tack upon the landed intereft. In which way? It gave them an opportunity of relieving their eftates from a burden. How would it affect trade? They who were now in the habit of making seven, eight, and nine per cent. intereft would not buy it. In every point of view, therefore, he confidered it as a Bill calculated for the fupport of the country. Mr. Dennifon declared that he did not wifh, at this crifis, to throw any obftacles in the way of the operations of Government; but this Bill was fo novel and pernicious in its principle, and fo vexatious in its operation, that he must diffent to its being paffed into a law. He took his ftand upon the ground of the impolicy of the measure, and particularly at the time at which it was brought forward. This was the worst period which poffibly could be chofen to call upon the landed gentle men to redeem or purchase their land tax; and if at other times better terms could be made, fuch times could and ought to be waited for. He conceived it to be extremely unjust to put more than their fhare of burden upon the landed intereft. We were all engaged in a common caufe, and, for the fupport of that caufe, we ought all to contribute our equal fhares. Sir John Sinclair took a legal objection to the proceedings. Before he entered into the principle of the meafure, he withed to suggest a preliminary objection of a legal nature. The Houfe had already voted four fhillings in the pound land tax for the fervice of the year; they were therefore precluded from difcuffing this meafure, unless they had referved to themfelves a power to do fo in the Act. There were two kinds of refervation; one was the referving in a Bill the power of altering, varying, or repealing the whole of it in the feffion in which it should have been paffed; and the power of altering, varying, or amending any part of the Bill. But the prefent was fuch an alteration in the whole tenour and principle of the Act, that he could not avoid founding upon it a legal objection to the proceedings. The Chancellor of the Exchequer faid, that the Honourable Baronet would certainly do right to fettle the point of legality, as he termed it, before he entered into the principles of the mea fure. Sir J. Sinclair then moved the reading of a claufe in the Act of 7 Geo. III. c. 4. and the claufe in the Land Tax Act of the prefent year, giving a power to alter or vary it in the fame feffion of Parliament. The claufes being both read, he said, he had moved that thefe claufes fhould be read, in order to establish that diftinétion, that there were two diftinct modes of refervation, the one of which went to the total of a Bill, and the other only to alter and vary parts of it. And indeed fo much was this diftinction impreffed upon the minds of the Houle, that in the Bill of this feffion, which was to regulate the qualifications of Commiffioners of the Land Tax, that Bill had, for its preamble, "An Act to vary and alter fo much of the Land Tax as relates to the qualifications of Commiffioners." So the Bill before the Houfe ought to be entitled, "A Bill for altering and varying the former Bill, fo far as relates to the particular objects in view." This he conceived to be an objection fatal to the meafure, and that the Houfe, confiftent with its own rules and or ders, could not proceed further in it. The Chancellor of the Exchequer faid, that the Honourable Baronet had stated, that there was a power to vary, alter, and repeal anypart of the Act, and confequently to alter, vary, and repeal every part of the Act alluded to in fucceffion. The Houfe would determine whether this could be any thing short of a com plete power to repeal the whole if neceffary. This was a quef tion which he fubmitted to the House and the Chair. Another anfwer which he gave to the Honourable Baronet was this-that this Bill did not propofe to alter, vary, or repeal the Land Tax Bill for the prefent year in any one inftance, or in any one claufe whatever. The Houfe had voted a Land Tax for the year 1798, and this Bill left the provifions for the year 1798 exactly as it found them. The only difference was this, that whereas, by the annual Bill, the duty would ceafe at the expiration of that Act, by the operation of the prefent Bill the duties were continued. The other regulations refpect ing the terms of purchase, &c. did not, in the fmalleft degree, apply to the prefent year. The Honourable Baronet's argument he therefore thought defective, as there was fufficient power to repeal the Bill impofing the Land Tax, even during" the prefent feffion; and, if there was not, this meafure did not require it. The Speaker faid this was a queftion upon which it was impoffible for him to give any opinion. The Houfe had heard both the claufes read, and they would determine upon them.--At the fame time, if they required his opinion, he would give it. It was his duty to bring to their recollection their rules and orders, and when he had done fo, it was' for themselves to determine any queftion. He had no hesitation in faying, that he thought the prefent meafure did not in the leaft touch upon the Land Tax Act for the year, and that, without the refervation in the Act, this Bill did not infringe upon the rule which prohibits the fame measure to be twice agitated in the fame 'feffion; but that if it did, in effect, the refervation contained in the former Bill was fully fufficient to juftify the measure. The Land Tax Act impofed a duty of 4s. in the pound for the year 1798, and this Bill perpetuates that duty; fo that this Bill commenced its operation when the other ceafed to act. But it Sir John Sinclair refumed. He objected to the measure on conftitutional grounds, as it took away the check which that Houfe had upon the Supplies to be granted to the Crown annually. Other Taxes, which depended upon paffion and prejudice, fuch as thofe upon fnuff, tobacco, and fugar, might fail, but land was a fure fource of revenue; yet a Land Tax was in itself a tax both unjust and unequal, and therefore ought not to be perpetuated; and he would ftate the opinion of a former Chancellor of the Exchequer upon this fubject. In the year 1732, when Sir Robert Walpole was Chancellor of the Exchequer, he proposed to reduce the Land Tax to one fhilling in the pound. He was oppofed by fome Gentlemen; and, in anfwer, he faid that a Land Tax was the moft unjuft of all Taxes, and that it ought never to be impofed but in cafes of great neceffity. He made a wonder of it, at that time, that a tax fo unequal and fo unjuft fhould have lafted for forty years. was reserved for the prefent Chancellor of the Exchequer to come forward with a propofition for making it perpetual, and to threaten the kingdom with an unlimited impoft upon land, which, in fact, was the cafe, if the principle of this Bill was once admitted. He had other objections, and particularly, as was ftated by the Noble Lord, to the mifchiefs that would arife to the intereft of agriculture, by withdrawing money from agricultural purfuits. Nor will this be the only evil, for a tax upon land, according to its value, would ever be a great impediment and obftacle to improvement. He doubted alfo very much as to the efficacy of the measure. He faw no reason that should induce the monied men to exchange their stock for this new fort of fecurity. He hoped therefore the Houfe would fee the propriety of deferring the Bill until the next feffion of Parliament. Nothing could be done in it until the 25th of March next, as, until that time, the landholder was not called upon to declare whether he would purchale or not. Let it then be amended with all the claufes which the Honourable Gentleman wished to propofe, and then printed and circulated through the country. By the next feffion of Parliament, if it was fo very good a meafure, the public would well understand it, and fupport it with zeal. Upon thefe grounds, he should oppose the Speaker's leaving the Chair, and move that the further confideration fhould be deferred until the next feffion of Parliament. Mr. Johnes faid, he must oppose the Speaker's leaving the Chair. The Bill appeared to him unconftitutional and unjust, for it went to mortgage the revenue of the country, which was the exercife of a fovereign power instead of a temporary truft. It also made that which was now an annual vote of Parliament, perpetual. It was befides a moft impolitic meafure, for it tended to alienate No. 27. 6 K the the minds of the landed intereft, which had always proved it felf the most faithful guardian of the conftitution. He laid there exited a fpirit in the country equal to the prefent arduous crifis, and refources equal to the expenfive conteft we had to maintain; but he did not think this meafure would in any degree add to thofe refources. He wished to fee every man fairly called upon to contribute one-tenth of his income to the public fervice. Mr. Burdon differed from the Honourable Gentleman who fpoke laft, as to the tendency of this meafure, which he thought would prove highly beneficial in its effects. Colonel Elford faid that he wifhed to make a few obfervations on what had fallen from feveral Gentlemen who opposed the measure, which had his n oft hearty affent, because he could not fee any of thofe evils which had been predicted of it, and because none of the objections did, in his opinion, go materially against the principle of the Bill. As to that which related to the conftitutional ground, it was, in his mind, completely done away by the provifion which made a quantum of the prefent permanent taxes annual, in proportion to the quantum of annual tax which might be rendered permanent by the operation of this meafure. The objection made by a Noble Lord, and another Honourable Gentleman, that probably the taxes on fugar, tobacco, and fnuff might fall off, did not apply; for that the dan ger to the conftitution arofe from the Executive Power having too large a fixed and permanent income, and from that House not having the check of granting annually a certain proportion of the revenue. With refpect to the benefits to be derived from the measure, he was perfuaded they would be co-extenfive with the operation of the Bill ---that if the whole were fold, a cer tain benefit would accrue to the public, and if half only fhould be difpofed of, half the benefit would be derived. There was no obligation to purchafe, and the proprietor of land, if he did not choofe to purchase, remained juit as he was before; for he could not lay much ftrefs on what had been urged about the feelings of Gentlemen who did not purchase their own Land Tax. There did however appear to him one objection of a more folid nature, and that was, the injury which would be fuftained by the perfons whom this meafure would chiefly affect, if a period fhould arrive when the circumftances of the country would admit of the land tax being reduced to a lefs rate than four fhillings in the pound; and he thought that if any claufe could be devifed, by which perfons who had purchafed their land tax at the rate of four fhillings, fhould be enfured fome recompence or immunity in fuch an event, it ought to be adopted. He was fenfible of the great difficulty of forming fuch a claufe, because it was aknoft impoffible 995 Impoffible to fix a criterion by which the period could be afcerFained; but if fuch a claufe could not be introduced, he trufted that the good fenfe and the juftice of a future Legiflature would take the matter into confideration, whenever the circumstances of the country fhould hereafter point out the propriety of adopting it. Gentlemen had faid, this was not the proper time for making an innovation like that now under confideration: he, on the contrary, thought this was the moft proper time---it was the danger and difficulty of the prefent moment which imperiously called for the adoption of fome great financial operation like the prefent, and what in times of fecurity and tranquillity was a matter of indifference, was now a cafe of urgency and neceffity. We were engaged in a war with an implacable and revengeful enemy, who threatened the deftruction of thefe kingdoms, and who were purfuing every means in their power to carry thefe threats into execution. Whatever furmifes Gentlemen might have heretofore made on the probable effects of the French Revolution, the events of the laft eight or ten months had rendered them no longer an object of fpeculation, but of pofitive certainty; their defigns were now clearly developed; their plans were clearly to revolutionize and overturn every Government. Whether they came as friends, with offers of amity, or as enemies, with threats of extermination, their approach was equally baleful and equally deftructive. They had conquered by appealing to and exciting the worft paffions; they had firft deluded, and then fubjugated the countries over which they now had dominion. Whoever ftill doubted it, might look at Genoa, Tufcany, the Cifalpine Republic, Holland, and Venice; at this laft place particularly, after having, by the bafeft act of treachery, got poffeffion of the government; after having plundered the arfenal, the treafury, and the people, did they leave them to chufe a government for themfelves? No; in utter dereliction of all their principles, or rather their pretenfions, they had affigned them over to an abfolute Monarch, they themelves having fworn eternal hatred to Royalty. If this did not fatisfy Gentlemen's minds, let them look at what had paffed lately in the capital of an Empire, the Sovereign of which had entered into a recent treaty of pace with the French Government. [Some perfon here calling to Order, the Speaker explained the practice.] Colonel Elford faid that he certainly was in order, for that he was arguing, from the general fyftem of the enemy, as to the neceffity of adopting ftrong meafures in this country; that, however, he would not proceed further, nor take up more time of the Houfe than to add, that he thought it was the dangerous fituation in which the country ftood that particularly called for every effort on our part; that the prefent mea6K 2 fure |