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The queen of Etruria has lived too long. Her invincible antipathy to an alliar.ce with a member of the new dynasty, must no longer be endured; therefore, immediate measures must be taken to force her to compliance, or, she shall have lived. It is besides, extremely derogatory from our dignity, that while ourself is king of Italy, any regal title out of our family should be maintained there. The dialogue

has most probably proceeded in the following manner:

Baon. How shall we get rid of her, and the whole Spanish family?

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Tally. With submission to your imperial majesty, (whose power is everlasting, and whose wisdom is infinite,) I have been revolving the subject in my mind, and have organized a plan which cannot fail of success, if it should meet your imperial sanction. It will require us to get rid of two or three persons suddenly.

Bona. N'importe; proceed.

Tally. I propose then, that your august sister, the princess of Frisco-Formio,* should poison her husband, Borghese, who, being a mere Italian noble, is not fit to be allied with your imperial house; this done, the prince of Asturias must be forced to marry her, and your brother Lucien, sensible of his error, will marry the queen of Etruria.

Bona. But she objects to him, and he is already married secretly.

Talley. Leave that to me -His present wife shall die, and the queen he can easily dispatch, (as he did his first wife,) with an ice cream, at Frascati. The result will be, that as soon as he has poisoned the queen of Etruria, after their marriage, your imperial majesty will divest his majesty the king of Holland of his throne, on account of the ill state of his health, and the insalubrity of the climate, and give the throne of Holland to prince Lucien, who, marrying a Russian princess, will strengthen the grand alliance against the shop-keepers. The prince of Asturias will have the throne of Portugal, with the Brazils, and the whole of Spanish America, (excepting the products of the mines, which must come, exclusively, into your majesty's private coffers.) The prince of peace must poison his wife, and engage the queen of Spain to poison her husband, under the hope that he shall ascend the throne, and marry her. It will then be necessary, that the queen should be sent to a convent for life, which we shall soon abridge on account of her crimes, and the prince of peace must be tried and condemned for treason.

Bona. I approve it all. Poison, kill, and massacre; but let me have the work done. Cannot you contrive to assassinate the king of England?

Tally. Your imperial majesty !-the English do not assassinate.

Bona. Les B- -S.

Tally, I solicit your imperial majesty's generosity toward me, for the fortune of the prince of peace, which must be confiscated after his execution for his crimes.

Bona. Take it: but remember my fee.

I request that this manufactured dialogue may be remembered; for, I am persuaded that its consequences will either come to pass, or that something very similar will shortly happen.

IMIGRATION OF THE COURT OF PORTUGAL.

The single occurrence of the removal of the house of Braganza to South America, is an unanswerable argument in vindication of the necessity, and policy of continuing our exertions, until we have compelled that monstrous tyranny which holds the continent of Europe in chains, to acknowledge our national rights, and to renounce that destructive ambition which has for so many years, disturbed the peace of all the world. Had the wishes of the petitioners for peace been complied with, Portugal would have remained in a condition of precarious dependence, and the system of Buonaparte would have been acted upon to a very great extent. Of the circumstances pon the emigration of the court of Portugal, the reader will see a partial the official papers of this number-for the present, I shall indulge my

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er new title.-She was the other day, princess of Borghese.

-AT

vanity, with a declaration, that six years ago, I proposed in print, the measure which has now taken place, and that in two numbers of the present volume, I specified the plan and the manner of its execution. In my next, I shall go deeply into the subject, and shall close the business of this extraordinary year with a wish as sincere, relative to the prosperity of the prince of Brazil, and his faithful adherents, as ever man made in the presence of HEAVEN, and in the language of the patriotic bard of Portugal, whose lovely and sublime poem of the Lusiad is scarcely known in England.

Safe through the deep, where every yawning wave
Still to the sailor's eye displays his grave;

Through howling tempests, and through gulphs untry'd,
Oh! Mighty God be thou their watchful guide.

The Lusiad of Camoens.

shall be assigned at the This I have executed,

N. B. It has been my chief object, for reasons that opening of the NEW YEAR, to complete the State Papers. with the exception of only one Paper, containing a foolish decree of the tyrant maniac, relative to the exclusion of our commerce, and which, is of no great importance.

The people of England have gotten their reward. If they be insensible or ungrate→ ful to Providence, for having brought about an event that will infallibly change the face of the whole world, and in their favour too, my humble labours cannot be of service, much longer, to my readers. Next Saturday I will make good this pro

position.

***The gentleman to whom I had confided the preparation of the Index, to the two volumes of the year, has not only not transmitted it, but he has not had the civility even to explain the cause of his negligence. What is to be done, I know not at present; but, most assuredly, some plan shall be devised before the publication of the next number, which, I hope, will prove acceptable.

ON THE REGULATION AND EXTENSION OF EXISTING TAXES. Letter III.

Being a reply to, and refutation of, Mr. Yorke's proposal relative to the Property Tax. SIR,-I cannot deny but that I have experienced, in common I should suppose with your other readers, some degree of disappointment from the perusal of the article in your last number, upon a plan of taxation. I will not say that, after having excited some expectation, nascitur ridiculus mus; but, I will say, that, after having for two successive weeks announced your intention of lending the aid of your luminous mind to this important subject, your readers had reason to expect something more than the disclosure of one simple proposition, which has been often before the public, and, you must allow me to add, as often refuted; viz. that the scale of the property-tax (for I suppose you did not mean income-tax, though you use that expression) should rise gradually without ceasing. This, I take it, would have been as plain a way of stating your proposal as that which you have adopted; and, perhaps, somewhat plainer than the second of the three tables which you have published.

As you so liberally invite discussion upon this topic, I shall avail myself of that invitation, to state, in as short a compass as I am able, a few of the many unanswerable objections to your proposal; which may, I conceive, be stated as follows:

1. That it would tend to make the property-tax more unequal than it is at present. 2. That it would increase the great objections to that tax, the harsh and inquisito rial nature of it.

3. That it would diminish the produce of all the other taxes.

The queen of Etruria has lived too long. Her invincible antipathy to an alliance with a member of the new dynasty, must no longer be endured; therefore, immediate measures must be taken to force her to compliance, or, she shall have live!. It is besides, extremely derogatory from our dignity, that while ourself is king f Italy, any regal title out of our family should be maintained there. The dialogue has most probably proceeded in the following manner:

Baon. How shall we get rid of her, and the whole Spanish family?

Tally. With submission to your imperial majesty, (whose power is everlasting. and whose wisdom is infinite,) I have been revolving the subject in my mind, a have organized a plan which cannot fail of success, if it should meet your imper! sanction. It will require us to get rid of two or three persons suddenly.

Bona. N'importe; proceed.

Tally. I propose then, that your august sister, the princess of Frisco-Formio, should poison her husband, Borghese, who, being a mere Italian noble, is not fit to be allied with your imperial house; this done, the prince of Asturias must be force! to marry her, and your brother Lucien, sensible of his error, will marry the quee of Etruria.

Bona. But she objects to him, and he is already married secretly.

Talley. Leave that to me -His present wife shall die, and the queen he can easy dispatch, (as he did his first wife,) with an ice cream, at Frascati. The result wil be, that as soon as he has poisoned the queen of Etruria, after their marriage, your imperial majesty will divest his majesty the king of Holland of his throne, on a count of the ill state of his health, and the insalubrity of the climate, and give the throne of Holland to prince Lucien, who, marrying a Russian princess, will strengthen the grand alliance against the shop-keepers. The ince of Asturias will have the throne of Portugal, with the Brazils, and the whole of Spanish America, (exceping the products of the mines, which must come, exclusively, into your majesty's private coffers.) The prince of peace must poison his wife, and engage the queen of Spain to poison her husband, under the hope that he shall ascend the throne, and mary her. It will then be necessary, that the queen should be sent to a convent for which we shall soon abridge on account of her crimes, and the prince of peace must be tried and condemned for treason.

Bona. I approve it all. Poison, kill, and massacre; but let me have the work done. Cannot you contrive to assassinate the king of England?

Tally. Your imperial majesty !-the English do not assassinate.

Bona. Les B-s.

Tally, I solicit your imperial majesty's generosity toward me, for the fortun of the prince of peace, which must be confiscated after his execution for b crimes.

Bona. Take it: but remember my fee.

I request that this manufactured dialogue may be remembered; for, I am per suaded that its consequences will either come to pass, or that something very similar will shortly happen.

IMIGRATION OF THE COURT OF PORTUGAL.

The single occurrence of the removal of the house of Braganza to South Americ is an unanswerable argument in vindication of the necessity, and policy of continu our exertions, until we have compelled that monstrous tyranny which holds the c tinent of Europe in chains, to acknowledge our national rights, and to renounce th destructive ambition which has for so many years, disturbed the peace of all Le world. Had the wishes of the petitioners for peace been complied with, Portug would have remained in a condition of precarious dependence, and the system c Buonaparte would have been acted upon to a very great extent. Of the circumstan dpon the emigration of the court of Portugal, the reader will see a pa theofficial papers of this number-for the present, I shall indulge

[graphic]

HALT

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vanity, with a declaration, that six years ago, 1 proposed in print, the measure which has now taken place, and that in two numbers of the present volume, I specified the plan and the manner of its execution. In my next, I shall go deeply into the subject, and shall close the business of this extraordinary year with a wish as sincere, relative to the prosperity of the prince of Brazil, and his faithful adherents, as ever man made in the presence of HEAVEN, and in the language of the patriotic bard of Portugal, whose lovely and sublime poem of the Lusiad is scarcely known in England.

Safe through the deep, where every yawning wave
Still to the sailor's eye displays his
grave;

Through howling tempests, and through gulphs untry'd,
Oh! Mighty God' be thou their watchful guide.

The Lusiad of Camoens.

shall be assigned at the This I have executed,

N. B. It has been my chief object, for reasons that opening of the NEW YEAR, to complete the State Papers. with the exception of only one Paper, containing a foolish decree of the tyrant maniac, relative to the exclusion of our commerce, and which, is of no great importance.

The people of England have gotten their reward. If they be insensible or ungrate→ ful to Providence, for having brought about an event that will infallibly change the face of the whole world, and in their favour too, my humble labours cannot be of service, much longer, to my readers. Next Saturday I will make good this pro

position.

**The gentleman to whom I had confided the preparation of the Index, to the two volumes of the year, has not only not transmitted it, but he has not had the civility even to explain the cause of his negligence. What is to be done, I know not at

present; but, most assuredly, some plan shall be devised before the publication of the next number, which, I hope, will prove acceptable.

1

ON THE REGULATION AND EXTENSION OF EXISTING TAXES.

Letter III.

Being a reply to, and refutation of, Mr. Yorke's proposal relative to the Property Tax. SIR,-I cannot deny but that I have experienced, in common I should suppose with your other readers, some degree of disappointment from the perusal of the article in your last number, upon a plan of taxation. I will not say that, after having excited some expectation, nascitur ridiculus mus; but, I will say, that, after having for two successive weeks announced your intention of lending the aid of your luminous mind to this important subject, your readers had reason to expect something more than the disclosure of one simple proposition, which has been often before the public, and, you must allow me to add, as often refuted; viz. that the scale of the property-tax (for I suppose you did not mean income-tax, though you use that expression) should rise gradually without ceasing. This, I take it, would have been as plain a way of stating your proposal as that which you have adopted; and, perhaps, somewhat plainer than the second of the three tables which you have published.

1

As you so liberally invite discussion upon this topic, I shall avail myself of that invitation, to state, in as short a compass as I am able, a few of the many unanswerable objections to your proposal; which may, I conceive, be stated as follows:

1. That it would tend to make the property-tax more unequal than it is at present. 2. That it would increase the great objections to that tax, the harsh and inquisitorial nature of it.

3. That it would diminish the produce of all the other taxes.

4. That it would be a check to that spirit of enterprize which has proved so advantageous to the country.

5. That it would give rise to endless perjuries and evasions.

But before I proceed to trouble you upon these points in detail, I must beg leave to enter my protest against one of the grounds upon which your proposal is introduced; viz. that it would be a benefit to the poor. Sir, it is so much the fashion now-a-days to represent the rich as the enemies and oppressors of the poor, that I must wouder that a writer, whose intentions are manifestly of a nature so directly opposite, should suffer himself to fall into a possibility of seeming to promote that flagitious doctrine. The poor, sir, do not directly contribute to the property-tax at all; and are therefore, as to the payment of the tax itself, in no way interested in its relative proportions. But as the property-tax is, more than any other, a tax upon the quartern loaf (for landlords must or will indemnify themselves by an increase of rent) it is, of course, one, the increase of which must ultimately fall heavily on the poor; and if, in addition to this, your plan would, as I conceive, tend to disable the rich from employing the poor, then, instead of benefiting, it would greatly injure and distress them.

1. The palpable injustice and inequality of the property-tax is so apparent, that it has never, I believe, been attempted to be denied; but is to be defended only upon the strong and unanswerable ground of expediency. That this inequality has been every year increasing is equally well known to those who have the means of ascertaining it: The surplus beyond the calculation, which it is said will appear this year, has arisen almost wholly from the increased assessments upon landed property, such as could be wished from the fair contribution of your great commercial capitalists. Add to this, that life-interests, and even short annuities, continue to pay in the same proportion as perpetuities. Every measure therefore which goes to extend this tax, extends its injustice; and is, as I humbly conceive, a strong objection to your proposal.

2. That the inquisitorial nature of this tax is abhorrent to the spirit of our constitu tion, and, like the excise, a serious inroad upon the birth-right of Englishmen, canunt, I think, be denied and it has therefore been the constant object of all those who have been engaged in its formation, to avoid, and where they could not avoid, to soften this objection. With this view no return is now required from persons who have apparent, tangible property, such as land and stock owners; who, unless they claim abatements, are not called upon to expose the particulars of their property. From the tenants of the one it is received in the same manner as the old land-tax; while it is deducted at the bank, &c. from the dividends of the other. The establishment of commercial commissioners, as well as several other regulations, are for the same purpose of avoiding publicity and exposure. This commendable anxiety for the feelings of individuals (and which has principally reconciled men to the severe pressure of this tax) your plan would immediately and totally annihilate. At present, government itself does not, nor cannot know the amount of any man's income derived from land or the funds: but to create the scale which you propose, every man must make an exact return of his whole property, and be subject, of course, to all the harsh and odious powers that would be necessary to guard against frauds; which would be after all innumerable.

3. That the adoption of your plan would diminish the produce of most of our other taxes is indisputable. All other taxes have hitherto been framed with a view of meeting expenditure and consumption; and as most men regulate their expenditure by their income, it follows, that if you diminish the latter, you must of course lessen the consumption of taxed commodities. If, for instance, you drive a man from Grosvenor-square to Brook-street, you will of course lessen his house and window-tax, as well as the whole of his establishment, and the taxes he pays upon that establishment. Or, if in a lesser degree, by adding 501. a year to his property-tax, you perhaps compel a man to lay down a carriage and horses, and dismiss his servants, you will most likely not have benefited but injured the revenue, at the expense too of a harsh and oppres sive measure, scarcely to be endured in this free country. Or suppose the balance should appear in favour of the revenue, might not the same sum have been better obtained by an additional tax upon the comforts (or luxuries if you please) that you have compelled this man to dispense with? In short, sir, if you could make your principle apply to those who hoard, it would then perhaps be admissible; but as hoarding is not yery prevalent among us, and as those who do not hoard, are sure to pay pretty large

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