Now, this duty is only one 750th part of "that prodace on the whole average of the "kingdom; and taking the bill in its most

objectionable shape in which gentlemen "chused to put it, that is distinguishing-the "arable from pasture land, and taking it "to be more on the arable than o.. the pas"ture, it will then be one 1000th part of "the produce of the pasturage, and one

5ooth on the arable land, and this, com"puting one quarter of corn to each indi"vidual in the kingdom in the year will "amount only to an additional charge of

three halfpence per annum, a sum, I appre "hend not so alarming, nor any thing likely "to check the growth of corn!"

"And still they star'd, and still the wonder grew, "That one small head could carry all he knew!"? THE ATONEMENT, which Mr. Pitt made, in the recent debate upon the Parish-Army bill, ought to be particularly attended to by the public. It will not easily be forgotten, that, in the debate of the 18th of June last, Mr. Canning, by way of justification of his conduct, in having consented to make part of the new ministry, said:" I shall content

myself with vindicating my own consistency. I objected to the adininistration of "foreign affairs, and that has been changed." He made, at the same time, a similar remark with regard to Mr. Addington's office; but only what he said with regard to Lord Hawkesbury is applicable to the present purpose.In consequence of my having, in p. 783 of Vol. VI, quoted the above passage of Mr. Canning's speech, and expressed my admiration of that " hereditary disposi"tion to office" which induced Lord Hawkesbury to remain in the ministry after such a declaration on the part of Mr. Canning, a friend of the latter wrote me a very angry letter (Vol. VI. p. 995), asserting that I was totally ignorant of ali that had passed relative to Mr. Canning and Lord Hawkesbury, and accusing me of having made a

representation disadvantageous to the former. Whereupon, a little piqued at such saucy reproof, I revived the subject, and in Vol. VI. p. 1015, made the following statement. "I have been told what has passed; what "I have been told I seriously declare, that "I sincerely believe; and it is this: Mr.

Canning having, on the 18th of June last, "made use of the words above quoted from "the Parliamentary Debates, Lord H. wrote "to Mr. Pitt, signifying his displeasure at "the conduct of Mr. Canning, and inti

66

mating the impossibility of his remaining "in office under such a representation as was contained in the public declaration of "the latter. Mr. Pitt, in answer, gave to "the speech of Mr. Canning a favourable "interpretation, and disclaimed any part,

either directly or indirectly, in any thing tending to give to the removal of Lord H. "the appearance of degradation. Mr. Pitt, "at last, came to this decision: that, if "Lord H. still looked upon the offence to "be of so serious a nature as to prevent "him from continuing in place with Mr. "Canning, the latter should give way, or, "in other words, be turned out." Mr. Can

ning, at the same time went to Lord H." (and I now find that he went the third time before Lord H. saw him) " and gave such "explanations as were calculated to heal "the breach. Finally, Lord H. did not ig"sist that Mr. Canning should be turned "out;" (I now find that his lordship said, that he should not insist upon it upon private grounds; and that, if it was done, it ought to be upon public grounds); "but, by way of atonement to Lord H. it was agreed, that Mr. Pitt should take an "opportunity of so speaking, in bis place in "parliament, as effectually to remove the im

66

pression, which Mr. Canning's words "were, in the apprehension of bis lordship "likely to have given." This opportunity has now been taken, and the atonement has been made; as will appear from the following extract from Mr. Pitt's speech of the 6th instant. "An arrangement had no doubt "taken place in his Majesty's government, "and that arrangement was made with the "free will and entire concurrence of that noble lord, and it was never proposed with any other intention." [I am compelled to break off-The SUN asserts, that the Catholic Petition has been offered to Mr. Pitt; and that, he having refused to present it, it will not be presented by the consent of the deputation. This is a falsehood; and a falsehood evidently intended to mislead the public.]

VOL. VII. No. 12.]

[PRICE 10D.

417]

JAMAICA COMPLAINTS. SIR,In consequence of the perusal of the extract from the report of the Committee of the Assembly of Jamaica, inserted in a late number of your Register, I have procured a copy of the report, which I have read with much attention.--The topics of this very important document may be di vided into two heads.--1st. The necessity of the continuance of the slave trade, the falsehood of the assertions made in this country respecting it, and the mischievous tendency of the repeated agitation of the question, and of the language used in its discussion.2d. The hardships which the West Indian colonists actually suffer, and the ruin which they must justly apprehend, from the recent conduct of the mothercountry. On the first head, I shall confine myself to a single observation. One of the points on which the abolitionists and antiabolitionists are at issue, is the possibility of supporting the slave-population without fresh importations. I shall not enter into any of the allegations or arguments employed on either side, but simply state, that we now have in our power the means of ascertaining how the fact really is. For this purpose we should only prohibit the importation of negroes into the conquered settlements; in doing which, we shall satisfactorily make the experiment, without detriment to our own colonies, and without subjecting ourselves to ady imputation of breach of faith. See this briefly but strongly recommended on other grounds in your Register, Vol. VI. p. 815, 816, and in your last number p. 373. The second head consists of many particulars.---1. Diminution of the inequality in the custom duties on importation of West India, and on that of East India, sugar.-2. Raising the customs on West India sngar to an intolerable height.-3. Fixing a maximum on the price of sugar, too low in itself, and unaccompanied with countervailing provis sions, to prevent its being too much depreciated.-4. Raising the duties on rum to such a height, as has almost annihilated the

[418

consumption of it.. As to the first point after Great Britain had acquired dominion in the East, either in order to protect those of her subjects, who had been encouraged by her to employ their capital in the culture of sugar in the West Indies, she subjected the importation of that article from any part of her new acquisitions, to a duty of £37. 16s. 3d. on every £100 of gross sales; equal, I believe, to about 195. per cwt., at the same time that the duty on sugar imported from her old colonies was only 6s. 4d. per cwt. Under these circumstances, it will be seen that the former was to the latter, as three to one. Since that period, the mother-country has thought fit by successive augmentations, to raise the duty on the produce of her old sugar colonies to 26s. 6d. per cwt., and to lower (actually to lower it, for, at the present prices of East India sugars, £37.16s. 3d. on £100 of gross sales, would be about 30s. 4d. per cwt.) the duty on the produce of her new acquisitions, to 29s. id. per cwt. so that now the duties, instead of being in the proportion of three to one, are in the proportion of somewhat less than eleven to ten.

-2. As to the second point, from what I have already stated, it will appear, that the customs on West India sugar have been raised from 6s. 4d. per cwt., to 26s. 6d. per cwt.; that is, that they have been more than multiplied fourfold. Mark the effect. The quantity retained for consumption in Great Britain, was in Duty 2,395,258

1801.... 2,753,445 cwt.
1802....2,249,772
1803....1,430,417

2,180,220

1,134,587 The former

3. As to the third point. system of Great Britain was this. By the navigation acts her West Indian colonists was compelled to send all the sugar, which they produced, in British vessels to some British port. To this restriction the colonists cheerfully submitted; because, although by no means unattended with expense and commercial inconvenience to them, it contributed most essentially to support and to improve the naval strength of

the empire; the source of our national wealth; the bulwark of our national independence. The mother-country was senible that by this restriction a sacrifice of the pecuniary interests of the colonists was made to a great national advantage; and she was not desirous to aggravate that sacrifice. She expressed herself thus. "It is true, that by this and the other regulations of our navigation acts, the expense of your cultivation is much increased, the means of sending your produce to foreign markets is rendered tedious, difficult, and costly; and we are enabled to purchase it at a less price, than we must of necessity pay you, if you were not compelled to bring the whole of it through our market.-To the weight of this necessary burthen we will not add any needless extortion, or wantonness of oppression. Whatever duties we impose on the importation of your sugar, we draw back on its re-exportation; being well aware that the cost of a double voyage, of landing, warehousing, and reshipping, with the interest on the duties while the article remains in this country, clog you sufficiently in your competition in foreign markets." But now, whenever the average price of sugar exceeds in the British market 58s per cwt. exclusive of duty, (without any distinction as to peace or war, though in those different circumstances, the charges of freight and insurance differ to the extent of £100 per cwt., and other charges, perhaps little less; the folly of the measure is, if possible, equal to its injustice and cruelty!) the drawback is to be gradually reduced, till at a higher price, it is altogether taken away. Under this regulation no ordinary failure of crops can raise the price in a degree worth notice above these 58s., so that in the first place, while from the circumstances of the world the price of every other article is, (particularly those required for West Indian cultivation) from the depreciation of money and paper, augmented every day, and every hour, the grower of sugar is alone to be prohibited from supporting the real, by raising the nominal price of his commodity, from indemnifying himself against his increased expenditure of every kind, and from continuing in that rank of society, in which he was born, was educated, and has hitherto lived and, in the second place, as often as by a failure of crops the quantity of sugar sent to Europe shall but scantily supply the demand, foreign and domestic, the planter is made to feel, that he alone is to be forbidden to indemnify himself against a diminished production, by an increased price;

and

that he alone is to be prevented from availing himself of a fundamental law of God and nature, to alleviate his sufferings, that he alone is doomed, and doomed by the unnatural interference of his parents, in cir cumstances of affliction and distress, instead of receiving commiseration and ass sistance, to see the only door of relief closed against him, and, to find his poverty converted into want, his distress aggravated into ruin. 4. On the fourth point, the papers last year inserted in your Register respecting rum, have anticipated much, which might be said. Col. Henderson's statements prove, that rum was in consequence of the high duties rendered altogether valueless to the importer. His wasno singular case. A friend of mine twice in the last year, solicited his merchants to pay for him the freight, insurance, duties, and landing charges of a shipment of rum, to accept the rum in exchange.-He was content to lose the cost of the casks, of the distillery, and of shipping. He twice solicited this: but, he solicited in vain. After stating such facts, the smallest degree of amplification would be disgustingly redundant. The report before me, after noticing that there is every appearance that rum may be altogether driven from the British market, justly adds, that should this once be realised, the introduction of that spirit into general use may become impossible; and, instances in the cases of cocoa and indigo, which were at one time (as may be seen more particularly in the 2d Volume of Bryan Edwards's History of the West Indies) very extensively cultivated in Jamaica, and yielded much wealth to the colony, and, consequently, to the parent state; but which by heavy duties were absolutely extirpated." "Two and two," says Swift,

"in the arithmetic of the Custom House "make not always four." So far from it, they often verify the old Greek paradox, that the half is greater than the whole. I know not what has been the produce of the duties on rum during the last year, but, I strongly suspect it would confirm this theory.It is mortifying and humiliating, mortifying to him who pleads, and humiliating to those whom he addresses, to be com pelled to enforce the plain incontestible dictates of justice, by appeals to interest. and policy: but, surely, at the same time that justice commands us not to impose on the article in question, such duties as are ruinous to the producer, policy also requires us to take care, that the duties be not so high as to deprive it of its share in the consumption of the country. What are the

competitors of rum? The gin of Holland, the brandies of France, and other southern nations; and our own home made spirits. Nobody, surely, will for a moment contend,that policy would direct us to give a pre. ference to either of the former articles Why then are not the duties on them so much augmented, as to leave rum (subject as it is to a heavier freight, insurance, and other charges) a decided advantage in the market? And why, when the victualling cfficer advertises for spirits, are they expressed in the alternative rum or brandy? Is this decent, at a time, when the price of the former, produced by our own subjects, is so low, that it would have been the interest of the producer, rather to have poured it into the ocean, than to have casked it for shipment to this country? As to home made spirits, I wish not to do injustice to any persons concerned in them; to the landholder, or the distiller. Let us, however, recollect, that the sugar planter also is our child, though less under our immediate observation, than these his more favoured brethren; that justice is due to him also: and, let it not wholly escape our consideration, whether the consumption of corn spirits may not be too extensive, in a country which on an average imports annually 800,000 quarters of foreign wheat, and in which the quartern loaf now sells for 16d. If the present ruinous discouragement of rum may not be removed by dimination of the heavy duties to which it is subjected, at least the evil should be mitigated, by augmenting the imposts on the rival spirits.-X. X.- March 14, 1805.

INEQUALITY OF THE INCOME TAX.

-Con

SIR,I cannot resist making to you a few remarks on the Income or Property Tax.-A. has £20,000 lent out which yields him of yearly income Licoo, or he has a landed estate which yields him that income, and he has nothing more.--B. has from his labour or profession £1000 per annum, and he has nothing more.-A. for his £20,000 pays of property tax £50 per annum.—— -B. for his £1000 pays of property tax £50 per annum.sequently A. pays only one four hundredth part, while B. pays one twentieth part of his property, or, in other words, by the income or property tax, for every pound that A. pays, B. pays twenty pounds. To make the tax equal, if it is thought by the legislature, that one twentieth, or five per cent. of the yearly revenue of each person, is as much as ought to be paid, B's £1000 is his estate or capital, which, leaving it entire like

all the others, would yield him so per annum, out of which he should pay of property or income tax £2. 10s. per annum, being 5 per cent. or the twentieth part. This would be as much as is paid by the first peer of the realm. Any other than this last, is partial and unjust Our present great financier plumes himself on his having established, happily established, he says, an income or property tax. By this he must mean that he has got established what he did not expect, namely, the industrious part of the community quietly and peaceably to sit under and pay one twentieth of their whole estate, or property, while he leaves. entire and untouched to the opulent, their whole estates and properties, and takes from them only one twentieth of their annual rents. Is not such language an insult to common sense? This great financier may flatter himself that he has happily brought the inhabitants of this country, who earn by their labour £60 and upwards, to pay this tax without murmur. If he does he is woefully mistaken. Pay, no doubt, they do, and submit to the exposure of their most private concerns; but they do all this with many deep drawn sighs. This tax was first imposed under the name of a war tax, which certainly conveyed the idea that it was a tax to cease with the war; but, did not this great man pledge this same tax for an immense sum (fifty-six millions, I be lieve) which would have made it a burden during eleven years of peace? -For the honour of our country, however, it is to be hoped, that, if this law must be continued, it will be made equal, and just; and that it will make the man who carns £60 or £200 a year, pay no greater proportion than the richest peers or wealthiest stockholders pay out of their princely fortunes. Even out of the annual produce of these princely for tunes, numerous deductions are allowed before stricking the tax, while not a single allowance is made to those who acquire their incomes annually by their labour, but the tax taken from the full amount.--It is of little importance who first suggested this tax. Those who adopted it had the glory of setting so noble an engine to work. Was it not first adopted in France during the revolution; and has our great financier not adopted many more of their pious acts. He boasts of having avoided taxing the poor. During his administration, I maintain, that more and heavier burdens have been laid on them than there was for a hundred years before. Did not he lay on the tax on houses of the rent of five pounds and under? Is he not now endeavouring even to

Alexander, who, we are informed, through the foreign journals, returned an answer

beg, Sir, you will excuse this tedious scrawl, and believe, that it is my admiration of your unremitting zeal that induced me to trou ble you on this subject; which I am decidedly of opinion is one, that materially affects our national character and honour. I am, &c.-C.--Edinburgh, March 9,

1805.

ON THE SOURCE OF TAXES.

SIR, la consequence of your assertion, that all taxes fall upon labour, I am disposed to trouble you with an observation or two, which, I think, will show that the assertion is not so completely just as you have conceived it. So far as industry or mechanism produce profit; so far as navi gation or commerce are profitable, the assertion is undoubtedly just; but, inasmuch, as speculations upon capital, inasmuch as Janded property (the substances upon which labour is employed) or any such like matters are profitable, so far labour is not the only subject upon which taxes attach.

In

the case of land, it is obvious that by some sorts of cultivation the profit is greater, in comparison to the labour, than by others; and, inasmuch as such profits are subjected to taxes without producing an advance in rents, by so much is a tax light on the labouring classes. The mistake, (if such there is) seems to arise from this; that in almost every (if not every) case, labour makes an ingredient in the value of every thing; but, as there exist subjects in themselves valuable, the true question seems to be, how far those subjects can be taxed (for instance, income from land, from capital of all sorts, from speculations in which capital and labour are conjointly employed in producing profit, &c.) without causing a proportional advance either in the price of commodities, or in the rents of land. I wish merely to hint at these matters, that if they seem to you to be only exceptions to the general rule, you may state them so, should you again allude to the subject. I am, Sir, your constant reader.--C. S.- London, March 10, 1805.

SUMMARY OF POLITICS. CONTINENTAL ALLIANCES.--It is stated, that our treaties of alliance with Russia and Sweden are now concluded, and will be shortly ratified. The letter of Napoleon to his Majesty appears to have been sent hither at the same time that he sent another, of similar purport, to the Emperor

our cabinet. If this be so, we shall very soon have correct copies of the letters sent us through the Moniteur, together with the comments of the French government thereon.--Very little is, as vet, said about the intentions of Austria. The hopes of gaining that power to the alliance, which hope appeared to be very sanguine some time ago, appears to have considerably diminished in London, while, at Paris, they con fidently talk of an approaching interview between the Emperors of France and of Austria. Prussia is said to have threatened to march an army into Swedish Pomerania, if Sweden enter into a warlike alliance with Great Britain; and, lest this threat should be executed, Russia is said to have prepared to march an army to the protection of that Duchy. Should this be true, the outset of the war must afford us a most lively hope of its having a tendency to aunoy, and to check the encroachments of, our enemy on the other side of the Channel! An army to protect Pomerania must give great assistance to England!-Without the accession of Austria and Prussia, or one of them, nothing effectual can be done against France. This has already been said a thousand times; but, amongst a people who are willing to believe every thing that any minister, be he who or what he may, wishes them to believe, it never can be said too often; for, though you will not convince them that they ought not to believe him, it is right that they should be continually reminded that you are not one of those who are deceiving them.Of the disposition of our own cabinet with respect to Napoleon we may form some judgment from the very curious alteration and omission that have recently been made in the particular prayer, used in the Church, ever since the threat of invasion began, instead of the usual prayer in time of war and tu mults. I will here insert it as it stood at first, distinguishing by Italick characters the words which are not omitted, begging the % 0,

reader's attention to those words. "Almighty God, maker of the Universe, "and sovereign disposer of the affairs of men, at whose command nations and empires rise and fall, flourish and decay; we thine unworthy servants most hum "bly implore thy gracious aid and protec "tion. We flee unto thee for succour, in

this time of peril and necessity, when, in "defence of our liberty, our laws, and our "religion, we are exposed to the dangers