GENERAL 
mittee referred to, was afterwards 
printed by order of the House. 
Among the benefits expected 
from the conclusion of a general 
peace in the last year, scarcely any 
was more cordially greeted by the 
people in this country than a libe- 
ration from that burthensome and 
vexatious impost, the property 
tax, which was necessarily to 
expire at a certain period after 
the signature of a definitive peace. 
In the suspicion, however, that 
ministers might be tempted to re- 
new it, as the easiest mode of 
providing for the great demands 
which would be occasioned by the 
winding up of the war expenses, 
petitions were drawn up in almost 
all the principle places in the king- 
dom, to be laid before parliament, 
warmly deprecating such a mea- 
sure. Whatever might have been 
the intention of the government, 
this decided expression of the na- 
tional desire had the effect of 
causing the adoption of other fi- 
nancial plans; and on Feb. 9, the 
chancellor of the Exchequer de- 
clared his intention of submitting 
to the House of Commons several 
important measures relative to the 
public finances ; of which the pro- 
perty tax would not be one, un- 
less in the event of the non-rati- 
fication ofthe treaty with America. 
On the 20th, at a committee of 
ways and means, the chancellor 
of the Exchequer introduced his 
plan of new taxes to supply the 
place of the want of the property 
tax as far as five millions, of 
which, however, only the amount 
of 3,720,000/. was at that time 
brought forward. Several of the 
taxes, especially those which bore 
hard on trade and manufactures, 
were strongly opposed, and vari- 
HISTORY. 
ous modifications were made, the 
general system being persisted in, 
till the events in France replunged 
the country into all its difficulties. 
On Aprilthel7th the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer moved the post- 
ponement of the second reading 
of the assessed taxes bill, and de- 
clared his purpose of referring, on 
a following day, the acts relating 
to the property tax to the com- 
mittee of ways and means, with 
the intention of moving the con- 
tinuance of the same. This took 
place on the 18th, when a long 
and animated debateensued, which 
principally turned upon that poli- 
tical state of affairs, which occa 
sioned a recurrence to his finan- 
cial measure. In the course of it, 
Mr. Brand moved as an amend- 
ment, the adjournment of the de- 
bate till that day fortnight, on the 
ground that it was at present prob- 
lematical, whether we should be 
in a state of peace or war. The 
House dividing onthe amendment, 
it was rejected by 183 votes to 
58, and the original motion was 
agreed to. On the 20th, a reso- 
lution from the report of the com- 
mittee was read, stating its opi- 
nion in favour of granting, for 
the term of one year, the same 
duty on property as had been laid 
by the last consolidated act, which, 
after the defeat of another pro- 
posed amendment for delay, was 
agreed to, and leave was given to 
bring in a bill accordingly. 
Of the further progress of the 
bill it is unneeessary to give a de- 
tailed narrative, since the measure 
was fully determined upon; and 
many of those who disapproved of 
the tax were convinced of its ne- 
cessity at the present juncture. 
A motion by Mr, Grenfell, for re- 
[26 
