. a year upon Ireland? If he does, and if fatally, by his te merity and our weakness, he should succeed; then I say he will throw the whole empire from one end of it to the other into mortal convulsions. What is it that can satisfy the furious and perturbed mind of this man ? _ is it not enough for him that such projects
have alienated our colonies from the mother-country, and not to propose violently to tear our sister-king dom also from our side, and to convince every de pendent part of the empire, that, when a little money is to be raised, we have no sort of regard to their an cient customs, their opinions, their circumstances, or their aifections'? He has however a douaeur for Ire
land in his pocket; benefits in trade, by opening the woollen manufacture to that nation. A very right idea in my opinion; but not more strong in reason,
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than likely to be opposed by the most powerful and most violent of all local prejudices and popular pas sions. First, a fire is already kindled by his schemes of taxation in America; he then proposes one which will set all Ireland in a blaze ; and his way of quench ing both is by a plan which may kindle perhaps ten times a greater flame in Britain.
Will the author pledge himself, previously to his proposal of such a tax, to carry this enlargement of the Irish trade? If he does not, then the tax will be certain; the benefit will be less than problematical. In this view, his compensation to Ireland vanishes into smoke; the tax, to their prejudices, will appear
stark naked in the light of an act of arbitrary power and oppression. But, if he should propose the bene fit and tax together, then the people of Ireland, a very high and spirited people, would think it the worst bargain in the world. They would look upon the one as wholly vitiated and poisoned by the other; and, if they could not be separated, would infallibly resist them both together. Here would be taxes, in
deed, amounting to a handsome sum; 100,000l. very effectually voted, and passed through the best and most authentic forms; but how to be collected? -- This is his perpetual manner. One of his projects depends for success upon another project, and this upon a third, all of them equally visionary. His fi nance is like the Indian philosophy; his earth is poised on the horns of a bull, his bull stands upon
an elephant, his elephant is supported by a tortoise; and so on forever.
As to his American 200,000l. a year, he is satisfied
to repeat gravely, as he has done an hundred times
before, that the Americans are able to pay it. Well, VOL I. 23
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and what then? does he lay open any part of his plan
how they may be compelled to pay without plung ing ourselves into calamities that outweigh tenfold the proposed benefit? or does he show how they may be induced to submit to quietly? or does he give any satisfaction concerning the mode of levying
in commercial colonies, one of the most important and difficult of all considerations? Nothing like To the Stamp Act, whatever its excellences may
think he will not in reality recur, or even choose to assert that he means to do so, in case his minister should come again into power. If he does, Iwill pre dict that some of the fastest friends of that minister will desert him upon this point. As to port duties he has damned them all in the lump, by declaring them* " contrary to the first principles of coloniza tion, and not less prejudicial to the interests of Great Britain than to those of the colonies. " Surely this single observation of his ought to have taught him little caution he ought to have begun to doubt, whether there not something in the nature of com mercial colonies, which renders them an unfit object of taxation when port duties, so large fund of rev enue in all countries, are by himself found, in this case, not only improper, but destructive. However, he has here pretty well narrowed the field of taxation. Stamp Act, hardly to be resumed. Port duties, mis chievous. Excises, believe, he will scarcely think
worth the collection (if any revenue should be so) in America. Land-tax (notwithstanding his opinion of its immense use to agriculture) he will not directly propose, before he has thought again and again on the subject. Indeed he very readily recommends for
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Ireland, and seems to think it not improper for Amer ica; because, he observes, they already raise most of their taxes internally, including this tax. A most curious reason, truly ! because their lands are aheady heavily burdened, he thinks it right to burden them
still further. But he will recollect, for surely he can not be ignorant of that the lands of America are not, as in England, let at rent certain in money, and therefore cannot, as here,be taxed at certain pound rate. They value them in gross among themselves and none but themselves in their several districts can value them. Without their hearty conc\n'rence and
co-operation, evident, we cannot advance step in the assessing or collecting any land-tax. As to the taxes which in some places the Americans pay by the acre, they are merely duties of regulation; they are small and to increase them, notwithstanding the secret virtues of land-tax, would be the most effect ual means of preventing that cultivation they are
intended to promote. Besides, the whole country heavily in arrear already for land-taxes and quit rents. They have different methods of taxation in the different provinces, agreeable to their several
local circumstances. In New England by far the greatest part of their revenue raised by faculty tazes and capitatiom. Such the method in many others. It obvious that Parliament, unassisted by the colonies themselves, cannot take so much as
single step in this mode of taxation. Then what tax it he will impose? Why, after all the boasting
? and writings of his faction for these four years, after all the vain expectations which they have held out to deluded public, this their great advo cate, after twisting the subject every way, after writh
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ing himself in every posture, after knocking at every door, is obliged fairly to abandon every mode of tax ation whatsoever in America. * He thinks it the best method for Parliament to impose the sum, and reserve the account to itself, leaving the mode of taxation to the colonies. But how and in what proportion? what does the author say? O, not a single syllable on this the most material part of the whole question l Will he, in Parliament, undertake to settle the proportions of such payments from Nova Scotia to Nevis, in no fewer than six-and-twenty different countries,varying in almost every possible circumstance one from an other? If he does, I tell him, he adjourns his reve
nue to a very long day. If he leaves it to themselves to settle these proportions, he adjourns it to doomsday.
Then what does he get by this method on the side of acquiescence? will the people of America relish this course, of giving and granting and applying their money, the better because their assemblies are made commissioners of the taxes? This is far worse than all his former projects ; for here, if the assemblies shall refuse, or delay, or be negligent, or fraudulent,
in this new-imposed duty, we are wholly without rem edy; and neither our custom-house officers, nor our troops, nor our armed ships can be of the least use in the collection. No idea can be more contemptible (I will not call it an oppressive one, the harshness is lost in the folly) than that of proposing to get any revenue from the Americans but by their freest and most cheerful consent. Most moneyed men know their own interest right well; and are as able as any finan cier, in the valuation of risks. Yet I think this finan cier will scarcely find that adventurer hardy enough,
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at any premium, to advance a shilling upon a vote of such taxes. Let him name the man, or set of men, that would do it. This is the only proof of the value of revenues ; what would an interested man rate them at? His subscription would be at ninety-nine per cent discount the very first day of its opening. Here is our only national security from ruin; a security upon which no man in his senses would venture a shilling of his fortune. Yet he puts down those arti cles as gravely in his supply for the peace establish ment, as if the money had been all fairly lodged in
the exchequer.
American revenue . . . . ? 200,000 Ireland. . . . . . . .
100,000
Very handsome indeed! But if supply is to be got in such a manner, farewell the lucrative mystery of finance! If you are to be credited for savings, with out showing how, why, or with what safety, they are to be made ; and for revenues, without specifying on what articles, or by what means, or at what expense, they are to be collected ; there is not a clerk in a pub lic office who may not outbid this author, or his friend, for the department of chancellor of the exchequer; not an apprentice in the city, that will not strike out,
with the same advantages, the same, or a much larger
plan of supply.
Here is the whole of what belongs to the author's
scheme for saving us from impending destruction. Take it even in its most favorable point of view, as a thing within possibility; and imagine what must be the wisdom of this gentleman, or his opinion of ours, who could first think of representing this nation in such a state, as no friend can look upon but with hor
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ror, and scarcely an enemy without compassion, and
afterwards of diverting himself with such inadequate, 'impracticable, puerile methods for our relief I If these had been the dreams of some unknown, un
named, and nameless writer, they would excite no alarm; then' weakness had been an antidote to their malignity. But as they are universally believed to be written by the hand, or, what amounts to the same thing, under the immediate direction, of a person who has been in the management of the highest af
fairs, and may soon be in the same situation, I
think it is not to be reckoned amongst our greatest consola
? tions, that the yet remaining power of this kingdom is to be employed in an attempt to realize notions that are at once so frivolous, and so full of danger. That consideration will justify me in dwelling a little longer on the difficulties of the nation, and the solu tions of our author.
I am then persuaded that he cannot be in the least alarmed about our situation, let his outcry be what he pleases. I will give him a reason for my opinion, which, I think, he cannot dispute. All that he be stows upon the nation, which it does not possess with out him, and supposing it all sure money, amounts to no more than a sum of 300,000l. a year. This, he thinks, will do the business completely, and render us flourishing at home, and respectable abroad. If the option between glory and shame, if our salvation or destruction, depended on this sum, it is impossible that he should have been active, and made a merit of that activity, in taking off a shilling in the pound of the land-tax, which came up to his grand desidera tum, and upwards of 100,000l. more. By this ma noeuvre, he left our trade, navigation, and manufac
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tures, on the verge of destruction, our finances in ruin, our credit expiring, Ireland on the point of be ing ceded to France, the colonies of being torn to pieces, the succession of the crown at the mercy of our great rival, and the kingdom itself on the very point of becomingtributary to that haughty power. All this for want of 300,000l. ; for I defy the reader to point out any other revenue, or any other precise and defined scheme of politics, which he assigns for our
redemption.
I know that two things may be said in his defence,
as bad reasons are always at hand in an indifferent cause ; that he was not sure the money would be ap plied as he thinks it ought to be, by the present min isters. I think as ill of them as he does to the full. They have done very near as much mischief as they can do, to a constitution so robust as this is. Nothing can make them more dangerous, but that, as they are ah'eady in general composed of his disciples and instru ments, they may add to the public calamity of their own measures, the adoption of his projects. But be the ministers what they may, the author knows that they could not avoid applying this 450,000l. to the ser vice of the establishment, as faithfully as he, or any other minister, could do. I say they could not avoid it, and have no merit at all for the application. But supposing that they should greatly mismanage this revenue. Here is a good deal of room for mistake and prodigality before you come to the edge of ruin. The difference between the amount of that real and his imaginary revenue 150,00l)l. year at least; tolerable sum for them to play with: this might com pensate the difference between the author's economy and their_ profusion; and still, notwithstanding their
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vices and ignorance, the nation might be saved. The author ought also to recollect, that a good man would hardly deny, even to the worst of ministers, the means of doing their duty; especially in a crisis when our being depended on supplying them with some means or other. In such a case their penury of mind, in discovering resources, would make it rather the more necessary, not to strip such poor providers of the little stock they had in hand.
Besides, here is another subject of distress, and a very serious one, which puts us again to a stand. The author may possibly not come into power (I only state the possibility): he may not always continue in it: and if the contrary to all this should fortunately for us happen, what insurance on his life can be made_ for a sum adequate to his loss? Then we are thus unluckily situated, that the chance of an American and Irish revenue of 300,000l. to be managed by him, is to save us from ruin two or three years hence at best, to make us happy at home and glorious abroad; and the actual possession of 400,000l. English taxes cannot so much as protract our ruin without him. So we are staked on four chances ; his power, its per manence, the success of his projects, and the duration of his life. Any one of these failing, we are gone. Projoria hoec si 0l0nafuissent. ' This is no unfair rep resentation; ultimately all hangs on his life, because, in his account of every set of men that have held or supported administration, he finds neither virtue nor ability in any but himself. Indeed he pays (through their measures) some compliments to Lord Bute and Lord Despenser. But to the latter, this is, I suppose, but a civility to old acquaintance: to the former, a little stroke of politics. We may therefore fairly say.
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that our only hope is his life ; and he has, to make it the more so, taken care to cut off any resource which we possessed independently of him.
In the next place it may be said, to excuse any ap pearance of inconsistency between the author's ac tions and his declarations, that he thought it right to relieve the landed interest, and lay the burden where it ought to lie, on the colonies. What! to take ofl' a revenue so necessary to our being, before anything
whatsoever was acquired in the place of it? In pru dence, he ought to have waited at least for the first quarter's receipt of the new anonymous American revenue, and Irish land-tax. Is there something so specific for our disorders in American, and something so poisonous in English money, that one is to heal, the other to destroy us? To say that the landed in terest could not continue to pay it for a year or two longer, is more than the author will attempt to prove. To say that they would pay it no longer, is to treat the landed interest, in my opinion, very scurvily. To suppose that the gentry, clergy, and freeholders of England do not rate the commerce, the credit, the religion, the liberty, the indcpendency of their coun try, and the succession of their crown, at a shilling
in the pound land-tax! They never gave him reason to think so meanly of them. And, if I am rightly in formed, when that measure was debated in Parlia ment, a very different reason was assigned by the author's great friend, as well as by others, for that reduction: one very dilferent from the critical and almost desperate state of our finances. Some people then endeavored to prove, that the reduction might
be made without detriment to the national credit, or the due support of a proper peace establishment; oth
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erwise it is obvious that the reduction could not be defended in argument. So that this author cannot despair so much of the commonwealth, without this American and Irish revenue, as he pretends to do. If he does, the reader sees how handsomely he has provided for us, by voting away one revenue, and by
giving us a pamphlet on the other.
I do not mean to blame the relief which was then
given by Parliament to the land. It was gro1mded on very weighty reasons. The administration cin tended only for its continuance for a year, in order to have the merit of taking off the shilling in the pound immediately before the elections; and thus to bribe the freeholders of England with their own money.
It is true, the author, in his estimate of ways and means, takes credit for 400,000l. a year, Indian Rev enue. But he will not very positively insist, that we should put this revenue to the account of his plans or his power; and for a very plain reason: we are al ready near two years in possession of it. By what means we came to that possession, is a pretty long story; however, I shall give nothing more than a short abstract of the proceeding, in order to see whether the author will take to himself any part in that measure.
The fact is this; the East India Company had for a good while solicited the ministry for a negotiation, by which they proposed to pay largely for some ad vantages in their trade, and for the renewal of their charter. This had been the former method of trans acting with that body. Government having only leased the monopoly for short terms, the Company
has been obliged to resort to it frequently for renew
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als. These two parties had always negotiated (on the true principle of credit) not as government and sub ject, but as equal dealers, on the footing of mutual
advantage. The public had derived great benefit from such dealing. But at that time new ideas pre vailed. The ministry, instcad of listening to the pro posals of that Company, chose to set up a claim of the crown to their possessions. The original plan seems to have been, to get the House of Commons to com pliment the crown with a sort of juridical declaration
of a title to the Company's acquisitions in India; which the crown on its part, with the best air in _the world, was to bestow upon the public. Then it would come to the turn of the House of Commons again to be liberal and grateful to the crown. The civil list debts were to be paid off; with perhaps a pretty augmentation of income. All this was to be
done on the most public-spirited principles, and with a politeness and mutual interchange of good ofiices, that could not but have charmed. But what was best of all, these civilities were to be without a far thing of charge to either of the kind and obliging parties. The East India Company was to be covered with infamy and disgrace, and at the same time was
to pay the whole bill.
In consequence of this scheme, the terrors of a
parliamentary inquiry were hung over them. A ju dicature was asserted in Parliament to try this ques tion. But lest this judicial character should chance to inspire certain stubborn ideas of law and right, it was argued, that the judicature was arbitrary, and
ought not to determine by the rules of law, but by their opinion of policy and expediency. Nothing ex ceeded the violence of some of the managers, except
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their impotence. They were bewildered by their pas sions, and by their want of knowledge or want of con sideration of the subject. The more they advanced, the further they found themselves from their ob ject. --A_ll things ran into confusion. The ministers
themselves. They disclaimed one another. They suspended violence, and shrunk from treaty. The inquiry was almost at its last gasp; when some active persons of the Company were given to understand that this hostile proceeding was only set up in terrorem ; that government was far from an
intention of seizing upon the possessions of the Com pany. Administration, they said, was sensible, that the idea was in every light full of absurdity; and that such a seizure was not more out of their power, than remote from their wishes; and therefore, if the Company would come in a liberal manner to the House, they certainly could not fail of putting a speedy end to this disagreeable business, and of open ing a way to an advantageous treaty.
On this hint the Company acted: they came at once to a resolution of getting rid of the difficulties which arose from the complication of their trade with their revenue; a step which despoiled them of their best defensive armor, and put them at once into the
of administration. They threw their whole stock of every kind, the revenue, the trade, and even their debt from government, into one fund, which they computed on the surest grounds would amount to 800,000l. , with a large probable surplus for the payment of debt. Then they agreed" to divide this sum in equal portions between themselves and the public, 400,000l. to each. This gave to the" pr0p1'i6 tors of that fund an annual augmentation of no more
quarrelled among
. . . -'H.
? power
? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION.
than 80,000l. dividend. They ought to receive from government 120,000l. for the loan of their capital. So that, in fact, the whole, which on this plan they re served to themselves, from their vast revenues, from their extensive trade, and in consideration of the great risks and mighty expenses which purchased these ad
vantages, amounted to no more than 280,000l. , whilst government was to receive, as I said, 400,000l.
This proposal was thought by themselves liberal indeed; and they expected the highest applauses for it. However, their reception was very different from their expectations. When they
brought_up their plan to the House of Commons, the offer, as it was natural, of 400,000l. was very well relished. But
? nothing could be more disgustful than the 80,000l. which the Company had divided amongst themselves. A violent tempest of public indignation and fury rose against them. The heads of people turned. The Company was held well able to pay 400,000l. a year to government; but bankrupts, if they at
tempted to divide the fifth part of it among them selves. An ex post facto law was brought in with great precipitation, for annulling this dividend. In the bill was inserted a clause, which suspended for about a year the right, which, under the public faith, the Company enjoyed, of making their own dividends. Such was the disposition and temper of the House,
that although the plain face of facts, reason, arithme tic, all the authority, parts, and eloquence in the kingdom, were against this bill ; though all the Chan cellors of the Exchequer, who had held that office from the beginning of this reign, opposed it; yet a few placemen of the subordinate departments sprung out of their ranks, took the lead, and, by an opinion
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qf some sort of secret support, carried the bill with a high hand, leaving the then Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer in a very moderate minority. In this distracted situation, the managers of the bill, notwithstanding their triumph, did not
venture to propose the payment of the civil list debt. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was not in good humor enough, after his late defeat by his own troops, to co-operate in such a design; so they made an act, to lock up the money in the exchequer until they should have time to look about them, and settle
among themselves what they were to do with it. Thus ended this unparalleled transaction. The author, I believe, will not claim any part of the glory
of it: he will leave it whole and entire to the authors of the measure. The money was the voluntary, free gift of the Company; the rescinding bill was the act of legislature, to which they and we owe submission: the author has nothing to do with the one or with the other. However, he cannot avoid rubbing _ himself against this subject merely for the pleasure of stirring controversies, and gratifying a certain pruriency of taxation that seems to infect his blood. It is merely
to indulge himself in speculations of taxing, that he chooses to harangue on this subject. For he takes credit for no greater sum than the public is already in possession of. He does not hint that the Company means, or has ever shown any disposition, if managed with common prudence, to pay less in future; and he cannot doubt that the present ministry are as well in clined to drive them by their mock induiries, and real rescinding bills, as he can possibly be with his taxes. Besides, it is obvious, that as great a sum might have been drawn fi'0m that Company, without affecting
? ? ? ? on run rnnsnur srarn or run NATION. 367
property, or shaking the constitution, or endangering the principle of public credit, or running into his golden dreams of cockets on the Ganges, or visions of stamp duties on Perwannas, Dusticks, Ifistbundees, and Hue bulhookums. For once, I will disappoint him in this part of the dispute; and only in a very few words recommend to his consideration, how he is to get off the dangerous idea of taxing a public fund, if he lev ies those duties in England ; and if he is to levy them in India, what provision he has made for a revenue establishment there; supposing that he undertakes this new scheme of finance independently of the Com pany, and against its inclinations.
So much for these revenues; which are nothing but his visions, or already the national possessions without any act of his. It is easy to parade with a high talk of Parliamentary rights, of the universality of legislative powers, and of uniform taxation. Men of sense, when new projects come before them, always
think a discourse proving the mere right or mere
of acting in the manner proposed, to be no more than a very unpleasant way of misspending time. They must see the object to be of proper magnitude to engage them; they must see the means of com passing it to be next to certain ; the mischiefs not to counterbalance the profit; they will examine how a proposed imposition or regulation agrees with the opinion of those who are likely to be affected by it; they will not despise the consideration even of their habitudes and prejudices. They wish to know how it accords or disagrees with the true spirit of prior
establishments, whether of government or of finance ; because they well know, that in the complicated economy of great kingdoms, and immense revenues,
? power
? ? ? 368 OBSERVATIONS ON A LATE PUBLICATION
which in a length of time, and by a variety of acci dents have coalesced into a sort of body, an attempt towards a compulsory equality in all circumstances, and an exact practical definition of the
supreme rights in every case, is the most dangerous and chi
merical of all enterprises. The old building stands well enough, though part Gothic, part Grecian, and part Chinese, until an attempt is made to square it into uniformity. Then it may come down upon our heads altogether, in much uniformity of ruin; and
great will be the fall thereof. Some people, instead of inclining to debate the matter, only feel a sort of nausea, when they are told, that " protection calls for supply," and that " all the parts ought to contribute to the support of the whole. " Strange argument for great and grave deliberation! As if the same end may not, and must not, be compassed, according to its circumstances, by a great diversity of ways. Thus, in Great Britain, some of our establishments are'apt
for the support of credit. They stand therefore upon a principle of their own, distinct from, and in some respects contrary to, the relation between prince and subject. It is a new species of contract superinduced upon the old contract of the state. The idea of pow er must as much as possible be banished from it; for power and credit are things adverse, incompatible; Non bene conoeninnt, nee in nna sede morantnr. Such establishments are our great moneyed companies. To tax them would be critical and dangerous, and con tradictory to the very purpose of their institution; which is credit, and cannot therefore be taxation. But the nation, when it gave up that power, did not give up the advantage; but supposed, and with rea son, that government was overpaid in credit, for what
? ? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION.
it seemed to lose in authority. In such a case to talk of the rights of sovereignty is quite idle. Other es tablishments supply other modes of public contribu tion.
