h 
 
 \^ 

 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 

 
 Property against Industry: 
 
 oil 
 AN EXPOSITION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PARTIALITY, OPPRESSION, INEQUALITY & INJUSTICE, 
 
 or THE 
 
 H^xt^mt SbBjSttm of ffixmnttx 
 
 DEMONTRATIWG THAT 
 
 PROPERTY IS THE ONLY JUST SOURCE OF REVENUE; 
 
 AND THAT 
 
 All Taxes ovght to be imposed on Property, 
 
 AND 
 
 NOT UNJUSTLY COLLECTED FROM DAILY LABOUR: 
 
 PROVING THAT 
 
 THE COUNTRY MAY BE EMANCIPATED 
 
 FROM 
 
 By HARRISON WILKINSON, 
 
 Author of the Principles of an Equitable and Efficient System of Finance, 4c. 
 
 ' As the poor man has little, be satisfied with his paying little — but such as 
 have much ought to pay in proportion : — express the taxes out of the 
 accumulated wealth of the country, and not out of the blood and 
 sinews, and bones of a devoted and indefatigable people." ♦ # • • 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 >L-BLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAI. EXCHANGE; 
 
 AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSEI.LER8. 
 
 1821. 
 
 Price One Shilling and Sixpence
 
 J. Jolmson, Printer, Brook Street, Holborn.
 
 PROPERTY 
 
 AGAINST 
 
 INDUSTRY. 
 
 INDUSTRIOUS PEOPLE, 
 
 In inv ''Principles of an Equitable 
 and Efficient System of Finance/' 1 had not an 
 opportunity of discussing fully and demonstra- 
 tini>', how labour is oppressed by the present 
 iorm of taxation, and how property is com- 
 paratively exempted; although the subject is 
 especially noticed, and the principles of the 
 present address recognised, yet it could not be 
 so fully and minutely entered into, in an ele- 
 mentary work, as its importance demanded. 
 
 Such principles as are consistent with the 
 interest and established opinions of men, are 
 propagated with little difficulty, and make, 
 when diffused, a more lasting impression, than 
 those that oppose them. Apathy and habif 
 frequently pursue a fallacious practice, that 
 reason discards; it is incumbent upon the 
 
 B
 
 human mind to exercise the utmost powers of 
 ratiocination upon every question, and all oc- 
 casions ; should supineness or prejudice prevent 
 the exertion of that inestimable mental faculty, 
 error results as an invariable consequence, and 
 wrong triumphs over right. Experience has 
 persuaded the property owners of the country, 
 that the present system of finance, which mainly 
 exonerates them of taxation, is the most just, 
 equitable, and politic scheme, than can possibly 
 be introduced into practice : the combinations 
 of habit and interest, 1 admit, are formidable 
 antagonists, and was I not convinced of the 
 oppression and inequality of the present system 
 of finance, I would not be so hardy as to pre- 
 sume to recommend any other in the place 
 of it. 
 
 Evils of all species connected with political 
 economy, may be small at their commence- 
 ment; some may be of very dubious tendency 
 in their early career, that are ruinous in the 
 end. How far the infancy of the present sys- 
 tem partook of that character, it is now un- 
 necessary to decide ; present effects prove, that 
 either through ignorance of the true principles 
 of political economy, or necessity, a dangerous 
 system has been matured, inimical to all the 
 venerable institutions of the country, hostile to 
 your interests, and dangerous to your liberties.
 
 If either ignorance permitted or established 
 the existing system of finance, or if it was in- 
 cautiously founded upon false principles, or 
 perishable elements, the better information of 
 the present age ought to be foremost to remedy 
 the defect; if error is continued in, daily prac- 
 tice tends to confirm it, although common sense 
 reprobates the delusion. Although the sove- 
 reigns and people of all countries have neces- 
 sarily been long experienced in the ways of 
 collecting revenues, both general and local, 
 yet they have never founded their systems upon 
 any permanent and equitable base ; so long as 
 the money has been raised, a very scrupulous 
 inquiry has never been instituted, how, and in 
 what proportions, it was paid by the people; 
 the object of the financiers has been to get 
 money, without ever inquiring, whether the 
 contributors paid in proportion to their means. 
 It may be matter of astonishment, that no fixed 
 plan should be adopted by any existing State, 
 but that all should be directed by their ne- 
 cessities, and not by justice, to the formation of 
 some revenue to meet their exigencies. The 
 short-sighted policy of political economists is 
 not less remarkable ; actuated by a frigid in- 
 difference about futurity, industry that would 
 have been for ages a resource, has been sacri- 
 ficed, and the revenue of unknown times im- 
 poUtically anticipated.
 
 Taxes are assessed for the advantaoe of the 
 whole, and not for the benefit of the few ; under 
 whatever pretences they may be collected, they 
 appear to be resolved into two points: — 
 
 1st. Protection of persons, 
 
 2d. Protection of property. 
 With respect to the first, or protection of per- 
 sons, it might be divided, for the sake of per- 
 spicuity, into two points, or protection from 
 internal, and protection from external foes ; but 
 for the sake of conciseness, they shall be put 
 under one common head. 
 
 The present frequency and daily increase of 
 crimes in Britain, and the comparative absence 
 of crimes in the United States, are circum- 
 stances worthy of investigation and remark. 
 The people of Britain and of the United States 
 are of the same stock, speak the same language, 
 and adopt the same manners: in Britain, where 
 crimes are so abundant, more expenses will be 
 incurred to protect persons from violence, than 
 there would be if criminals were fewer. 
 
 Between criminality and purity, and the 
 justice and injustice of the present system of 
 finance, there might not at first view appear to 
 be any connexion; but it is a well known fact, 
 that as taxes have really increased in amount, 
 criminals have increased in number ; this can- 
 not be owing to an erroneous sympathy, but to 
 some well-founded reason. Let us proceed to
 
 examine it. Hunger is imperative, and must 
 impossible, be satiated — the means of gratifica- 
 tion are only safe without its reach; minor 
 objects will not restrain, wlien its impetuosity 
 has driven men to devour one another. The 
 dishonesty in the United States, I presume, 
 arises from a want of principle, that in Britain 
 chiefly from want of food, or its consequences: 
 one should be punished, the other pitied. 
 When the preponderating feeling is hunger, 
 honesty and integrity have ceased to be pri- 
 mary passions, and when they have ceased to 
 be sensations that men are proud to main- 
 tain, degradation, abasement, and depravity of 
 the human mind, succeed ; want supplants 
 conscious rectitude, and intellectual corruption 
 is the necessary effect; when credit is once de- 
 stroyed, reparation is difficult. Such causes as 
 deprive the labourer of a sufficiency of food, 
 and prevents the tradesman, with the utmost 
 economy, from meeting the demand of his cre- 
 ditors, are the chief causes of moral turpitude. 
 A large revenue has been derived from the 
 Customs and Excise ; and as the labourers, who 
 form the principal part of society, are the 
 greatest consumers of goods that come under 
 the Excise and Customs, &c. they are conse- 
 quently the payeis of taxes in the same pro 
 portion. If the wages of labour had increased
 
 6 
 
 in the same proportion as the Excise and Cus- 
 tom-house duties, and the labourer was as 
 constantly employed, he would not sustain any 
 loss ; but if wages were not raised in the same 
 ratio, but were nearly stationary, while the 
 Excise was doubled, and quadrupled,* the la- 
 bourer would sustain a loss proportioned to the 
 difference ; the variation from the natural point 
 might be trifling at first, but when one increased 
 slowly, and the other rapidly, it would become 
 very considerable. Although the expense of 
 the nation was greater at the Revolution than 
 at some preceding periods, yet, for argument, 
 the people, I will admit, paid no more than 
 what was necessary to secure their safety — and 
 at that period they will be assumed to be in a 
 natural state — or that a labourer, by honest 
 industry, could procure a decent livelihood for 
 himself and family. 1 shall be allowed to sup- 
 pose, and it was really the case, that the la- 
 bourer found no difficulty in getting work^ a 
 point not less essential to the preservation of 
 habits of honesty, industry, and sobriety. It 
 may appear that the wages of labour were low 
 at that day,t as 6s. a week was the common 
 sum, but they were actually high, for they were 
 
 * Produce of the Excise, 1701, «e986,000; in 1819, 
 4:23,184,378. 
 
 t 1688.
 
 equal to 24 quartern loaves a week ; the quar- 
 tern loaf was then sold for 3d. Personal pro- 
 tection was greater than at the present time, 
 and crimes, at that stormy period of the political 
 horizon, very few; a labourer was protected 
 from the violence of acrimonious factions at 
 home, and from the resentment of designing 
 sovereigns abroad, and yet earned 24 quartern 
 loaves a week At this time the wages of an 
 agricultural labourer in Middlesex, generally 
 I2s. (in some parishes married men 9s. and 
 single men 6s.), in adjoining counties much 
 lower, but take the average at 10s., certainly a 
 high week's wages will not buy 12 quartern 
 loaves, consequently the means of subsistence 
 are diminished above one half, and so is his 
 consumption, which lessens the demand. The 
 labourer does at least as much work as before, 
 and is as well entitled to the same reward, but 
 he does not get so much by one half; because 
 small wages and less work produce more com- 
 petition, and many causes of oppression ope- 
 rating upon his employer, compel one to offer, 
 and the other to accept, those lower wages. 
 The weight of taxation now falls principally 
 upon industrious people, the nearer the gra- 
 dation is to the labourer in penury, the more 
 taxes are paid, and the furthest off the fewest; 
 consequently more crimes are committed by
 
 the muititude, than where taxation operates 
 differently. It is known as a statistical fact, 
 that as want increases, so do crimes. 
 
 For argument, suppose that the labourer is 
 taxed to the amo un t of one hal f of hi s wages, or 1 2 
 quartern loaves a week, and that estimate takes 
 not into account loss sustained by the want of 
 constant work, occasioned by increased taxation, 
 the taxes upon the necessaries of life consumed 
 by the labourer, arc paid out of his diminished 
 wages, as beer, and salt, and soap, and leather, 
 and candles, &c. &c. If there was any justice 
 in taxing labour, which I deny (and the Excise 
 and Customs are taxes upon it), as it is in effect 
 taxins: bones and flesh, there can be no doubt 
 about taxing property; and if property did im- 
 pose a tax upon labour by mistake, it should 
 only have imposed taxes in equal proportion 
 upon itself and labour, instead of property 
 being exonerated, and the load thrown upon 
 labour. If the necessities of the State de- 
 manded that labour should be taxed 50 per 
 cent., you would suppose that property would 
 be as heavily taxed ; and that the tax-imposing 
 power, as far as ability went, would attempt to 
 put upon all equal burthens. Self-interest, or 
 ignorance, or prejudice, might comprehend the 
 labour of the country with the property, and 
 suppose both equally liable to contribute to the
 
 9 
 
 revenue; you will presently see that the labour 
 of the country is entitled to exemption, on every 
 principle of justice, and that property is the 
 only lee ill mate source of taxation. 
 
 So far from there being any degree of 
 e(|uality in the cases of the labourers and 
 owners of the country, contributing in the 
 same ratio toward the expenses of the State/ 
 the former ought to be exempted, as requiring 
 no more personal protection than their pre- 
 sence adds security to the property of the 
 country ; property derives as much aid from 
 their presence, as they possibly can from pro- 
 perty contributing all the revenue besides. I 
 am only contending for the utmost practicable 
 exemption, indirect taxation will always ne- 
 cessarily reach the labour of the country, col- 
 lecting from them as much as they ought to 
 contribute. In a natural state of society it has 
 been proved, that crimes would hardly exist, 
 as at the period of the Revolution in Britain, 
 and at this time in the United States, because 
 moderate labour would produce a supply of 
 food adequate to the wants of nature, and would 
 enable the labourer to live in credit in his ac- 
 customed sphere of life. If men are driven into 
 frequent acts of criminality, the authors of the 
 system, that is the exciting cause, are repre- 
 hensible. If crimes are more prevalent than
 
 10 
 
 formerly, and personal defence more expensive, 
 they are only so by an inequitable and exor- 
 bitant system of finance being followed. The 
 labourers should be taxed for nothing but what 
 is essential to their defence ; they should not 
 be taxed for the support of armies, except it 
 can be unequivocally proved that armies are 
 necessary to secure a cottage or a cabbage: 
 the peasants of France, and all other countries, 
 do not want the sword dangling over their 
 heads while they are using the spade. As the 
 labourers of France and other countries do not 
 want a standing army, so they ought to be 
 exempted from contributing any taxes to- 
 wards its support. An invasion of the Great 
 Napoleon could never injure the peasantry of 
 any nation : he never did, nor ever intended it. 
 Are the labourers of Italy, or Germany, or 
 Holland, worse for his invasions? He could 
 wrest nothing from them. It was not industry, 
 but avarice and gorgeous splendour, that was 
 endangered . If a standing army is wanted in 
 France, or any where else, it is quite clear, 
 that it is not wanted to protect the industry of 
 the country. If it can be proved to be neces- 
 sary to the existence and protection of the in- 
 dustry of the nation, it would be just for it to 
 contribute towards its maintenance in propor- 
 tion to the benefit derived : if it derives no
 
 11 
 
 benefit from it, the people of France and other 
 nations^ should not contribute towards its sup- 
 port: poverty is a sufficient protection from in- 
 ternal and external aggression. 
 
 Sdly. Protection of property belonging to 
 the country is the next object to be brought 
 under consideration , It has been demonstrated, 
 that under the present system, which, by its 
 caprice and inequality, occasions many super- 
 fluous expenses, exciting acts of moral evil, 
 and then proceeding to punish its progeny; 
 improvidently and iuipolitically expending 
 money that a just and practicable system could 
 spare ; yet, after all, the expense of personal 
 protection is inconsiderable ; and if the plan of 
 taxation I have proposed, founded upon a new, 
 equitable, and efficient base, was adopted, 
 criminality would be nearly removed, and all 
 men nearly freed from even the apprehension of 
 personal violence : men are very seldom crimi- 
 nal by nature, they are chiefly so from necessity. 
 It may be laid down as an axiom, that want 
 and mis-government are the parents of mischief. 
 I allow there are exceptions to the general rule, 
 that some have a depravity of mind, as others 
 have a deformity of body: recollect that the 
 luminary of the heavens hath specks upon his 
 surface, but the native and invariable splen- 
 dour of the one, is not more obscured, than of
 
 12 
 
 the other ; as the opacities of each bear so small 
 a portion to the whole, they are a matter ot 
 curiosity in the one, and undeserving of notice 
 in the other, in unsophisticated society. 
 
 If the present system of finance was re- 
 moved, that cankers all the energies of an 
 industrious people, throws a great number out 
 of employment, and compels them to prey upon 
 their neighbours to procure the temporary 
 means of subsistence, crimes would nearly dis- 
 appear ; penal laws nught be blotted out of the 
 statute l)ook, that would only do credit to a 
 certain sovereign of antiquity. Of those labour- 
 ers who are in work, few have sufficient waeres 
 to enable them to obtain the means of support 
 for their families; as necessity never pays any 
 deference to laws, and the wants of nature not 
 being supplied by adequate wages, individual 
 hunger of parents, and famished cries of chil- 
 dren, drive the former to commit depredations 
 upon those in more fortunate circumstances. 
 Honesty will be best preserved by plenty, and 
 independence by avoiding acts of degradation. 
 
 Instead of property appealing to the laws, 
 and annually adding to the saguinary code, it 
 ought to remove the taxes unjustly imposed 
 upon the poor ; the inequality as well as the 
 magnitude of the present system of finance, 
 produced poverty, want, and consequently
 
 J.^ 
 
 crime. Property legislating, does not iippear 
 to be aware of the cause of vice, and in its 
 ijiiioraiice ffor that is the most ciiarilahle con- 
 structiou of its conduct;, an efiect is mistaicen 
 for a cause. If property is aware that the 
 criminality of the industrious people is cancel 
 by financial inequality ;, and it is more so than 
 by the enormous amount of taxes, and will not 
 attempt to remove it, although 1 have advanced 
 a new system of finance that would preserve the 
 rights of all, property cannot be condenmed in 
 adequate terms : — it is greedy of egotism and 
 praise, and may, if it please, al)sorb the merit 
 of all the hangings, transportations, and other 
 calamities, some profoundly ignorant people 
 are disposed to attribute to its selfishness and 
 rapacity. If property can reconcile those enor- 
 mities with a sense of public justice and pul)lic 
 duty, it will go on in its enviable course; if ii 
 feels that degree of remorse reflection can hardly 
 fail to excite, it will retrace its unholy steps, 
 deliberately inquire into the system I have pro- 
 posedj and endeavour to restore the suspended 
 rights of the people. 
 
 A labourer has property in himself, but it is 
 his own; and what is his own, carmot be taken 
 justly away without his consent; if it is, a rob- 
 bery is committed, and such as take it away 
 are robbers. But if so much be granted, it 
 must be allowed, that he will always defend
 
 14 
 
 himselt against all except legal oppression ; the 
 aggressor wouW be repulsed^ and it would cost 
 as much labour to force the oppressed, as the 
 value of the service of the pennyless oppressed 
 would be worth ; besides, his poverty would be 
 always a protection — a beggar may safely sing 
 before thieves. But the case is widely dili'er- 
 ent with property, and the owners of property,; 
 one from its attributes necessarily defenceless, 
 and the others generally helpless: here exist 
 all the temptations that can necessarily in- 
 fluence domestic and foreign enemies. Wealth 
 is allowed to act generally upon the passions 
 of men, and must more acutely, when the very 
 existence of man depends upon its acquisition ; 
 at all times the inducements to obtain it are so 
 great, that security, under the most careful 
 forms, is problematical. When the defenceless 
 state it must be in, the general enervation, the 
 habits of ease and luxury of its owners are 
 considered, it must be allowed that property 
 requires more means of defence, and is more 
 difficult to defend, than industry. It is not 
 merely the property of the rich that is to be 
 defended, but their persons require more pro- 
 tection; if the rich do pay in taxes, they do 
 not, by the present system of finance, pay more 
 than what is adequate to the security of their 
 persons. This position is correct, as will be 
 shortly geometrically proved. There may be
 
 15 
 
 erratic cases, as that of Lords livinj^ hidden in 
 garrets, and hoarding fifty thousand pounds a 
 year, or others living upon the Continent and 
 drawing each a hundred thousand pounds a 
 year from the resources of this country-, and 
 having such property protected at the expense 
 of the starved and famished labourers, whose 
 daily toil procures scarcely any thing but po- 
 tatoes. What justice is there in such a svstera 
 of finance, that exonerates the property that 
 should and could pay, and presses down into 
 the earth, those who earn gold and live upon 
 potatoes ? The new system of finance requires 
 the Lord to pay no more than his proportion, 
 and it matters less to him than the lalx)urer, 
 whether the revenue is to be expended upon 
 the present exi^^encies of the State, or upon 
 supporting the funded debt. The funded pro- 
 perty of the country, it has been asserted, (and 
 I vtiW sooner grant the assertion than deny it), 
 was accumulated in defending the property of 
 the country and all its interests. It has been 
 shewn that the industrious wanted no protec- 
 tion, they had nothing that they could lose even 
 by an invasion, so that the funded debt Was not 
 accumulated in defending your cause: it was 
 the lands, the funds,* the mansions, and afflu- 
 ence of the rich people, that wanted protection, 
 
 * Vide Principles of an Equitable and Efficient System 
 of Finance, by Harrison Wilkinson, page 7.
 
 16 
 
 and not your hovels, your straw beds, and 
 your rags ; the measure of your payment ought 
 to have been in proportion to the degree of 
 interest you derived. Such as derived the 
 benefit shouk\ bear the burthen, is a maxim, I 
 hope^ aheady unequivocally estal'Dlishcd : those 
 that it was contracted to defend, are errone- 
 ously, and principally, exempted from its con- 
 sequences, whereas, on every principle of jus- 
 tice, the party that reaped the benefit should 
 pay the interest. If this is not the case, 1 am 
 allowed to borrow money for my own use, on 
 your credit, and can compel you to pay the 
 interest: there is a parallel between the cases^ 
 and there is as much justice in the one case as 
 in the other. It is not the wheelbarrow, the 
 spade, and wretched hovel, that need protec- 
 tion, but the costly furniture, the gilded pa- 
 laces, and splendid carriages of the rich ; it is 
 not the canvass rags and empty pockets of the 
 labourer that need protection, but the rich, 
 clothed with the choicest productions of every 
 climate, and well stored pockets. Is there any 
 comparison between the two cases? As much 
 difference as there is between the two states in 
 appearance, so is there between them as respects 
 their contributing to the revenue ; the more 
 industrious poverty, the more the financial 
 system extracts from the subject. 
 
 The present taxes are chiefly collected for
 
 the purpose of paying the interest of the debt, 
 and to protect the property of the country ; * 
 if the debt was created to protect the property 
 of the nation, or if it was contracted by the 
 governors of the nation for the purpose of pro- 
 tecting property, they must either pay the 
 interest that contracted it, or the party for 
 whom it was contracted ; as the industrious 
 people never were in danger, what part of the 
 interest are they called upon to pay? If a 
 standing army is kept embodied for the purpose 
 of defending the industrious people of a country, 
 the industrious people are liable to pay the ex- 
 pense; or if it is kept on foot partly for them, 
 and partly for others, the expense should be 
 jointly paid: where a public debt exists, and 
 where a standing army is wanted by the in- 
 dustrious people, I have never been able to 
 discover. If the labourers are not benefited 
 by the purposes for which the debt was con- 
 tracted, nor participate of the advantages of a 
 standing army, and other concomitant extrava- 
 gance, on what principle of equity are they 
 
 * "Now the fundholders receive three-fifths of the taxes 
 without contributing any equivalent in return ; the land and 
 labour pay all, and have nothing in return ; but it is the 
 intention of the equitable tax to make all equal contributors, 
 and in proportion to ability." — Vide Principles of an 
 Equitable and Efficient System of Finance, p. 10.
 
 required to pay? Such as created and still 
 want those means, shouhl uphold them; and 
 not by collusions^ and an unfair system of 
 finance, take from industry the sweat of its 
 brow for their support. 
 
 /Had even a proportion in the payment of 
 taxes been observed between industry and 
 property, a decent shew of justice would have 
 been maintained, although a mistaken one: no 
 attempt has been made even to preserve an 
 appearance of equality ; property has so far 
 undervalued industry, and the latter has been 
 so insufficiently represented in the Legislative 
 Council, as not to claim necessary attention. 
 If it could be demonstrated, that the several 
 motions of the limbs, and evolutions of the 
 body, are taxable property (as it cannot), yet 
 there will be far more difficulty to prove that 
 those movements should pay the revenue, when 
 that revenue is appropriated to purposes not 
 recognised as interesting to labourers. If the 
 organic motions of the hands, and feet, and 
 eyes, are liable to be taxed, how can it be 
 proved that they should be taxed 50 per cent. 
 and more, of their product, while property 
 solely wanting protection, is not paying 20 per 
 cent., frequently nothing at all? for, as much is 
 not collected out of many mansions annually, 
 as is paid out of a thatched hovel. A labourer
 
 19 
 
 for his potatoes, wants as much salt as a noble 
 and an establishment. How can it be shewn, 
 that one, rolling in affluence, sliould pay 5 or 
 10 per cent, of his income, while the other is 
 paying 50, perhaps 10 per cent. 
 
 If both were equally liable, they should only 
 pay in proportion to each other. Circumstances 
 do not require it, as I have shewn in my '' Prin- 
 ciples of an Equitable and Efficient System of 
 Finance," if they did, the property of the country 
 should be taxed 50 per cent. ; but probably 30 
 is sufficient, if the savings were adopted that I 
 have shewn to be practicable.* As the property 
 only is to derive the advantage, it ought to bear 
 the burthen; and all, as I have in another place 
 proposed, should be taxed in proportion to 
 ability to pay: I have proved the oppression 
 and partiality of the present intricate and un- 
 natural system, and founded one upon nature 
 and reason, simple, equitable, and practicable. 
 If the property of the country, or those that 
 exercise the functions of legislature, has so far 
 involved its affairs as to make a large per 
 centage necessary, the property alone ought to 
 bear the consequence : if an unnatural ex- 
 penditure had not been the resort of the execu- 
 tive authority, a very small rate of the Equitable 
 
 • No. 11, p. 89, Principles of an Equitable and Efllciont 
 System of Finance.
 
 20 
 
 tax would defray all the State expences. What- 
 ever may be the practice^ a principle of equity 
 always discriminates between the innocent and 
 guilty; folly or injustice only involves them in 
 a common fate. I will not draw a conclusion 
 quite self-evident to you, but leave you and the 
 property to decide, whether you ought to pay 
 the interest of the debt, whether it should be 
 paid jointly, or whether the property alone 
 ought to pay. I have made up my mind upon 
 the matter, and do not see that the accumula- 
 tion of the debt, for either real or problematical 
 benefits, changes the state of the argument. 
 Can any rule of reason compel the industry to 
 be answerable for the consequences of the folly 
 and improvident schemes of the property of the 
 country? I allow that the argument bears 
 hard upon some of the owners of property, 
 such, more particularly, as were convinced of 
 the injustice and impolicy of the causes that 
 have made such a large revenue necessary ; 
 still the debt was contracted, as was pretended, 
 in the defence of their persons and property ; 
 whether justly or not, rests with themselves; 
 and how could it in justice be made to bear 
 upon you, who were always safe from danger, 
 and wanted no protection? You should not be 
 involved in any pecuniary difficulties of the 
 country caused by property, any more than
 
 21 
 
 you could be in the affairs of a Turkey merchant 
 trading to America. Put one simple question 
 to the property of the country : ask them if the 
 debt was contracted with a view of protecting 
 persons and property, or with a view of pro- 
 tecting you solely, or partly ? You may also 
 ask, for what purpose the standing army is 
 kept? If conscientious answers are given, the 
 property will declare, '' that personal safety and 
 the security of property were our sole motives 
 for the accumulation of the former, and for the 
 support of the latter." 
 
 Pitiable credulity may entertain an opinion 
 that the people have degenerated, that they are 
 naturally of a baser sort, and more prone to 
 acts of criminality than formerly, and that a 
 standing army, in peaceable times, is necessary 
 to coerce their malignant and wicked spirit. I 
 deny that you are naturally worse, or more 
 disposed to crime, than your ancestors were : 
 crime is allowed to be more abundant, but it is 
 proved that criminality is the offspring of want, 
 and habit emanating from it ; and that want is 
 produced by an inequitable system of finance, 
 and excessive taxation: the present system 
 impoverishes the people, and degrades and 
 destroys their inherent pride of probity and 
 independence. The presumption, that you are 
 naturally more wicked than formerly, is, in fact.
 
 22 
 
 an accusation of the great Creator of all things ; 
 it accuses the divine agency of being a party to 
 the criminality of men, and of having reversed 
 or changed the laws of nature, that daily ex- 
 perience demonstrates as unchangeable : Na- 
 ture is never driven out of her course, and when 
 we stray from her ways, error and confusion 
 are the necessary consequences. All the evo- 
 lutions and laws of nature are simple, equitable, 
 and invariable; and it is in imitation of her 
 labours, and upon her principles, that I have 
 attempted to found my equitable system of 
 finance; whether it will ever be adopted, I 
 shall not stay to inquire, but its simplicity, and 
 invariability, are attributes that will preserve 
 its purity, and never cease to recommend 
 it. The corruption of the old system ramify 
 so widely through society, and so many have 
 an interest in preserving its existence, that he 
 must be sanguine that expects any immediate 
 change. I recommend a return to nature, that 
 should never have been deserted ; call upon the 
 people to discard the fallacies, the sophistries, 
 and corruption, that exist; never diverge from 
 the path of reason, to bewilder yourselves among- 
 the systems of political economy, "and the jar- 
 gon of the schools. Do not be misled by a false 
 idea, that the science of taxation is too abstruse 
 for you to enter into; it is as simple as any of
 
 23 
 
 the operations of nature, and, as I have shewn, 
 may be comprehended by a child : there is an 
 inviting simplicity in trntli that reason always 
 explores. Men should think for themselves, 
 and not take upon trust, without examination, 
 opinions circulated by others : reason is a true 
 guide, faith an ignis fatuus, sure to mislead and 
 betray. If men believed nothing but what 
 study could make them comprehend, the arts 
 and sciences would not be crowded with vague 
 hypothesis, and groundless theory. 
 
 Property may argue, that present burthens 
 were necessary for the purpose of defence 
 against external people; and if less burthens 
 had been imposed, a sufficient degree of re- 
 sistance could not have been made. Whether 
 the case is just or not, the labour of the country 
 may be thought to be independent of the mat- 
 ter; but as all arguments used to exonerate 
 the labourers of this country from taxation, 
 apply to foreign States, such powers of attack 
 could not have been nmstered by other coun- 
 tries, had the true principles of finance been 
 observed. As it is, for instance, the duty of 
 the labouring people of France to resist, by all 
 means, systems of extortion, the rights of nature 
 qualify all Frenchmen to defend their own, and 
 do not permit other men to take their property 
 away without their consent:* taxation without 
 
 * Vide Elements of Liberty, by H.Wilkinson, p. C.
 
 24 
 
 representation J is slavery. The exemption of 
 labour from taxation, would place in a similar 
 situation of impotence, or inefficiency, the pro- 
 perty of every country ; then property would 
 be warring against property, and there would 
 not be a coalition of property and labour 
 against similar antagonists. Even existing mo- 
 nopolies of trade cannot warrant or justify 
 industry in engaging in foreign wars ; domestic 
 industry is entitled to nothing in foreign States 
 except on the ground of superior merit ; ac- 
 quisitions by arms are unjust, and a violation 
 of the laws of nature. A peaceful and indus- 
 trious State might be critically situated amidst 
 sword governments and belligerent nations, 
 but it is the duty of those people who under- 
 stand the question, to instil into the minds of 
 the industrious of other nations, true principles 
 of financial legislation. Long and uniform ex- 
 perience ought to have convinced the industri- 
 ous people of all countries, that they had 
 nothing to gain by war, but every thing to lose; 
 that wars have never been commenced for the 
 purpose of defending their interests, but for the 
 sake of reaping the product of their industry ; 
 the insatiable ambition of some unbridled sove- 
 reign, has frequently plunged adjoining coun- 
 tries into wars; private views, and never public 
 benefits, entered into his plans of rapine or 
 conquest.
 
 25 
 
 The plan of taxation I liave elsewhere laid 
 dowii^ simply combines two of the greatest 
 points in financial economy, viz. equality and 
 efficiency, neither of which, in any degree, are 
 combined at present. 
 
 Excise and Custom-house duties are the 
 same to all men, as much upon the goods con- 
 sumed by the labourer as by the lord ; in many 
 cases they operate upon the same article more 
 in favour of the lord than the labourer : for 
 instance, taking into consideration the different 
 quantities of leather each must have in a pair 
 of shoes, the latter must be much heavier, and 
 pay more tax, than the former; injustice or 
 ignorance could only impose the same duty 
 upon what they must both consume, when their 
 incomes are so disproportioned, from the one 
 needing only a small quantity of leather, and 
 the other a great quantity ; their avocations 
 necessarily make their proportions inequitable, 
 and acting against the labourer. Before the 
 Excise duties can operate in proportion to 
 ability to pay, upon all classes of people, the 
 advocates of the present system must have some 
 method of imposing them in proportion to the 
 wealth of the person who is the purchaser of 
 the taxed goods; there must be a scale fixed 
 to embrace every income from five hundred a 
 year to a hundred thousand pounds; besides, it
 
 26 
 
 will be necessary for a beggar to prove at every 
 meal, how much he has made in his profession 
 within the last twenty-four hours ; and from 
 the numerous establishments of the nobility, 
 they must be proving,, from morning until 
 night, and every shopkeeper must belong to 
 the Excise. Complicated as the existing system 
 is, it is not quite so complicated as the above 
 must be, if the necessary equality of taxation 
 is adopted ; if the true application of the Ex- 
 cise, and consequently every other part of the 
 existing system is impossible, from its intricacy, 
 it is quite clear that it ought to be abandoned 
 as false, and a violation of justice and true 
 principles ; and a new system introduced, 
 founded upon a natural, equitable, and efficient 
 base. If the imperfections of any scheme were 
 ever sufficient reasons for abandoning it, surely 
 they exist in this case. Experience knows how 
 difficult it is to introduce a new system, though 
 pregnant with utility and truth; interest and 
 ignorance tenaciously adhere to received forms, 
 it is only the man of intelligence, candour, and 
 research, that penetrates the veil of venality 
 and superstition. Galileo, Columbus, and Har- 
 vey, and a hundred more, could have borne 
 testimony to this opinion. Ignorance is as 
 frequently found in sanctuaries approached with 
 reverence, as in the cottage. Legislators have
 
 27 
 
 even been so presiunptuons as to regulate the 
 diet of man, and the practice of the physician.* 
 Prejudice preponderated so unich over the 
 minds of the disciples of Confucius, as to deter 
 them, for several centuries after the discovery 
 of glass, from using it in their windows, instead 
 of s< raped liorn, because they did not discover it. 
 Men in the most elevated situation are fallible ; 
 and it is lamentable to ascertain by experience, 
 that if they are not the last to be convinced, 
 they are the last to retrace their steps. Men who 
 have attempted to restore the natural order of 
 things in society, necessarily had to contend 
 with all the rancour and malevolence of the old 
 dogmatists; such as adhered to absurdities 
 were not deficient in assurance, and accused 
 their opponents with attempting to destroy 
 their darling fabrics, supposed to be as perfect 
 as a statue of Praxiteles or Canova, which none 
 but a Praxiteles or Canova could make. It is 
 certainly incumbent upon those that wish to 
 demolish, to shew what they intend to erect 
 instead thereof. With respect to the present 
 plan of taxation, that objection is answered, 
 and those that wish to reform all the corrup- 
 tions of the financial system, and restore the 
 
 * By a royal decree in France, potatoes were prohibited 
 as an article of diet, and tlie faculty were prevented from 
 bleeding the sick !
 
 28 
 
 nation to its pristine vigour^ have tiieir plan of 
 taxation prepared, and which combines all the 
 essentials of a perfect system of finance. 
 
 With respect to the relative situations of 
 the property and industry of the country, no 
 superiority is due to either ; thd labour of the 
 latter is as much in demand by the former, as 
 the property of the former is by the latter ; 
 whatever may be asserted to the contrary, their 
 interests are mutual. Shoes and carriages are 
 necessaries among the rich, but if the shoe- 
 maker or coachmaker is not paid, the shoes 
 and coach will not be made : the necessaries and 
 luxuries enjoyed by property, are as much 
 depending upon industry as upon property. 
 There is a dogma it may not be superfluous to 
 notice, viz. that was it not for the large pro- 
 perties in the country supporting the poor, they 
 would frequently be reduced to absolute want ; 
 that those large estates are reservoirs of pro- 
 perty at all times available by penurious in- 
 dustry. It may be laid down as a rule, that the 
 more palaces the more huts, because splendour 
 can only be supported at the expense of poverty. 
 It is denied that large estates either do, or ever 
 did, support the poor. I affirm, and it is the 
 fact, that greater equality of condition existed 
 at the Revolution than now ; fewer were enor- 
 mously rich, and paupers were not one tenth of
 
 29 
 
 the present number. Growing inequality of 
 taxation, produced inequality of rank ; as the 
 operation of inequality icas against the poor, 
 and in favour of the rich, it drew from the poor, 
 who had little, and should have paid nothing, and 
 gave to the rich, who had much, and paid littler- 
 it extracted from those who are exempted, the 
 taxes that ought justly to have been paid by 
 the property of the country : those who had too 
 little previously were further depressed, and 
 those who had too much were more exalted: 
 now the property affects to commiserate the 
 industry of the nation. Had not the labourers' 
 earnings been extracted by property, under the 
 form of an inequitable system of finance, they 
 would have been in that state of comparative 
 affluence that would have rendered them com- 
 fortable in sickness and old age; parochial 
 allowance, a hospital, or a workhouse, would 
 not have been required. Infirmaries, jails, and 
 workhouses, shew, by their scarcity or abun- 
 dance, the good or bad administration of the 
 affairs of any country.* 
 
 The system of poor laws has been so often 
 eulogised, that it will be almost treasonable to 
 say any thing concerning them ; but it has been 
 a part of the same system, by means of the 
 
 * Vide Principles of an Equitable and Efticient System 
 of Finance, p. 67.
 
 30 
 
 detestable taxation plan, to extract all the pro- 
 duce of the labour of the people, and when the 
 labourers are past work, those victims of in- 
 justice are hidden in workhouses, beyond the 
 reach of the public eye — as the ashes of the 
 oak are deposited in a hole in the earth — to 
 end a life in misery that should, and might have 
 been, closed in comfort: this scheme has been 
 practised to hide the ravages of the fiscal system. 
 We hear people talk, with the utmost indiffer- 
 ence, of the best mode of feeding the poor; 
 they appear no more concerned about it than 
 Bedford, or Coke, or Curwen, uould about 
 feeding cows and horses. Had it not been for 
 workhouse establishments, beggars would have 
 been so numerous as alone to have made a 
 change of system: when age and infirmities 
 have prevented the wretched labourer from 
 working any more, he is crammed into a work- 
 house, and kept upon potatoes and water for 
 the remainder of his deplorable life. Go into 
 the poor-house of any or every parish, and you 
 will find men of this description. 
 
 The labourers, you are already convinced, 
 have not half as much in wages as they ought 
 to have, and did at one time have ; this pro- 
 portion has been taken from them by an in- 
 equitable system of finance, given to others, 
 and squandered in wars you had nothing to do
 
 31 
 
 with: instead of having- 24 quartern loaves a 
 week, they have at most 12, and seldom so 
 many. Had it not been for the partiality of the 
 present system of finance, you could, and pro- 
 bably would, individually have saved the price 
 of six every week, which, in 25 years, at a 
 moderate computation, would be 387/.* a sum 
 sufficient, on an average, to keep, in moderate 
 independence, in the same sphere of life, a man 
 of forty-five years of age, the remainder of his 
 life. The system now in use furnishes the 
 workhouse with inmates; the one proposed 
 would enable the labourer to live independent, 
 after a moderate period of honourable servi- 
 tude. An equitable system of finance would 
 give the industrious man 387/., the present 
 system takes it away, gives it to his master, or 
 the government, and sends him to the work- 
 house. The mischief does not end here, indeed 
 no one knows where ; it prevents men from 
 acquiring small capitals, which would be after- 
 wards employed a thousand useful ways to 
 themselves and society. Such as may, from 
 some fortuitous circumstances, have a small 
 capital, are so much more oppressed than those 
 of large, that they are unable to stand their 
 ground in the midst of so many competitors. 
 
 * Vide Principles of an Equitable and Efficient System 
 of I'inanro, p. 69.
 
 39 
 
 In agriculture, in the county of Middlesex, 
 nothing can be done without a capital of several 
 thousand pounds; a small farm is not to be 
 procured on any conditions, so that one of the 
 most common and useful avocations is closed 
 to all men having only small capitals; and 
 trade is so precarious, as the small wages of 
 the labourers only enable them to purchase few 
 articles, upon which small profits only are had^ 
 and to pay rent and taxes disproportionably 
 high. It is commonly noticed, it is a visible 
 fact, that society is separating into two parts ; 
 and my argument shews how those operations 
 are perfected, and how they may be removed. 
 That class of people that was formerly the pride 
 and glory of Britain, are gradually wasting, 
 and must soon disappear: instead of being a 
 natural, homogeneous mixture, society is sepa- 
 rating, like oil and water, into two distinct 
 parts. 
 
 The laws of nature extend to political, as 
 well as other operations in the physical world : 
 Nature has limited the mischief, and checks 
 the inordinate progress of ignorance and pro- 
 digality. Industry has experienced the acme 
 of fiscal oppression : it has been carried further 
 than policy justifies ; the labourers' circum- 
 stances are so far reduced as to make them less 
 consumers than formerly, of taxed goods — ne-
 
 33 
 
 cessity prevents you from using; such excised 
 articles as fill the public treasury. 
 
 As the Excise and Customs have been in- 
 creased, so have the means of subsistence of 
 the industrious people been diminished. The 
 partiality of the present system of finance 
 progressively arrived at its present degTce of 
 oppression, and it will, injuriously to itself, un- 
 less it dies a violent death, go on until the poor 
 are only allowed just sufficient to preserve the 
 vital principle upon : the less wages are pro- 
 portioned to the price of the necessaries of life, 
 the less will be paid by labour into the public 
 treasury. Certainly it was a nice calculation 
 to make, viz. What quantum of taxes imposed 
 upon industry, would produce the largest re- 
 venue from salt, and soap, and candles, and 
 spices, and leather, and glass, and beer, and 
 spirits, and sugar, and tea, and coffee, and 
 tobacco, and snufF, &c. &c. The calculation 
 that was made by Mr. Pitt is obsolete now, 
 because the question is changed ; the wages of 
 labour have fallen since the peace, while the 
 duty upon some of the above have increased ; 
 a proof of the fallacy of the former calculation. 
 The public treasury has experienced that an 
 inverse mode has been adopted, the diminution 
 of the labourer's wages have produced the
 
 34 
 
 striking' deficit in the revenue upon all articles 
 of daily consumption. 
 
 Probably, men, upon an average, in all 
 ranks of life, would consume, if equally well 
 supplied, nearly the same quantities of the 
 necessaries of life: natural wants are the same, 
 and want similar satisfaction among the rich 
 and poor. If there should be any difference, 
 so far as rank is concerned, it may be presumed 
 that the labourers want more than the idle: 
 the latter can drink as much coffee, and tea, 
 and beer, as the other. Although there is that 
 equality in the natural functions, there is the 
 greatest inequality in the present operation of 
 taxation. As proof of the inequality of the 
 present system of taxation, may be more satis- 
 factory than assertion, however self-evident, I 
 will endeavour to shew it by figures, and by 
 comparing the highest class of society with the 
 labouring people. 
 
 '' The highest orders, consisting of the royal 
 family, the lords spiritual and temporal, the 
 great officers of state, and all above the degree 
 of baronet, with their families, 576 ; * total per- 
 sons comprising their families 2880,f have a 
 
 * Colqulioun on the \V^calth, Power, &c. vide p. J 06. 
 t Vide, p. 124.
 
 35 
 
 revenue of 5,901,480/. per annwn ; or each 
 person, on an average, has 2049/. a year. The 
 first class, then, consists of 2880 people, enjoy- 
 ing an income of 5,901,480/.; or 576 families 
 have for each 10,227/. per annum. If the 576 
 iamilies were in the condition of the sixth class, 
 or labourers, who have 12s. a week, or 31/. <\s. 
 2)er annum each, the sum total of the income of 
 the first class would only be 17,971/. a year, 
 instead of 5,901,480/. making a difference of 
 5,073,509/. ; yet it appears that the sum of 
 17,971/. earned by 576 families in the lowest, 
 or labouring class, is to pay as much in taxes 
 as 5,901,480/. upon the necessaries of life: the 
 equality of taxation is like the two numbers of 
 5,073,509 and 17,971. As it has been assumed 
 that all, whatever may be the rank, consume 
 nearly alike of beer, and salt, and leather, &c. 
 the labouring people, numbered at 8,792,800.* 
 that may be supposed to have only 5/. a-head, 
 pay as much as the highest class, which are 
 numbered at 2880, and have yearly 2049/. a 
 head each ; so that in fact, upon the necessaries 
 life, the labouring people may be said to pay 
 
 * " Working mechanics, artisans, handicrafts, agricultural 
 labourers, and others who subsist by labour in various em- 
 ployments, with their families. Heads of families, 2,126,095. 
 Total persons comprising their families, 8,792,800." — Vide 
 Treatise, ^c. p. 107.
 
 36 
 
 to the rich in such proportions as 2049 are to b, 
 above four hundred times as much. Monstrous 
 as this disparity appears to be^ it is greater so 
 in fact than it is made by the preceding calcula- 
 tion; because upon the calculation it is pre- 
 sumed that the income of the labourer arises 
 from property liable to be taxed; but it has 
 been proved that bodily labour is not liable, so 
 the disproportion is greater than the calculation 
 makes it. 
 
 Should the principles 1 have proceeded upon 
 be false, or should it be insisted that labour is 
 a sort of taxable property, the labourer in the 
 sixth class should only pay one four-hundredth 
 part as much as those in the highest class; or 
 where Is. is now paid by the labourer in salt 
 tax, the persons in the first class should pay 
 ^0^. On this calculation the labourer ought 
 not to afford better to pay 1 /. salt and beer tax, 
 than the persons in the highest class* can 409Z. ; 
 for the Excise to act with due impartiality, it 
 must be constructed to act with four hundred 
 times greater force upon the first class than the 
 sixth, and so in proportion upon all the people 
 in the intermediate classes, in proportion to 
 their means. Even upon the sixth class it 
 would be liable to impracticable modifications; 
 
 * It is superfluous to notice at length the variations in 
 the same class, allowed to be very great.
 
 m 
 
 the very Excise principle is absurd and pre- 
 posterous ; when the people begin to under- 
 stand the science of political economy, it will 
 undoubtedly be discarded^ and so of the other 
 taxes that are founded upon the same fallacious 
 and objectionable principles. 
 
 As it has been shewn that labour is not a 
 sort of taxable property, that the mere labour- 
 ers are not comprehended under the heads for 
 which a revenue can be collected, namely, pro- 
 tection of persons, and protection of property/, 
 (the first is not in danger, and the second he 
 does not possess), so it follows, that they ought, 
 if the system of finance was just, to be ex- 
 empted from paying taxes, or as nearly so as 
 possible. 
 
 If the practised system of finance does jus- 
 tice to its advocates and the property of the 
 country, it of course extracts the exact sum 
 from the pockets of the rich they ought to pay ; 
 if it does correct justice to the rich, it cannot do 
 justice to the poor, whose case is so dispro- 
 portioned If the rich have the precise quantity 
 taken from them that they should pay, the poor, 
 comparing the first and sixth classes, and al- 
 lowing labour to be property available, have 
 four hundred times more than they ought to pay 
 taken from them; if the rich have only justice, 
 the poor have only one four hundredth part !
 
 38 
 
 The case is argued to be worse than this^ be- 
 cause they are not liable to pay a thousandth 
 part, nor any part or ratio ; they are exempted 
 by the poverty of their situation. Taking- the 
 number of people who exist entirely upon 
 labour at 8,792,800, that number have not 
 justice done them by way of taxation, either 
 from ignorance or some other motive. 
 
 You will observe that the comparison is 
 between the richest and the poorest classes; 
 also the class that contains most property com- 
 pared with the number, and the poorest, 
 that contains the greatest number, and having 
 the least property. If I am urging a false 
 system of finance, that would do injustice to 
 the rich, while it did justice to the poor only, 
 in the first class 2880 would be oppressed, 
 while 8,792,800 would have at least justice 
 done them. It is self-evident, that between 
 the extreme classes of society there are regular 
 gradations ; what proportions the intermediate 
 classes bear to the first and the last is capable 
 of arithmetical demonstration ; but one ex- 
 ample is sufficient to shew that such inequality 
 of taxation exists, as is contended for. The 
 calculation of Dr. Colquhoun may not be quite 
 correct, but it is as likely to be in favour of the 
 first class as the sixth; the classification, no 
 doubt, was compiled from official returns, and
 
 the best authorities^ combined with his own 
 wide experience ; a little variation, either for 
 or against the people^ is immaterial,, as the dis- 
 proportion is so great as to make it impossible 
 to affect the general conclusion contended for, 
 viz. There is a great partiality and inequality 
 in the present system of finance, as it affects the 
 different classes of society ; it presses heaviest 
 upon those who should bear least, and least 
 upon those who should bear the most. 
 
 The argument mi^ht have been more self- 
 evident, if two existing cases had been taken 
 and compared together ; that of a Duke with 
 one hundred thousand pounds per annum, and 
 that of one of his labourers, in full health and 
 constant work, only earning 31/. 4s. a year. I 
 decline ooinsr into such a case as I wished, 
 neither to be invidious nor personal ; the arith- 
 metic that extends to classes, will to given 
 causes. 
 
 Under the specious and popular pretext of 
 taxing luxuries, have the Excise, the Customs, 
 and Assessed Taxes, &c. been introduced into 
 this country ; but the fact is, that it was not 
 known how those imposts would operate upon 
 property or labour, so they were levied igno- 
 rantly upon the labour of the country ; property 
 was almost exonerated, and what it did pay was 
 optional, and never could be paid in just pro-
 
 40 
 
 portions by the rich. Notwithstanding- the 
 boasted benevolence and philanthropy of the 
 rich, the inequality of taxation imposed, nega- 
 tives a thousand assertions ; it has deprived 
 millions of their right to property, and reduced 
 them to poverty, despair, and ci'ime. I shall 
 not consider it superfluous to speculate upon 
 and to put down the reasons that have probably 
 induced property to tax industry to its present 
 extent, in all nations. 
 
 1st. To exempt itself as much as possible. 
 
 2dly. To keep the multitude in subjection. 
 
 3dly. That it may possess the means of cor- 
 rupting all that it dreads, or can prove inimical 
 to its views. 
 
 Such taxes as will debase, dispirit, and divide 
 the people most, and raise most money, are 
 such as unjust governments will be induced to 
 select ; and there can be no doubt, but much 
 cunning has been exercised in introducing ex- 
 isting systems. 
 
 A combination of causes may have con- 
 tributed to enslave countries, but in some no 
 a^ent has been so powerful as that of inequality 
 of taxation ; it may be a proximate,^ and not a 
 remote cause, but which ever it is, it should be 
 strongly resisted by a people who wish, or de- 
 serve to be free. 
 
 Inequality of taxation produces inequality
 
 41 
 
 of condition, and as one part of the peojjle be- 
 come inordinately rich, the other become pro- 
 portionately poor. This disparity of rank and 
 circumstances creates ideas of superiority and 
 inferiority; one begins to command, and the 
 other to obey. 
 
 I am not contending- for any visionary 
 equality, because natural and existing circum- 
 stances will always preserve a distinction, but 
 only reprobating a plan of finance that neces- 
 sarily creates it, by taking all from the poor, 
 and exonerating tlie rich of burthens insepar- 
 able from property. Of all the causes of po- 
 litical degradation, no doubt is entertained but 
 profuse riches on the one hand, and abject 
 poverty on the other, are the cliief ; in England 
 these are effects of previous causes, and those 
 causes have been inequality of taxation; else- 
 where, as under the feudal system, an exciting 
 cause. 
 
 No free government, or free constitution, is 
 or can be secure, that has a financial system 
 that disproportionately acts upon the people; 
 under such an impression I presume to recom- 
 mend, that nations forming new constitutions 
 should inquire into the most equitable and per- 
 manent modes of taxation. Liberty is as dif- 
 ficult to preserve as to acquire. As inequality 
 of taxation is an elementary principle that de-
 
 42 
 
 stroys it, every human precaution should be 
 used to negative its mischievous operation. 
 The common will of the people of all nations 
 should never cease to insist, that all should be 
 taxed in proportion to their ability to pay; 
 instead of the present plan of taxing alike the 
 rich and the poor, upon any thing that they 
 use and consume. The present system of taxa- 
 tion is as equal as the different means of the 
 people. 
 
 The system of finance 1 have advocated 
 would essentially tend to preserve the freedom 
 of every people, by creating and maintaining 
 the natural proportion between every class; 
 this effect so important, so easy to attain, and 
 founded upon an imperishable base, is accom- 
 panied by more incomparable advantages. It 
 may be admitted as an axiom, that no g-overn- 
 ment could be corrupt if it did not possess the 
 means of corruption ; and as the means of cor- 
 ruption are known, the people ought most dili- 
 gently to remove them. One of the most 
 powerful resources of corruption has been al- 
 ways derived from the collection of the revenue, 
 under the pretext of only rewarding the faithful 
 servants of the government; useless places have 
 been created, adherents gained, and an undue 
 influence pursued. Instead of four and a half 
 millions being paid for collecting the revenue.
 
 43 
 
 1 have proved that a revenue of sixty million?^ 
 may be collected for 100,000/.* (if undue 
 patronag-e was not aimed at), not one-fortieth 
 part so jnuch as the present, and almost half as 
 much as the poor rates; or it is as much as 
 139,000 families, at 31/. a year (the price of 
 labourers' wages), have to live upon ; and sup- 
 posing every one to consist of five persons each, 
 the superfluous expense of collection would 
 maintain 695,000 people, the number of pau- 
 pers at the Revolution, and half as many people 
 as London contains, and more than Edinburgh, 
 Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, 
 Bristol, and Leeds. As much might be saved 
 in collection of the taxes, as does maintain a 
 population of labouring people equal to seven 
 of the largest towns, excepting the Metropolis. 
 
 * Principles of an Equitable ami Efficient System of 
 Finance, vide Table No. 10. 
 
 Annual charge of collecting, at one-quarter per Cent. 
 
 Annual Revenue from durable Property.* Cost of Collecting. 
 
 £10,000,000 ^25,000 
 
 15,000,000 37,000 
 
 20,000,000 50,000 
 
 25,000,000 62,500 
 
 30,000,000 75,000 
 
 35,000,000 87,500 
 
 40,000,000 100,000 
 
 45,000,000 112,500 
 
 50,000,000 125,000 
 
 60,000,000 150,000 
 
 • As the equitable tax from eight hundred millions of funded proper! \ 
 would be oiilj a stoppage, there can be no necessity for including it in Ihr- 
 above table.
 
 44 
 
 If this proposed saving phiii was injiuious to 
 the people in a single particulaiv, it would 
 not have been brought forward ; but when it is 
 self-evidently to the real interests of all to adopt 
 it^ no question could be made^ and the mea- 
 sures that oppose its introduction cannot be 
 mistaken; they belong neither to the people 
 nor to the crown. If there existed any symp- 
 toms of the plethoric disposition of the country, 
 such extravagant profusion might be justified ; 
 but rags, crimes, squalid bodies, workhouses, 
 jails, and gibbets, are the predominating fea- 
 tures. The public income at the Revolution 
 was not half so much * as the present expense 
 of collection; at the death of King William 
 only 3,895,205/. ; at the death of George I. the 
 revenue, on an average of three preceding 
 years, was 4, 142,643/. not, at that recent period, 
 so much as the present charge of collection; 
 at the accession of his late Majesty, the taxes 
 were not twice as much as they now cost in 
 collection. I shall not pretend to characterize 
 the unfortunate opinion, that asserts govern- 
 ment wants support; allow that it does — allow 
 that its unhappy constitution is so far deficient 
 of merit as to make it necessary to prop it by 
 such as feast upon the taxes. This is the 
 
 * ^€2,001,855.
 
 45 
 
 argument of those who advocate the present 
 profusion ; no argument of faction ever libelled 
 it so much as to say that it wanted the support 
 of collectors and receivers of the revenue. 
 Such as advocate the present expensive col- 
 lectioU;, place the government in a most de- 
 spicable situation — it cannot gratefully thank 
 such allies. But if governments do want sup- 
 portj if they are really either so deficient in 
 merit, or so menaced by factions^ remember 
 that four millions a year will shoulder 100^000 
 musquets at 40/. a-piece. But it is denied that 
 either the one or the other would be wanted ; if 
 the new system was introduced^ bread and 
 justice would insure tranquillity and permanent 
 national repose. 
 
 I hope you will not consider my cursorily 
 adverting to another topic as irrelevant, namely, 
 the prevention of war, which this system of 
 finance would materially tend to effect. Of all 
 human calamities that is the greatest ; you can 
 never gain any thing by wars, but you must 
 fight the battles, and pay the expenses; you 
 must be at the post of danger as well as the 
 charge ; you must be had out to oppose 
 unoffending men, even men you have never 
 seen. The present system that taxes you so 
 disproportionately, makes you pay most, for it 
 may be presumed that you pay as much more
 
 46 
 
 than your propoition toward the support of 
 war, as the suui of 2069/. is more than 5/. 
 Such proportions are paid by the first and sixth 
 classes of people ; the question is, how, or in 
 what proportions, or whether in the above pro- 
 portions, are you to gain by war ? I appeal 
 not only to you, but the labouring people of 
 all Europe, for the truth of the above. Can 
 the royal dynasties of Europe disprove it in 
 their particular cases ? The way in which the 
 •^^ Equitable and Efficient System of Finance" 
 would operate, so as partly to produce the 
 salutary effect, would be by laying the expense 
 of war upon the rich people of the country; by 
 the New System they would have more to pay 
 than they now have ; they would have more to 
 pay under the action of the equitable tax than 
 they could get by their sons and connexions 
 officering the regiments and ships, and by con- 
 tracts and other jobs. Now, the contrary is, 
 and has been the case ; they have gotten more 
 by jobbing than they have paid in taxes ; they 
 have had all the benefits, without the dis- 
 advantages, and you have had all the expense 
 and danger; they have Had the oysters, and 
 yon have had the shells. War is seldom any 
 thing more than a pretence to grasp the fruits 
 of industry, or to preserve the product of rapine. 
 Within a few years war has cost you two
 
 47 
 
 thousand millions of money, and tens of thou- 
 sands of your sons and brothers ! If instead of 
 squandering' two thousand millions in preposte- 
 rous crusades, it had been distributed among 
 five millions of industrious people (the present 
 number of paupers), it would be 400/. for each 
 person; the five millions of paupers now in 
 wretchedness, would have been in affluence, 
 and the land w ould not have been taxed to the 
 amount of II or 12 millions annually (and still 
 the streets are swarming- with beggars), in 
 poor rates. In plunging headlong into war. 
 the property had no idea that a retributary tax 
 would fall upon it, to the amount of 10 or \2 
 millions a year, or it might have weighed the 
 measure more deliberately. 
 
 When labour was plentiful, and adequate 
 wages were received, it was justly a mark of 
 disgrace to apply to a parish for relief — circum- 
 stances have changed; for as the system of 
 taxation deprives the labourer of his earnings, 
 as he has been deprived of a part that should 
 maintain his family, surely he is allowed to go 
 to property and ask for his own — for a part 
 that is stored up for him, that he him self stored 
 up in effect. He is not reduced to that con- 
 dition by laziness, but by a fallacious system 
 of finance, that has taken unjustly from the 
 poor, and unnecessarily and unwisely given to
 
 48 
 
 the rich — a transfer of the sweat of the poor 
 to the purses of the rich. As it was unjustly 
 taken from the poor, certainly the poor have a 
 riglit to ask for their own. Besides this, the 
 poor have a claim by law, as well as justice; 
 acts of parliament guarantee the maintenance 
 of the paupers out of the property of the coun- 
 try, which they accumulated by their labour; 
 their support is a part of the law of the land. A 
 man buys an estate subject to the incumbrance 
 or expense of the poor, they are allowed to be 
 the owners of a part of every estate, conse- 
 quently the poor are as well entitled to a por- 
 tion, as the owners are to the remainder, and 
 need not, during the prevalence of the present 
 system of finance, be backward in applying for 
 parochial aid. Had the poor man been a party 
 to the causes of his poverty, it might be a 
 question, how far he is entitled to relief; but 
 as he had no degree of participation, nor de- 
 rived any advantage from the lavish expendi- 
 ture of the country, he cannot be construed to 
 have forfeited his claim. 
 
 Under the distressed circumstances of the 
 labouring people, it is censiirable for parents 
 to defer applying for parish relief, to supply 
 their families with bread ; and it is contrary to 
 law and justice, for any parish officer to refuse 
 relief when bread is wanted, and other neees-
 
 49 
 
 saries. It is more incumbent upon property 
 to pay the poor rates, that are to supply the 
 wants of nature, and support animal existence, 
 than it is required that property should pay 
 the public taxes ; one is for the supply of in- 
 dispensable nourishment to millions of poor 
 people, who have not been permitted to have 
 a day's subsistence in store, the other for the 
 support of those that live upon the taxes. 
 
 The deficient supply of food acts most pre- 
 judicially upon your health and constitutions; 
 diminutive size, enlarged joints, and crooked 
 limbs, materially impair the strength and ele- 
 gance of the human system ; a degeneracy of 
 the species is the consequence of this depriva- 
 tion, and the race is sustaining an irreparable 
 injury. By the present system you have been 
 crowded into small, inconvenient, and ill venti- 
 lated huts — diseases are the fruit, and death 
 frequently the event.* 
 
 * Perhaps it may be better to adduce some instances to 
 prove, that insufficient quantities, and bad food, produce di- 
 minution of size, and diseased constitutions. The Gentoos, 
 who live upon Cayenne and rice, are a thin, enervated people, 
 both in body and mind. Tacitus informs us, that tlie gladia- 
 tors were well fed upon strong food. The people of Pegu 
 and Aracan, although they feed upon mice, rats, snakes,^ 
 and fish, are more robust than the Hindoos or the Esquimaiux 
 
 • Vide Abbe Raynals History, <\c. Vol. V. p. 141 
 
 E
 
 50 
 
 I trust, by this time, I have proved to your 
 entire satisfaction, how, and to what extent, 
 you are acted upon by the present inequitable 
 
 Indians, wlio feed upon fish and train oil. The savages of 
 Newfoundland, Labrador, and Davis' Straits, are all of di- 
 minutive size, seldom above four feet, with great heads and 
 large limbs.* Bad air, crude indigestible food, and ever- 
 lasting cold, have produced the dwarfs of the Frigid Zone; 
 they may have migrated, as Pennant supposes, from a more 
 southern latitude, but that species, independent of those 
 causes, would propagate similar beings. It is only by pur- 
 suing causes to extremes, that decisive effects can be pro- 
 duced: by following the human species to the icy shores of 
 Hudson's Bay, the effect of cold will be seen, and also of 
 bad and sparing quantities of food. If such causes, in that 
 high latitude, have lowered the height of the human species 
 two feet, the lesser operation of those causes will produce a 
 less effect, or some inches. The Roman soldiers (and part 
 were British, and equal to native Romans) as we are informed 
 by Joseplms, were like loaded horses.t By Virgil and 
 Horace it appears the load each carried is almost incredible. 
 Cicero says, ** they carried provisions for fifteen days, neces- 
 saries of all sorts, and whatever they should have occasion 
 for in throwing up trenches; as to their arms, they were no 
 more incumbered with them than with their hands." Some- 
 times they carried more provisions; usually corn, as being 
 lighter; sometimes cooked victuals. Livy says, such utensils 
 as a saw, a basket, a mattock, anr axe, a hook, a thong, a 
 chain, a pot, small stakes, amounting to 60lb. besides his 
 arms, and marched 20 and 24 miles, in five hours. Marius, 
 in his old age, went regularly to the Campus Martius ; and 
 
 * Vide Buffon's Natural History. t Vide Polybius.
 
 51 
 
 system of finance. You have been long- aware 
 that you were severely oppressed, but the cir- 
 cuitous way in which the thing was managed, 
 veiled from your view the blow that has levelled 
 
 * 
 Pompey, as Plutarch informs us, at the age of 58, engaged 
 in single combat with Roman youths. ManUus, and Scipio, 
 and Metullus, and Marius, and SyWa, before they took the 
 field, inured their soldiers to hard labour. The soldiers of 
 the present day have never gone through such ordeals, 
 neither can they; and, taking them altogether, they are a 
 good specimen of the people ; so that if they are not equal 
 to the task, they have evidently degenerated, and so have 
 the people: and the cause of degeneracy is bad air, un- 
 wholesome diet, and small quantities. Other causes have 
 tended to produce muscular enervation and disease, that the 
 law could surely prevent — the Morbus Gallicus, introduced 
 into Europe, by Columbus, from America, is alluded to. 
 Nothing but the greatest neglect of the best interests of 
 society, could have overlooked this source of human calamity : 
 the necessities of the poor, and the voluptuousness of the 
 rich, evidently tend to produce degeneracy in the human race. 
 Herodotus and Thuc} dides were of the opinion, that men in 
 their days had degenerated in size and strength. 
 
 The Shasters of the Gentoos say, that in the Suttee Jogue, 
 the life of man was 100,000 years, and his stature was 21 
 cubits. In the Tirtah Jogue, men lived to the age of 10,000 
 years. In the Dwapaar Jogue, men's lives were reduced 
 to 1000 years, corresponding with the length of life of the 
 Antediluvians of Moses, In the Coilee Jogue, or present 
 sera, which has continued 5000 years, the hfe of man is 
 limited to 100 years. — Vide Pundits, translated from the 
 Persian made from the original in the Shanscrit language, 
 by N. B. Halhed.
 
 52 
 
 you with the earth. Although you were con- 
 scious that you paid more in proportion to 
 your means than the rich^ yet you will allow 
 how difficult it was to detect that proportion^ 
 the cause of your poverty, and apply an ade- 
 quate remedy, that would preserve all the real 
 interests of the country. As the partiality of 
 the present unequal system has been demon- 
 strated, I call upon you to give the subject that 
 mature and candid consideration its importance 
 is entitled to. Had unsupported assertion been 
 all that had been now advanced, a possibility 
 of a fallacy might have existed ; but the proof 
 by figures, the strictest scrutiny will not be 
 able to overturn. I do not hesitate to assert, 
 that you must coincide with me in thinking, 
 that all the present taxes should he repealed, and 
 the one simple^ equitable, and efficient, should he 
 introduced, that I have recommended* 
 
 If you approve the proposed system of taxa- 
 tion, you will never be so supine and lethargic, 
 as not to claim your suspended rights; justice 
 is too dear to you not to be courted ; your 
 unanimous appeal to the patriotism and philan- 
 thropy of the country, must Jbe heard and con- 
 sidered; your consequence is too great to be 
 
 * Vide Principles of an Equitable and Efficient System 
 of Finance.
 
 53 
 
 neglected ; your claims too important,, and too 
 just^ to be treated with contempt. All who 
 benefit by the present system of finance, and 
 they are numerous, will most tenaciously cling 
 to it; they will, no doubt, successfully appeal 
 to a host of bigots, who will serve as tools to 
 work with, against your just and meritorious 
 cause of self-preservation. In proportion as 
 you have become impoverished and oppressed, 
 so have your antagonists become rich, and 
 wedded to the system. Above four millions of 
 money a year, will not be given up without a 
 hue and cry against it ; and this is only a trivial 
 advantage that you would gain, compared with 
 the equity of the new system of finance. 
 
 The equitable system of taxation I have 
 recommended to the adoption of the country, 
 extends to the funded as well as the durable 
 property; but if the present system is per- 
 severed in by its advocates, and the funded debt 
 destroyed, the plan of finance I am contending 
 for, would not have the justice of its principle 
 affected. If the Equitable System of Finance 
 was introduced during the existence of the 
 funded property, you would be more benefited 
 than if the funded property was destroyed, and 
 the Excise and Customs, and the other items of 
 the present system were continued; the fullest 
 advantage that could possibly be derived, 
 would be after the annihilation of the funded
 
 54 
 
 property, and the establishment of the Equit- 
 able Tax. I have shewn you how so lamentable 
 a catastrophe may be avoided, by the adoption 
 of a simple plan, capable of doing justice to all 
 men. It is not to such as live upon your labour 
 that I submit my opinions, nor to such as hope 
 to be quartered upon you, and feed upon the 
 sweat of your brow ; they are prejudiced, 
 biassed, and bigoted to systems that exist; 
 and in proportion to the advantages derived, the 
 more partial their opinion, and stronger will 
 their attachment be, to those revered and sacred 
 institutions, when you begin to meditate a 
 change. In addressing you, I wish for nothing 
 but the elicitation of the truth, and I hope you 
 will never ask for any thing but justice — but 
 your rights, your whole rights, and nothing but 
 your rights! It cannot be treasonable to re- 
 quest, as you are in the possession of the powers 
 of reason, or, at any rate, in possession of that 
 organization on which they may be cultivated ; 
 but it is incumbent upon you to exercise them 
 to your advantage. If it had been morally 
 criminal to use them, they would not have been 
 given. As the preservation of property involves 
 the question of self-preservation, you are evi- 
 dently required to know so much of the form of 
 taxation that affects you, as of the means of 
 preserving liberty; it is not knowing politics 
 as a trade, to be enabled to see how liberty and
 
 55 
 
 property are preserved, it, is only knowin*^ the 
 means of self-preservation, which no man can 
 safely dispense with. 
 
 The deficiency and inadequacy of the pre- 
 sent revenue, is a matter that excites my un- 
 easiness; apprehending that the tranquillity of 
 the throne may be disturbed by the incompe- 
 tency of the present system, I am actuated by 
 an irresistible motive to place the finances of 
 the nation in such a condition as to continue 
 its security. 
 
 Although I have presumed to recommend 
 an entire change in the system of taxation, 
 which would secure you that measure of justice 
 hitherto suspended, yet 1 have carefully en- 
 deavoured to preserve the dignity of the crown, 
 and the rights of property. Mine is not a 
 system of expediency, or of temporary dura- 
 tion ; it is only the application of the simple 
 and invariable principles of nature, which have 
 always been, and will ever continue the same. 
 Many financial systems are little better than 
 military contributions; extortion operates as 
 justice, and cruelty is exercised in the room of 
 mercy. Had financial systems operated upon 
 people according to ability, and all contributed 
 in proportion to their means, the plan I am 
 contending for would be universally practised. 
 I have J in the course of this address, more
 
 56 
 
 particularly alluded to the condition of my 
 countrymen, but I generally include the people 
 of all nations, whom I equally regard. I con- 
 demn the contracted mind that does not com- 
 prehend the improvement of the condition of 
 all mankind. Paction, intrigue, and chicane, 
 are the patrons of national interest and local 
 animosity; if the credulity of one, and the 
 sordid avarice of another, were not fomented 
 by malevolent venality, the greatest scourges 
 of the earth would subside. 
 
 As I do not contemplate that the least de- 
 gree of injustice should be done to any person 
 by change of system, and as all officers of Ex- 
 cise and Customs would be discharged, on the 
 introduction of the new system, perhaps the 
 country would see the necessity of making 
 some provision for servants no longer wanted. 
 In discarding so large a body of men unpro- 
 vided for, some instances of severity might 
 occur ; to prevent the possibility of such cir- 
 cumstances, they might all have an allowance 
 during life, in proportion to length of servitude, 
 and amount of salary, provided the salary held 
 any proportion to service. 
 
 The new system of finance would reduce 
 the Chancellorship of the Exchequer to a sine- 
 cure: as all sinister and unjust modes of col- 
 lecting the revenue, would cease with the pre-
 
 57 
 
 sent system, any school-boy that could cast up 
 a sum in addition, would be competent to 
 exercise the office of the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer. The indulgence I have suggested, 
 that it may be necessary to grant to officers of 
 Excise and Customs, may be extended to offi- 
 cers and ministers of finance of all countries, 
 unless they will accept of the diminished sala- 
 ries of the new system, which would be small, 
 as the duties would not occupy above an hour 
 or two annually; you would be no longer 
 annoyed by the jargon, the sophistry, and 
 quibbling, of the advocates of the present sys- 
 tem. The time of Parliament is now consumed 
 by absurd, abstruse, and useless debates, which 
 the new system would not require ; the present 
 pitiful, pettifogging, peddling scheme, is a dis- 
 grace to the nation, and inconsistent with the 
 dignity of a great and wise people. Besides 
 the prodigality, the partiality, and inequality 
 of the present plan, you must be ashamed of 
 the cobbling nostrum that is obtruded upon 
 you as the succedaneum of justice ; your indi- 
 vidual as well as national character is implicated 
 in this question, and it is incumbent upon you, 
 as you value your dignity, to disclaim any con- 
 nexion that may be inferred between you and 
 state empiricism, and the charlatan character of 
 the present plan of finance.
 
 58 
 
 III common with me^ you will feel alarmed 
 at the precarious dilemma the crown is placed 
 in by the present inadequate scheme of finance: 
 as the executive power is created by and for 
 the benefit of the people, you will desire to 
 support its security and splendour. Actuated 
 by this motive, I conceive the introduction of 
 my plan would render the most essential service 
 to the throne; propagate its popularity, and 
 consolidate a venerable fabric, undermined and 
 endangered by the existing plan of taxation. 
 My plan of finance would preserve the interests 
 of every sort of property, and not sacrifice one 
 portion for the advantage of another; I dis- 
 claim any such attempt so monstrously unjust. 
 
 I suggest to you the necessity of petitioning 
 Parliament to adopt the plan now proposed; 
 and such of the people of other countries as 
 are identified with the legislative principle, I 
 beg to reflect upon the justice and policy of 
 this system. Such as are taxed without repre- 
 sentation, are only slaves ; they would do well 
 to consider what 1 have advanced, but it would 
 be ridiculous to think about the adoption of 
 my plan, until they are restored to the rank 
 of freemen and the situation nature assigned 
 them. 
 
 The most extensive right of property does 
 not create any additional quantity of natural
 
 59 
 
 right ; the poor man has as much natural right 
 as the peer. The acquisition of property does 
 not accumulate natural right in the owner ; 
 liberty is an essential, inherent and inalienable 
 in all men, but property is only a contingent 
 attribute of secondary character. 
 
 To the friends of liberty in all countries 
 struggling to establish representative govern- 
 ments, I beg leave to submit my plan and prin- 
 ciples for tw^c reasons : 
 
 1st. As it embraces economy, it would not 
 only lessen the powers of corruption, but tend 
 materially to preserve the purity of an esta- 
 blished Constitution ; and as nothing can ex- 
 cite the languid and supine but a certain 
 prospect of great gain, so the proposed plan 
 would call forth latent powers to the aid of 
 representative reform; and, 
 
 2dly. As it is founded upon the unchanged 
 and unchangeable principles of nature, it is 
 universally applicable, and will continue in- 
 variably so, through all ages and nations ; it is 
 efficient under every national circumstance, 
 and takes from all only what justice demands 
 should be paid; it would limit the monopoly 
 of the miser, and transform the rancour of the 
 poor. 
 
 With no weapons but reason, argument, 
 and demonstration, I have ventured to attack
 
 60 
 
 the old, absurd, oppressive, and unjust plans 
 of finance, propped up and intrenched in the 
 triple-lined fortresses of ignorance, prejudice, 
 and interest; neither lead, nor steel, nor hal- 
 ters, are wanted to establish or support truth 
 and justice; factions, actuated by sordid ava- 
 rice, will not readily relinquish revenues of 
 millions a year; they will endeavour to pre- 
 serve their ascendancy by fallacies, sophistries, 
 bribes, and intimidations ; for awhile they may 
 reign over men, but truth will eventually pre- 
 ponderate. Tyranny, prejudice, and bigotry, 
 happily for the human race, are engaged in a 
 combat with an invisible and omnipresent op- 
 ponent; the intellectual faculty of thought, 
 our ally, is more subtile than aether, and latent 
 in the mind of willing and unwilling slaves, as 
 well as freemen. When despotism can extir- 
 pate the organization of reason, the fiend will 
 be sure of its empire ; then may the monster 
 rest from its labour, and repose in the lap of 
 infamy. 
 
 HARRISON WILKINSON. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 r, Brook Street, Hi'ltiorii.
 
 • '» .; 
 
 -^6
 
 k.