1300, |... 
commands the labour of many who depend 
upon him. Is it probable that he who thus 
has power to throw it off himfelf, will vo- 
lantarily abridge his own enjoyments, and 
exclufively fuftain the burthen? No fuch 
thing. He will fupport his ufualexpences, 
and chargehis tenants with additionalrents. 
They have ftill power to throw it off them- 
felyes ; and he is more than man, who, 
poffefling fuch a power, will not exercife 
it. They throw it off themfelves upon 
the labourer, who, being the loweft de- 
pendent, fuffers the whole burthen, and 
groans under the weight which he cannot 
remove. ‘Thus every tax isacharge upon 
the labourer, and tends to deprefs him ftill 
lower. If, however, this reafoning fhould 
be queftioned, let us take another view of 
the fubject. The proprietor of land is taxed. 
Every abridgment of the ufual expences 
of this man, except merely of what he in- 
dividually eats and drinks, is taken from 
others, and operates to their injury; for, 
according ‘to the exifting circum{tances 
of fociety, the men who are employed 
through luxury, muft continue to be em- 
ployed, or they perith. He who difmiffes 
a fervant is, in this fenfe, as he who ex- 
pofes a fon. Inevery view then, taxation 
ends with the loweft claffts, and they alone 
feel its weight. Look at the operation. of 
the watchetax. It was faid to be a tax 
upon the rich, but the poor watch-makers 
fuffered all the injury. Apply this rea- 
foning to any tax impofed upon the capita- 
lift, and the fameconclufion follows. In 
fhort, it may be laid down as a maxim, 
_ that the injury of taxation will always be 
Jelt principally by that clafs, which, being 
the lowweft, bas not the power to throw the 
weight from itfelf. 
Fitthly. Whatever diminithes the produc- 
tions of the earth, or transfers their ufe 
from man, tends to depre(fs the induftrious 
claffes. Unfavourable feafons are certainly 
‘to be numbered amoneft the caufes of the 
mifery we contemplate under this head. 
For at fuch times the oppreffion of actual 
{carcity will fall upon the loweft clafs. 
The fame operation here takes place, which 
we have mentioned before; the powerful 
throw the evil upon the weak, and the 
poor alone fuftain all the vengeance of fa- 
mine. Actual {carcity, then, is the rod of 
Heaven, to chaftife the poor. War and 
luxury produce for the poor ‘a fearcity 
as cruel, and lefs patiently to be borne. 
War greatly tends to wajfe the produc- 
tions of the earth. «They “are collected 
into large magazines, and are fpoiled by 
bad keeping. They’ are tran{ported in 
veffels from place to place, and deftroyed 
in the paila They are nearly taken by 
gee 
o 
Caufes of Depreffion of the lower Orders of Society. 
395 
an enemy, and, left he fhould poflefs him- 
felf of them, they are thrown into the fea, 
or into the fire. 
The inftruments of war deftroy and con- 
fume the produce of the earth. An immenfe 
numberof horfts are fed for the purpofes of 
war, inaddition to thenumber whichufually 
burthen a country. Thefe take from the 
labourer the bread which his induflry has 
produced. Itis {carcely neceflary to name 
the deftruction of the means of life, which 
takes place in a country which is the feat 
of war. The country before an army has 
been beautifully compared to the garden 
of Eden, and that behind it to a defolate 
wildernefs ; for to this do the ravages of 
war reduce every country. 
Luxury, too, has its inftruments of de- 
ftru€tion. Horfes kept for the pleafure of 
the rich, confume what ought to feed the 
poor ; and diftilleries and breweries de. 
ftroy the food as well as the health and | 
morals of millions. When the printers 
with whom the wife Franklin was affo- 
ciated, alleged that porter was neceffary 
for them to recruit their exhaufted flrength; 
the philofophical youth proved. to demon- 
ftration that the value of the porter Jaid out 
in folid food infinitely more fuccoured and’ 
firengthened the fons of induftry and toil. 
Thus have we traced, zz: cenceral, the 
caufes of the extreme and lamentable de- 
preffion of the Jaborious clafles: it may not 
now be improper to apply the obfervations 
we have made, to the prefent fituation of 
this diftreffed country. On this fubjeG, 
however, it is not neceflary long to dwell. 
Every reader muft perceive in a moment, 
_that nearly all the caufes of the miferable 
depreffion of the lower orders of fociety are 
in this country in fulloperation. The mi- 
fery of the poor has furely-reached its fum- 
mit, yet it is important to know if relief 
may be expected. If we have affioned the 
true caufes of the depreffion of the la- 
bourer, it is obvious that the principal of 
thefe caufes are PERMANENT. ‘The ef- 
feéts of an inaufpicious feafon pals away, 
and a more favourable fky brings return- 
ing plenty ; but an immenfe national debt, 
fictitious money circulating in countlefs 
millions, capitalifts rifing like daily exha- 
lations from the earth, jaws in full force 
and of the preatek rigour, againft the com- 
binations of labourers, and a war of the 
termination of which no cheering profpects 
appear, threaten the labourer with PER- 
MANENT mifery and ruin. 
This fatal war prevents the relief which, 
perhaps, the fcanty produce of the year 
4799 renders more than commonly necef- 
fary to.the-country. Bread of the fineft 
quality'is ‘at 'this moment in’ Paris fold 
i a Pi 3 for 
