Human Virtue-A system, by which in the very act of receiving knowledge, the best virtues and most useful qualities of the moral character are awakened, Bishop of Durham (no odds whether a temporal or a spiritual Lord) in every county or half county, and a Clergyman enlightened with the views and animated with the spirit of Dr. Bell, in every parish, we might bid defiance to the present weight of Taxes, and boldly challenge the whole world to show a Pea santry as well fed and clothed as the English, or with equal chances of improving their situation, and of se curing an old age of repose and comfort to a life of cheerful industry. than has been hitherto done, to my apprehension at least, the real mode in which Taxes act, and how and why and to what extent they affect the wealth, and what is of more consequence, the well-being of a na-developed, and formed into habits. Were there a tion. But in the present exigency, when the safety of the nation depends, on the one hand, on the sense which the people at large have of the comparative excellencies of the Laws and Government, and on the firmness and wisdom of the legislators and enlightened classes in detecting, exposing, and removing its many particular abuses and corruptions on the other, right views on this subject of Taxation are of such especial importance; and I have besides in my inmost nature such a loathing of factious falsehoods and mob-sycophancy, i. e, the flattering of the multitude by informing against their betters; that I cannot but revert to that point of the subject from which I began, namely, that THE WEIGHT OF TAXES IS TO BE CALCULATED NOT BY WHAT IS PAID, BUT BY WHAT IS LEFT. I will add another anecdote, as it demonstrates, incontrovertibly, the error of the vulgar opinion, that Taxes make things really dear, taking in the whole of a man's expenditure. A friend of mine, who had passed some years in America, was questioned by an American Tradesman, in one of their cities of the se Taxes and rates. The answer seemed perfectly to astound him: and he exclaimed, "How is it possible that men can live in such a country? In this land of liberty we never see the face of a Tax-gatherer, not hear of a duty except in our seaports." My friend, who was perfect master of the question, made sem ject: and then, without any apparent reference to the former topic, asked the American, for what sum he thought a man could live in such and such a style, with so many servants, in a house of such dimensions and such a situation (still keeping in his mind the situation of a thriving and respectable shopkeeper and householder in different parts of England,) first supposing him to reside in Philadelphia or New | York, and then in some town of secondary impor tance. Having received a detailed answer to these questions, he proceeded to convince the American, that notwithstanding all our Taxes, a man might live in the same style, but with incomparably greater comforts, on the same income in London as in New What matters it to a man, that he pays six times more Taxes than his father did, if, notwith-cond class, concerning the names and number of our standing, he with the same portion of exertion enjoys twice the comforts which his father did? Now this I solemnly affirm to be the case in general, throughout England, according to all the facts which I have collected during an examination of years, wherever I have travelled, and wherever I have been resident. (I do not speak of Ireland, or the lowlands of Scot-biance of turning off the conversation to another subland: and if I may trust to what I myself saw and heard there, I must even except the Highlands.) In the conversation which I have spoken of as taking place in the south-west of England, by the assistance of one or other of the company, we went through every family in the town and neighborhood, and my assertion was found completely accurate, though the place had no one advantage over others, and many disadvantages, that heavy one in particular, the nonresidence and frequent change of its Rectors, the living being always given to one of the Canons of Windsor, and resigned on the acceptance of better preferment. It was even asserted, and not only as serted but proved, by my friend (who has from his earliest youth devoted a strong, original understand-York, and on a considerably less income in Exeter of ing, and a heart warm and benevolent even to enthusiasm, to the service of the poor and the laboring class,) that every sober Laborer, in that part of England at least, who should not marry till thirty, might, without any hardship or extreme self-denial, commence house-keeping at the age of thirty, with from a hundred to a hundred and twenty pounds belong-be wasting time to inform him, that where men are ing to him. I have no doubt, that on seeing this Essay, my friend will communicate to me the proof in detail. But the price of labor in the south-west of England is full one-third less than in the greater number, if not all, of the Northern Counties. What then is wanting? Not the repeal of Taxes; but the increased activity both of the gentry and clergy of the land, in securing the instruction of the lower classes. A system of education is wanting. such a system as that discovered, and to the blessings of thousands realized, by Dr. Bell, which I never am, or can be weary of praising, while my heart retains any spark of regard for Human Nature, or of reverence for Bristol, than in any American provincial town of the same relative importance. It would be insulting my Readers to discuss on how much less a person may vegetate or brutalize in the back settlements of the republic, than he could live as a man, as a rational and social being, in an English village; and it would comparatively few, and unoccupied land is in inex haustible abundance, the Laborer and common Mechanic must needs receive (not only nominally but really) higher wages than in a populous and fully-oc cupied country. But that the American Laborers therefore happier, or even in possession of more com forts and conveniences of life than a sober or indus trious English Laborer or Mechanic, remains to be proved. In conducting the comparison we must not however exclude the operation of moral causes, when these causes are not accidental, but arise out of the nature of the country and the constitution of the Government and Society. This being the case, take away from the American's wages all the Taxes which his insolence, sloth, and attachment to spiritous liquors impose on him, and judge of the remainder by his house, his household furniture and utensils -and if I have not been grievously deceived by those whose veracity and good sense I have found unquestionable in all other respects, the cottage of an honest English husbandman, in the service of an enlightened and liberal Farmer, who is paid for his labor at the price usual in Yorkshire or Northumberland, would in the mind of a man in the same rank of life, who had seen a true account of America, excite no ideas favorable to emigration. This however, I confess, is a balance of morals rather than of circumstances; it proves, however, that where foresight and good morals exist, the TAXES do not stand in the way of an industrious man's comforts. Dr. Price almost succeeded in persuading the English nation (for it is a curious fact, that the fancy of our calamitous situation is a sort of necessary sauce without which our real prosperity would become insipid to us) Dr. Price, I say, alarmed the country with pretended proofs that the island was in a rapid state of depopulation, that England at the Revolution had been. Heaven knows how much! more populous; and that in Queen Elizabeth's time, or about the Reformation, (!!!) the number of inhabitants in England might have been greater than even at the Revolution. My old mathematical master, a man of an uncommonly clear head, answered this blundering book of the worthy Doctor's, and left not a stone unturned of the pompous cenotaph in which the effigy of the still-living and bustling English prosperity lay interred. And yet so much more suitable was the Doctor's book to the purposes of faction, and to the November mood of (what is called) the PUBLIC, that Mr. Wales's pamphlet, though a master-piece of perspicacity as well as perspicuity, was scarcely heard of. This tendency to political nightmares in our countrymen reminds me of a superstition, or rather nervous disease, not uncommon in the highlands of Scotland, in which men, though broad awake, imagine they see themselves lying dead at a small distance from them. The act of Parliament for ascer taining the population of the empire has laid forever this uneasy ghost: and now, forsooth! we are on the brink of ruin from the excess of population, and he who would prevent the poor from rotting away in disease, misery, and wickedness, is an enemy to his country! A lately deceased miser, of immense wealth, is reported to have been so delighted with this splendid discovery, as to have offered a handsome annuity to the Author, in part of payment, for this new and welcome piece of heart-armor. This, however, we may deduce from the fact of our increased population, that if clothing and food had actually become dearer in proportion to the means of procuring them, it would be as absurd to ascribe this effect to increased Taxation, as to attribute the scantiness of fare, at a public ordinary, to the landlord's bill, when twice the usual number of guests had sat down to the same number of dishes. But the fact is notoriously otherwise, and every man has the means of discovering it in his own house and in that of his neighbor, provided that he makes the proper allowances for the disturbing forces of individual vice and imprudence. If this be the case, I put it to the consciences of our literary demagogues, whether a lie, for the purposes of creating public disunion and dejection, is not as much a lie, as one for the purpose of exciting discord among individuals. I entreat my readers to recollect, that the present question does not concern the effects of taxation on the public independence and on the supposed balance of the free constitutional powers, (from which said balance, as well as from the balance of trade, I own, I have never been able to elicit one ray of common sense.) That the nature of our constitution has been greatly modified by the funding system, I do not deny whether for good or for evil, on the whole, will form part of my Essay on the British Constitution as it actually exists. There are many and great public evils, all of which are to be lamented, some of which may be, and ought to be removed, and none of which can consistently with wisdom or honesty be kept concealed from the public. As far as these originate in false PRINCIPLES, or in the contempt or neglect of right ones (and as such belonging to the plan of THE FRIEND,) I shall not hesitate to make known my opinions concerning them, with the same fearless simplicity with which I have endeavored to expose the errors of discontent and the artifices of faction. But for the very reason that there are great evils, the more does it behove us not to open out on a false scent. I will conclude this Essay with the examination of an article in a provincial paper of a recent date, which is now lying before me; the accidental perusal of which, occasioned the whole of the preceding remarks. In order to guard against a possible mistake, I must premise, that I have not the most distant intention of defending the plan or conduct of our late expeditions, and should be grossly calumniated if I were represented as an advocate for carelessness or prodigality in the management of the public purse. The money may or may not have been culpably wasted. I confine myself entirely to the general falsehood of the principle in the article here cited; for I am convinced, that any hopes of reform originating in such notions, must end in disappointment and public mockery. "ONLY A FEW MILLIONS! We have unfortunately of late been so much accustomed to read of millions being spent in one expedition, and millions being spent in another, that a comparative insignificance is attached to an immense sum of money, by calling it only a few millions. Perhaps some of our readers may have their judgment a little improved by making a few calculations, like those below, on the millions which it has been estimated will be lost to the nation by the late expedition to Holland: and then perhaps, they will be led to reflect on the many millions which are annually expended in expeditions, which have almost invariably ended in absolute loss. In the first place, with less money than it cost the nation to take Walcheren, &c. with the view of taking or destroying the French fleet at Antwerp, consisting of nine sail of the line, we could have completely built and equipped, ready for sea, a fleet of upwards of one hundred sail of the line. Or, secondly, a new town could be built in every county of England, and each town consist of upwards of 1,000 substantial houses, for a less sum. Or. thirdly, it would have been enough to give 1001. to 2,000 poor families in every county in England and Wales. Or, fourthly, it would be more than sufficient to give a handsome marriage portion to 200,000 young women, who probably, if they had even less than 507. would not long remain unsolicited to enter the happy state. Or, fifthly, a much less sum would enable the legislature to establish a life boat in every port in the United Kingdom, and provide for 10 or 12 men to be kept in constant attendance on each; and 100,0007. could be funded, the interest of which to be applied in premiums, to those who should prove to be particularly active in saving lives from wrecks, &c. and to provide for the widows and children of those men who may accidentally lose their lives in the cause of humanity. This interesting appropriation of 10 millions sterling, may lead our readers to think of the great good that can be done by only a few millions." The exposure of this calculation will require but a few sentences. These ten millions were expended, I presume, in arms, artillery, ammunition, clothing, provision, &c. &c. for about one hundred and twenty thousand British subjects: and I presume that all these consumables were produced by, and purchased from, other British subjects. Now during the building of these new towns for a thousand inhabitants each in every county, or the distribution of the hundred pound bank notes to the two thousand poor families, were the industrious ship-builders, clothiers, charcoal-burners, gunpowder-makers, gunsmiths, cutlers, cannon-founders, tailors, and shoemakers, to be left unemployed and starving? or our brave soldiers and sailors to have remained without food and raiment? And where is the proof, that these ten millions, which (observe) all remain in the kingdom, do not circulate as beneficially in the one way as they would in the other? Which is better? To give money to the idle, the houses to those who do not ask for them, and towns to counties which have already perhaps too many? Or to afford opportunity to the industrious to earn their bread, and to the enterprising to better their circumstances, and perhaps found new families of independent proprietors? The only mode, not absolutely absurd, of considering the subject, would be, not by the calculation of the money expended, but of the labor, of which the money is a symbol. But then the question would be removed altogether from the expedition: for assuredly, neither the armies were raised, nor the fleets built or manned for the sake of conquering the Isle of Walcheren, nor would a single regiment have been disbanded, or a single sloop paid off, though the Isle of Walcheren had never existed. The whole dispute, therefore, resolves itself to this one question: whether our soldiers and sailors would not be better employed in making canals for instance, or cultivating waste lands, than in fighting or in learning to fight; and the tradesman, &c. in making grey coats instead of red or blue and ploughshares, &c, instead of arms, When I reflect on the state of China and the moral character of the Chinese, I dare not positively affirm that it would be better. When the fifteen millions, which form our present population, shall have attained to the same purity of morals and of primitive christianity, and shall be capable of being governed by the same admirable discipline, as the Society of the Friends, I doubt not that we should all be Quakers in this as in the other points of their moral doc trine. But were this transfer of employment desirable, is it practicable at present, is it in our power? These men know, that it is not. What then does a their reasoning amount to? Nonsense! ESSAY IV. I have not intentionally either hidden or disguised the Truth, like an advocate ashamed of his client, or a bribed accomptant who falsifies the quotient to make the bankrupt's ledger square with the creditor's inventory. My conscience forbids the use of falsehood and the arts of concealment: and were it otherwise, yet I am persuaded, that a system which has produced and protected so great prosperity, cannot stand in need of them. If therefore Honesty and the Knowledge of the whole Truth be the things you aim at, you will find my principles suited to your ends: and as l like not the democratic forms, so am I not fond of any others above the rest. That a succession of wise and godly mea may be secured to the nation in the highest power is that to which I have directed your attention in this Essay, which if you will read, perhaps you may see the error of those principles which have led you into errors of practice. I wrote it purposely for the use of the multitude of well-meaning people, that are tempted in these times to usurp authority and meddle with government before they have any call from duty or tolerable understanding of its principles. I ever intended it for learned men versed in polities; but for such as will be practitioners before they have been students." -BAXTER'S Holy Commonwealth, or Political Apto risms. THE metaphysical (or as I have proposed to call them, metapolitical) reasonings hitherto discussed, belong to Government in the abstract. But there is a second class of Reasoners, who argue for a change in our Government from former usage, and from sta tutes still in force, or which have been repealed, (so these writers affirm) either through a corrupt influ ence, or to ward off temporary hazard or inconve nience. This class, which is rendered illustrious by the names of many intelligent and virtuous patriots, are advocates for reform in the literal sense of the word. They wish to bring back the Government of Great Britain to a certain form, which they affirm it to have once possessed; and would melt the bullion anew in order to recast it in the original mould. The answer to all arguments of this nature is obvious, and to my understanding appears decisive. These Reformers assume the character of Legislators or of Advisers of the Legislature, not that of Law Judges or appellants to Courts of Law. Sundry sta tutes concerning the rights of electors (we will sup pose) still exist; so likewise do sundry statutes on other subjects (on witchcraft for instance) which change of circumstances has rendered obsolete, or increased information shown to be absurd. It is evident, therefore, that the expediency of the regulations prescribed by them, and their suitableness to the existing circumstances of the kingdom, must first be proved: and on this proof must be rested all rational claims for the enforcement of the statutes that have men. ment in 1660, which declared all the natives of Eng- in any former period of our History, considered as another, on the old principle, take one and leave the other; but whichever you take, take it all or none. Laws seldom become obsolete as long as they are both useful and practicable; but should there be an exception, there is no other way of reviving its validity, but by convincing the existing Legislature of its undiminished practicability and expedience; which in all essential points is the same as the recommending of a new Law. And this leads me to the third class of the advocates of Reform, those, namely, who leaving ancient statutes to Lawyers and Historians, and universal principles with the demonstrable deductions from them to the Schools of Logic, Mathematics, Theology, and Ethics, rest all their measures, which they wish to see adopted, wholly on their expediency. Consequently, they must hold themselves prepared to give such proof, as the nature of comparative expediency admits, and to bring forward such evidence, as experience and the logic of probability can supply, that the plans which they recom not, no less than for the re-acting of those that have been, repealed. If the authority of the men, who first enacted the Laws in question, is to weigh with us, it must be on the presumption that they were wise But the wisdom of Legislation consists in the adaptation of Laws to circumstances. If then it can be proved, that the circumstances, under which those laws were enacted, no longer exist; and that other circumstances altogether different, and in some instances opposite, have taken their place; we have the best grounds for supposing, that if the men were now alive, they would not pass the same statutes. In other words, the spirit of the statute interpreted by the intention of the Legislator would annul the letter of it. It is not indeed impossible, that by a rare feli-sidered as one sum total, and those of our Ancestors city of accident the same law may apply to two sets of circumstances. But surely the presumption is, that regulations well adapted for the manners, the social distinctions, and the state of property, of opinion, and of external relations of England in the reign of Alfred, or even in that of Edward the First, will not be well suited to Great Britain at the close of the reign of George the Third. For instance: at the time when the greater part of the cottagers and inferior farmers were in a state of villenage, when Sussex alone contained seven thousand, and the Isle of Wight twelve hundred families of bondsmen, it was the law of the land that every freeman should vote in the Assembly of the Nation personally or by his representative. An act of Parliament in the year 1660 confirmed what a concurrence of causes had previously effected:-every Englishman is now born free, the laws of the land are the birth-right of every native, and with the exception of a few honorary privileges all classes obey the same Laws. Now, argues one of our political writers, it being made the constitution of the land by our Saxon ancestors, that every free-mend for adoption, are: first, practicable; secondly, man should have a vote, and all Englishmen being now born free, therefore, by the constitution of the land, every Englishman has now a right to vote. How shall we reply to this without breach of that respect, to which the Reasoner at least, if not the Reasoning, is entitled? If it be the definition of a pun, that it is the confusion of two different meanings, under the same or similar sound, we might almost characterize this argument as being grounded on a grave pun. Our ancestors established the right of voting in a particular class of men, forming at that time the middle rank of society, and known to be all of them, or almost all, legal proprietors-and these were then called the Freemen of England: therefore they establish ed it in the lowest classes of society, in those who possess no property, because these too are now called by the same name!! Under a similar pretext, grounded on the same precious logic, a Mameluke Bey extorted a large contribution from the Egyptian Jews: "These books (the Pentateuch) are authentic?"— Yes! "Well, the debt then is acknowledged:-and now the receipt, or the money, or your heads! The Jews borrowed a large treasure from the Egyptians; you are the Jews, and on you, therefore, I call for the repayment." Besides, if a law is to be interpreted by the known intention of its makers, the Parlia but suited to the existing circumstances; and lastly, necessary, or at least requisite, and such as will enable the Government to accomplish more perfectly the ends for which it was instituted. These are the three indispensable conditions of all prudent change, the credentials, with which Wisdom never fails to furnish her public envoys. Whoever brings forward a measure that combines this threefold excellence, whether in the Cabinet, the Senate, or by means of the Press, merits emphatically the title of a patriotic Statesman. Neither are they without a fair claim to respectful attention as State-Counsellors, who fully aware of these conditions, and with a due sense of the difficulty of fulfilling them, employ their time and talents in making the attempt. An imperfect plan is not necessarily a useless plan: and in a complex enigma the greatest ingenuity is not always shown by him who first gives the complete solution. The dwarf sees farther than the giant, when he has the giant's shoulders to mount on Thus, as perspicuously as I could, I have exposed the erroneous principles of political Philosophy, and pointed out the one only ground on which the constitution of Governments can be either condemned or justified by wise men. If I interpret aright the signs of the times, that branch of politics which relates to the necessity and 1st. In the quality and quantity of the powers. One practicability of infusing new life into our Legisla-possesses Chemists, Mechanists, Mechanics of all kinds, ture, as the best means of securing talent and wis- Men of Science; and the arts of war and peace; and dom in the Cabinet, will shortly occupy the public its Citizens naturally strong and of halitual courage. attention with a paramount interest.* I would glad- Another State may possess none or a few only of these ly therefore suggest the proper state of feeling and or the same more imperfectly. Or of two States pos the right preparatory notions with which this disqui- sessing the same in equal perfection the one is mont sition should be entered upon and I do not know numerous than the other, as France and Switzerlazi how I can effect this more naturally, than by relating 2d. In the more or less perfect union of these powers the facts and circumstances which influenced my Compare Mr. Leckie's valuable and authentic doc own mind. I can scarcely be accused of egotism, as ments respecting the state of Sicily with the preceding in the communications and conversations which I Essay on Taxation. 3dly. In the greater or less acam about to mention as having occurred to me during tivity of exertion. Think of the ecclesiastical State and my residence abroad, I am no otherwise the hero of its silent metropolis, and then of the county of Lancas the tale, than as being the passive receiver or audi-ter and the towns of Manchester and Liverpool. What tor. But above all, let it not be forgotten, that in the following paragraphs I speak as a Christian Moralist, not as a Statesman. To examine any thing wisely, two conditions are requisite: first, a distinct notion of the desirable ENDS, in the complete accomplishment of which would consist the perfection of such a thing, or its ideal excellence; and, secondly, a calm and kindly mode of feeling, without which we shall hardly fail either to overlook, or not to make due allowances for, the circumstances which prevent these ends from being all perfectly realized in the particular thing which we are to examine. For instance, we must have a general notion what a MAN can be and ought to be, before we can fitly proceed to determine on the merits or demerits of any one individual. For the examination of our own Government, I prepared my mind, therefore, by a short Catechism, which I shall communicate in the next Essay, and on which the letter and anecdotes that follow, will, I flatter myself, be found an amusing, if not an instructive commentary. ESSAY V. Hoe potissimum pacto felicem ac magnum regem se fore judicans: non si quam plurimis sed si quam optimis imperet. Proinde parum esse putat justis præsidiis regnum suum mu niisse, nisi idem viris eruditione juxta ac vitæ integritate præcellentibus ditet atque honestet. Nimirum intelligit hæc demum esse vera regni decora, has veras opes: hanc veram et nullis unquam seculis cessuram gloriam.-ERAS. Rot. R. S. Poncherio, Episc. Parisien. Epistola. Translation.-Judging that he will have employed the most effectual means of being a happy and powerful king, not by governing the most numerous but the most moral people. He deemed of small sufficiency to have protected the country by fleets and garrison, unless he should at the same time enrich and ornament it with men of eminent learning and sanctity. IN what do all States agree? A number of menexert-power-in union. Wherein do they differ? *I am in doubt whether the five hundred petitions presented at the same time to the House of Commons by the Member for Westminster, are to be considered as a fulfilment of this prophecy. I have heard the echoes of a single blunderbuss, on one of our Cumberland lakes, imitate the volley from a whole regiment. is the condition of powers exerted in union by a num ber of men? A Government. What are the ends of Government? They are of two kinds, negative and positive. The negative ends of Government are the protection of life, of personal freedom, of property, of reputation, and of religion, from foreign and from domestic attacks. The positive ends are, 1st. to make the means of subsistence more easy to each individual: 2d. that in addition to the necessaries of life he should derive from the union and division of labor a share of the comforts and conveniences which bumanize and ennoble his nature; and at the same time the power of perfecting himself in his own branch of industry by having those things which he needs provided for him by other among his fellow-citizens; including the tools and raw or manufactured materi als necessary for his own employment. I knew a profound mathematician in Sicily, who had devoted a full third of his life to the perfecting the discovery of the Longitude, and who had convinced not only himself but the principal mathematicians of Messina and Pa lermo that he had succeeded; but neither throughout Sicily or Naples could he find a single Artist capable of constructing the instrument which he had invented † 3dly. The hope of bettering his own condition and that of his children. The civilized man gives up thom stimulants of hope and fear which constitute the chief charm of the savage life: and yet his maker has dis tinguished him from the brute that perishes, by making Hope an instinct of his nature and an indispensable condition of his moral and intellectual progression. But a natural instinct constitutes a natural right, es far as its gratification is compatible with the equal rights of others. Hence our ancestors classed those who were bound to the soil (addicti gleba) and incapa The good man, who is poor, oid, and blind, universally esteemed for the innocence and austerity of his life not less than for his learning, and yet universally neglected, except by persons almost as poor as himself, strongly reminded me of a German epigram on Kepler, which may be thus translated: No mortal spirit yet had clomb so high The good old man presented me with the book in which he has described and demonstrated his invention: and I should with great pleasure transmit it to any mathematician who would feel an interest in examining it and communicating his opinions on its merits. |