phancy, and venal prostitution have raised to the national pride of a more prosperous people. Let him be well assured, that neither wit, nor imagination, nor the powers of language, can save him from being himself, in some degree, affected by the impression, which in the extravagancy of caricature, he has foolishly and disingenuously produced. A little reflection will repress or extinguish this too common vice, or error; and the smail dealers in literature will no longer have any motive to employ a sterile invention, in the fabrication of frish bulls and blunders; or an arid imagination to decorate with new interwoven in the general interest of the empire. Let it not be attempted to excuse supineness or indifference, by any supposed inefficacy of literary effort to awaken slumbering apathy, and give attraction and interest to a cause habitually and criminally so much neglected. The British mind is not so callous, so degenerated, as to be uninfluenced by the lessons of wisdom, and the dictates of policy; to be unmoved by the forceful deductions of cultivated reason, and the strong impressions of manly virtue, But, why so anxiously desire the popular discussion of this subject? Because the impulse of popular wish may communicate motion to adresses, and Irish scenery, the stale jokes of free government; and the coincidence and the worthy Joe Millar. Interested knavery, approbation of popular opinion give addi- and perverted intellect will cease to invent tional effect to remedial measures. Because falsehoods for credulity and self-love, to beinveterate prejudices exist which must be lieve and propagate. Liberal, reflecting Eneradicated, by exposure and argument; and glishmen will blush at the recollection, that that the intellectual and physical powers of the natural and necessary effects of a noverthe lower orders of the Irish, must become cal, oppressive system of government have. beiter understood, and more justly appre- been, hitherto, unjustly and insultingly asciated. Their character must no longer be signed as the cause of overbearing insolence, received on the authority of a prosing, prag- and supercilious contempt towards the sister matic doctor, a talking, technical chancellor, country, as Ireland is usually styled, by an or a pliant and versatile young lord with two ingratiating figure of rhetoric. They will strings to his bow. The garrats and cellars learn to dissolve the unfounded association dí of St. Giles's must not be raked for speci- the name of common Irish, with the odious mens of the lower Irish; scenes where the vices of laziness, drunkenness, and dishoreaction of an indignant spirit against provo nesty, when they have examined to what exKing insult, and irritating sarcasm, gives to tent those vicious qualities really belong to the poor Irishman a character not habitual those orders, and to what degree their existto him, and which in fairness ought to be at- ence is imputable to the nature of their gotributed to his situation and circumstances vernment, and other moral causes. It will To give unity of effect to the political union be no satisfactory proof of laziness, to obof the two countries; to weaken, and ulti serve the annual crowds of haymakers, who mately destroy the moral repulsion which possessing a greater spirit of industry than disunites the people, and would burst the ar scope for its exercise, resort to this country, tificial chain of unequal connexion, a reform, in time of harvest, to seek employment; and in the system of manuers and treatment pur- return home with their little savings, at the sued towards the Irish, is essentially neces- close of the season. Similar migrations from the sary. The Irish coxcomb too, whatever be Western Counties of Ireland, to the Northhis rank and station, who fancies that his ern, and Eastern, and other more opulent elegance and refinement may suit with a parts of the island, afford an additional refuhigher scene of birth, must be convinced, tation of this traditional calumny. Nor will that there is nothing culpable in being born the charge receive much support from the in Ireland. That the distinguishing accent companies of Irish pavers, bricklayers, ma-. of his countrymen is not disgraceful, though sons, and labourers, to be met with in every affectation make it ridiculous., Existing street of the metropolis; and those still more fashions must be completely altered. No laborious drudges, the coal-heavers on the unworthy, or time-serving complaisance for River Thames, and the hardy fishermen of the higher civilization, and boasted superio- Newfoundland. Intoxicating liquors are rity of Englishmen, should induce Irishmen too often the resource of pining want, and to misrepresent the character of their native lingering wretchedness, to stimulate an excountry, to flatter the vanity of others, at hausted, prostrate system, into temporary the sacrifice of truth and candour. The man animation; or to suspend the uneasy feelings who is guilty of such intolerable folly, or of cheerless poverty. The exhilarating corabominable apostacy, but sullies his own dial is a powerful anodyne, the sovereign pacharacter, by the sinoke of that incense he nacea for human ills. This injurious pracburns on the altar, which parasitical syco-tice is not peculiar to the Irish; and instances are not unfrequent, among the natives of this country, of persons equally addicted to it. It is the hasty resolution of impatient suffering; let the flame of life burn brighter while it lasts, and we regard not how soon it be extinguished. But a government cannot, with any colour of justice, complain of habits which they have themselves chiefly produced; and from the indulgence of which they derive an ample revenue. Why has not the brewery of ale, and porter, been encouraged in Ireland, rather than the distillation of a fiery, deleterious spirit! The crimp and the exciseman may explain the secret, But the cheapness of this destructive beverage, and those seductive properties usually ascribed to it, have proved temptations too strong, even for English sobriety to resist; as the Warwickshire militia whilst on duty in Dublin, in the year 1797, decisively experienced, to the no small disadvantage of their health and discipline. I do not think that dishonesty is common among the lower classes, in situations of trust or confidence. But, surely, abject poverty is a bad school for honesty or virtue. Man is the creature of excitements and circumstances; and in a country where rebellion and confiscation have been familiar, and the violent transfer of possession maintained by superior power, it is not surprising that the simple, and the ignorant, should confound the ideas of usurp ed title, and legitimate property. That they should cease to feel this sacred regard for that first of rights, in man's progress towards civilization and improvement, so much cherished in this country, where it has, happily, remained so long undisturbed. There, unfortunately, society was divided into oppres sors, and oppressed; plunderers and plundered; and, as might be expected in such a situation of things, the plundered, and their descendants were restrained by the strong arm of power alone, from continual inroads on the newly acquired property, under the notion of retaliation, or rightful resumption. Besides, the morals of the people were neglected; spiritual edification was substituted for rational instruction. The beneficent spirit of the Christian religion was sacrificed to a blind, devotional attachment to rituals, and forms. The comprehensive code of the gospel was, by the comments, and interpretations of rival, polemic doctors, restricted to the narrow pale of their respective followers. Heathen philosophy would sigh to behold men professing a religion of universal charity, and brotherly love, yet sowing the seeds of infuriate dissention; defeating the moral and practical tendency of the sublime precepts of their Heavenly Master. Jea lousy and distrust, now divided the higher from the lower ranks; the lord from his tenant; the master from his servant. Odious duplicity and treachery marked the intercourse of the classes. Affability and condescension on the rich man's tongue, but concealed the suspicion which lay lurking in his heart. The poor man's gratitude rose no higher, than submissive acquiescence in his hard condition. The sources of social comfort were dried up; society was impoisoned by fear and hatred; until gradually sapped in its foundations, it crumbled into those disjointed ruins, which still mark by their dis tance the violence of the separation. This is the unseemly heap, in which the mass of Irish population presents itself to our view this is the prospect from which every friend of humanity, every friend of the British Empire, must recoil with horror. Through the remote influence of circumstances so inauspicious to the practice of the social virtues, some persons may be found, who, from a confusion of morals, are less scrupulous on the distinctions of property, which, in their view, have not acquired that maturity, which can countervail the antiquity of former clain. Yet, while their sense of order, and of tight, has been deadened by the violent operation of irregular causes, the prisons continue to be their only schools of morality, and the executioner the most impressive of its teachers. Unhappily, too, some men, through a fatal and perverse disposition, of a mind warped by the influence of a corrupt government, and deformed by the base passion of inveterate selfishness, contribute by their policy and conduct to perpetuate those evils. Of the beneficial effects of the present viceregal government in Ireland, we can make little account. The precarious, and uncerain duration of this sort of government, perpetually changing the complexion of its administration, under the direction and influence of a succession of men, of different principles and plans of policy, renders it incapable of producing any extensive or durable benefit. The power of vice-royalty may undulate from the Castle, and move the fluctuating mass of the people; but like the waves of the ocean, subject to the changes and storms of a superior element. I have now considered soine of those causes of jealousy, and alienated affections, which, among the lower orders of the Irish, destroy all attachment to this country; and every feeling of interest in the general prosperity, and security of the empire. I have proved the injustice of some common reflections on their national character; and shewn, that those features of it which are most excep their land would be considerably raised; as the small tenants would then have an interest in its proper cultivation, from the improbability that any other person could intercept the advantages of their improvements, by stepping between them and their landlord, when they came to apply for a renewal of their leases. Underleases, on the contrary, check all improvement for some years before the expiration of the term; and the farm reverts to the landlord, rather impoverished than improved. A frugal, and rigid a:conomy habitual to the farming cultivator, would powerfully contribute to a ionable, are fairly imputable to other causes, than untowardness or depravity of natural disposition. I have pointed some observations to the reform in British sentiment, and manners, necessary to conciliate the Irish people; and to unite and cement, both nations in feelings of amity, and reciprocal benevolence. I shall next proceed to those internal regulations, which, in my opinion, promise fairest to produce unanimity among the people of Ireland themselves. On this part of my subject, my embarrassinent does not arise from the difficulty of finding expedients, but from the perverseness and opposition of those likely to obstruct their adop-rapid increase of stock, upon those little tion, conceiving the present state of things more conducive to their particular interests. A new order of things, however, is absolutely necessary. The misery of the labouring poor of Ireland is not stationary, but progressive. I now assume the existence of this misery, according to a former statement, as an incontrovertible fact, a conclusion of the senses forced on the attention even of the most indifferent observer. Looking Looking round me, and viewing this subject in its various aspects, I have weighed possibilities, and compared them with my object, in the eager wish to discover some remedy for the evil, by the gradual operation of causes, altogether independent of the direct interfe rence of the legislature. Mach might be done through the patriotic exertions of the aristocracy of Ireland; but the firm convietion of my mind, from past and present experience is, that no voluntary sacrifices of that body can be expected, sufficient to remove the overwhelming grievances of which the poor have to complain. The first object then should be to diminish the number of stipendiary labourers, and to increase the class of farming cultivators. To effectuate this, all underletting for terms of less than three lives, or thirty-one years, should be strictly and effectually prohibited, by an act of the legislature. In every case, where he who is willing to part with his land, has himself a shorter term, he should be obliged, by the provisions of the act, to make a complete assignment of his entire interest; or, should he wish to retain a part, then the land to be divided in such proportion as may be agreed on between the parties, the rent of the farm to be fairly apportioned, and the assignee to hold his part, immediately, of the original landlord, exempt from any responsibility whatever for or to the assignor. Such a law would extinguish the most detestable of the middlemen; but would be attended with decided advantage to the land owners. The value of farms; which would multiply the annual Let us, regularity on his part, to drag him into the cent. of their annual income. But, this subject has been so ably discussed by Mr. Francis and yourself, (in p. 720) that any farther observations upon it on this occasion are unnecessary, Neither shall I recapitulate those argumen's in my former letter, in favour of a progressive scale of contribution, since their justice has been admitted by all your last week's correspondents, on the same subject; and they have been sanctioned by the very respectable authority of Mr. Wil berforce, and Mr.. W. Smith, when honourably and humanely pleading for a still farther extension of those exemptions which Lord H. Petty (actuated by the same just and liberal sentiments) has allowed to those who by great exertions could earn 55.-His lordship's speech on this occasion, dres great credit to his head and heart. It affords a gratifying expectation that he will exert to the utmost, his very respectable abilities in still farther alleviating the severe pressure of the income tax on the lower orders of the community; that he will rather be influenced by the eloquent pleadings of justice and hamianity, in behalf of suffering millions, than by the interested clamours and groundless alarms of opulent land proprietors.—Is it just, is it decent, that those who are by the intended property tax, required only to pay a tithe of the annual interest of their inSIR;As my former letter on the mense property to secure the principal unabove subject, has been honoured with the impaired, should complain of the injury they notice and approbation of two corresponsuffer, from the exemption to the journeydents in your last week's Register, (see p. man, mechanic, or artisan, who by unremit 729 and 754) and I cannot but consider the ted exertions can earn 5s. per day! !--No subject itself as of the highest importance; I one, Sir, can be more fully convinced than beg leave to offer some farther observations myself, of the necessity for disparity of rank upon it. This tax being levied for the pur- and condition, for the exercise of delegated, pose of securing all the landed, funded, and responsible power, and for the observance of other property in the United Kingdom of due subordination among the different classGreat Britain, (whether belonging to sub- es of civilised society. Nay, farther, I jects or aliens) by a payment of 10 per cent. will readily admit, that where there is mast of the annual interest arising from such pro- freedom in the constitution of a government, perty, may be aptly denominated a Pro- most clemency in the exercise of its autho perty Tax." But, as the same annual im-rity, most wisdom, liberality, and humanity, post of 10 per cent. is by this tax indiscri-' in the August. Representative, and the cominately laid upon all income, from what-existent members of its sovereign power, ever source derived, (though subject to certain exemptions) it is, as you justly observe, to all intents and purposes, an "income tax."---The former appellation, therefore, applies to its institution; the latter to its operation. This distinction is of more importance than on a transient view it may appear to be; because it applies immediately to the case of foreign stock-holders, for the security of whose funded property, all classes of Brith subjects are obliged to pay 10 per PROPERTY AND INCOME TAX. LETTER II. there must also exist, the highest obligations of loyalty, subordination, and obedience.— Such is still the government, and such the subjects of these favoured islands, that such thing may continue to the end of time, must be the wish of every one who is worthy the name of Briton. But the government whose stability rests on the equipoise of different principles and powers, is equally endangered by despotism, as by licentiousness. (To be Continued.) Printed by Cox and Baylis, No. 75, Great Queen Street, and published by R. Bagshaw, Bow Street Covent Garden, where former Numbers may be had; sold also by J. Budd, Crown and Mitre, Pall Mall. VOL. IX. No. 23.] LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1805. [PRICE 100. 833] "Fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery."- JOB. cap. xv. TO THE ELECTORS OF HONITON. LETTER II. GENTLEMEN ; Perceiving that Mr. Cavendish Bradshaw has, since by your voice he was constituted one of the guardians of the public purse, taken care to obtain a place by the means of which he will draw into his own pocket some thousands a year out of that purse, and this, too, at a time when the load of indispensible taxes is pressing his honest and industrious constituents to the earth; perceiving this, and being fully persuaded, that, whenever the electors of any place rechoose representatives under similar circumstances, the cause is not so much in their own disposition as in the apathy and lukewarmness of those independent men who may have the ability to rescue them from such hands; with this truth being deeply impressed, I did, upon hearing of the approaching vacancy, use my efforts to prevail upon other men of this description to afford you an opportunity of evincing your good sense and uprightness, and, having failed in those efforts, I have thought it my duty to afford you this opportunity myself; it being manifestly true, that, unless men of independence and of public-spirit will offer themselves as candidates, to rail at electors for choosing and re-choosing the dependent and the mercenary is, in the highest degree, unreasonable and unjust.- -As to professions, Gentlemen, so many and so loud, upon such occasions, have they been; so numerous are the instances, in which the foulness and shamelessness of the apostacy have borne an exact proportion to the purity and solem-, nity of the vow; so completely, and with such fatal effect, have the grounds of confidence been destroyed, that, it is now become necessary, upon all occasions like the present, to give a pledge, such as every man can clearly understand, and such as it is impossible to violate without exposing the violator to detection and to all the consequences of detected hypocrisy and falsehood; and, such a pledge I now give in declaring, that, whether you elect me or not, I never, as long as I live, either for myself, or for, or through the means of, any one of my family, will receive, under any name, whether of salary, pension or other, either directly or in -[834 directly, one single farthing of the public money; but, without emolument, compensation, or reward of any kind or in any shape, will, to the utmost of my ability, watch over and defend the property, the liberties and the privileges of the people, never therefrom separating, as I never yet have, the just and constitutional rights and prerogatives of the crown. -This declaration, Gentlemen, is not made without due reflection as to the future as well as to the present, as to public men in general as well as to myself. It proceeds, first, from an opinion, that the representatives of the people ought never to be exposed to the temptation of betraying their trust; secondly, from long observation, that those who live upon the public are amongst the most miserable of men; and, thirdly, from that experience in the various walks of life, which has convinced me of the wisdom of Hagar, who prayed for neither riches nor poverty; not riches, lest he should forget God; not poverty, lest he should be tempted to steal: and, to receive the public money unjustly, is not only stealing, but stealing of the worst and basest sort, including a breach of the most sacred trust, accompanied with the cowardly consciousness of impunity. From reflections like these, Gentlemen, it is, that the declaration now made has proceeded, and, when I depart, in word or in deed, from this declaration, may I become the scorn of my country; wherein to be remembered with esteem, I prize beyond all the riches and all the honours of this world.But, Gentlemen, as it is my firm deterinination never to receive a farthing of the public money, so it is my detremination equally firm, never, in any way whatever, to give one farthing of my own money to any man, in order to induce him to vote, or to cause others to vote, for me; and, being convinced, that it is this practice of giving, or promising to give, mo ney, or money's worth, at elections; being convinced, that it is this disgraceful, this unfawful, this profligate, this impious practice, to which are to be ascribed all our calamities and all the dangers that now stare us in the face, I cannot refrain from exhorting you to be, against all attempts at such practices, constantly and watchfully upon your |