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But taxation, we shall suppose, does not stop at this point. It still goes on,-the last stage approaches. It is perceived in the grinding labour which men undergo; it is read in the very countenances of the people.* New taxes are added, and the resources of the individual, from increased industry, being now exhausted, he must retrench from his enjoyments whatever continues to be added to the sums taken from him. He is now placed between two opposing and irresistible forces, pressing and constraining him on either side, and urging and forcing him, at one and the same time, to curtail his expenditure, and to exert all his industry and all his faculties to maintain his wonted ground and station in society. In this situation, every new impost urges and compresses him. Year after year he feels the encroachment, yet still he struggles on with all his might to overcome it, until, after resorting to every expedient, and no longer able to sustain the pressure, he sinks into poverty, (perhaps through "the horn gate of bankruptcy,") with his mind and body probably both exhausted by his long-continued and overstrained exertions.+

• Those who are old enough to remember the state of the country and of the labouring classes before the commencement of the late war, can bear ample testimony to the fact, that their hours of labour were not so long, nor their exertions so arduous, as they became towards the conclusion of it, and that they gradually increased with the increase of the taxes.

+ A strong confirmation of the doctrine here stated of the effects of a large public debt, in screwing up the exertion of the country to an unnatural pitch, may be drawn from a survey and observation of its actual condition compared with other countries, and with itself before the debt was contracted, or when it was comparatively insignificant or moderate.

As to the state of the country before the debt was contracted, or when it was more moderate, I shall add nothing to what I have said in the preceding note; but, in respect to the comparison with other coun

Such appears to me to be the manner in which taxation, when carried to the highest pitch, might be expected, a priori, to affect the labouring classes of people; and facts a posteriori confirm the deduction: for, during the latter part of the late war, when taxation was carried to the highest, such precisely were the phenomena observed; the poorrates increased pari passu with the taxes, and both rose to their acmé, and declined together.

tries, I cannot avoid adding the following observations of a person writing without any intention, apparently, of establishing this or any other theory or opinion on the subject :—

"The To-day of England," says a writer in the New Monthly Magazine (as quoted in the Cabinet, or Selected Beauties of Literature, pp. 312, 313,) "nationally considered, cannot be reckoned happy. It is too bustling, laborious, and excessive. In France, pleasure is almost the only business; in England, business is almost the only pleasure; and this is pushed to an extremity that surrounds it with hazard and anxiety. By devoting all its energies and faculties, physical and intellectual, to this one object, for a series of years, the nation has attained an eminence so fearfully beyond its natural claims and position, that nothing but a continuance of convulsive efforts, even in the midst of distress and exhaustion, can enable it to uphold the rank it has assumed. Hence every thing is artificial, and in all directions we contemplate tension, excitement, force. Her navy exceeds that of the collected world, so does her debt,-a co-existence that cannot be very durable. Her establishments of all sorts are proportioned to what she owes rather than to what she has; her grandeur can only be equalled by her embarrassments. In one colony she has sixty millions of subjects, while a great proportion of her native population are paupers; and in her sister island famine has lately stalked hand in hand with rebellion ⚫. No social system was ever pushed to such an energetic extremity, or afforded so envious and glorious a spectacle; but it has not sufficient repose for enjoyment."

APPENDIX

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THE LAST CHAPTER.

SUCH (as has been described in the last chapter) being the effect of public debts, and of the taxes necessary to support them, it becomes obviously a matter of the very first consideration, in a country like this, where they have grown to such a magnitude, to inquire if any means could be fallen upon for liquidating the debt, and rendering, consequently, more than a half of our present taxes unnecessary; and for this purpose a plan has been repeatedly brought forward by Mr. Richard Heathfield, which, if carried into execution, would, I have no doubt, be attended with, or followed by, all the beneficial consequences which that gentleman anticipates.

Mr Heathfield's proposal is, in his own words, as follows:

"That the legislative repeal of annual duties to the amount of 31 millions be declared, viz.

"In respect of the interest on part of the debt,........25 millions. Sinking fund to be discontinued,...................................................................... 3 Reduction of government pay and pensions, and lower prices of stores for the public service,......... 3

31 millions.

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That, at the same time, every description of property in the United Kingdom be assessed in the proportion of one-fifth part of its value.

"That all government-stock, not held by foreigners residing out of the kingdom, be reduced in the same proportion.

"That all home-appointments in and under the government, and

government pay and pensions generally, be reduced in the same proportion."

Then, founding on Dr Colquhoun's computation, and other data, Mr Heathfield estimates the private property in the United Kingdom at 2800 millions, and continues,—

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Taking the public debt at 800 millions,† and deducting onefifth, or 160 millions, for the proposed assessment of one-fifth, 640 millions remain. The assessment of one-fifth to be charged on the private property of 2800 millions would amount to 560 millions, which assessment would be applicable either in principal or interest, according to circumstances, to the debt of 640 millions remaining as above mentioned, leaving the sum of 80 millions for the annuities for terms of years, or to be liquidated by other and gradual means.”‡

Some honest and "erudite" admirers and panegyrists of the late Mr Ricardo would fain claim the merit of this plan as belonging to him, notwithstanding the fact, that it was proposed and published to the world before Mr Ricardo was born, and that this fact stands recorded in so conspicuous a place as Mr Hume's Essay "Of Public Credit."

"There was, indeed, a scheme," says Mr Hume, in the essay just named, (published in 1742,) " for the payment of our debts, which was proposed by an excellent citizen, Mr Hutchinson, above thirty years ago, and which was much approved of by some men of sense, but never was likely to take effect. He asserted that there was a fallacy in imagining that the public owed this debt; for that really every individual owed a proportional share of it, and paid in his taxes a proportional share of the interest, beside the expense of levying these taxes. Had we not better, then, says he, make a distribution of the debt among ourselves, and each of us contribute a sum suitable to his property, and by that means discharge at once all our funds and public mortgages?"S

* Thoughts on the Liquidation of the Public Debt, pp. 8, 9.

+ "Strict accuracy in the amount of the debt is not required for the immediate purpose of this outline."

Thoughts on the Liquidation of the Public Debt, pp. 9, 10. § Essays, part ii. essay 9.

Here we have the distinct outline and substance of the "plan" or "scheme," comprehensively indeed, but clearly stated; and yet we are told that "It is essentially the scheme of Mr Ricardo ;"* just as if nobody had any prior claim to it; as if Mr Hutchinson had never existed and Mr Hume never written; and as if the scheme were not at least as much Mr Heathfield's as Mr Ricardo's.

Mr Ricardo did indeed recommend the proposition in a very general way, first in his book, and afterwards in his place in parliament; but Mr Heathfield has accompanied his recommendation of it with all the explanations and details which are required to demonstrate its practicability, as well as the mode in which it might be expected to operate.

The following are a few of Mr Heathfield's explanatory statements:

"Should a plan so bold in its outline," says this writer, "be received with feelings of undefined apprehension, the reader may be safely assured, that reflection on the subject has hitherto, even with the most discerning, seldom failed to substitute confidence for fear.

"Let it be considered in its application to the several classes of proprietors, living upon and expending their income, or the greater part thereof, at home.

"And, first, What is commonly called the funded proprietor, or government annuitant. This proprietor receives L.500 per annum, or any greater or less sum. To redeem himself from the effect of a high scale of duties, he foregoes the receipt of 20 per cent. per annum. Can it be doubted, that the proposed sweeping repeal of 31 millions of duties would leave him in command of more of the comforts of life than he at present enjoys?—In this instance, the operation of the measure is simple and without difficulty. He was, in truth, at once both a creditor and debtor in account with the country. He has paid his debt, and is released from the expensive and cumbrous machinery, brought into action by the previous complexity of his situation, and working with much friction.

* Vide Scotsman newspaper, 1st July, 1829.

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