41 



attention; the repeal of taxes, and retrench- 

 ment in the public expenditure. To the opera- 

 tion of oppressive taxes it is said that the three 

 great classes dependent upon agriculture, the 

 landlords, the tenants, and the labourers, owe 

 all the calamity of their present situation ; and 

 as a summary process capable of producing in- 

 stantaneous relief to the sufferers, or immediate 

 alleviation of all their pains and sorrows, it has 

 been proposed to repeal the taxes in whole or in 

 part upon malt, leather, salt, soap, and candles. 



There is no doubt that the repeal of these 

 taxes, or even the mitigation of them, would be 

 beneficially felt : and the desire of seeing their 

 repeal, total or partial, carried into effect, is 

 perfectly reasonable, to the extent to which it 

 shall be shown to be consistent with national 

 faith and public expediency. But the country 

 is not yet reduced to that abject state, that it 

 can urge its poverty as a plea for its disho- 

 nesty. I 



It ought also never to be forgotten, that the 

 war, which principally created the debt, was 

 the war of the country; that the feelings as well 

 as the interests of the country concurred in the 

 objects of it; that the country recognised as im- 

 plicated in its issue the most valuable blessings 

 of private life, as well as the safety and inde- 



