506 
fed to expedt that good fenfe and liberality of 
fentiment which, Iam ready to confels, per- 
yades the greateft part of it; and the {pirited 
and patriotic exhortations adapted te the 
prefent crifis are {uch as muft be generally 
approved of by every lover of his country. 
Vet, I think, Humanity will have ‘a few 
things againfthim™;and Imuch doubt whe. 
ther the Chriftiian and the Morali& will al, 
ways fanétion the decifions of theState{man, . 
I beg leave, therefore, for a corner in your 
Magazine for a few remarks on what ap- 
pears exceptionable in a pamphlet which 
ts likely to have fo much currency, if we 
may eftimate its {pread by the tale of a 
former addrefs of which, as his Lordthip 
informs us, with fome complacency, thirty 
thoufand copies have been dilperfed. I 
pais his Lordthip’s proje& of annihilating 
the national debt by means of every indi- 
vidual in the kingdom giving up a fhare 
of it, proportionate to his property. 
Whatever might be thought of fucha 
fcheme, if it could be fairly, equitably, 
aad honourably executed, who can ima- 
gine the pofiibility of carrying it into ef. 
fect, who has witnefled the flrugghings 
and writhings of ali clafies under the in- 
come tax, who knows that almcft all will 
feek to evade, and that the higher men 
yife in rank and riches the more means 
thay have of evading. Nor yet fhall [ 
ftop to enquire in what fenfe it is that we 
are * fiohting againit Atheiim.”? Bena- 
parte is the reftorer both of she fplendour 
ef a courtand the hierarchy of the church, 
two eftablifhments which always reflcét 
juftre on one another; and if it be one of 
the accufations agamft him that he em- 
braced Mahometanifm in Egypt, it fhows, 
at leaft, his difpofition rather to conform 
the profeffion of his own faith to the efta- 
bi:fhments of the countries he invades, 
than to deprive them of their own. But, 
J have learned to look upon this and fimi- 
far exprefhons as words of courfe, a kind 
or preluding notes, like thofe in mufic, 
with which it is ufual and decent to ufher 
in the overture. Befides, religion and po- 
lities have been fo happily biended of iate, 
that all our politicians are become devout, 
znd all the minifters of religion patriotic; 
and, in the late effufions from the prefs, ! 
have frequently been obliged to lock back 
to the title, to difcover whether I was 
reading a fermon or a political pamphlet. 
But the paflage which thofe who refpett 
his Lordfhip (and heis univerfally refpect- 
ed), grieve that he has fuffered to fall from 
his pen, is on the principle of taxation, as 
applied to the mede of raifing the ordinary 
Remarks on, the Bifhop of Landaff *s Speech, 
[ Jan. s 
fupplies. There is nothing which refie&s 
more honour on the mild and confiderate 
fpirit cf our governinent, than the prin 
ciple adhered to in all our direét taxes, 
that they ftop at the door of the peor 
man, There is no poll-tax for him; no 
corvees, as in many other countries; no 
parifh rates, no window-tax, no property- 
tax affeéts him. His poverty is a ram- 
part againft thofe numerous aficfiments 
which prefs fo hard upon the middle ranks. 
In this light his cottage is to him, in a 
very valuable fenfe, his cafile. He has 
no fhare in making the laws, and for that 
very reafon the laws, with equal genero- 
fity and juftice, have taken him under their 
gratuitous proteétion—But Bifhep Wat- 
fon would reverfe all this. ‘*I have never 
(fays he) yet heard a fubfiantial reafon 
_ given. why the taxation thouid ftop ata 
property of fixty, or, even, of ten poundsa 
year, A man of ten pounds a year is as 
able to pay (I mean with as little priva- 
tion of his comforts) ten fhillings annually 
as a man of five hundred pounds a year is 
to pay five hundred fhillings. If we traee 
the matter to the bottom, and fpeak of 
Juxuries, as diltinguifhed from neceflaries, 
we fhall feel every thing, comparatively ~ 
fpeaking, to be a luxury. _ Bread is a lux- 
ury to thofe who feed on the bark of trees 5 
beer is a luxury to him whofe beverage 
has been water; wine is a luxury to him 
whofe ordinary beverage is beer; and a - 
fayage in America, with a blanket on 
his fhoulders, is a man of luxury 
compared with his neighbour who has 
none. Our inimitable bard has exprefied 
this idea in better language than I can 
ufe, when he introduces Lear arguing 
with his daughters about What was need. 
full for bis fiate : i 
€ Oreafon not the need—our bafef beggarg 
Are in the pooreft thing fuperfluoys, “>. 
Allow not Nature more than Nature needs, . 
229 
Man’s life is cheap as beafts’, 
I do hope there is no man in England 
who can coolly read this paflage without 
indignation. Indeed, my Lord! and can 
the poor man part with his ten hhillings 
a year with as little inconvenience as the 
man in eafy circumftances with five hun. 
dred? Are the ftri€t proportions of arithe _ 
metic to be confidered rather than the li- 
beral calculations of humanity? He can 
pay it with as littie privation of his com- 
forts—In order to inveftigate this matter, 
let us confider a little what the privations 
are whicn each muft undergo, and whether 
they prefs equally hard upon that humaa 
nature in which we all participate. The 
ae . "-privations 
