State of the Representation.

†Wright, John Atkyns, Oxford city, 1600.

Wrottesley, Henry, Brackley, 32, cursitor-in-chancery, a commissioner M of bankrupts, £350.

Wyndham, Wadham, New Sarum, 54.

Wynn, sir Watkin Williams, bart. Denbighshire, nephew to lord Grenville, lord-lieut. of the county, and steward of Bromsholme-Yale Manor. Wynn, Charles Watkin Williams, Montgomeryshire, brother to the above,, \! barrister-at-law. See List of Places.

Yorke, sir Joseph Sydney, Ryegate, 200, brother to the right hon. C. P. Yorke, teller of the exchequer, and half-brother to the earl of Hardwicke, vice-admiral of the blue,

1.-Part of our motto says, "That it is a high infringement upon the liberties and privileges of the Commons of Great Britain for any LORD OF PARLIAMENT to concern themselves in the election of members." Here are 228 members relations of peers. Surely if it be an infringement of the privileges of the Commons for peers to interfere in the election of members, it must be a much higher infringement of their liberties to thrust their relatives into the house itself. The object of this privilege doubtless was to prevent the influence of the peerage; but certainly this influence is admitted in a direct and palpable form, if the relations of peers, if those who in a few years may expect to take their seats in the upper house, are - allowed to sit and vote in the lower.

But there is another objection to the relations of peers. Many of them hold commissions in the army or navy; some are placemen or pensioners; and if we consider that many of them are returned by places possessing few

State of the Representation.

or no voters, there can be little doubt that the first class, forming nearly one-third of the house, are disqualified in about half a dozen ways for their seats.

2.-There are a far greater number of lawyers in the house than twentyfive, but that is the number we find designated as barristers, apparently at present without any place or pension, and who may be supposed to have procured seats as a shorter way to office and emolument than pleading at the bar.

3.-Officers in the navy. It is not easy to discover the fitness of this class for members at all. Besides their dependence on ministers for promotion, the duties of their profession requiring their absence, it is impossible they can discharge the duties of representatives.

4.-Officers in the army. Commissions in the army, held by members, are held similarly to livings in the church, being nearly all pluralists: some are generals, holding at the same time a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, a major, or captain's commission. The great number of this class is one reason why the interests of the army are so much better attended to than the interests of the navy.

5.-Placemen and pensioners. We might have included in this class the third and fourth, and a large proportion of the first class, forming a vast majority of the house, disqualified for their seats by the Act of Settlement, which says, "no person who has an office or place of profit under the king," &c. See the motto.

6.-Miscellaneous. These are principally bankers, a few merchants and traders, fox-hunters, men totally unknown, of no name nor occupation, representatives of rotten boroughs, &c.

7.-Representatives of the people. We can find none of this class, unless it be sir Francis Burdett, the worthy member for Westminster, freely elected, by the unbought, unbiassed, and unsolicited votes of his constituents.

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State of the Finances.

STATE

OF THE

FINANCES.

THE annual income of a nation consists of the united produce of its agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. Taxes are a certain proportion of the annual income levied for the public service. In other words, they are a certain proportion of the income of the labourer, the farmer, the merchant, and manufacturer, abstracted for the use of government. The portion of income the different classes can appropriate to this purpose, without creating national poverty and misery, is limited. If taxation be carried beyond this limit, the necessaries of life of the labouring classes will be abridged, the profits of trade and agriculture will be so far reduced, that capital will diminish, or cease to be employed, or transferred to countries where it will be more productive. England, in the privations of the people-the stagnation of industry-the embarrassments of the commercial and manufacturing classes the emigration of capital-and the inability of its farmer to cultivate the soil from the weight of his imposts-exhibits all the evils of a country suffering from the pressure of excessive taxation.

Some indeed contend that taxation has no share in producing these calamities. The fallacy of this will easily appear. Taxation being a certain portion of the income of every individual, the evils it produces will be obvious, by considering the different effects produced by this portion of the annual income remaining in the hands of individuals, and being paid to government. In the former case, the income of every individual would be increased, the labourer and artizan would have a greater command over the

State of the Finances.

‹ necessaries of life; the profits of the farmer, merchant, and manufacturer augmented; their capital increased, consequently commerce and the means - of creating employment extended...... But this is not all; supposing tax taxes o abolished, there would be no placemen, pensioners, collectors of taxes, n nor rstanding armies. These classes might all be returned to the plough or the bloom, or occupied in the cultivation of the waste land. There would be no want of capital for these undertakings, The abolition of taxes would create capital. In short the general effect of a reduction of taxes is this: the power of production and consumption, or in other words, the quantity of employment and the means of subsistence would be augmented.

It is a favourite dogma with some, especially those who live on the taxes, that taxes return to those from whom they are collected. This it has been justly remarked is about as good as the defence of a housebreaker, who, con'victed of carrying off a merchant's property, should plead he did him no injury, for the money would be returned to him in purchasing the commodities he dealt in.

. But further we may ask of those who maintain this position, in what manner are the taxes returned? Certainly, taxes are paid in m money, this money is again paid to the servants of government; these again pay it to the cultivator of the soil and manufacturer; and in this manner it may be said that taxes return to those from whom they were collected. But on the last part of this operation it must be observed, that before either the cultivator or manufacturer can re-possess himself of his portion of the taxes, he must part with a certain quantity of his commodities in exchange; so that tax-paying revolves itself at last into the industrious giving a certain portion of their produce for the maintenance of government,

Here is the true source of the privations and embarrassments of the country. The portion of every man's produce levied for the support of government, of pensioners, placemen, sinecurists, and standing armies, has invaded the funds necessary to the comfortable subsistence of the labourer, and for carrying on the trade, commerce, and agriculture of the kingdom!

Having alluded to the general principle of taxation, let us consider those measures by which the present enormous load of debt and taxes has been incurred. The principles on which government has been conducted have not varied from the Revolution of 1688 to the present time. The wars waged have generally commenced for trivial and unattainable objects, and these objects have generally not been obtained; under pres tence of guarding against distant and improbable danger, the country has

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State of the Finances.

been involved in present and imminent ones; passion and pride, rather than any views of national advantage, have been the actuating principles of government; and as they engaged in war rashly, they persevered in it obstinately, and rejected more favourable terms of pacification than they were afterwards under the necessity of accepting. In short, our wars have been wars of ambition, of pride, folly, and despotism, originating in and carried on by the corrupt state of the representation. Let us endeavour to give some idea of the cost of these parliamentary wars from the Revolution, as evinced by the increase of taxation and the Borough Debt.

WILLIAM III.

Duration of Reign from 1688 to 1702.*

The public income at the Revolution amounted to £2,001,855. At the death of William it had increased to £3,895,205, being nearly doubled. This augmentation arose from various new duties; especially the excise on salt, the distillery, and the malt-tax. The other sources of revenue were the customs, land-tax, poll-taxes, a tax on births, marriages, and burials, hearth-money, the post-office, and other smaller duties. The total sums raised by taxes and by loans, during this reign, were as follow:

The

Of the fourteen years of this reign, nearly ten were years of war. military and naval expenses amounted to £44,847,382, being more than one-half the whole expenditure of government. After all the blood and treasure expended by William, his ambition and revenge remained unsatisfied; and the ostensible object of the war, the curbing the ambition of Louis XIV. unattained. Speaking of the conclusion of this contest at the

The amount of revenue, and the estimate of the naval and military expenses, from the Revolution to the end of the reign of George II. are taken from Mr. Colquhoun's Treatise on the Resources of the British Empire.