said, that the measure is temporary, and will 

 be attended with no serious inconvenience. 



With regard to this loss, I cannot correctly 

 speak. The quantity of barley annually con- 

 sumed in distillation in Britain is stated, in the 

 Report, at 470,000 quarters, or about I -16th of 

 the whole. The logs to the farmer, even from 

 an immediate want of sale to the above amount, 

 is not inconsiderable. But it is to be observed, 

 that this argument cuts two ways. If the want of 

 this vent be a trifling loss to him, it will be but 

 a trifling advantage to the colonists ; and the 

 smaller the burden is, the less difficult will it be 

 for the public to relieve it in some other way. 

 However small it is, it must bear much harder 

 when laid on one limited class of the com- 

 munity, than if equally imposed on all. I can 

 see no reason why such a tax, if necessary, 

 should be wholly borne by our home growers. 

 Unequal taxes, even for the support of the state, 

 are always to be regretted ; but they become 

 somewhat more intolerable, when imposed for 

 the relief of a small class of individuals, whose 

 distresses are at least a presumption of their im- 

 prudence. However, this is a point which the 

 British cultivators best know themselves. If 

 they consider the stoppige of the distilleries 

 as no hardship, I am satisfied. If they feel no 

 grievance, they will not complain. If) on the 



