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the fupplics within the year, is the cheapest and the most salutary courfe that a wife people can purfue; and when it is confidered that there is a faving of at least one-twelfth upon all that is raifed, gentlemen will not fuffer a fuperftitious fear, and jealoufy of the danger of expofing the fecrecy of income, to combat with a measure that is fo pregnant with benefits to the nation. If gentlemen will take into their con deration the probable duration of peace and war, calculated from the experience of paft times, they will be convinced of the immeafurable importance of ftriving to raife the fupplies within the year, rather than accumulating a permanent debt. The experience of the laft hundred, fifty, or forty years, will fhew how little confidence we can have in the duration of peace, and it ought to convince us, how important it is to eftablish a fyftem, that will prepare us for every emergency, give ftability to ftrength, and perpetual renovations to refource. I think, I could make it apparent to gentlemen, that in any war, of the duration of fix years, the plan of funding all the expences to be incurred in carrying it on, would leave at the end of it a greater burthen permanently upon the nation than would be fuftained; than they would have to incur for the fix years only of its continuance, and one year beyond it provided that they made the facrifice of a tenth of their income. In the old, unwife and deftrućtive way of railing the fupplies by a permanent fund, without any provifion for its redemption a war fo carried on, entails the burthen upon the age and upon their pofterity for ever. This had, to be fure, in a great measure, been done away and corrected, by the falutary and valuable system they had adopted of the redemption fund. But that fund cannot accomplish the end in a fhorter period than forty years, and during all that time the expences of a war fo funded, must weigh down and prefs upon a people. If, on the contrary, it had at an early period of our history been refolved to adopt the prefent mode of raifing the fupplies within the year; if, for inftance, after the peace of Aix la Chapelle, the scheme of redemption even had been adopted, and perfevered in to this time, we fhould not now, for the feventh year of the war, have had more to raise from the pockets of the people than what we have now to pay of permanent taxes, together with about a fourth of what it would be neceffary to lay on in addition for this year. Fortunately we have at last establifhed the redemption fund; the benefits of it are already felt; they will every year be more and more acknowledged';

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and in addition to this it is only neceffary, that instead of confulting a prefent advantage, and throwing the burthen, as heretofore, upon pofterity, we fhall fairly meet it ourselves, and lay the foundation of a fyftem that fhall make us independent of all the future events of the world. I am fure that in deliberating upon the advantages of this system, gentlemen whofe liberal and exalted views go beyond the mere prefent convenience of the moment, and are not limited to the period of the interest which they may themselves take in public affairs, or even to the period of their own existence, but to look with a provident affection to the independence and happiness of a generation unborn, will feel and recognife the wifdom of a fyftem that has for its principle the permanency of British grandeur. You will feel that it is not only to the fplendour of your arms, to the atchievements of your fleets, that you are indebted for the high diftinction which you at prefent enjoy; but alfo to the wifdom of the councils you have adopted in taking advantage of the influence which your happy conftitution confers beyond the example of any other people, and by which you have given a grand and edifying leffon to difmayed Europe, that safety, honour and repofe muft ever depend upon the energy with which danger is met and refifted. You have fhewn the power of self-defence, which is permanent and unaffailable ; flanding upon the principles you have affumed, the wild and extravagant hopes of the enemy will be thwarted; Europe will be aroufed and animated to adopt a courfe fo honourable; and furely, with the means of perfevering thus obvious, you will not think it prudent or neceffary to fhrink from the principles you have adopted, or take fhelter in a peace which might be obtained by a more temporifing conduc, but which would neither be safe or durable. But, Sir, I cannot encourage any fentiment fo degrading; I feel in common with every gentleman who hears me, the proud fituation in which we have been placed, and the importance it has given us in the fcale of nations. The rank that we now hold, I truft, we fhall continue to cherish, and that purfuing the fame glorious courfe, we fhall all of us feel it to be a fource of pride and confolation, that we are the fubjects of the King of Great Britain. I will not detain you longer, Sir, but will move for the first of my series of refolutions, in carrying the plan of taxation into execution which I have endeavoured to detail.

Mr. Tierney then spoke nearly as follows:

After

After the very eloquent conclufion of the right honourable Gentleman's fpeech, the committee might well expect that nothing comparatively worthy of their attention could be heard from me; and it is not with any hope that they should think me worth any attention when compared to him in eloquence that I rife. I feel as much as any man can feel for me, in what I do upon the prefent occafion; the object of which is, to fhew a defire to refift the effect of what has been offered to the paffions of the committee; and which I fhould not attempt, did I not feel myfelf impelled by a fenfe of duty. I agree with the right honourable Gentleman that the decifion of this houfe to night, is not only interefting to England, but alfo to all Europe; it is because I agree with him upon that, I am fo defirous of delivering a few fentiments; for how unworthy foever I may be of receiving the favourable attention of the committee on this important fubject, yet I should be forry that fuch fentiments as he has uttered to night should go forth to the world as the unanimous fentiments of the British Houfe of Commons.

I did not mean to fay any thing this night on the subject before the committee, because I thought the right honourable Gentleman meant only to ftate the fubject of a tax upon income, and that the ample detail of it was to have been referved to a future day; that he was not to go into the sub. ject fo much at length as he has done to-night; and therefore, I confefs, I am not prepared to contend with him, for without preparation I do not prentend to be able at any time to contend with him. There are, however, fome obfervations which I am now ready to make. On the fupply there is one thing which occurs to me, at the first glance of this bufinefs, which is, that fuppofing we have only one budget this year, and that we have heard already of the whole of the Supply, it will then, as they stand, exceed by more than two millions the fum voted for the last year. I know, that on this occafion, the right honourable Gentleman may fay, that this year, he has had better means of forming his calculations on the articles of expenditure, as well as various other events. But if he fhould fo tell me, and promife folemnly not to ask for more money in the courfe of the feffion, and yet afterwards demand a great deal, it would not furprize me, for it would not be the first time; but, however, I hope he will keep his word, and that the people of England fhall not, in 1798, be twice burthened for 1799.

With regard to what the right hon. Gentleman has faid

with respect to the finking fund, I have nothing to fay against it; neither have I any thing to fay against the tax impofed in the laft feffion of parliament upon imports and exports, which is commonly called the convoy tax. He affures us that they will produce 1,700,000l. and he alledges that he has fome regulations that will be of public utility in that particular: against none of these points have I any thing to urge. Leaving then all these points I come to the great one which is now before us, I mean the tax upon income; upon which the right honourable Gentleman expects either fupport or filence from this fide of the Houfe, for fo his addrefs to the committee to-night indicated. To this I answer, he cannot expect fupport, he can hardly expect filence from me, because, having oppofed the affeffed taxes as I did, it would be ftrange that I fhould be filent upon a measure, which is, in my opinion, infinitely more deftructive, even than that deftructive meafure. But that is not all, for I confider what the effect is of this Houfe agreeing to any principle laid down by that right honourable Gentleman. This Houfe agreed last year to the principle laid down by him in his affeffed taxes, but the Houfe had not then the idea of going the length which he now propofes; they thought the whole measure had better have been abandoned altogether, than that it fhould caufe the difclofure of the condition of every perfon in the kingdom. I know these were not the words ufed by any member in the House, but they do not contain more than the fenfe and feeling of the House laft year when that fubject was under difcuffion; and fomething like the words was very current from this fide of the Houfe; but now the Minifter, having got the Houfe to recognize the principle of his affeffed taxes, is emboldened, and goes a ftep further, and propofes that the Houfe fhould follow him; that propofition the committee have now before them, and I will venture to alledge, that even he, confident as he was in the majority that has always fupported him, would not have ventured, laft year, to have laid before this Houfe the monftrous propofition which is now before us. But he fays, "you need not make any disclosure of your condition in life." What then? If the difclofure I do make be not fatisfactory, has not the commiffioner power to increase the duty on me according to his difcretion? and all thefe proceedings are to depend upon the evidence of an infamous informer. By fuch evidence, and in fuch a way, commiflioners are to tax us at their option. They are to fay, from fuch fources of information,

information, what the respectable merchant of the City of London fhall contribute to the defence of the ftate; unless he chufes to difclofe, to the fatisfaction of an informer, the whole condition of his affairs. To fuch a propofition I cannot allent. But that is not all, for if this House agrees to that propofition now, is it too much to fay upon experience, if this tax does not come up to the fyftem, a general difclosure of all property must take place and that too in the course of the very next year? I fay, does not experience warrant us in coming to that conclufion?

I took the liberty, laft year, of oppofing the measure now before the committee under another name, and with a lefs difagreeable afpe&t than it bears at prefent. That measure was, in appearance, lefs difagreeable than this; by that, at man was, in fome measure, allowed to withdraw from luxury; but here there is nothing of the kind allowed in any fhape. I opposed that measure, because I thought it, and I do ftill, very oppreffive. I faid it was a tax on income. The anfwer was, that it was not a tax on income; but that it was the best mode of coming at property to fupport the ftate. This feems to be a bolder meafure; for it puts a tenth of the property of England in requifition. A measure which the French have followed in the career of their revolutionary rapine, and which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has, with all his eloquence, justly branded with the hardest epithets; only it is a little unfortunate, that he should imitate what he took fo much pains to render detestable.

Another reafon I have for oppofing this meafure is, that I do not think that our refources are in fuch a state as to render it neceffary. I do not like to hold out any ideas of defpo dency in our financial affairs. I do not think them in a state so defperate as to ultify this plan of indifcriminate rapine, for a plan of indifcriminate rapine, in my opinion, it is; I fay I do not think our refources are in fuch a state as to justify a tax generally upon income; the thing is in its nature unjust, because it is in its nature unequal. It is of all things the moft unequal: Does the Minister mean to fay that a perfon poffetling an income for life, only of a certain fum, and another perfon of the fame income which he derives from the intereft of his own capital, are equally rich, and can bear the fame taxes? A widow, for instance, who lives only upon a penfion, and a person whofe capital brings him in the fame money by way of intereft? Certainly not; the thing is too palpable to be argued; and yet, by this plan

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