GENERAL HISTORY. 



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industry was reviving, property 

 increasing, and the comforts of 

 the people daily extending. He 

 had already expressed his wish to 

 grant some relief with respect to 

 the particular burthen under 

 which the Irish laboured, and he 

 conceived that the mode which 

 he stated, would be more agree- 

 able to the people, than the ap- 

 pointment of a committee. He 

 should oppose the motion, first, 

 on the ground of the good faith 

 which was due to the public cre- 

 ditor, and next, because an im- 

 mediate relief to a certain extent 

 would be much better than to 

 wait for the deliberation of a 

 committee, which would necessa- 

 rily consume a considerable time. 

 Mr. Plunkett began his speech 

 with some additional arguments 

 to prove that in the language of 

 the acts of parliament there was 

 clear, direct, and specific evidence 

 that the window tax was only 

 intended as a war tax. After 

 dwelling for some time upon this 

 topic, he said, the more he consi- 

 dered the right hon. gentleman's 

 statement, the more he was sur- 

 prised at his opposing the propo- 

 sition for a committee, since a 

 committee was the proper place 

 to consider what modifications 

 ought to be made in the tax. He 

 next adverted to the produce of 

 the tax, and showed that the de- 

 ficit for the last year was between 

 one third and one quarter of the 

 estimated produce of the tax. 

 Ireland, he said, could not exert 

 herself beyond her strength ; she 

 could not pay beyond her means. 

 He concluded with a pathetic ad- 

 dress, upon the supposition that 

 the right hon. gentleman was to 

 revisit Ireland, and again be a 



witness of the distressed condi- 

 tion of the people of Dublin. 



Mr, Peel said, that if the case 

 which the right hon. gentleman 

 had stated could be made out — if 

 it could be shown that par- 

 liament was pledged to the repeal 

 of the tax at the close of the war, 

 there was very little discretion 

 left but to repeal it ; but he de- 

 nied that such a pledge had been 

 given. He then explained the 

 tax as first proposed in 1799 by 

 Mr. Corry ; and when in 1800 

 two acts had passed relating to 

 the tax, one for continuing it, the 

 other for regulating its collection, 

 Mr. Peel contended that the 

 words alluded to, were not those 

 of the act for continuing the tax, 

 but of that for regulating it. This, 

 he conceived, was a direct answer 

 to the statement of the right hon. 

 gentleman with respect to the 

 pledge. Indeed, so far was the 

 Irish chancellor of the exchequer 

 of that day from conceiving 

 that a pledge had been given, 

 that when, in 1803, he re-pro- 

 posed the tax, he denied that he 

 had given any such pledge. If 

 any other tax could be pointed 

 out which would supply the place 

 of that proposed to be repealed, 

 and which would at the same 

 time press less heavily upon the 

 people of Ireland, there would be 

 no breach of faith with the public 

 creditor, and it would be their 

 duty to adopt it. But the im- 

 portant question then came, 

 where, and in what manner, could 

 such another tax be imposed. 

 The hon. member then went into 

 the consideration whether the 

 window tax had contributed in a 

 great degree to the rise and pro- 

 gress of contagiouB fever in Ire- 

 land; 



