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And poor Mr. WHITBREAD said, | Debt for seven hundred years!

0 that the Scotch were better than How this matter came to be talked

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This precaution comes, however, too late. We have had our look behind the curtain. We cannot be again deluded. cannot be made to unknow that which we know. We know, that the fruit of our labour is mortgaged to those, who have lent money to the government. We know, that to pay the interest of this mortgage; to pay a standing army in time of peace; to pay the tax-gatherers; and to pay placemen and pensioners, we are so heavily taxed, that we can no longer live in comfort, and that many of us are wholly destitute of food, and are brought to our deaths by hunger.

of from the Bench I do not pretend to know; but, for my part, I look upon a national debt as the greatest curse that ever afflicted a people. In our country it has made a happy people miserable, and a free people slaves. And, I am convinced, that, unless that debt be got rid of, in some way or other, and that, too, in a short time, this country will fall so low, that a century will not see it revive.

Those, who wish to make us believe, that it is not the taxes that make us poor and miserable, tell us that they come back to us. This being a grand source of delusion I will endeavour to explain the matter to you. I have before done it many times; but, all eyes are not opened at the first operation; and, besides, there are, every month, some young persons who are beginning to read about such things.

BURKE, of whom many of you never heard, said, that taxes were dews, drawn up by the blessed Sun of government, and sent down again upon the people in refreshing and fructifying showers. This was a very pretty description, but very false. For taxes, though they fall in heavy showers upon one part of the community never return to another part of it. To

Endeavours have been made to persuade us, that we are not hurt by the taxes. It has been said, that taxes come back to us, and are a great blessing to us. And Mr. Justice Bailey has lately taken occasion to say from the Bench, that a National Debt is a good thing, and even a necessary thing. England did pretty well without a those who live on taxes, the taxes

are, indeed, refreshing and fruc- Mr. Cavendish are alive, the tifying showers; but, to those money is all of it still paid to the who pay them, they are a scorch- executors of BURKE; these exeing sun, and a blighting wind.cutors have already received, on They draw away the riches of the this account more than fifty thousoil, and they render it sterile and sand pounds in principal money; unproductive. But, how came and, as there is no probability of this BURKE to talk in this way? the death of the gentlemen above Why, he was one of those, who named,they may yet receive double lived upon the taxes! Very fine the sum. BURKE's pension, while and refreshing and fertilizing showers fell upon him. He had a he was alive, cost the nation about pension of three thousand pounds twenty thousand pounds; and his a year for his life; his wife, fif-wife's about four thousand pounds. teen hundred pounds a year for her So that here are about seventy life, and besides these, he ob-four thousand pounds already paid tained, in 1795, grants of money by the public on account of this to be paid yearly to his executors one man, and that, too, in prinafter his death! And, not a trifle cipal money, without reckoning neither; for he took care to get interest! thus settled upon executors, two thousand five hundred pounds a year. The following is a copy of

the grant.

To the Executors of Ed-
“ mund Burke, 2,5001. a year.
"Granted by two patents,
"dated 24 October, 1795.
“One for 1,1601. a year, to
«be paid, during the life of
"Lord Royston, and the
"Rev. and Hon. Auchild

"Grey. The other for 1,3401.
"to be paid, during the life
"of the Princess Amelia,
"Lord Althorp, and William
"Cavendish, Esq.'
Now, as Mr. GREY is still
alive, and as Lord Althorpe and

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This, you will allow, must have been to Burke, his wife and executors, an exceedingly refreshing and fructifying shower! But, not so to those, who have had to pay this money. It has not tended to refresh us. In the space of twenty seven years, seventy four thousand pounds have been taken from us, who pay the taxes, on account of this one man. Now, suppose a different mode from the present were used in making us pay taxes. The pensions have, for the last 27 years, amounted to 2,740 pounds a year. Suppose the amount of them to have been raised upon fifty tradesmen, at 541. a year each. Would not

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this for fifty years yet to come!

each of these tradesmen be now | annual taxes from sixteen millions 2,700 pounds poorer than they a year in time of peace, to fifty would have been, if they had not three millions a year in time of had these "refreshing showers" peace, and the poor rates from to send off in dews? Suppose two millions a year to about twelve them to be raised upon 400 la- millions a year? These were the bourers at about 10 pounds each. services, which were so great, that Must not these 400 labourers be it was not sufficient to give him made poor and miserable, must three thousand pounds a year for they not be prevented from saving them during his life-time, but we a penny; and must they not, at must still pay his executors two last, be brought to the poor- thousand five hundred pounds a house by these "refreshing show-year; and may have to pay them ers?" Is not this as plain as the nose upon your face? Is it not plain that this pension to the executors of this man takes away the means of comfortable living from nearly four hundred labourers families? Has not this been going on for twenty seven years; and has one single man, in parliament, made even an effort to put a stop to it? Has one single man moved even for an inquiry into the matter? And yet, the facts are all before the parliament in their own printed reports!

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And what services did this BURKE render the country?. For, to give such a man such enormous sums, there must have been some reason. His services were these:

Hé deserted his party in the Oppo

sition: and he wrote three pamphlets to urge the nation on to war,

Need we wonder that we are poor? Need we wonder, that we are miserable? Need we wonder, that we have, at last, come to see Englishmen, harnessed and draw. ing carts, loaded with gravel? And, if we complain of these things, are we to be told, that we are seditious? Are we to be told, that we wish to destroy the con, stitution? Are we to be imprisoned, fined and banished ?

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When we take a view of the effects of taxation, our wonder at all we see instantly ceases. We look no further for the cause of our misery. And, is there any one, who proposes to lighten the load? Not a man. On the con

trary, every measure has a ten-, dency to make it heavier and heavier.

The act, passed last, session, respecting the payment. in gold bars has produced double the quantity of misery that be

and to cause it to persevere in the war, against the republicans of France! Which war raised the fore existed. It has diminished

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the quantity of paper money, and, I sell his shoes at 5s. a pair instead in the same proportion, has ad- of 10s, and so on. ded to the weight of the taxes and to the want of employment for artizans, manufacturers and labourers. Let me explain to you how this effect is produced; for, it is fit that you all clearly understand. what is the cause of your misery.

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When money, whether it be paper or gold, is abundant, every thing is high in price. Now suppose there to be a community of only ten men, who have a given number of dealings amongst them in a year, and who move from hand to hand a certain quantity of valuable things. Suppose one of them to be a farmer, and that he has to sell wheat to the rest, and suppose his wheat to sell for 10s. a bushel. We will suppose, next, that the quantity of money, possessed by the whole community to be six hundred pounds. Every one has his due proportion according to his property: Now, suppose, that, by some accident or other, every man, just at the same moment, loses one half of his money. The effect of this would be, that every one could give for the things that he would want of every other one, only just half as much as he gave before; and, of course, the farmer must sell his wheat for 5s. a bushel. The shoe-maker must

This change would produce injury to no one; because a pair of shoes would still bring a bushel of wheat. There would be less money; but money is merely a thing to be used as a measure of the value of useful things. This little community would still have a just measure of value; and, though prices would fall one half, no soul would suffer from the change. But, suppose the shoemaker to have owed the farmer fifty shillings before the change took place. The shoe-maker would lose greatly by the change; but, the farmer would (if he were a yeomanryman, at least) call upon poor Crispin to pay him; and Crispin must give him ten pair of shoes (or the price of ten pair) instead of five. So that, in fact, Crispin's debt, though still only fifty shillings in name, would, by the diminution in the whole quantity of money, be doubled.

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This is our case precisely! The fund-holders, the army, the navy, the placemen, the pensioners, lent their money to the government, took places and pensions under the government, and, in fact, made the nation their debtor for so much a year. But, now that the quantity of the money is reduced in such a way as to bring down prices nearly one half, the

nation has to pay them all to the full nominal amount; which, though it be still called by the same name, is, in fact, nearly double what it was before the quantity of money was reduced. Each of you has fifteen shillings tax to pay on a bushel of salt; and, so you had before: but, as fifteen shillings will now purchase twice as much of your labour as they would purchase before, your salt tax is in fact doubled.

Thus it is as to the whole nation. It has about thirty millions a year to pay to fund-holders, but now, the thirty are equal to what sixty would have been when the money was borrowed. Suppose a fund-holder to have lent the government a hundred pounds twelve years ago; and suppose, that he was to receive five per cent. for it. Suppose a farmer had been to pay the interest in wheat. Six bushels and two thirds would have paid the five pounds. But, now it would require thirteen bushels and a third to pay the five pounds. Thus it is that the fund-holders, and all who are paid out of the taxes gain, and those who pay the taxes lose, by a diminution in the quantity of money. And this adds greatly to the evils, which naturally arise out of heavy taxes. And thus it is, that a nation is scourged, not by God, but by those works of man, a national debt and a paper-money.

But, you will say, how can the Bank lessen the quantity of money, and ruin the people thus by doubling the real amount of debts and salaries and pensions and other incomes of those who live on taxes? I will tell you how. The Bank can make as much paper-money as it pleases. The cost of it is merely the paper and the print. There are always borrowers enough. Now, I want to borrow. I go to the Bank and give them a note for a hundred pounds, which I promise to pay them again in two months. They take my note, and give me the hundred pounds in their papermoney, taking the two months' interest out. This interest is called discount; and this is called discounting a note. The Bank can discount as much or as little as it pleases. When I bring my hundred pounds, and take the note out of pawn, I may get another note discounted if the Bank choose; and, in this way, the paper-money gets about. But, if the Bank have a mind to cause the quantity of money in the country to grow less, it refuses to discount, or, it discounts less than it did. Suppose the Bank have ten hundred notes and have lent out paper-money upon them; and, suppose, when the paper-money is brought in to pay off the notes with, the Bank will

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