GENERAL HISTORY. 



[25 



now become peculiarly unplea- 

 sant to him, of proposing- the 

 continuance of the obnoxious tax. 

 In a committee of ways and 

 means, the right hon. gentleman 

 rose to submit this proposition to 

 the House. He said, that as. the 

 House had already sanctioned the 

 estimates for a considerable mi- 

 litary and naval establishment, 

 it was an obvious conse(|uence, 

 that the necessary means must be 

 afforded for their support. Ad- 

 verting to the number of petitions 

 presented against the tax in ques- 

 tion, he represented it as the re- 

 sult of hasty and paitial .judg- 

 ment, and said that the petition- 

 ers had only attended to the pres- 

 sure on themselves, which they 

 were naturally anxious to remove. 

 He then went into an historical 

 view of the origin and pur))0se of 

 the tax ; in which he dwelt with 

 complacency on an assertion he 

 had before made, and which had 



been a topic of party debate 



that the plan brought forward by 

 Lord Henry Petty, when in the 

 ministry, was so constructed as to 

 render it necessary, in certain 

 events, that the tax should not 

 cease with the war ; and quoted 

 that noble lord's assertion, " that 

 he made no pledge of his own 

 opinion, respecting the perma- 

 nency of the property-tax in time 

 of peace." He next considered 

 the four alternatives for this tax, 

 in'oposed by an hon. baronet (Sir 

 .lames Shaw), all founded upon 

 the principle of borrowing instead 

 of raising money, and stated his 

 objections to that j'rinciple. Pro- 

 ceeding to the supposition that 

 the House would entertain the bill 

 in the first instance, he touched 

 upon the m-f^ans which might be 



devised to remove the greater 

 part of the objections against it. 

 Of those it wouUl be superfluous 

 to mention the particulars, as the 

 scheme never took place ; but 

 they proved the anxiety of the 

 light hon. gentleman to render 

 the measure palatable by con- 

 cession and conciliation. He con- 

 cluded by moving a resolution for 

 the continuance of the tax on 

 landed property, at the rate of .5 

 per cent., being the first of a 

 string of resolutions intended to 

 be proposed for carrying into 

 effect the different modifications 

 which he had explained to the 

 committee. 



In the debate wliich followed, 

 and which was very impatiently 

 listened to by the House, quite 

 wearied by the long discussion on 

 the subject, some facts adduced 

 by Mr. William Smith in opposi- 

 tion to the tax apjjcar worthy of 

 recording. He said, that the dis- 

 (juiet experienced by commercial 

 men, at having their concerns 

 laid open to the world, would be 

 very little alleviated by any of the 

 expedients or modifications now 

 suggested by the right hon. gen- 

 tleman. It was probable that a 

 large proportion of the commer- 

 cial interest must now be liable 

 to heavy losses ; and it followed, 

 that many traders must either pay 

 5 per cent, on a supposed profit, 

 or go to the commissioner and 

 confess his loss : rather than do 

 this, numbers would pay the tax, 

 which would be a tax not on in- 

 come, but on loss. It appeared, 

 that 11,000 surcharges had been 

 made in the city of London alone, 

 during the last year : of these, 

 .'i,000 had been set aside on ap- 

 ])ei\l, after a critical examination 



into 



