Proposed Propeiii^ Tux. 



428 



Jlde atnoiuit of tlieir real caj>ital, to ea- 

 orease their credit or consequence iu 

 the world. For if any oath were ad- 

 ministered, it would be only (o ascer- 

 tain that their property was not more 

 than the sum sworn to ; the same would 

 be registered, and it would also have 

 this important advanta^'e, that of form- 

 ing some crifcriou a little to judge be- 

 tween real and borrowed capitals. The 

 uses of the application of which, to 



[June {, 



houses iu the Iiabit of giving extensive 

 credits, should be well known. The 

 capital of a mercantile house may be 

 .'jOOOI. but they may reap a Iwnefit 

 from its being a doubt whether it may 

 not be considered as ten. 



The expenses of collecting may be 

 paid by the ainounts it is supposed may 

 l>e received from 488 ^^ of (he superior 

 classes which is not computed. 



Table of gradations of properti/ possessed by one thirty-nxth part of the lehole popu- 

 lation, or 500,000 persi n.i, and how the proposed Impost will operate on each class. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

 Murk Lanf, jYy .^4, iUh March, 1«21. 



The lUi/ht Honorable the one of 



His Majesty^ s Ministers. 

 My Lour, 



In addressing your Lordsliip I may be 

 allowed to plead the indulgence of early 

 rcnaembrances. We were cotemporaries at 

 the Charterhouse, and I had the houor of 

 being nominated one of the stewards for 

 tl\e anniversary the same year as your 

 lordship. 



I should not, however, even now, have 

 intruded myself on your notice, had not 1 

 on former occasions experienced a back- 

 wardness ou the part of the treasury, to 

 communicate on subjects connected with 

 finance : not that 1 have as yet been refused 

 iu auy single instance, the civility of an 

 answer, but it has sometimes been delayed, 

 and seldom accompanied with any reason 

 for rejecting my proposals. 



What I have at present to offer, is of so 

 imposing a nature, that 1 am almost ready 

 to hope it will be considered ; and that 

 something on the same abstract principles 

 may possibly be eutertuiued by his Ma- 

 jesty's Government, conceiving it to be 

 the only channel through which it can be 

 introduced with effect. I need apologize 

 to your Lordship for the certainty of my 

 estimates being extremely defective, as 

 there hardly can be supposed any sufficient 

 data to govern them. Your Lordship will 

 recollect how loosely the national income 

 was given in even by Mr. Pitt, as a basis 



for the income tax, the very mention of 

 which, is not wanting to lead you to reflect 

 on the spirited opposition made to its con- 

 tinuance. ^Vhile notwithstanding 1 am 

 bold enough to say, for it is the business 

 of my life, to watcti the feeling of the pub- 

 lic, that no fax would become so populury 

 or be so well received, us a tax on property y 

 submitted to a progressive increase on. a 

 geometrical scale. 



And it may be seen that if such a mea- 

 sure is resorted to, the repeal of all taxes 

 burdensome to the public, may be provided 

 for in this way. Besides, a question will 

 arise of the highest moment. Whether a 

 population (f 18 millions of souls is to be 

 sacrificed to 1465, or what is the sam«\.^ 

 thing, -whether VZiSa ixiditiduaU, enouglf^V 

 to people a city, are to become the vutimg t. 

 of the pride, interests and avarice of one 1 



My Lord, it would be extreme folly not 

 to yield to the extraordinary urgency of 

 the situation iu which we are placed, and 

 though I am not the advocate of equality,^ 

 or hardly of reform, let us at least take one 

 prudent step towards the former, that the 

 latter may come fairly under discussion. 

 My principle, if carried into effect, will 

 only very gradually discourage the growth 

 of those excrescences of fortune which the 

 author of nature and of social order never 

 designed should exist ; and persuade the 

 possessors, iu order to lesson the pressure 

 of the tax, to see the necessity of disse- 

 minating their absolute superfluities among 

 the jnoct worthy objects ; their poorer re- 

 lative 



