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of proceedings in the legislature of Virginia, will give the reader some idea of the finances of the individual States, and will probably set the eulogists of republican government to calculating, before they again repeat their abominable deceptions respecting the cheapness of that sort of govern

ment.

Estimate of the Expenses of the Civil Government for the current Year.

"Mr. Andrews reported, from the committee appointed to prepare an estimate of the expenses of the civil government, and to report their opinion of the provision which ought to be made for the support of the same, and for the payment of the public debt, that the committee had, according to order, prepared the same, and agreed upon a report, which he read in his place, and then delivered in at the clerk's table, where the same was twice read, and is as follows:

"Estimate of the Expenses of the Civil Government, &c. from October 1, 1797, to October 1, 1798.

General Assembly

Officers of the Government

Officers of the Militia

Dols. Cts.

26,000

47,871

3,804

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"To answer the claims which will accrue as above stated, there is the following provision, viz.

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"As no other fund can be made productive in time to answer the above deficiency of 40,426 dollars and 39 cents, there is a necessity of relying on the arrearages for that purpose, though experience does not permit the committee to be sanguine in their expectations from that source.-The following was the state of the arrearages on the 1st day of October, 1797:

Arrearages of the Revenue Taxes

prior to 1790

Do. of do. posterior to 1789

On the 1st day of October, they amounted altogether to

Dols. Cts.

213,273 10

57,287 99

270,561 9

282,179 69

11,618 60

207,561 9

The arrearages of the Certificate

Taxes are stated to be

102,226 20

The diminution within the last year has therefore been only

"The committee find, that the permanent annual expenditures cannot be estimated at a less sum

E 2

than

than 240,000 dollars-provided the contemplated importation of arms takes place, and if a proportion of the present debt of the commonwealth be annually discharged; which the committee presume the legislature will consider both just and politic. The committee therefore report, that in their opinion, it will be necessary so to increase the taxes, as to produce an additional yearly sum of 115,000 dollars."

The said report being read a second time, was, on a motion made, ordered to be committed to a committee of the whole house on the state of the commonwealth.

A bill was brought in the same year to tax wholesale merchants selling 20,000 pounds' worth of goods annually, £108. Merchants selling more. than 3000, and not exceeding 20,000 pounds' worth, in the same proportion. Retailers who sell £3,000 worth, to pay £6; and all who sell less than £3,000 worth, to pay £4. The evidence Jequired of the merchant as to the amount sold, 'was his own oath.

A bill was also introduced for the more effectual restraining of gambling. By this bill all gaming tables in the state were to be burnt on the 9th of the next March. After that time, if any money is staked as a bett, any of the by-standers were at liberty to snatch it; and if the original possessor, or any other person attempted to deprive him of the possession of it, he was to be punished by fine. and imprisonment.

These bills were passed. The former very far outstrips the provisions of the English Income Tax. It is more of an inquisitorial nature, and ten thousand times more injurious to enterprize and industry.

The latter was called the scrambling law. Never was robbery before openly countenanced by legis

lative

lative provisions. To "snatch" a man's money, is so vile and dishonourable a species of robbery, that to suppose the people capable of it, was to brand them for a set of villains,

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS.

THE Commissioners, who were appointed on the part of His Britannic Majesty, to form part of the Board, which assembled at Philadelphia, in 1797, returned to Europe in the spring of 1800, without effecting any part of the business, which they were sent to effect.

Before I state the circumstances, which prevented them from doing this, I shall insert an article or two, which will explain the origin of the dispute which these Commissioners were appointed to adjust.

In the treaty of peace of 1783, Great Britain stipulated to give up certain posts which she then held on the Western frontier of the now United States. She did not give them up, and the cause of this is explained in the following abstract of a letter from Lord Carmarthen, dated the 28th of February, 1786, to Mr. Adams, who was then American Ambassador in England.

"That when America shall manifest a real determination to fulfil her part of the treaty, GreatBritain will not hesitate to prove her sincerity, to co-operate, in whatever points depend on her, to carry every article of it into full and complete effect.

"The grievances complained of by merchants and other British subjects, having estates, property, and debts due to them in the several states, are as follow":

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