2799-3 
time when their hiftorians reprefent them 
as few in number, difcordant, and {carely 
able to defend themfelves againit their {a- 
-vage enemies. 
A writenof fuch diftinguifhed talents 
as the late Dr. Robertfon, will always 
enjoy the good opinion and confidence of 
his readers: his miftakes, therefore, will 
be of more confequence, and deferving of 
being amended. That our eloquent hif- 
torian is under a miftake, though, no 
doubt an inadvertent one, in the prefent 
inftance, is next to certain; nor will his 
candid readers be difpleafed with any re- 
fpeétful attempt to fet this miftake in a 
clear light. It may be added too, as fome 
_ kind of proof in this cafe, that, during 
the late unhappy American war, when 
the whole tribe of hireling fcribblers and 
afpiring priefts were, with ‘¢ profligate 
induftry,” ranfacking every dirty corner 
to difcover and accumulate charges againft 
the colonifts, in order to ftrmulate the cre- 
dulous John Bull to bleed freely, the 
coinage bufinefs was never, to the beft of 
my recollection, enumerated in the black 
eatalogue of their high crimes and mifde- 
meanors. Your conitant reader, 
A FRIEND TO TRUTH. 
Seeepenetns sins saceameameeeneed 
o the Editor of the Monthly Magaziue. 
Srr, 
N your entertaining and ufeful Maga- 
zine for September laft, WNauticus 
writes fenfibly upon fea ficknefs. In ad- 
dition, however, I fhould place, as the 
firft and greateft of all preventives, the 
acquiring the habit of beingyable to walk 
and ftand upright, without reeling to and 
fro: for it is my opinion, and I {peak 
from experience in my own perion, that 
the continual reeling motion of the body 
is the real caufe of fea ficknefs. 
In_ people of delicate conftitutions, as 
there is a chance of being fick-before the 
habit of walking upright is acquired (in 
fhort voyages in particular) I would re- 
commend lying in bed with the eyes for 
the moft part ihut. Another circumftance 
is, that in the intervals of vomiting, {mall 
draughts only of fea water, or, in prefer- 
ence, an infufion of camomile or ginger 
fhould be taken. Asa further confirma- 
tion of the truth of the above opinion, it 
may be proper to conclude, by adding, 
that any motion long continued, whether 
in a boat on frefh water, or on dry land, 
is liable to induce the fame kind of fick- 
nefs. I am, Sir, your’s, &c, L.A, 
Nov, 55 1758. 
Sea-Sicknefs.—Income Tax. 
/ 
st 
For the Manthly Magazine. 
XPENDITURE is a tolerably fair 
criterion of individual means: the 
annuitant is expected to live more hum- 
bly than the capitalift of equal incomes 
the father of many children more humbly 
than the father of fewer children: the pro- 
feifional man, whofe refources are per- 
fonal, than he who has a bufinefe, or ma- 
chinery, ora farm to bequeath to his fuc- 
ceflors. Society eftimates with tacit 
equity thefe relative circumftances, and 
purfues with efficient difapprobation, both 
the mifer and {pendthrift. ‘The taxation 
of inceme confounds all thefe diftinctions: 
it extorts from the proprietor of fhort an-~ 
nuities as much as from the proprietor of 
an equal income in perpetual ftock: fron: 
the profeffional man as much as from the 
manufacturer of equal earnings. On the 
mifer, whom it is the intereft of the 
{tate to encourage, it bears very hard; 
en the Jpendthritt, whom it is the intereft 
of the ftate to difcourage, it bears very 
foft. 
If income be made a criterion of taxa- 
tion, the fcale of contribution fhould rife 
in arithmetical as that of income does in 
geometrical proportion: elle the burden 
of preifure will fall very heavily on men of 
{mall incomes, and very lightly on men 
of large incomes, which wouid be flagrant 
injuitice. 
Thus, if {aco yearly pays 5 per cent. 

460 7% percent, 
300 IO per cent. 
1600 124 per cent. 
3200 #4 per cent. 
And fo on. 
This is fo maniteft, as ta be alwaye 
acted upon in the afleflment of the ume- 
rous clafles. 
But all tax on income mutt be attended’ 
with a vexatious inquifition, inconvenient, 
if not fatal to conmmerce, with an annual 
mutability of expentive afcertainment, and 
highly favourable to fraud in the collec~ 
tors; and with a fubornation of per- 
jury opprefive precifely to the virtuous 
and meritorious, ‘Ten per cent. may be 
the firt demand, but all taxation is pre- 
greflive; a iimilar requifition in Holland 
has been extended to 37-per cent. on the 
capital, and has deftroyed all motive to 
induitry, by convincing every one of the 
imnpoffibility of getting forward... 
When, taxes are univerfal, and affe& all 
the members of a community, the interett 
to throw them off becomes: univerfal 
alfo. - Such taxes are moft likely to 
ftimulate violent means of riddance. It 
was againft a poll-tax that Walter Tyler 
provoked 
