fectly obvious to every man of common under- | standing, that by this simple method of raising the supplies that are necessary for the support of government, all the expense which seems to be necessary for maintaining that immense swarm of revenue officers, which are at present employed for the purpose of watching the different manufactures and traders in these different articles upon which these duties are impo ed, and for the management and collection of these revenues, would become altogether unnecessary. The expenses of government in the collection of the revenue being thus lessened, the demands upon the subjects would, of course, be lessened in the same proportion.

This simple mode of raising the whole of the supplies that may be necessary for the support of government, by laying an assessment upon every individual in proportion to his annual revenue, (every other revenue law being repealed) would certainly have the effect of immediately reducing the price of all the various necessaries of life, and consequently the wages of labour in such a degree as it is believed would amply indemnify the generality of mankind for that increased tax upon his annual revenues, which would then be found necessary for the support of government.

The present revenue laws do certainly impose a very unnatural and improper restraint upon the liberty of man, which must of course be very vexatious to the subject. These laws also, directly oppose every kind of national improvement, and consequently prevent the natural increase of the wealth of the nation. These laws impose also, a very unnatural and improper restraint upon the industry of man, and the manufacture of all those necessaries of life upon which these excise duties are levied, have thereby become a monopoly. No man, for example, is permitted to manufacture some part or other, even of the produce of his own fields into that particular state which is necessary for the use of his own family. This can only be done by those men who have obtained a license from government for that purpose, and it is well known, that whenever government lays a penny of additional tax upon any commodity, these monopolizers are in the habit of laying another penny upon it as an additional profit to themselves. That immense fund of national wealth which might be obtained from the sea, round every part of these islands, is rendered of trifling value to the nation in comparison to what it would be if these unnaoral laws were repealed, and

the

subjects

thereby set at liberty to exercise their natu ral industry without restraint.

But the most direful effect which these unnatural revenue laws have produced in these kingdoms is, the corruption of the morals of the people. The great profits which may be made by those who engage in the manufacture of, or who deal in those necessaries of life upon which these heavy duties of custom and excise are levied, if they can by any means evade the payment of them, stimulate their avarice, and they are thus tempted by every mean in their power to erade the payment of them. This art of concealment and evasion is taught to the young men who are bred to these trades as a necessary part of the craft.

In order to secure the payment of these duties, oaths, without number, are continually imposed upon those people who deal in these articles: but having been trained up in these schools of iniquity, the power of conscience becomes gradually weakened, until at last it is so compleatly overpowered by the spirit of avarice, that its voice is no more heard, and false oaths are in consequence emitted without any hesitation. From the habitual repetition of these false oaths, the conscience, at last, becomes so hardened that perjury, in these cases, is scarcely considered to be a crime. But what may appear to be still more extraordinary, the generality of the rest of mankind, who can neither gain or lose by the success or detection of the frauds of these men, feel a natural inclination either to assist in, or at least to connive at, the attempts that are made by them to evade the payment of these duties. But this will always be found to be the case with respect to the evasion of every law, which imposes an unnatural restraint upon the liberty of man.

If in place of these unnatural revenue laws, the whole of the supplies, necessary for the support of government, were to be raised by a simple assessment, in proportion to the annual revenue of each individual, all these unnatural restraints, which are at present imposed upon the liberty of man, and all these strong temptations to commit iniquity, would thereby be immediately done away.

But it is impossible to levy an assessment any way nearly proportioned to the annual revenues of each individual member of the state, or any way consistent with the natural liberty of man, by any of the means that have hitherto been proposed. In these laws, that have been enacted for the purpose of obtaining this desirable object, the means proposed for obtaining a knowledge of the

THRE

ECDIS

amount of each individual's annual revenue, are far too complicated, and on that account, they have always failed in the accomplishment of the desired object. These Acts of Parliament are also too strongly tinctured with that coercive, tyrannical spirit, which pervades the whole of the old revenue laws. The legislature has, in these acts, endeavoured to enforce a disclosure of the real income of each individual by compulsion, and by the imposition of oaths, notwithstanding that the old revenue laws are daily affording unquestionable proofs that it is impossible to obtain this object by such coercive means. But, in the last act, imposing a tax upon property, the rules that are there laid down for assessing a very numerous class of individuals in these kingdoms, is evidently unequitable, and in no case proportionable to their respective annual revenues. That class of men, for example, who are engaged in the cultivation of the land, whose annual revehues are supposed to arise entirely from the profits which they make of their respective farms, after paying the rent to their landlord, and every other expense for the proper cultivation of the soil is, by this act, ordained to be assessed in proportion to the rents which they pay for the farm, without any regard to the profits or annual revenue which they derive from it, provided the farm has been let to them within the last seven years. That this mode of laying on the tax upon this class of men is unequitable, and no way proportioned to their respective annual revenues, a very few words will shew. It is well known, that many farms have been taken, within these two or three years past, when the prices of the produce were so extravagantly high; at twice, and some of them at more than three times the rent that other tenants are now paying for farms of the same extent, and in every respect of equal value; that were, nevertheless, taken within the last seven years preceding the passing of this act. The man who is paying only one-half, or onethird of the rent, which the other pays for a farm of no more than equal value, must naturally be supposed to make two or three times more profit upon his farm, than the other man who pays the high rent; and yet, by this act, the man who is drawing a great annual revenue from his farm, is only charged with an assessment upon this great revenue, equal to one half of his low rent; and the other, who derives but a small revenue from his farm, (and many it is to be feared, after paying their landlords' demands, have a good deal less than no revenue at all,) is nevertheless obliged to pay perhaps three times the amount of the tax which is imposed

upon the other. must it not become a grievous burthen upon many individuals?

Is this equitable? And

Every man feels, more or less, a natural disinclination to make a full disclosure of his situation to the world, however flourishing his circumstances may be; and, I know of no power on earth which can compel him to do it. But although all men feel this natural disinclination to make such a disclosure to the world, there are, I believe, but few men in these kingdoms who would feel much disinclination to have the situation, in which he ought to be placed in the society, conformably to his supposed annual revenue, determined by a jury of his neighbours.

There are many men, who, from a principle of avarice, would, if called upon to state to the commissioners the full amount of his annual revenue, endeavour to conceal some part of it, in order to evade the payment of the tax. But there is also such a portion of vanity implanted in the heart of every man, (and this same covetous man might perhaps be found to possess such a portion of it) as would make him not at all displeased to find himself placed by this jury of his neighbours, some degrees higher in the scale of society, than he would have been entitled to if the real amount of his annual income had been exactly known. The only rational means that can be employed for levying a tax upon every individual member of the state, any way nearly proportioned to the amount of his annual income, and any way consistent with the natural freedom of man, seems to be, by the appointment of a certain number of men, in every particular district of the country, who, from their known good sent and integrity, may be deemed best qualified to discharge the duty imposed upon them, and who have been constantly residing in that district, to act as a jury, for the purpose of arranging all the inhabitants of that district, and dividing them into such a number of classes as they may deem to be most conformable to their respective annual reve

nues.

Supposing this general tax upon income to be adopted, and all the old revenue laws to be repealed, the man who earns his bread by the labour of his hands, being thereby freed from every other species of taxation, and the expense of the different. necessaries of life, which he has occasion to purchase being thereby proportionably reduced, might well afford to pay some portion of the annual produce of his labour towards the support of government: and it is the express duty of government to compel him to do it, in obe diance to the command of God himself, who

men, who, in order to diminish the tax imposed upon them, may be induced to claim à deduction from their gross annual revenues, for acts of charity which they have never done; is, I admit, highly probable. But, I must beg leave to submit it to the wisdom of Parliament, and to the consciences and even the common understandings of all other men, if it would not be more proper to risk any trifling deduction from the revenue, which might occur from the wicked practices of such men, than to wound the natural feelings of those who are the unfortunate objects of such charity, or compel a righteous man to violate the dictates of his own conscience. To impose a tax upon those who are subsisting wholly upon the benevolence of their friends, would be highly improper and unreasonable. It would, in fact, be imposing a penalty upon the benevolent man as a pu nishment for his charity, or otherwise de - prive him of the very object which he wished to gain by such charitable donations: and, in all cases where this is known to the jury, they ought not to include these objects of - charity in any of the classes of inhabitants in their district.

The amount of the expenses which parents are unavoidably subjected to, when they are obliged to send their children out of their own family, either for the purpose of education in any school or college, or as an apprentice, to acquire instruction to fit them for any lawful trade or profession, is certainly a very reasonable deduction, and which every such parent should be permitted to make from his supposed gross annual revenue; because, there is no sort of expenditure whatever from which the nation can derive such important advantages, as from that which is bestowed upon the education of youth. It is, however, no way inconsistent with the natural liberty of man, to require every parent to specify the names of such children, and to mention the particular places where they then reside.

It is exceedingly proper that every parent's house have a reasonable deduction from the amount of the tax imposed upon him on account of that annual revenue which remains to him for the support of his family, after all the deductions before stated have been made from his gross annual income, on account of ⚫ the children which he has to maintain in his own family; and that all these deductions should be imposed upon those who have no children to maintain, because they can evidently better afford to pay it.

These seem to me to be all the deductions which any man can reasonably claim, if every other revenue law was repealed.

Juries, composed of the most intelligent inhabitants of the different districts, have certainly both means of acquiring a knowledge of the particular situations of all the different individuals who reside in their own neighbourhood, than can possibly be obtained by any other means, or by any other class of men. In these districts, for example, where the annual income of the inhabitants arises chiefly from the cultivation of land, a jury of farmers belonging to that district, upon knowing the rent paid by each tenant to his landlord, a state of which should be put into their hands, would be able to determine pretty accurately the amount of the annual profits which each of these tenants should derive from his farm. In manufacturing and mercantile towns, juries, composed of the most respectable merchants, traders, and manufacturers, would in general have an accurate knowledge of the particular situation of the different individuals in that place belonging to their respective professions, and be thereby enabled to class them with some considerable degree of accuracy.

It might be proper in particular cases, where the real situation of any individual is not sufficiently well known to the jury themselves, and where they know of any person or persons, who they have reason to believe is possessed of that knowledge to authorise them to call that person or persons before them, and question them upon oath, in what class they conceive this individual ought to be placed conformably to his gross annual

income,

If any individual shall conceive that the jury have placed him in a higher class than that which is proportioned to his real income, and shall choose to appeal to the commissioners for relief, it will then fall upon himself to show cause to the commissioners, why he ought not to remain in that class, and in which of the other lower classes he ought to be placed. This disclosure of his real situation being a voluntary act and deed of his own, he can have no cause to complain.

The minds of these jurymen ought not to be perplexed with long and unnecessary instructions. It would be perfectly sufficient to require them to make oath, that they will, to the best of their knowledge and ability arrange the different inhabitants in their district, and place them in those particular classes which are most correspondent to their respective gross annual incomes, from whatever source that income may arise.

It is not at all necessary, neither would it be proper, to repeal all the present revenue laws at the same time. The laws imposing

a tax upon land, commonly called the landtax, ought to be first repealed, and the gross amount of this tax, before any part be sold to the proprietors, should be laid upon all the proprietors of land in the three kingdoms, in proportion to their annual revenues arising from land, as determined by the jury of their different districts. I am well aware that an objection will be started here; it will be said, that it would be unjust to impose a tax upon these landed proprietors, who have already purchased their land tax. But the objection may be easily removed. It is only necessary for this purpose, that government should reconvey to each of these proprietors the same quantity of stock which they may have conveyed to government for the purchase of this land tax.

The next revenue laws which ought to be repealed, are those by which a tax is imposed upon houses, windows, &c. commonly called the assessed taxes, and all the stamp acts; and the present gross amount of these taxes should be laid upon the proprietors of land, in addition to the tax imposed upon them for their landed properties, and upon all the other classes of inhabitants who are now liable to the payment of assessed taxes, in proportion to their respective annual re

venue.

The remaining revenue laws, namely, those by which a tax is imposed upon the various necessaries of life, under the names of Custom-house and Excise duties, should be then repealed; and, as these taxes are at present supposed to be paid, or at least ought to be paid by every class of inhabitants in the state, in proportion to their respective annual revenues: the gross amount of the present produce of these taxes should be laid upon the landed proprietors, and upon those charged with the payment of assessed taxes, as an addition to the preceding taxes upon their income, and upon all the other classes of inhabitants in these kingdoms, in proportion to their estimated annual revenues respectively.A LOVER OF

TRUTH.

DEFENCE OF LORD REDESDALE.

SIR,I expected with some impatience to have seen in your Register a defence of Lord Redesdale's letters, or at least, a refutation of Crito and the British Observer. In the Anti-jacobin for the last month, there is a very short one on the subject. But since none has yet been addressed to you, I feel myself compelled to assume the task, although little skilled in the history of Popery. The pretensions to loyalty by the Roman Catholics of Ireland during the last war, are

not more contrary to fact than the public professions of their bishops to the authorized doctrines of that Church, the acts of their popes, the explanations of their doctors, to the continued practice of people, priests, and princes. For the truth of all which I shall now refer to authentic and allowed instruments. I would refer in general to the Bullarium and Concilia Generalia, as containing many proofs of that intolerant spirit of popery which commands the extirpation of Heretics at any rate. The 3d chapter of the 4th Lateran Council, is alone conclusive on this subject, in which we meet with the following order, "if any temporal lord shall not obey within a year, (orders to extirpate Heretics) it shall be signified to the pope, who shall from that time absolve his "subjects from their fidelity, and give up "his country to the possession of Catholics." Such is the precept; now for the practice. In Queen Elizabeth's reign, Pius 5 h issued a bull, absolving her subjects from their allegiance, and forbidding obedience to her under pain of excommunication. Camden's Eliz., and Hume, &c. During the next reign orders were issued by the Pope forbidding the Catholics taking the oaths of allegiance under pain of damnation. Numberless writers have defended this deposing doctrine, as Bishop Jewel in his Apology has amply proved, and as his antagonist Harding did not deny, but justify. So Campion and Parsons, priests and others of the laity, were employed by the legates of those days to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. The Gunpowder-plot was contrived by the same hands. Many priests were found killed at Edge-hill fighting against Charles I. They were always conspiring against William III. and Geo. I. These, Sir, are notorious facts. Nay, so late as 1757, an act having passei the Irish Parliament to secure the Protestant succession, and containing an oath of allegiance; Burke, Popish Bishop of Ossory, made upon it the following observations : "Would it not exceed the greatest absurdity "imaginable, that a Catholic priest who "instructs his Catholic people in the will of "God, from scripture and tradition, by his "discourse and actions, and nourisheth "them with the sacrament of the Church, "should swear fidelity to King George, as "long as he professeth an heterodox reli"gion, or has a wife of that religion? Since "then, and in that case, the same Catholic

priest ought instantly to abjure the very "King, to whom he had before sworn al"legiance, &c." Hibernia Dominicana, page 723, Cologne edition. Turn to page 925, and you will find the Pope's legate, on a si