406 
year, by taking a tenth of each: a pref- 
fure, which on the 40,c00]1. ought to be 
infentible, but on the 3001. will probably 
interfere with the neceffary provifion fur a 
family, cr fer contingencies, and may 
drive the individual and his tamily from a 
peaceful dwelling in the country, tolodg- 
ings where they can get them. Icwn I 
am afriend toa progreffive tax, and at 
an high and encresfing rate of progr: fion 
during war, according to incomes above 
000i, a year; ftill however diftinguifh- 
ing whether it be an income from an ab- 
fu.utely di'pofeable capital ; from a mere 
life-intere?, though fixed 3 or, -worlt of 
all, a doubly uncertain intereft, as de- 
pending on life and on employment. If 
you encourage me, Mr. Editor, I would 
propofe a feale of fuch tax adapted to 
war-tfablifhment, and another to peace- 
efiablifhment. On the fale for peace, 
the rate of difference upon great incomes 
would, inmy idea, be not near fo ftrong ; 
but in war, and fuch a war, and originat- 
ing as this did, I cannot fee that the dif- 
tinétions and comferts of elevated rank 
are fo great an obj-& as the neceflary com- 
fort of all ranks; nor that it is any ho- 
nourable diftin€t'on, or ought to be any 
comfort, to elevated rank and opulence, to 
bear no mcre preportion of fuch great bur- 
‘then than perions of the fmallett fortune : 
though the tax may crufh the one, and 
not even fuperficially graze the other. I 
cannot think (and wouid hardly believe it 
to be the Janguage of a men of great ex- 
perience, and whom the public elteemed 
and loved for his benevolence ; yet more 
than this, admired him for his genius), 
that if the tax drive a man from the firft 
floor to the fecord, from the fecond tothe 
garret, it will yet do, fo long as it does 
not drive him out of the cellar. Werea 
man of 15,000]. a year eftate taxed, dur- 
ing the war, half his income, if be has not 
been {trangely improvident indeed (and if 
he were, he would not continue in poffef- 
fion of this income), how would fuch a 
tax affect his comforts in comparifon? It 
may be difficult’ to make fuch a tax at 
once fuficiently produdtive, and tolerably 
equal in its preflure ; but it is a difficulty 
toward the conqueft of which it would 
not be the part.of a wife and gocd minif- 
try to neglect making the earlieft and the 
neareft approximation. ‘The times, it 1s 
to be hoped, are paffed for ever when a 
nation, ftupid and infenfible to their own 
neceifities and diftrefs, could admire and 
worfhip opulerce and fiation, not fora 
readinefs to partake cf the preffure of that 
burthen (which, while fo heavy on the 
community, fhould be light wpen none), 
Anfwer toa Query refpedting Edot- Houfes, 
[July I, 
but for keeping itfelf comparatively un- 
affected by it. . 
Great fortunes might ftill remain great, 
and their relative proportion to eaen other 
in the fcale cf property be in a degree 
priferved by 2 pregrefive tax on income. 
But during fuch a war as this, if the men 
of scool. ef To,000]1, 20,000]. 40,0001, 
per anourm, fhould find their income, after 
payment of the tax, confiderably lefs dif 
ferent from each other then at prefent, ts 
there any thing-in this comparable to the 
in ividual and national evil of the tax as 
it now ftands. 
19 May, 1806, C. Lorrr. 
To the Editor of the Monibly Magazine. : 
SIR, : 
BSERVING, in the laft number of 
your Magazine, that your correfpon- 
dent W. J. J. is anxious to know which 
are the moft advantageous cclours to paint 
_any frame intended for the prefervaticn 
of tender plants, fo as to colieét in the 
eresteft quantity the heat of the fun, and 
retain it to the benefit of the plants. 
—Without exactly intending to anfwer 
the above queries, I have taken the li- 
berty, through the medium of your 
Mif-cellany, to advert tothe power which 
the colour of black feems to poflc: fz ia a 
fuperior degree to any ctner, or abforbing 
the heat of the rays of the fun. Thus, - 
T prefume, it would be advantageous in 
horticulture, to paint the infide of any cu- 
cumber-frame, or perhaps green-houle, 
perfectly black ; by which means the rays 
of the fun would fall upon the darkened 
parts of the depofitory in which the plants 
are fet, and by this mode of facilitating. 
the conducting of ealoric to the tender 
plants it is likely their growth would be 
confiderably haitened. If this mode of 
conduéting caloric to a given place bé 
corre¢t, it is highly probable that a fimilar 
advantage might be obtained by blacken- 
ing the walls to which fruit trees of all 
kinds are nailed, which would in all likes 
libcod tend to ripen the fruit more equally 
than what we ulually perceive to be the 
cafe. : . 
Thefe fuggeftions might be eafily put 
to the teft of experiment, by placing pieces 
of black cloth behind a part of the newly- 
formed fruit of any tree when fixed toa 
wall, and white cloth to the other part of 
the fruit of the fame tree, and in a fimilar 
fituation ; whey there is ground to believe — 
that the fruit correfponding to tne black 
cloth will be more equally ripened, and 
alfo much fooner brought to a ftate of per- 
fection. Iremain your fumble fervant, 
Blackouru, 13 May, 1806, J. BARLOW. 
For 
