MAY 9.

SUPPLY.-FOREIGN CORN.

Upon the resolution being moved for granting the sum of £438,035, for defraying the expense of foreign corps, raised for the service of Great Britain,

MR. SHERIDAN said, he should object, in the most positive terms, to this country's continuing to employ a set of men, who, it was apparent, were men that could not in any manner, or in any place, be depended on, and whom it was impossible, without betraying the interests of this country, to send either on an expedition to the West Indies, or any other place where the troops might be necessary. He did not perfectly understand what might be the destination of the troops that were the objects of this expense, nor how many regiments of them at present existed; neither did he know where they were at present; but this he knew, that the employment of emigrants against their countrymen, had been attended with fatal consequences to this country, and had been productive only of that expense and disgrace which, he was well assured, the continuance of such an absurd system would but tend to increase and aggravate.

The secretary at war answered.

Mr. Sheridan replied to what had fallen from the right hon. secretary at war, concerning the failure of the Quiberon expedition being classed among the unforeseen calamities of civil war. If ministers will employ men who are unworthy of trust and confidence, who have proved themselves so on every occasion where they have been trusted, what can be expected but defeat, ruin, and disgrace? As to the Quiberon affair, he had always thought it, and should ever think it, one of the worst planned, most inhumanly mismanaged expeditions, that ever disgraced the annals of this or any other country.

The resolution was agreed to.

REAL SUCCESSION TAX BILL.

Mr. Pitt moved, "That the order of the day for the further consideration of the report of this bill should be read, and the report now taken into consideration." Mr. Crewe objected to the tax, and moved, "That the report be taken into consideration this day three months."

Mr. Sheridan said, he could not give a silent vote on the question. He would not follow the learned gentleman (the attorneygeneral) through the long detail of the difference between the

English and Scotch laws. What had fallen from the gentlemen on both sides of the house, many of whom could not possibly be actuated by party motives, would, he trusted, induce the right hon. gentleman to grant the delay, which, he perceived, in a certain degree was wrung from him, in consequence of the arguments which he had heard this night. The attorney-general had made some general observations on taxes, and asserted that, in his mind, the present tax was less objectionable than any he remembered to have been lately imposed. But the present, Mr. Sheridan was convinced, was the most execrable measure of finance that ever came before parliament; and if he excepted the legacy bill, it was merely because it had been sanctioned by an act of the legislature. He did not scruple to say, that both with respect to the Scotch and English laws, the present bill was utterly impracticable! and if time were allowed, even till Thursday, any gentleman who examined it with a keen eye, would see that it abounded with the grossest errors and inconsistencies. He was against any tax that shifted the burden to posterity; for he thought that those who submitted to measures which necessarily produced taxation, should themselves feel the burden, as it might operate to prevent them from supporting the present irrational system of warfare. He had used this language on a former occasion, and he would use it again, though it might be perverted as heretofore, without doors, by those who made him say, that he wished that the people were heavily burthened with taxes. The present measure was defended on the grounds, that it was a tax to support a war calculated to put a stop to the progress of Jacobin principles, and to prevent the poor from robbing the rich. Was the measure desirable on the grounds, that his Majesty's ministers were justifiable in robbing the rich in preference to the poor? Such an argument reminded him of the shepherd in the farce, who said he had a mode of curing the sheep of the rot; but when asked how? he replied, by cutting their throats.

The house divided—for the consideration of the report now 81; against it 52.

MAY 10.

WINE DUTY.

MR. SHERIDAN said, that notwithstanding the notice he had given of his intention to move for a clause to render the stock of

wine in the hands of private gentlemen equally liable to the new duty as that in the hands of dealers, he should decline making any motion to that effect. It would certainly be unjust to introduce excise officers into the cellars of private gentlemen, although not more so than to tax the stock at present in the hands of dealers. It was far from his wish to have the excise extended to private families, as well from his dislike of the system, as it might have a tendency to make servants spies on the proceedings of their masters. He could wish that the new duty on wines should be confined to future importations, and not made to include the stock at present on hand; and he must caution the minister against laying too heavy a duty on the article, as such a step would, in all likelihood, in the course of a very short time, operate as a prohibition. Although it might appear that the consumption of wine, during the last year, was greater than in other preceding ones, yet he should recollect the old proverb, "that an additional hair may break the camel's back." His intention was to move a clause to the bill, by way of rider, providing, that the wines imported in consequence of the recent orders sent abroad, which may arrive by the first of July next, should be liable to the new duties, payable by instalments, in the same manner as the duties upon stock in hand.

Mr. Pitt in reply observed, if Mr. Sheridan had a rider to the effect mentioned ready to be added to the bill, he should have no objection to adopt the proposition.

Mr. Sheridan said, he considered it due from him to apologize to the house for not being prepared with a rider, pursuant to his intention; but he was completely taken by surprise by the right hon. gentleman, as he felt nothing more astonishing than that he should adopt any proposition submitted by him to the house.

MAY 13.

REAL AND PERSONAL SUCCESSION TAX BILL.

Mr. Pitt moved the order of the day for the third reading of the bill for granting to his Majesty a tax on the real succession of landed estates. The order being read, he moved, That the bill be read a third time this day three months, which was agreed to.

MR. SHERIDAN said, he hoped the right hon. gentleman had now considered the personal succession tax, and was prepared to give it up; but it was too much to expect that he would give up

two great fortresses of revenue in one night. If the hon. gentleman derived any credit by abandoning the real succession tax, he should make it complete, by renouncing the personal succession tax, which was equally exceptionable in its principle, and more dangerous in its operation. He was astonished that this bill had raised so little the attention, and excited so little the opposition of the commercial world. It had been said that the landed gentlemen were like a sheep, which allowed itself to be shorn without complaint, while the moneyed gentlemen were like a hog, that squeaked when a single bristle was plucked. Here, however, the observation had been completely belied. Indeed, some address seemed to have been displayed in dividing the two bills, though the same in principle, and thus, by dividing the interest, contriving likewise to divide the opposition. Upon the ground that the hon. gentleman had stated for withdrawing the real succession tax, it was not entirely abandoned, but was only set asleep, and might be revived when the objections were removed. The reason was stated to be, that the landed interest was already more severely taxed in proportion than the mercantile interest. He had formerly stated, and he now repeated, that though this were the last campaign of the war, the first measure that the right hon. gentleman would be forced to take would be to lay on permanent taxes to the amount of three millions, and to raise the peace revenue to twenty-three millions. This was his fixed opinion; and he had no objection to have his words taken down, should it, on any future discussion, be found convenient to recur to them. In laying on taxes to this amount, it would soon happen that commercial property would be sufficiently taxed, and landed property would have no ground of exemption upon the score of inequality, and the reason stated for giving up the real succession tax, would cease to operate. Mr. Sheridan then stated, that the principles of the two bills were the same, but the one already passed was much more dangerous. The different effects of these two bills, he considered as preposterous; if a man dies worth £50,000, and leaves landed estates to that amount to his heir, government, by one bill, receives no benefit: but if such a personal property be left, by virtue of the other bill, it is authorised to seize upon part of the produce. If a merchant dies, a certain duty is to be paid to government, on the calculation of all his commercial concerns, speculations, and debts, and

a balance struck upon the whole, before a division of his property could be made; a period of five or six years frequently took place before his affairs could be settled, and in the mean time, the executor would be debarred from paying off the amount of the legacies till the quantum of the government demand by this tax was ascertained; and to whom, Mr. Sheridan asked, was all this to be submitted? To certain subordinate officers appointed by the commissioners of the stamp duties throughout every county in Great Britain; he supposed there must be 20,000 such officers to carry this into effect. Mr. Sheridan here stated a case, that a man leaves an extensive trade to his son, reserving one-tenth part of it to a natural son; he apprehended that, by this act, the officer would be bound to know that the executor really pays the tenth part of the profit of the trade; and how, he asked, was it possible for him to know this without an inspection of his books and affairs? An evil would unavoidably grow out of this, not only of publishing to the world what the deceased might wish to have concealed, but also it would go to the extent of appointing, not wards of Chancery, but of the Treasury, on behalf of such son. Let the right hon. gentleman, he added, farther consider the delicacy of a man's credit engaged in large commercial concerns: many of the largest capital and credit might be subject to temporary embarrassments. If commercial men would turn this matter maturely over in their minds, Mr. Sheridan said, they would be convinced that it would prove such a blow to commerce, as would prevent it from ever flourishing in this country. He stated another objection-that by taxing a man's trade, manufacture, and industry, it held out an inducement to him to retire from business, and live upon his estate, by which means he would be exempted from the tax, thus imposing a penalty upon industry, and holding out a bounty to indolence. He showed that this bill, which professed to be taken from a law in Holland, was of a more oppressive nature, for in that country a man's concerns in trade were not affected by the operation of the law. Mr. Sheridan wished that the right hon. gentleman might have time to reconsider the bill, and to consult commercial men on the subject--and said he would leave the result to the discretion of the lords of the treasury. He adverted to the difficulty which might occur, as to supplying the amount of this tax, which was calculated at £100,000; and hinted, that