ed in till the month of December, and then in a very bad condition: that the crop of potatoes, on which the faid inhabitants principally depend for fupport, was alfo deftroyed by the froft; that many of the faid inhabitants being thereby reduced to indigence, will either be constrained to emigrate, or be expofed to the danger of perifhing for want of food, unless timely measures be devised for their relief: that the diftreffes occafioned by famine being generally most extreme in the fummer months immediately preceding the new harvest, when this houfe may not be fitting; that for thefe reafons it is neceffary moft humbly to befeech his majesty, that he will be graciously pleafed to give fuch directions as may lead moft effectually to avert the evils that are to be apprehended from the above calamitous ftate of the northern parts of Scotland; and to affure his majesty, that this houfe will make good, out of the first aids that thall be granted by parliament, fuch expences as fhall be incurred by his majesty in relieving the mifery to which his majefty's unhappy fubjects may be reduced by this molt deplorable calamity."

This motion was carried without oppofition. Lord North now turning the attention of the commons to the civil establishment of the colonies, explained the peculiarity of their condition. It was ftill neceffary to move the feveral eftimates of the civil establishments of Nova Scotia, the island of St. John, East and West Florida, Georgia, and Senegambia on the coast of Africa. As this circumftance might appear furprising to many members, fince fome of thefe places were not now in our poffeffion, he confidered himfelf as called upon to fatisfy their doubts. The fums to be voted for

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difcharging the falaries of the civil officers of East and West Florida, Georgia and Senegambia, which belonged to us no longer, were not intended for the continuance of the civil establishments, but to defray the arrears due to the officers till Midfummer next, from which period their emoluments were to ceafe. This accordingly would be the laft application to parliament in respect to thofe provinces, with the exception of Eaft Florida, the civil officers and the inhabitants of which would not be fo eafily removed. There might, therefore, be a neceffity of applying for a farther aid to them. The amount of the civil establishment of the island of St. John, was nearly the fame with that of the last year. But with regard to Nova Scotia, there was a finall difference which arose from the circumftance, that colonel Fanning was appointed governor of it, with a falary of five hundred pounds per annum. To this appointment he had been conducted by his merits, his fufferings in the caufe of his country, and his unfhaken loyalty to his fovereign. An addition of two hundred pounds a year had allo been made to the falary of the chief juftice, which increafed it to nine hundred pounds per annum. Thefe peculiarities, with a few others, rendered it expedient to extend the prefent establishment beyond the limits of the one which had preceded it. His lordfhip having made thefe obfervations, moved the following refolations:

"That a fum not exceeding five thoufand, nine hundred and fortythree pounds, nine fhillings, and five pence, be granted to his majesty for defraying the civil eftablishment of Nova Scotia, from the first day of January, 1783, to the first day of January, 1784.

"That a fum not exceeding three thoufand

fhould be heard by their counfel, was generally reprobated; but being unconvinced by the arguments ftated in oppofition to him, he put the matter to the decifion of the houfe, and loft the question by a majority of 178 to 15.

A more general debate upon the tax on receipts was now commenced by fir Cecil Wray, who inveighed against it as a moft partial expedient; fince it would affect the commercial interest in a great degree, and be hardly felt at all by the landed gentlemen. It had excited a high alarm among his conftituents; and he had in his hand a petition against it fubfcribed by nearly four thousand names. Yielding therefore to their inftructions, as well as to the conviction of his own mind, he urged he house to reject it, and to prevail with the chancellor of the Exchequer to fubftitute a tax in its place lefs oppreffive and obnoxious. The tax on receipts was not properly a tax on the rich. It affected most the middling ranks of men, and was laid very partially. It would fall fo heavily upon fome traders, that it would fubject them annually to a fum not less than two hundred pounds. It was a general principle, that all taxes fhould have a reference to the expenditure or the confumption of the perfon or the article taxed. Now this tax was impofed fo unequally, that while it would be felt feverely by fome orders of men, it would touch others very flightly. He thought, that instead of a tax that would clog all money tranfactions, it would be a wifer expedient to lay an additional land-tax. He contended, that the land-tax, fo far from being too high, was, in reality, too low. This doctrine might be unpopular in the house, but it was folid, and not to be controverted. The abolition of the right of

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franking was alfo another proper plan for raifing the revenue. might be right that the letters to members of parliament fhould come free; but they ought not, furely, to be indulged in the vanity of exempting other men from paying their taxes. He stated, that the abolition of the cuftom of franking, would produce twenty thousand pounds; and that an additional penny on the postage of all letters, would be another proper fource of revenue. He therefore moved, "That the tax bill fhould be recommitted."

Mr. fecretary Fox declared, that it was very difagreeable to him to vote in oppofition to a respectable body of his constituents, who had inftructed him to employ his endeavours to prevent the tax on receipts. He was, notwithstanding, convinced in his own mind, that the objections they entertained against the tax, were founded in a mifapprehenfion of its nature, and that it included within its bofom no real cause for alarm. Accordingly, while fome of his conftituents were hoftile to it, there were others of them who beftowed upon it their fincere approbation. With regard to himself, however, he had uniformly declared it as his fentiment, that a reprefentative was not bound in all cafes to facrifice his own judgment to the inftructions and opinions of his conftituents. And, perhaps, there was no object whatever of parlia mentary confideration, in which a reprefentative was lefs bound to obey the directions of his conftituents, than on the topic of a tax. A tax was ever argued upon with impropriety without doors. In that house it was understood the most clearly. The people argued from what they individually felt, and not upon principles. But the members of the

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houfe accustomed to bufinefs debated the merit of a tax comparatively, and took in the idea that a tax productive to a certain amount must be impofed. It could judge of two taxes, whether they would be more or less burthenfome, and could give the preference definitively and with judgment. It was in this view of the tax upon receipts that the houfe had bestowed upon it their fanction. It was always upon this ground of comparison that taxes were to be judged of. It was not proper to inflame the people without doors about them, to pronounce them to be abfolutely bad, and to foment discontents and clamour.

To obtain petitions against a tax including a great variety of names was very cafy, and very immaterial: no fure argument could be founded upon a practice of this fort. After a clamour has been raifed without doors against a tax, a meeting of individuals who are affected by it is called. The perfons compoling this meeting, even if they were not affected by the tax, are improper judges of it. But being concerned to escape from it, and having their own intereft folely in view, refolutions are propofed to them which they greedily fwallow. A petition is drawn up: the perfons agreeing to the refolutions fubfcribe it, and it is carried about to be fubfcribed by other perfons of the fame defcription. What is this but to trifle with public affairs? and to be ftrenuous to faften an unmerited odium upon minifters ? To encourage fuch plans is the bufinefs of faction, folly, and idleness.

To increase the land-tax was of all projects the most violent and abfurd. It was agreed upon every hand that this tax was of all others the most partial. For the landholder first pays for his land; and 1783.

then contributes equally with every other perfon to almost every other tax. The abolition of the privi ledge of franking might doubtless be thought of with propriety; but ever it fhould become a fubject of confideration to the commons, it would be wrong to retain the priviledge in any degree. The letters to the members of parliament ought to be taxed as well as thofe to every other perfon. If the abolition was to be made at all, it ought to be total, and without refervation of any kind.

The tax on receipts was in every refpect fair and right. It was fo constructed as to guard the poor from oppreffion. Even to the rich it offered no compulfion. It was optional, and therefore a tax upon luxury; for a receipt was a matter for which there was no abfolute neceffity. He could not perceive that this tax was open to any one reasonable or fubftantial objection.

Mr. Beaufoy conceived that as the provifion of taxes for fupplying the neceffities of the state was the moft difficult of all the duties of a minifter, the raifing of obstructions to them could only be juftified by the most urgent and forcible confiderations. At the fame time it was juft and right that the house fhould obtain every poffible information' with regard to the taxes. In the prefent cafe it ought to enquire into the probable effects of the bill. As the truftees of the people it ought to examine it with minute and anxious attention. The payments of every man fhould be in proportion to his wealth; and no clafs of individuals fhould be selected from the mais of the people to be made the objects of a fevere or peculiar oppreffion.

Upon its face the tax under confideration has indeed an air of im I partiality.