This objection however is merely plausible: it will not bear close examination ;-for it assumes that, with respect to the income tax, which is in fact the evil in it complained of the complaint is, that the tax looks only to one year; that it does not look to future or rather to permanent property, and that thus it is unequal; for certainly it is one of the most essential principles of just and equitable taxation, that every person ought to be taxed according to his means, or the real worth of his fortune; and it can never be contended that the means or real worth of 5001, derived from personal exertion or talents, is no more than that derived from land. In this respect, therefore, if the income tax is continued, it ought to be amended,

In the next place, the rates of taxation ought to vary, not only according as income is personal or permanent, but also according to the amount of the income: it should not be that a man pos sessing 2001. per annum should pay the same proportion out of it, as a man possessing 20,0001. per annum; certainly the latter ought to contribute a much greater proportion of his income to the exigencies of the state than the former. To this proposed alteration, however, there are some objections: it is urged that the very nature and meaning of a fair and equitable tax is, that by it every individual should pay in exact proportion to his means; but that if the man of 20,0007. per annum paid more than 10 per cent,, while the man of 2001. per annum paid only 10 per cent., the former would in fact be contributing more than his due propor tion, and therefore the tax would not be just and equitable. But we must look more narrowly into the

case, if we would accurately and fully ascertain its real nature, In the present state of expenditure and society in Britain, a man worth 2001. a year with a family can barely supply himself and them with the necessaries of life, and give his children a proper education;whereas a man of 20,000l. a year with the same family can supply himself and them, not only with the necessaries but with all the com. forts and most if not all the luxuries of life. Why then should the former be deprived by taxation of any of the necessaries of life, or rendered unable to educate his chil dren properly, while the latter is merely deprived probably of only one luxury, and suffered to retain all the rest, and all the comforts and necessaries of life? Incomes below a certain amount, and weekly wages if they do not reach 30s. are exempt from the income tax. Why stop here? Why not make an as cending scale? and if 5 per cent, is taken from 2007, per annum, take 7, 10, 15, and even 20, from 10007. 15,000, 20,000 and larger incomes?

If then there is a necessity for an additional tax to the permanent taxes;-if the abolition of unmerited pensions, and the most rigid aco nomy in all the branches of public expenditure, will not supply a sum equal to the deficiency; it appears to us that the income tax, provided its necessary evils are softened as much as possible, and its incidental and partial evils removed, and provided property were taxed at a higher rate than mere income, and large incomes in a greater propor tion than small incomes; and provided moreover, some less essential alterations were made with respect to deductions for children;—we say that it appears to us, that the income tax, on the whole, is preferable

to any other tax; and that for two reasons, very essential in considering the propriety and advantages of taxes; viz. that it is very productive, and that it is collected at very little expense. The sum which is raised by it, might, however, be spread more equally over the nation, even if no alteration took place in the tax, provided the commissioners were equally strict and impartial every where; for every person's knowledge must inform him, that though in some cases more is paid than the real income ought to pay, either owing to the commissioners or to the person himself, yet in many more instances not two thirds of the income are returned or taxed; consequently, if measures could be taken to levy the tax equally, either the fourteen millions now collected would be more equally distributed, or a much larger sum if necessary might be collected.

We have dwelt thus long on this topic, because, every year, whatever relates to the finances of Britain becomes of more serious interest and importance; and because there is no feature in the taxation of the country which more plainly proves its great resources, and which nas given rise to more discussion, both in a financial and general point of view, than the income tax. We shall conclude this chapter, and what we have to offer on the political economy of Great Britain during 1814, with a slight and general sketch of its trade and commerce for that year, and with some anticipations on the probable effects which peace will produce on them. It is well known that the principal reason which induced Bonaparte to declare that war with Russia which produced his ruin, was his desire to force that empire

to adhere to the continental sy stem, as it was called. Nearly the whole of the rest of Europe he had so completely brought under his sway, that British produce and ma-' nufactures could be introduced into it only in an indirect and clandestine manner: and yet so penetrating and active is the spirit of com. merce, that it contrived to find its way, even into France itself, in spite of the decrees of the emperor. The trade, however, which the merchants of Britain carried on while Bonaparte was in the zenith of his power, was of a very different description from that to which they had been accustomed prior to the first French revolutionary war, and to which they hoped to resort at the period of a continental peace. As soon as the French armies were driven from the shores of the Baltic and the ports in the north of Eu rope, the productions and manufactures of Britain were poured into the continent; and the hopes of her merchants were roused that the demand for them would soon make up for the unsteady, harassing and partial trade which they had so long carried on: these hopes were raised still higher when peace took place; and undoubtedly to all appearance they were well founded. In the first place, the continent had been long deprived of many articles, which either were real necessaries, or which custom had ren dered so: these, therefore, it was expected they would be again most anxious to possess. In the second place, Britain had formerly been the best customer for the superfluous produce of the continent: thus, the renewal of a commerce which promised such great mutual advantages was calculated upon as certain. But, lastly, Britain expected that, as she had done so much for

Europe,

Such were the grounds of the hopes entertained by our commercial men, that the trade of this country would by the peace be rendered more flourishing than it had ever been; and led on by these hopes, they were disposed to enter on most extensive speculations. But in a very short time it was ascertained that these hopes were by no means built on a good foundation. Bonaparte, indeed, had not been able to exclude our mer chandize from the continent; but he had rendered the importation of it so hazardous and expensive, that, the price of it being greatly raised, the consumption was also greatly diminished; while this circumstance, and the encouragement he gave to the domestic manufacture of articles which used to be got from this country, had rendered the continent much less dependent upon us than it formerly had been. But, moreover, the inhabitants were so impoverished by war, that they were not able to purchase our commodities so extensively as they had done; and the devastations of war had also put a stop to, or greatly checked, the production of those articles which used to be exchang, ed for our goods.

Such were the obstacles in the way of renewed commercial intercourse, arising from the state, disposition, and habits of the people: but there were also obstacles thrown in the way of this intercourse by the governments themselves; by those governments which had been re-established by the money and the armies of Britain.

Our merchants, therefore, at least that part of them who look forward with impartial and comprehensive eyes, not only were disappointed, in the first result of peace, with regard to commerce, but they also were apprehensive that, in the present state of this country, our commerce with the continent could never arise to that pitch which the more sanguine anticipated. And in this opinion we are disposed to coincide; for, when we' reflect that the price at which we sell our merchandize must enable our merchants to pay their portion of an enormous taxation, besides leaving thein such profits as are necessary to the support of a much higher rank in society than the merchants on the continent in general aim at, and that too in a country where every article is exorbitantly dear, (inde pendently of the effects of taxation on its price,) we must be convinced that not all our capital, aided as it is by most wonderful savings of labour, and by skill and industry as yet unrivalled, will long enable us to undersell in their own mar kets, goods the produce or manufacture of countries comparatively untaxed, where labour is cheap, and into which, moreover, it will be absolutely impossible to prevent the introduction of every improvement with which we are acquainted. This, to any nation, can be no encouraging prospect ;, but it is peculiarly gloomy to a nation like Britain, which requires a flourishing and extended com merce, not only to support the pressure of her national debt, but also to preserve her dominion on the seas.

T has been frequently remark

able truth and justice, that the people of this country have their feelings and interests on political topics easily roused, and as easily and speedily laid; to a stranger it would appear, when they are roused, such is the degree of agitation and violence to which they give birth, at least among the populace, that some fatal and overwhelming commotion was at hand; but, to his surprise and astonishment, in a very short time every thing is calm, every grievance seems forgotten, till again some new event excites the same apparently deep and threatening interest as before. This character of the English is not peculiar to them in its nature; but it certainly is in the degree in which it appears; and in this respect it is worthy of notice, both by the philosopher and the statesman: the latter it more particularly instructs, not to be exceedingly alarmed at these appearances of dissatisfaction and tumult; not to irritate them by violent measures, but to be almost heedless spectators of them, in the firm confidence that they will soon

subside.

If it were necessary to illus trate and justify the truth of this remark by an appeal to facts, the principal difficulty would be in the

case of the duke of York: the agitation of the public mind on this subject was so great and general, that many symptoms of determined dissatisfaction made their appearance; but how soon was all tranquil; how soon was all forgotten! It may indeed be said, that the public mind was tranquil lized by the resignation of the commander-in-chief: undoubtedly it was; but if the feelings and opi nions so loudly and generally expressed by the nation had been as sincere and deeply grounded as they seemed to be, would not his reappointment, after a very short periol, have again excited nearly as great a sensation? and yet it passed over almost unheeded. The case of Walcheren is still more in point: in the expedition to this place, more circumstances had combined to disappoint, irritate, and influence the public mind than perhaps had ever met before: an armament unparalleled in magnitude had returned, after a total failure in its object, at a period when its co-operation in another part of the continent would probably have been attended with most essential benefit to the cause of England, and of all Europe: and this failure had principally arisen from the appointment of a man

known

known to every body to be totally incompetent to the command to which he had been raised by ministers; from an almost total ignorance of the nature and strength of the places to be attacked, and from the scanty and inadequate supply of the necessary means. Not only, however, had our troops returned without the accomplishment of their object; but they had returned, also, labouring under disorders which the climate always inflicted on strangers, but which had not been foreseen or guarded against. As usual, the failure of this expedition excited a very general and str ng displeasure among the people; but what was the issue? While the investigation was going on in parliament, the case of sir Francis Burdett occurred; the disgrace of Walcheren was forgotten; the case of the baronet gave rise to a still more alarming degree of irritation, which certainly at one period threatened the safety of the metropolis, but which in the space of a very few weeks was itself lost in some new cause of popular curiosity or complaint. But it is need less to multiply instances; we shall therefore advert only to one more, viz. to the case of the princess of Wales: in her case, feel. ings were enlisted which could not enter into any of the former cases. She was a woman, and a stranger; the mother of the presumptive heir to the throne; she had been, in the opinion of the nation, most grossly calumniated; this calumny, her husband, her natural protector, had not repeiled; it was even suspected that he did not feel that indignation at it which the people felt: feelings arising from these causes mixed themselves up with feelings of a public

nature; and for a time the princess of Wales interested the public so much, that a stranger to them might have supposed that they would not have subsided till the ob ject that had roused them was fully revenged on her calumniators by their punishment, and her own res storation to the protection and favour of her husband. Certainly, neither of these effects took place: a reluctant, qualified, indecisive, and inconsequential acknowledge. ment of the innocence of the princess was indeed given, in parlia ment, by the ministers of the regent; but the conduct which she still experienced, proved that this acknowledgement did not receive an echo in the regent's breast, and that it had been extorted rather by the feelings and interest which the public manifested on the occasion, than by a conviction of its real truth. Long before the close of the year the princess was forgotten; and we shall perceive shortly, that even fresh indignities offered to her, during 1814, could produce only a very feeble and partial rising of public interest in her favour. The year 1814 brought forth very few occasions of manifesting the strong but fleeting interest to which the public are liable, and to which we have just alluded: the only cases of importance were those of lord Cochrane, and of the princess of Wales and the princess Charlotte; and on these we shall make a few remarks, both as matters of history, and more especially as illustrative of our manners and character.

It is needless, and would be uninteresting, to enter into a detailed account of lord Cochrane's case ; as our readers will find the whole transaction explained, as far at least as the mystery has yet been

unfolded,