paid for. Would not this reason have been sufficient? And, if it would not, is it not a mockery too gross to be borne to hold up the House of Commons as a check upon the public expenditure?" The business of the "House" Why, is not this their business? Are they assembled merely to say aye to the tax-bills? Aye, Aye, Aye, to the laying on of 10 per centum upon all income, and property in the funds, except that of His Majesty? Is this " their business?" This was not, formerly, describéd as the business of the House of Coinmons, and, I trust, it will not now be so considered. It may be said, that they have other business, such as the forming of a niilitary system; to which I answer, that all the business they have with this, is, to refuse, or grant, the money necessary to support the army; in the making of such refusal or grant, they may properly debate upon the nature of the force; but, at last, their rightful power consists entirely in the refusing, or the granting, of the money; that, whatever SIR JOHN NEWPORT may think of it, is the business of the House of Commons.But, what has excited the most suspicion in my mind, with respect to the measure of the intended Commission, or Commissious, is, that it is, as it would seein, to have no retrospective effect; or, at least, that, acting upon the new doctrine of MR. Fox, there is to be no punishment for past offences in the wasting of the public money; and that, as the merits" have been proclaimed, the debts paid, and the monument is raising (at the public expense) of the minister, under whom all the wicked waste took place, it is to be considered as inconsistent and useless severity to pursue and to punish the underlings. That this is the intention appears but too plainly; and of the defence of it, by anticipation made in the Morning Chronicle of the 27th instant, the reader shall here see a specimen. "To those "who view mankind as they are, rather "than as they ought to be, it can cause no sutprize that the expenditure of this country has been prodigal; that, from "time to time, when the fit of inquiry "came on, either by a periodical fever of

patriotism in the House of Commons, or "discontent in the people, very gross and "scandalous instances of fraud and pecula"tion have been discovered. The tempta“tions have been too great for the lubricity

"

of human virtue to withstand; particularly in a state of society where the mere possession of wealth is distinction. Indeed, while the facilities of abuse were great, the dangers of detection small or

"Sent the thief, that stole the cash, away,

"And punish'd him who put it in his way.' "The persons guilty of these offences are not naturally more dishonest than others, but they yieid to temptations by which those who rail at them were never as "sailed." -Need I remind the indignant reader, that it was this very Morning Chronicle that took the lead in pursuing Lord Melville and Mr. Trotter? Need I remind him of its rage, when any mitigation of punishment was, in that case, suggested? And, need I remind him, that then, as well as now, it spoke the language of Mr. Fox and his associates? But, what, principles of morality, what notions of justice have we here! These public robbers, we are told, are not to be considered as more dishonest than other men, but as having been assailed by greater temptations: in other words, that all men would be rogues if they had the opportunity! The tempter, that is to say, the confiding party, is, we are here told, the proper object of punishment; and, as Mr. PITT's debts have been paid by the public, as a monument is raising to his me mory at the expense of that same public, we must, of course, mount still higher for an object of punishment, which object can, then, be no other than the nalion itself; and thus, after having been deceived, robbed, and reduced to beggary, we are to be insulted with the assertion, that, for the crimes committed against us, we ourselves ought, if the wish of Caligula could be realized here, to suffer in the flesh and expire upon a gallows; and this, too, observe, we are told, in a country where the laws doom to death the wretch, who, though he may be driven by hunger, steals a sheep from the fold, or a peck of flour from a mill!

Is it in my own country; is it in England, whose laws and whose character for honour and for justice have so often been the theme of my praise, and so long been the pride of my heart? Is it in this land, heretofore so renowned for public virtue and for the impartial operation of its righteous laws, that I hear principles like these openly declared; and, as if the cup of mortification were to be filled beyond the possibility of thereinto pouring an additional drop, am I, Mr. SPANKEY, to hear them from you? From you, whose talents I have so much admired; for whom I have so often

and so sincerely expressed my friendship and esteem; and whom I have so confidently hoped to see taking that place in life to which you are entitled by your superiority of mind? I would fain hope, that you are not the writer of the paper I have quoted; and, if it be not too late, I would earnestly, exhort you to reflect, that you will dishonour the giver of your talents as well as yourself By becoming an underling, and especially of those, whom, at the bottom of your heart, you must hold in contempt; to reflect, that your country, which has always a claim upon the talents of all her children, has, at this erisis of her fate, a claim peculiarly strong, and that she calls upon you to come out from amongst the contenders for pelf, and to be the advocate of truth and of justice; to reflect, that, if this were to be, "the be all and the end all," to truckle to the rivals for pageantry, to the brainless beings that swarm and bask in the regions of power, would, in you, be detestably base; but further, and above all things, to reflect, that the hour must come, when yourself, as well as others in their turn, will make a comparison between SHERIDAN with his two thousand pound feast and ANDREW MARVEL with his mutton bone; and, with the certainty in your mind that this hour will and must come, need I, if your breast contain one particle of the love of true fame, exhort you to shun the path of the underling, though illumined with smiles and scattered with gold!

NELSON GRANT, (Continued from page 722). This enormous grant has before been spoken of at the page referred to, where will be found MR. FRANCIS's excellent speech upon the subject, and, in the sentiments of which speech,, I will venture to say, that Mr. Francis is joined by every considerate man in the kingdom. The proceedings of the House of Commons upon Queen Anne's message, relative to the pension of the Duke of Marlborough, in 1702, was before referred to; but it may not be amiss here to give an account of that proceeding a little more in detail.By the Journals of the House of Commons, and by the Parliamentary Debates, it appears, that, on the 10th of December, 1702, a message was brought to the house by Mr. Secretary HEDGES, signed by the Queen herself,' vix:

ANN R. The Farl of Marlborough's ser"vices to Her Majesty and to the public, "have been so eminent, &c." That she has granted him a pension of 5000l. per annum on the revenue of the post office, which she hopes the House will find means to continue to him, as long as the title should be

"that

in his family. The reporter says, "the Commons, after the reading of the message, seemed for some time to be in amaze, and kept so long silent that the Speaker stood up and looked round to see "if any body would speak to it, &c." On the 21st of December, (eleven days after, observe) they resolved on their address, which was as follows: "It is to their inexpressible

grief, that Your Majesty's faithtal Com"mons find any instances, where they are "unable to comply with what Your Ma

jesty proposes to them; but they beg "leave humbly to lay before Your Majesty the apprehensions they have of ma"king a precedent for the future aliena"tions of the revenue of the crown, which "has been so much reduced by the eror"bitant grants of the last reign, &c.” And, hefe, the question for us to put to ourselves, is; do we hope ever to see the House of Commons again reject a grant, that shall be proposed from the Crown? Have we ever heard, not only of such a thing, but of any one that seriously thought of such a thing, in our days?As to the grant itself, if Lord Nelson had lived, or if he had had a lineal descendant; the case would have been different; but, that the grant is now, especially when we consider the pecuniary situation of the country, great, and lavish, beyond all bounds, no man can deny; and, unless as a sort of precedent for other grants, which have been, and which may be, made, it is, I think quite impossible to assign any rational ground for it. for it. A public funeral, a noble and durable monument, a first rate ship of war bearing the name of Nelson, and an ample income for Lady Nelson, together with some provision for all Lord Nelson's near relations, would have been quite enough; and, i am decidedly of opinion, that the monument should have been at BURNHAM THORP, and not in the metropolis, which Eaving drained the country of its blood, seems resolved to have its honours too. It is contrary to every wise and just and noble principle thus to rob the birth-places of the brave and the renowned; and the exhibition of Lord Nelson's remains, in the metropo lis, to spectators at a shilling a head, was characteristic enough of the vulgarity of idea which seems to have every where prevailed with regard to the whole of the transaction, the funeral ceremony excepted.

INCOME TAX. (Continued from p. 719), -The bill for imposing this tax, has, at last, passed the House of Commons and that, too, with an exemption to foreigners who may have money in the funds. Upon the

injustice of this exemption some remarks were offered in the page last referred to. Mr. FRANCIS made a last stand upon the passing of the bill, against this exemption, and was met by Mr. Fox, with a repetition of the weak quibbling arguments before noticed and before overset. But, what I wish, upon the present occasion, to draw the attention of my readers to, is expressed in the following words, as taken from the report of the debate, in the Morning Post news-paper of the 29th instant. On the motion of Mr. Vansittart, amendments were made to exempt stock or dividends, the property "of his Majesty, in whatever name they may stand."Observe, this was first moved upon the passing of the bill! How came it not to be thought of before? Did the ministers forget it? Had they stood in need of a flapper? But, the time and manner are nothing compared to the thing itself. What! the king has really money in the funds, then! His Majesty is really one of the creditors of his subjects! Well, but, if this be so (and I find it so stated in all the news-papers), I for my part should like to know, why his stock is to be exempted from the tax and, if there is not a man in the nation to join me, I will publickly ask the question. Upon what principle, whether of a want of being represented

parliament," or other, this exemption was proposed, and, without hesitation adopted, we are not informed, and, therefore, we cannot ascertain, whether it was as Elector of Hanover or as a private person, that the exemption was made in favour of his Majesty's property. If, however, as Elector of Hanover, I beg leave to observe, that we are now at war with Prussia for the restoration of that electorate, and Mr. Fox has declared, that nothing in his life ever gave him so much pleasure, as the being authorized by His Majesty to declare, that he would make no peace, that should not include that restoration; and, that, therefore, Icannot see, even upon Mr. Fox's principle, any reason for the exempting of such property from the tax, seeing that the two countries are now so indissolubly united in their fate. If it be private property, which his Majesty has in the funds, while, in common with my readers, I must feel great pleasure, that his Majesty has been able to save money, I must, at the same time, confess, that the proposition for exempting that property from its fair proportion of a tax, which is to reach even those of his subjects who have an income of only fifty pounds a year, has astonished me more than any thing I ever before heard of in my life; insomuch, that I could

not believe the fact, until I had, by examination, ascertained, that it was stated in all. the newspaper reports of the date before mentioned. What! at a time when it is thought necessary to tax the income of every subject down so low as, agreeably to the expression of Mr. Fox, only just to "stop "short of those who receive bread from the "parish;" at a time when the case of the widow and the orphan annuitant is such as is, though not elegantly, yet most powerfully described in a letter in a subsequent page, addressed to LORD HENRY PETTY, and which came to me, an utter stranger to her, from the hands of the distressed writer her. self; at such a time; at a time when, re- . monstrances like this are wrung from the hearts of the people; at such a time...... but, I will say no more at present. I will pause, in the hope, that all these reporters have mistaken the purport of the motion; or, if not so, that the motion will, finally, be rendered of no effect.

INDIA AFFAIRS, (continued from pages 171, 197, 303, 368, 400, 530, 545, 009, 641, and 724). On Wednesday, the 28th instant, MR. PAULL produced, in the House of Commons, his SECOND Charge against Marquis Wellesley, in which the Marquis is accused of high crimes and misdemeanours, committed in his transactions with respect to the Nabob Vizier of Oude, and which, having been previously read at the table, was, upon the motion of MR. PAULL, OFdered to be printed. The motions of Mr. PAULL were, upon this occasion, seconded by LORD ARCHIBALD HAMILTON. As the charge itself will now very soon be before the public, the only remark that I shall make upon the subject at present, is. that if the charge be what it is represented to be in the report of the newspapers, and if it be wellfounded, and if the crimes alledged go unpunished, or if the East India Company be suffered to retain the territory seized upon in Oude, the nations of Europe and the people of the whole world, as far as the British name shall reach, will, without, the assistance of Mr. WHITSHED KEENE, know very well how to estimate British professions, relative to the invading, over-running, laying waste, or seizing upon Electorates and other territories upon the Continent MR.

Fox's speech as well as that of MR FRANCIs were expressive of a determination to do justice.

BREWING TAX.At present I have not time to enter into detail upon this subject; but, I cannot for one moment delay to express my earnest hope, that the ministers will not persist in a measure, which, besides

1

the oppression of it, besides the terrible principle of introducing excisemen into private houses, those houses which, in the books of our laws, are called the castles of Englishmen; besides this pecuniary evil and this mark of slavery, who can bear the idea of driving to the public house, absolutely driving to the public house to quench his thirst, every man who has more than five windows in his house? In London, where there is a choice of brewers, and where the middle class of people can send for their porter to a variety of places within a minute's walk; here the case is different; and, here no one brews his own beer; but, to prevent private brewing in the country (and to tax it is to prevent it) is to destroy all the remains of English hospitality; is to sow the seed of immorality with an unsparing hand; is to break up house-keeping; and it is to go a step farther than any one has ever yet dared to go in annihilating the domestic liberties of Englishmen. It is an odious and a terrible measure; and, therefore, I do hope, and trust, that it will be instantly abandoned.

During the present week several articles, upon the subject of the intended new Commission, have appeared in the COURIER newspaper. They are written with great ability, and are worthy of general attention

ERRORS in the last Number of the Regis ter-In page 771, for 30,000 Hanove rians, read 13,000. In page 772, for five men read seven men.

INCOME TAX.

To the Right Hon. Lord Henry Petty. MY LORD; I take the liberty with the most profound respect, to address your lordship and colleagues, and trust it will not be deemed arrogant or presumptuous, although from the pen of a woman, who has no eloquence to plead in her favour, but the dictates of nature, the voice of reason, and the calls of humanity, which I trust and hope will have some weight. Notwithstanding your lordship is a young man just coming into life, in possession of a large fortune, high in his Majesty's administration, a large emolument of course attached to it; yet I cannot for an instant suppose it possible, amidst all the pomp and power of wealth, that your lordship can be so totally divested of feeling and principle, those divine attributes that illume and adorn the mind, and dignify the soul, worthy the godlike image you bear; you surely, my lord, cannot have

given this Income Tax one moment's thought; when read it in the paper I stood agast, my soul shrunk with horror, for of all the taxations that ever was proposed by man for cruelty and injustice, this spurns at comparison: you stab the very vitals of that part of the community whom the laws human and divine bind you to protect; the orphan, the widow, the unprotected spinster, thousands I dare say besides myself, whose income is so penurious as barely to admit existence. Give me leave then to ask you, my Lord, is it consonant with justice to tax the mite with the voluptuous, to leave no alternative but black despair, no recourse but a mad-house; to dig I cannot, to beg I am ashamed:" humanity must shudder. Forbid it heaven! forbid it every feeling and principle that is humane! I cannot help remarking, my Lord, how little do the rich and great feel. Surely their hearts must be made of adamant, who with all the arrogance of wealth and power, hesitate not to wring from the wretched the last thread of life, with no other feeling than, to use Mr. Fox's words, they "must have the money, the war must be supported." Granted; but will you prey upon the vitals of that part of the community which scareely exists, that has not the common necessaries, and yet must endeavour to keep up appearances? For shame, my lord; tax the luxuries: there you may retrench, and indeed in comforts: but, will you starve soine thousands of your fellow creatures upon the earth Nature recoils; tax those that sport three or four carriages in a day, tax your public places, there is no necessity for your going there if you cannot afford it; tax the Opera House, whose dancers and singers have from two to three thousand a year, to the shame and folly of the nobility be it spoken.Then those are the people to tax that have two or three footmen behind their carriages, those are the people that have most at stake, and ought to come forward; no, our iron hand shall press the poor wretch to the earth. No, my lord, their sufferings and feelings will most assuredly be heard if not by you; there is that Allseeing Omnipotent God, that will protect the oppressed, and you can never expect a blessing on so urjust an act. Forbear then, my lord, to oppress the orphan, the widow, and the unprotected. It will contaminate you, and you will sink beneath its weight. I could fill a volume with its oppression, but I shall at present forbear, and most humbly intreat, nay, conjure your lordship and colleagues, to take it into consideration; for the person that has but 501. a year to pay a tax equal with those of 30,0001. it