dustrious classes; and that in every instance (except in one of insignificant amount) the tax goes on getting heavier and heavier in propor tion as the party paying gets poorer and poorer.

subject of the Stamp taxes and the Auction taxes; that I have done this in a resolution, stating in several distinct propositions, the facts to show the partiality and the monstrous injustice of these taxes; and to show too, that if these taxes had been laid on impartially, These propositions I am prepared to but a very small portion of the National maintain; and to show at the same Debt would now have existed! My time, and show beyond all doubt, that readers are aware that I proposed this this has been done wilfully, intentionresolution, stating these facts, and con- ally, and in the most deliberate and cluding with a proposition that the premeditated manner. I am prepared House would resolve itself into a gene- to show, that it cannot have been done ral committee, in order to take the by mistake, or upon erroneous calculamatter into its consideration. After tion. I am prepared to show, that not the moving of this resolution, which one farthing of the present National appeared to astound many of those who Debt would now have been owing to any had assisted in passing the acts of which body, if the taxes had been laid on and I complained, it was thought, and I collected upon and from the rich (during myself thought it best to have the the last forty-two years), as they have resolution printed in the votes, and been from the poorer tradesman, manusent round to all the members, in facturer, and farmer. These things I order that every man of them might stand pledged to show to the satisfachave time to refer to the acts of Parlia-tian of this nation; and if I fail to show ment, and see whether I were correct it, let me, oh God! be subject to a or not; and, to bring the motion on red-coat tribunal. again, in a more deliberate manner in a few days.

Now, I have received no answer; no contradiction to any of my facts; no My readers, after having read the last attempt has been made to thwart my Register, must be aware of the extreme conclusions; and, what is very curious, difficulty of bringing in any motion at I, in my haste to bring the matter förall, even by the Ministers themselves, ward, and like the gnat in the fable, to or with their assent and good will, give the fowler a sting in his leg, while owing to the local impediments with he was taking aim across St. George's which we are surrounded. However, Channel; in my haste to do this, I the subject cannot suffer from a short delay there shall be a total prohibition established against me before I vote one farthing of money, until this affair be settled. The case stands thus, at present. I assert, as follows :

1. That here is a mass of taxes, which, together with the expenses of collecting and managing, amount to upwards of eight millions of pounds sterling in a year.

overlooked a most important part of my subject; namely, proof indubitable, that these taxes were laid in this manner with deliberate intention, of which proof I will say no more at present, than that I am very much obliged to my two correspondents in Scotland, and to my most excellent correspondent in the county of Suffolk, for having pointed out to me this most important omission. I should have ferreted it out myself, but 2. That of this immense sum, a very my correspondent at Annan, though he small portion falls upon the nobi- made a mistake as to a little dodging lity and their collateral branches; which the game had taken, certainly upon the baronets; upon the lay-quickened my pursuit. There impropriators; upon the clergy of divers ways of hunting a fox; and no the established church; and upon reynard, however gray, however longthe other great landowners. 3. That this immense mass of taxes falls almost wholly upon the in

are

practised in his crafty calling, ever surpassed the animal which I have to pursue, and finally catch. One way is

what the French call suivre à la piste, nothing but an over ruling sense of and what we call following by the track. duty to my country would have tempted This is the nature of my present pur-me, or have induced me on any account suit; and the great difficulty in such a whatsoever, to set my foot within the pursuit arises from the interventions of walls of that House. hard ground, heaths, herbage, wood- Crafty as this reynard of taxation has lands, and the like, unless there be snow been, I have, at the end of twenty-three upon the ground; and then you see years come nextJuly; for I began the chase plainly all the doublings of the devil. seriously, when they first got me into I am working in a state of things, where prison for expressing my indignation at I do not find the ground clothed in what the flogging of Englishmen at the town Hervey calls "winter's bright array." of Ely under a guard of Hanoverian I have nothing but the bare ground, and bayonets; at the end of twenty-three long chasms are everlastingly interven-years, I have pursued the old reynard, ing, to add to my difficulties. These cun- till I have now got him fairly housed ning devils, the foxes, in order to elude in his den, and, as my lord and I well their pursuers, will sometimes leap know, when he is once run to kennel, upon the top of a hedge, which has a the red-jacket part of the chase is over, hether sufficient to carry them, and by that the rest is left to the chopsticks, this means they fling out hounds and and is a question of terriers and spades, trackers altogether, unless some chop- and not a question of galloping and leapstick happens to see the trick, and ing; and I claim my right to be head thus bring the pursuers to the spot chopstick in thus finishing the chase, where the crafty thief quits the hedge. and have actually half a mind to put on Sometimes the old sly-boots will squat my smock-frock for the occasion. The down, load his brush with filth, which first hunter that is in at the death claims I need not more fully describe; then the brush, as the trophy of victory, and take a run round, swing his brush of his superiority in point of hardihood about, and scatter the filth; and then and speed. My Lord has had many of dart off, leaving the hounds with their these brushes in his time; and I would noses too full of the strong scent to be to God he would deserve to have the able to take up that slight scent, over brush now. He may, if he will: he will the ground, on which he has gone off on be unenvied by me: I want no honour, tip-toe. No man knows these tricks and no reward, not even that of thanks better than my Lord Althorp, at whom from anybody, though I wish to deserve I never look without thinking of his the latter, and though I know I shall and my former pursuits, he on horseback, have them. If his lordship earn the brush and I on foot; and, without philoso- in this case, all will be peace, all will be phising on the state to which we have contentment; if he force the brush upon now brought ourselves, and on the pro- me, greatly do I fear the consequences. bable fate which finally attends us; al-I want no praise, no cheers, no huzzas ; ways concluding with saying to myself I want the thing done peaceably and with a sigh, how much better it would honestly: I want, as I have said a hunhave been for England, if circumstances had not arisen to make him think it necessary to take his seat on that bench, and to cause the people of England to look up to me as a person necessary to be placed where I am placed for the purpose of obtaining a redress of their I have chosen to begin (for it is only grievances! I verily believe that there a beginning) with this department of is not a day of his life, in which he taxation. "One thing at a time," said does not wish that he had never seen the famous De Witt; and so say I. I that bench; and, for my own part, I have chosen to begin with this depart repeat, for the hundredth time, that ment of taxation; because it is great in

dred, hundred times over, to leave my country as good as I found it; as good as my grandfather left it to me; and, in order to do that, there is no sacrifice that I will not make, and no risk that I will not run.

and

amount; because it is so monstrously never asked a man to vote with me, partial and unjust; and because not a I never will: I will vote for everything man upon earth can have anything to that I think right, let who will propose gainsay; because there is no room for it: I must necessarily wish for a maevasion or shuffle; because the griev-jority to be of my opinion: but never ance is so great, and because the motive will I say one word; never will I refor inflicting it is so clear. The pub-frain frem saying one word, for the purlic have seen that there is no answer to pose of obtaining a majority. be given to me. The last thing that my Lord Althorp said upon the subject was, that he deprecated my practice of everlastingly bringing the thing up; and he added, that though in this instance it would seem that the industrious classes were unfairly dealt by, it would be but fair to wait until the subject came regularly forward for full dis-day appointed for the discussion; but cussion; and that then he would show, that upon the whole of the taxation, all sorts of taxes taken into view at once, the system of taxation was impartial.

Very glad to have a day appointed for the discussing of this great subject, upon which I have never consulted with any member of Parliament but my colleague, whose integrity, as well as the soundness of whose judgment, are well known to a very considerable portion of England. Very glad to have a

not very glad to have this important matter so clear, so plain, so independent of all other things mixed up with a mass of other matter, some parts of Now, if my lord ever condescends to which might admit of dispute. We read this little paper of mine, which Mr. will, if it so please his Lordship, take Methuen hardly does (he having thought the divers branches of taxation, ONE proper when I could not answer him, to AT A TIME. "Sufficient unto the speak of it in no very courteous terms, day is the evil thereof." I will take for which, however, I by no means blame the other branches in due time, and him; though he cannot say of it, at any in like formal manner; and I cannot rate, that it escapes taxation); if my help saying that his Lordship is a little lord should cast his eye by accident unreasonably impatient as to this point. upon this paper, he may learn from I once saw a thief receiving the "forty me that nothing upon this earth would lacking one," from the hands, or rather give me so much pleasure as to see a from a good horsewhip, of the sheriff of day appointed for the express purpose of the province of New Brunswick, the taking this weighty matter into consider- ceremony being performed in a celation; and into consideration, and se- lar on account of the intensity of the rious consideration, it must be taken; cold. The long Yankee sheriff laid it on and that too at no very distant day. If well, and, if Sir John Cam Hobhouse such day were appointed, there should had seen the operation, he would have be my flag of truce: I want no foul wanted little more to convince him, fighting: I want to take no advantage: that restraining courts-martial merely I want to excite no popular prejudice to the number of lashes, was not doing I want to pick no holes in the coat much. The patient (who on such ocof the Ministry: I want not even to casions is very difficult to please) beshare in any of the praises, which any gan, with the first blow, crying out part of the people have, or shall have, to Strike me higher!” Ay, ay," said bestow: I want justice to be done to the Yankee; have patience. I'll be my countrymen: I would prefer its " up there presently;" and whack came being done by the Ministers them- the thong across the fellow's back a seselves, or, at least, at their suggestion: cond time, raising another black swellI would rather it should be done by any-ing almost as thick as your finger. Now, body than by myself; but if nobody if my Lord will but be patient, though else will do it, done it shall be by me, if I have begun so low down as the stampt I have life and health to permit me to and the auction duties, I will be "up do it. I want to have no party: Ithere" at the excise and customs all in

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due time, and in just the same formal been employed in the manner and for manner, until the whole of the toiling the purposes for which it was granted. people of this country, of matchless Numerous detached inquiries, on these industry and labour, shall see how subjects, not only do no good, but they it is that they have been made poor tend to produce harin: they multiply and kept poor, in spite of all their the subjects of talk; they form an "excare, all their toil, and all their fru-cuse for a multiplicity of officers and gality, and, while the idle and dissolute, of clerks; they arm official readiness in spite of their squanderings, have with subterfuge and chicane, against grown more and more rich: until I unofficial, though honest conjecture; have made that fine young statesman, they give little triumphs to falsehood Sir Robert Peel, see how that political over truth, and to roguery over honesty ; phenomenon has happened, which he so and, therefore, I have always been against much deplored, namely, that the wealth this hunting about after the money, of the country has got into too few after it has been let out of the purse, hands. which is not a bit less ridiculous, and No, no! no mixty-maxty: no mess-inconsistent with common sense, than ings up; but an inquiry, a separate in- my conduct, when I was a very little quiry relative to each of the branches boy, and let my blackbird out of the of taxation; and a doing of strict justice cage, and then roared like a bull, and as to each; it always having appeared called to my grandmother to help me to me, that the prime duty of a mem- to call him down out of the appleber of the House of Commons consisted, tree. My poor grandmother came runnot in watching the expenditure of the ning out of the house to see what was money, but in preventing it from being the matter with me; but upon learntaken improperly away from the people. ing the subject of my distress, she The House of Commons have been shook her head, just as she would called "the guardians of the public now, poor woman, if she were to see purse;" they have been said "to hold us members of Parliament, running, the public purse-strings in their hands." bawling about after the money, after we And this is their true business: they are had let it out of the purse. Nor have not to leave the purse open, let the we the consolation that my granny gave King and his servants take out of it what me; for she not only gave me a plumthey please; and then run about teasing cake, but told me that Jack Croft had after them to know what they have got some blackbirds, and that he would done with the money; and so to act as give me one. My Lord King told us a sort of clerks of the check to the once, at a county meeting at Epsom, King's servants. "I'd rather be a dog "Gentlemen, if you really intend to and bay the moon, than such a member." "make the Ministers economical, you It may, indeed, be very proper to call" must insist upon your members rethe King's servants to a general ac-fusing them supplies; for, though I count of what they have done with any "do not know much about them, I do money that has been put into their" know this, that, if you give them the hands; and no length of time ought to " money, they will spend it, upon some screen them from such inquiry. But," thing, or some person or other." in fact, the duty of a House of Com- I was very much pleased with this mons is principally this: to suffer no observation of my Lord King; and it taxes to be levied, until they have a described a principle upon which I was clear statement of what these taxes are determined, and am determined, to act. wanted for; until they have examined into the validity of such statement; to refuse or grant, upon the result of such examination: and afterwards to demand an account of the disbursements, and to ascertain whether the money have

Far be it from me to disparage the endeavours of any man to detect and expose the misapplication of the public money; to do this shows honest intentions, and it is worthy of public applause. But, it is the weak ground:

the moving party takes on him a containing as many distinct propositions load of labour; not only with the as may be necessary; and concluding chance of apparent defeat; but, at best, as it is dealing in comparatively small sums, with a slight chance of exciting great and general interest. He is not to blame the public, if they be unmoved by his efforts; and then comes the great objection; that is to say the efforts must necessarily be so numerous; that, in time, they must wholly lose their effect.

For these reasons the path which I have chalked out for myself is this.

1. To take the several branches of taxation, one by one; and, under each head, show how the industrious classes are treated by the acts of Parliament imposing these taxes.

2. To take the several heads of expenditure, also one by one, and show, in the same formal manner, what part of this expenditure goes into the pockets of the aristocracy, and what part is expended for the real services of the state and of the country.

with a proposition for the House to do something in the case. This elaborate manner of proceeding will, before I have done, put every man in the country in possession of a clear view of the real state of the whole concern; and, if the picture be frightful, if it do tend to excite anger, indignation, hostile feeling in the breasts of the industrious parts of the community, who is to accuse me of wrong doing or of evil intentions! and will not all the consequences, however terrible, rest on the heads of those who have the power, but who have not the will, to redress the wrongs of which I complain on the part of the people? If I ever state what is not true, there is the House, and there are the Ministers to contradict me; and there is this sensible and just people to hear the contradiction as well as the statement. If I state nothing but truth, where is the man, except some blaspheming Jew, or the mortgager slave of some blaspheming Jew, who, if the miserable slave refused to embrace him, and

seize his estate, of which he now appears to be the owner, and make him poacher in his turn, or send him to crack stones upon the highway, or to be a tenant of the poor-house; where is the man, I say, who is to blame me for what I do? Either this system of taxation and of expenditure is just, or it is not. Either the aristocracy have dealt fairly by the people, or they have not: in other words, they have been oppressors, or they have not. If they have not, what wrong can be done them, by making the fact known to the world, and by putting that fact beyond all possible dispute? If they have, what a base wretch must that be who deprecates a communication of the fact to the people who have been thus oppressed!

To do this will demand prodigious labour; but it will demand very little information, which I do not already thereby trample upon the cross, might possess. I will not bother the House of Commons nor the King's servants, by calling for a multiplicity of papers. I will call for such as are necessary to enable me to state my facts correctly. If these be refused me, I shall proceed upon the most accurate estimate that I can make; and, upon the ground of the refusal to give me the papers, I shall assume that my estimate is true. For instance, now, I estimate that more than four millions of money have been charged against the country for SECRET SERVICES within the last forty-three years. The account can be made out by any clerk of the Treasury in one hour. If the account be refused me, I shall assume that my estimate is true: and this is the way in which I shall proceed till I have rummaged the whole concern to the bottom. There will be a resolution or two about the administration of justice, and about the clergy of the established church. I shall always proceed in the same manner in which I have begun, as to form; one resolution in each case

This is to be my line of conduct; thus I am resolved to proceed, without the smallest regard to majorities or minorities, or to the opinions of persons of any description whatsoever. But, again I say, that without the people at our backs we can do nothing; or, at least,