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during the said election, and before the "election of the said lord Cochrane to serve "in this present parliament for the said city "and liberty, did give, present, and allow "to divers persons having votes in such "election, money, meat, drink, enter"tainment, and provision, and make pre"sents, gifts, rewards, and entertainments, "to and for sucli persons having votes in the "said election, and to and for the use, ad"advantage, benefit, emolument, profit,

and preferment, of such persons, in or"der to be elected, and for being elected "at the said election, to serve in this pre"sent parliament for the said city and liber

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ty of Westminster; and that by the aforesaid corrupt and illegal practices, the said "lord Cochrane procured himself to be re"turned as a member to serve in this pre"sent parliament for the said city and liber

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Mildmay himself! Why did he not write to all the jurors?--I will only add, at present, that the reader has nothing to do, but to compare the assertion of these jurors with the oath of Sir Henry Mildmay himself.

MR. PERRY.This gentleman has published the following article, in his newspaper, as a vindication of himself against what he calls my misrepresentations.--“ The "wilful and continued misrepresentations, "by a weekly Journalist, of the nature of "the appointment held some time ago by "Mr. Perry, requires to be noticed on ac"count of its malignity. On the establish"ment of a Commission for investigating "the Accounts of the Barra Department, to which the Auditors of Military Ac"counts had forcibly drawn the attention of "Government, Mr. Perry was appointed "Secretary to the Board, a situation which "was certainly not a sinecure, nor was ever called by Mr. Canning. It was a con"fidential employment which required from six to seven hours attendance daily, and "which he undertook from the hope of usefully serving the public in a matter to "which he had particularly turned his "thoughts, and in the idea that it would be a task of short duration. As soon, how

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ever, as the magnitude and extent of the "service became known to him, he found "that he could not devote the necessary "time, which a faithful discharge of the "duties of the situation required, and he inti

"" ty at the said election for the said city and liberty; and the said Arthur Morris the said returning officer of the said city and liberty hath returned the said lord Cochrane as one of the persons duly elected to serve in this present parliament for the "said city and liberty; whereas by the corrup and illegal practices aforesaid, the said election and return of the said lord "Cochrane was and is entirely null and

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void, to all intents and purposes; and he, "the said lord Cochrane, is disabled and incapacitated, upon the said election and return, to serve in parliament for the said city and liberty; and the said election "and return of the said lord Cochrane was "and is contrary to law, a manifest viola"tion of the rights and privileges of the "electors of the said city and liberty, and "highly injurious to the petitioner and the

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legal electors of the said city and liberty; "and therefore praying that the house will "take the premises into consideration, and "declare the election and return of the said "lord Cochrane void, and to grant such "other relief to the petitioner as to the "house shall seem most meet."

SIR HENRY MILDMAY.In another part of this sheet, I have inserted the two, Jetters to Sir Henry Mildmay, from two of the Moulshan-Hali jury. The reader will see, that they were written for by Sir Henry

mated his desire to relinquish it, long be "fore there was any rumour of a change in "his Majesty's Councils. He remained

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long enough, however, to know that the "public will have just reason to be satisfied "with the result of the investigation. Whe"ther a laborious trust of this nature, can be "truly said to deprive a man of his inde"pendence, or that the salary can be called a boon, he leaves without a word of comment on the sarcasms of Mr. Cubbett, to "the candid opinion of the public." Now, what did I ever say, touching this matter? I said, that it was from "sheer "zeal to serve his distressed country, that "Mr. Perry accepted of this place." If, indeed, I had said, that, before he obtained this place, he almost worried poor Mr. Fox out of his existence; if I had said, that, after being refused the place of Gazette-publisher, or writer, he discovered many other places that would suit him; if I had said, that his charges of ingratitude against the Whigs were loud and constant, until he got a place; if I had said this, there might have been some colour for his charge of malignity

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against me; but, I never said this, I only said that he was in the regiment; I only said, that, from the moment he entered the regiment, he began to rail against "ja"cobins and levellers," that he joined John Bowles in clamouring for "regular government, social order, and our holy religion," and that, the moment he was out of full regimental pay, he began to attack and strip and expose every part of the establishment. This was all I said. I never said, that the clerks of the Treasury knew his step upon the stairs and in the dark passages as well as a citizen knows the sound of St. Paul's clock. I never said, that the porters at Mr. Fox's office took him, at last, for a piece of the wainscot, and were actually going to bang their hats upon his nose. All that I said was, that he sought a place and obtained one; and that his paper immediately became vehicle of adulation of all those, who had, no matter by what means, possessed themselves of the powers of the state; and, f further said, that, the moment he lost his place, he reverted to his former sentiments and language.This I said; this I proved; and, of what use are his wailings? Let him say frankly, that he is sorry he ever entered the Regiment, that he is resolved never to do it again; and then he shall have my acknowledgement, that he may be a man fit to have influence over a print, which has always, since I knew any thing of it, been conducted with unequalled ability. But, if he sets up a justification for uniting the calling of pablic writer with that of place-man, he will always find an opponent in me I was, I will freely confess, more stung at his disgracing the profession, than at his political infidelity. To see a man, having the absolute command of such a print as the Morning Chronicle, through the means of which he was able to sway the minds of hundreds of thousands of people, condescend to become, nay, seek to become, an associate and fellow-labourer with Secretaries of the Treasury, was what I could not bear with patience, and I resented it accordingly. As, however, I regard his present notice in the light of an acknowledg ment of his error, I forgive him, for my part, and shall not desire to revive the remembrance of what is passed. "Delicate Investigation" must wait another week.

COBBETT'S

Parliamentary History

OF

ENGLAND

*

From the Norman Conquest in 1066, to the Year 1803. From which last mentioned period it is continued downwards in the work entitled "Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates."- --** The Second Volume of the above Work, comprising the Period from the Accession of Charles the First in 1625, to the Battle of Edge-hill in 1642, is ready for delivery. Vol. III. comprising the Period from the Battle of Edge hill in 1042, to the Restoration of Charles the Second, in 1660, is in considerable forwardness, and will be published on the first of December

next.

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POOR LAWS.

To Samuel Whitbread, Esq. SIR,In the Morning Herald newspaper of the 10th inst. you are reported to say, that at the time when you first brought forward the Poor Bill it met with "considerable opposition in the house, "and from a quarter from which you did "not expect it would have met with oppo"sition. But, you must say, that from "the opportunities which the late general "election had afforded you of viewing the "lower classes of society, and nothing af"forded a better opportunity for such a

purpose than a general election, you were "more than ever confirmed in your opinion "that instruction is the best boon which "the people can receive." As I did oppose this bill, if my weak endeavours to fix your attention on the unconquerable (by the poor) causes of their poverty and wretchedness can merit the name of opposition, I may probably belong to the quarter from which it met with this unexpected opposition. On this presumption, I think it a duty which I owe to the poor, to myself, and to my country, to vindicate my opposition, while there is a chance left to such opposition, to avert the delusive operations and fatal consequences of any bill like yours, which does not go to the root of those evils that no exertions of the poor, however educated, can root out, nor even lop, before it goes to correct such as may arise from ignorance of letters. From this observation, and presuming that you

Supplement to No. 4, Vol. XI-Price 100

E

have observed my notions of those evils and their remedy, as they appeared in the Political Register of March 21st, May 30th, and June 6th, you will perceive that my opposi tion to your bill, is not founded upon a belief that instruction is not a boon to those who receive it, but on conviction that it is not the best boon which the people can receive in the present embarrassed circumstances of their pecuniary affairs. On the contrary, I have gone farther in defence of education than fact, I am now willing to be lieve, can bear me out; namely, that none could oppose its progress, but those who wished to monopolise the advantages which knowledge gives over ignorance. I know now that I had then judged harshly. Mr. Wm. Randall, 204, High Holborn, whose inestimable." Warning Voice," I hope you have, by this time, got by heart, opposes the education of the poor upon a ground which all the sufferings I have seen or felt throughout life never suggested to me; namely, that it makes the pains of political oppression more poignant than otherwise they would be. I grant it; Ilament it; and I would prevent it if I could. But, when we consider the advantages of education, in surmounting all the surmountable evils of this life, or in teaching us resignation under them when they cannot be surmounted, do I labour under an error in holding, that its advantages far out balance its evils? But, to return. Though "man wants but little "here, and not that little long," still my feelings tell me that food, raiment, and ease sufficient to support health and prolong life, is the best boon which the people can receive; my eyes inform me that a real want of these is the great first cause of complaint with the poor; and I am convinced by my reason, that were they to receive university education, it would not enable them to preserve for their own use a single grain weight of the food and raiment, which the taxgatherers by virtue of law; the monopolizers, by virtue of their right to do as they please with their own property; and the idlers, in virtue of custom, pull out of their mouths and tear from off their backs. Nay, that, if it could enable them to create more of both, it could not enable them to consume more of either, because the cravings of these their devourers are insatiable. On the principle, however, that there are more ways than one of doing a thing, 1 may be mistakt. Education, it is true, enables the poot to understand better their own rights and duties, and as they see these more clearly, so they are more disposed to revert to the constitution. If you mean, Sir, instruc

ever.

tion to be the best boon, as it tends to produce this effect, I have to beg your pardon for all I have said, or may say, in opposition to your bill, for, I believe you are correct. But, then, we are as far apart otherwise as I disagree with you completely as to the application of the boon, in this round about way of coming at the object, because I prefer infinitely, that government should straitforwardly revert to the constit. tion, than that the people, by any means, should do it themselves, in opposition to the government. The people can do it; but, I would prefer that it should be done by their rulers, because the people generally wade through a great deal of misery before they accomplish their object themselves The history of the world proves indeed, that these miseries can lose their terrors, and that death in any other shape is better than that of dying by inches in hopeless expectations When government, then, does that which requires nothing to do it with but the will; when taxation, monopoly, and idleness are brought down, by the gentle and parental hand of law to that level which will leave the necessary portion of food, raiment, and ease within the reach of industry; then instruct the people, and for the best of all possible purposes; namely, to enable them to guard by every possible means against the future return of these great causes of their wretchedness, misery, and vice. Suspicious, Sir, as your views may appear from your opposition to Sir Francis Burdett, and the cir cumstance of your having neglected to bring forward your motion for an inquiry into the state of the nation while your party were ministers, and therefore, could carry any measure in parliament it is generally thought, at least said; (still I am unwilling to believe that you are guilty of double dealing on the subject of the poor;) that your object is popularity on the hollow basis of public delusion; that the advantages of monopoly which completely shields you against the disadvantages of taxation warp your judgment, steel your heart, and blind your eyes to their effect upon the condition of the poor; but it confounds me, and all those, with me, who think seriously upon the subjects of evils and their remedy, that any man who is qualified to legislate for a nation should think of sending the children to school, as a remedy for the evils of taxation, &c. &c. while these very evils deprive the parents of power to supply them with a whole breakfast, of the coarsest of food, before they go out in the morning; or, that he should hold ou, no prospect of relief for the parents until the education of the children

removes those evils which do not arise from their want of instruction; but from causes over which their learning can have no controul. Is it possible, Sir, that the people can mistake these to be the principles of your plan? If it is not, depend upon it, Sir, that if, in their unguarded moments they should give you any credit for virtue and talents, it will be but of a short duration should you succeed in your scheme. Therefore, if you be truly anxious to live and die in public esteem; if you be really serious in your desire to mend the manners of the lower classes of the people, at general elections, and every where else, you must remove those evils which learning cannot reach, and enable them to eat and drink before you learn them to read and write.-C. S.13, 1807.

NEW FINANCE PLAN.

-July,

SIR,Parliament being again assemled, and the subject of the public Finances about to come under its consideration, you will probably think some observations on the New Plan of Finance by lord Henry Petty not altogether out of season. In submitting the following remarks to you for publication in your Register, my chief object is to put the merits of the proposed Plan in a different and more familiar light than any in which, hitherto, it has been viewed for, although many have disapproved of the new system, and although the result of different calculations (lord Henry Petty's own as well as lord Castlereagh's) appear to me to justify the fullest measure of disapprobation, yet no calculations, which I have met with, have aimed at precisely pointing out, wherein the principle of the new system is objectionable. This, however, I think highly expedient to be done, in order that we may trace, step by step, the action of the principle of this scheme to its ultimate, as I conceive, necessarily ruinous effects.-I ought, perhaps, to observe to you, that our political opinions are not in every respect the same, particularly as to the general merits of the late administration; and that, on this very question, the principle which I mean to insist upon as shewing the ruinous nature of the new plan, is the reverse of that on which you appeared once partially to approve of it, "because "for three blessed years," we were promised no increase of taxation. It is, Sir, because a country, opposed to an enemy so powerful as ours, must keep on foot a proportionate military establishment, which cannot be maintained but by the produce of commensurate taxation; because the pro

duce of the present taxes. in England, how enormous soever they may be, is short of the actual expenditure of the country, and to shrink from raising the actual expen liture within the year leads to the inevitable necessity of laying on heavier taxes in the end; and because the new plan of lord Henry Petty does not extend, or act up to what was already adopted of the principle of raising the supplies within the year, but falls back from raising even the interest of the expenditure (for it takes only the interest of the interest;) it is for these reasons, that I consider the Plan, as a temporary expedient by no means to be recurred to, and as a permanent system, speedily destructive. Whatever room may exist for reform in the expenditure of the public money, (and on the necessity of reform I go with you to the full extent of all your reasonings) no man can be sanguine enough to suppose, that, with our existing military and naval establishments undiminished, a sum of 11 millions annually could be saved, so as to render further taxes or loans unnecessary. It is plain that 11 millions yearly, of additional taxes, or loans, are required to complete our actual expenditure, and if our necessary expenditure be not short of our actual expenditure by 11 millions, it is evident, that to raise within the year our necessary expenditure calls for additional taxation.Now, Sir, I would make some observations on the pure Funding System; I speak in contradistinction to the system of raising one per cent. to create a Sinking Fund, and the new Plan of lord Henry Petty. The pure funding system, it is well known, consists, not in raising the supplies of the year in taxes, but in borrowing the supplies, and levying taxes only for payment of interest of the sum borrowed. This practice is professedly adopted for avoiding the evils of taxation. But what are ultimately its necesssary consequences? Let us suppose a country perfectly free from debt, whose annual expen-. diture is 20, millions, and that it adopts he funding system in its full extent, and borrows at a fair average interest of 5 per cent. It is manifest that, in a period of 20 years, the taxes levied for payment of interest will be 20 millions, or equal to the whole expenditure, while the supply of the 21st year will remain wholly to be provided for. In 40 years from the adoption of the system, the taxes levied for payment of interest will amount to 40 millions, or double the annual expenditure, while the supply of the 41st year will remain wholly to be provided for: and these will have been the consequence of a system adopted for avoid

ing the evils of taxation. It is clear, that for a country to have persevered in such a system 20 years, its power of yearly contribution, that is to say of raising taxes, supp sing it to have continued the same during the whole period, inust have been originally equal to the whole yearly expen diture; to have persevered in such a system 40 years, its power of contribution must have amounted to double its yearly expenditure and to have persevered in it 60 years its power of contribution must have been treble the yearly expenditure. And, Sir, regarding these the immediate effects of funding, what, shall not be said of a system, which by its direct operation, drains a country of its whole resources in 20 years, if in the beginning, its resources were equal to its expenditure; in 40 years, if in the beginning its resources were double its expenditure; and in 60 years, if in the beginning, its resources were treble its expen diture? These which are immediate and inevitable effects of funding are prima facie evidence of its evils: if we should be told that funding directly or indirectly extends the national industry, and augments the sources of revenue, it will be sufficiently in time, to inquire, whether in fact it is attended with such benefits in a sufficient degree to compensate for the evils of its immediate operation, or with such benefits at all, when the arguments in support of the assertion shall have been advanced. Sir, correspondent with the effects which I have stated directly result from the funding system, are the consequences which we have witnessed to flow from its operation in England. Not, indeed, that in England, or that I know of in any country, has the system brought the government to so full a stop, to so complete an incapacity for all further exertion, as I have stated to be the natural issue of funding, when in any country it has been persisted in till its powers of life are exhausted, till the system, if I may so phrase it, dies of old age. But this does not prove that my propositions are unfounded, or that the life of the funding system can possibly be prolonged beyond the dates, which I have assigned to it under ascertained situations of a country with respect to its power of contribution. Though in England funding has been practised for many years, yet it has been with frequent, and formerly long intermmissions. Large sums were paid off by a sinking fund in the time of Sir Robert Walpole. Besides, funding was never, till Mr. Pitt's war of the revolution, adopted to so great an extent as in that war. Another Cause why it has been possible to act upon

it with intermissions to the extent which has really taken place, is that, within the last 40 years, extraordinary improvements have been made in the productive powers of industry in various of the most important branches of manufactures, and in the formation of canals and other public undertakings; by means of which improvements the power of raising taxes has been greatly augmented. A farther advantage also as to raising a nominally larger revenue has arisen out of the reduction of the real value of our coin. This has operated to render easy a nominal increase of taxation, because the possessor of the same quantity of real wealth as before has a larger suim of pounds and shillings; the owner of a bushel of wheat is worth 10s. or 11s. instead of 6s, or 75., a journeyman mechanic earns perhaps 30s. instead of 20s. per week, and therefore, they can contribute more shillings or pounds than before, but only the same real value. But another consequence of the reduction in the value of money is, that those, who were stockholders before the reduction, receiving in payment of interest only the same number of pounds and shillings in truth receive smaller dividends than formerly. So was the pay to the soldiers and sailors of diminished value, till the late augmentations of

pay. Now all these agents have assisted to prolong the possible duration of the funding system, either by increasing the power of raising taxes, or lessening the real amount of the contributions called for. All the foregoing causes have co-operated to preserve England from being, hitherto, rendered incapable of all exertion; but they do not shew, that as far as the system has operated, we have not evidence from the existing situation of our finances, that the consequences of funding are such as I have stated them to be. We now pay for the interest of debt incurred by funding about 28 millions. Let us direct our attention to that period in which the system was most extensively acted upon, namely, the war of Mr. Pitt, and see how much of this sum grew out of funding during a given period of that war. From a Table marked B 3, accompanying Lord Henry Petty's Plan of Finance*, it appears that, in nine years from 1794 to 1803 both inclusive, "the money capital of debt created" was £212,564,745, the interest of which sum, supposing the average rate of interest actually paid (but it was more) to have been five per cent., is £10,628,237. Thus in

* See Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates, Vol. 8, Appendix.

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