10 ~ New Parliament. (Jury, 
those who had much, or equivalent opportunities of making much, have 
got it. The property of the country—to sink exceptions and particu- 
Jars - may be nearly the same; but the few have drawn together what 
the many had before. The rich few, however, and the poor many, are 
all taxed alike ; and here is the oppression. Those who have the pro- 
perty should pay the demand upon the property. 
- We have not said the country is unable to pay the debt—we must 
remember that many of the creditors are justly the debtors too—but we 
say, that those are now compelled to pay who are not able, and are not 
equitably called upon to pay. What, then, is our remedy? Not so 
much, at first, a reduction, as a change in the subject and matter of 
taxation. Repeal your indirect taxes—the excise, the customs, the 
stamps. Levy an equivalent on the real property of the country, and 
thus remove the burden from the shoulders of the sinking people—the 
labouring classes of the country. They are the great sufferers—not the 
only sufferers, but they are the most to be commiserated, because they 
have brought none of the suffering upon themselves, and are in no con- 
dition to help themselves. Others are suffering enough, no doubt ; but 
‘much of their suffering is of their own seeking—the consequences of their 
own extravagance ; they have been wanton spendthrifts, have been liv- 
ing on credit, and foolishly aping their betters, and must be left to 
themselves. The poor, however, must be forthwith relieved; and the 
burden be cast upon the rich, in proportion to their property, and on a 
scale augmenting with the amount of that property—from ten to thirty 
or forty per cent. on property from £300 to £300,000. The effect will 
give immediate relief, by a declension in the price of provision and cloth- 
ing, far beyond the nominal amount of the taxes repealed. 
For never was a grosser blunder committed by any legislature upon 
earth, than this system of indirect taxation— this levying of contributions 
upon articles of daily necessity. Where was the heart of the man who 
could cooly calculate the produce of a tax upon leather and salt, upon 
candles and soap, upon malt and tea, hats and cottons—upon the neces- 
saries of life—upon articles, the consumption of which must every where 
‘be pretty much the same, both by small and great? Where, too, were 
the eyes of the man, who could not see that one tax would thus be 
raised for the treasury and another for the seller? The expense of a 
tax of ten per cent. upon consumable articles is notoriously twenty, and 
sometimes thirty to the consumer. What intolerable improvidence—to 
say the least—is this! No more should be raised than comes to the Trea- 
sury, and how is that to be avoided, otherwise than by inflicting nothing 
but direct taxation upon real property ? But then, it will be said, this 
will be very hard upon the possessors of this property. The greater 
part of them have difficulty enough to struggle with their own family 
expenditure. Then they must retrench, or bestir themselves to make 
the Government retrench; and when the state establishment is reduced 
from twenty to ten millions—if necessity still presses heavily upon them, 
they must, as we said, compound with their creditors ; and they will find 
the aid of a free Parliament the surest means of effecting it. 
With a free and freely-chosen Parliament, too, Ireland might be 
saved ; because ministers would feel themselves at liberty quickly to 
content the Catholics, and make Ireland one with herself, and one with 
England. The time will come, and come rapidly, when she must be 
emancipated, or she will rebel.‘ Let her rebel, so that the Church be 
