for America; becaufe, he obferves, they already raife most of their taxes internally, including this tax. A most curious reafon truly becaufe their lands are already heavily burthened, he thinks it right to burthen them ftill further. But he will recollect, for furely he cannot be ignorant of it, that the lands of America are not, as in England, let at a rent certain in money, and therefore cannot, as here, be taxed at a certain pound rate. They value them in grofs among themselves; and none but themfelves in their feveral diftricts can value them. Without their hearty concurrence and co-operation, it is evident, we cannot advance a step in the affeffing or collecting any land tax. As to the taxes which in fome places the Americans pay by the acre, they are merely duties of regulation: they are fmall; and to increase them, notwithstanding the fecret virtues of a land tax, would be the most effectual means of preventing that cultivation they are intended to promote. Befides, the whole country is heavily in arrear already for land taxes and quit rents. They have different methods of taxation in the different provinces, agreeable to their feveral local circumstances. In New England by far the greateft part of their revenue is raised by faculty taxes and capitations. Such is the method in many others. It is obvious that parliament, unaffifted by the colonies themfelves, cannot take fo much as a fingle ftep in this

mode

mode of taxation. Then what tax is it he will impofe? Why, after all the boasting speeches and writings of his faction for thefe four years, after all the vain expectations which they have held out to a deluded publick, this their great advocate, after twisting the fubject every way, after writhing himself in every pofture, after knocking at every door, is obliged fairly to abandon every mode of taxation whatsoever in America. He thinks it the beft method for parliament to impofe the fum, and referve the account to itfelf, leaving the mode of taxation to the colonies. But how and in what proportion? what does the author fay? O, not a fingle fyllable on this the moft material part of the whole question. Will he, in parliament, undertake to fettle the proportions of fuch payments from Nova Scotia to Nevis, in no fewer than fix and twenty different countries, varying in almoft every poffible circumftance one from another? if he does, I tell him, he adjourns his revenue to a very long day. If he leaves it to themfelves to fettle thefe proportions, he adjourns it to doomsday,

Then what does he get by this method on the fide of acquiefcence? will the people of America relish this courfe, of giving and granting and applying their money, the better becaufe, their affemblies are made commiffioners of the taxes?

This is far worse than all his former projects; for here, if the affemblies shall refuse, or delay, or be negligent, or fraudulent, in this new-impofed duty, we are wholly without remedy; and neither our cuftom-houfe officers, nor our troops, nor our armed fhips can be of the leaft ufe in the collection. No idea can be more contemptible (I will not call it an oppreffive one, the harfhnefs is loft in the folly) than that of propofing to get any revenue from the Americans but by their freeft and most chearful confent. Moft monied men know their own intereft right well; and are as able as any financier, in the valuation of rifks. Yet I think this financier will fcarcely find that adventurer hardy enough, at any premium, to advance a fhilling upon a vote of fuch taxes. Let him name the man, or fet of men, that would do it. This is the only proof of the value of revenues; what would an interefted man rate them at? His fubfcription would be at ninety-nine per cent. difcount the very firft day of its opening. Here is our only national fecurity from ruin; a fecurity upon which no man in his fenfes would venture a fhilling of his fortune. Yet he puts down thofe articles as gravely in his fupply for his peace establishment, as if the money had been all fairly lodged in the exchequer,

American revenue,
Ireland,

£.

200,000

100,000

Very handfome indeed! but if supply is to be got in such a manner, farewell the lucrative mystery of finance! If you are to be credited for favings, without fhewing how, why, or with what fafety, they are to be made; and for revenues, without specifying on what articles, or by what means, or at what expence, they are to be collected; there is not a clerk in a publick office who may not outbid this author, or his friend, for the department of chancellor of the exchequer; not an apprentice in the city, that will not strike out, with the fame advantages, the fame, or a much larger, plan of supply.

Here is the whole of what belongs to the author's fcheme for faving us from impending deftruction. Take it even in its moft favourable point of view, as a thing within poffibility; and imagine what must be the wifdom of this gentleman, or his opinion of ours, who could firft think of representing this nation in fuch a state, as no friend can look upon but with horrour, and scarce an enemy without compaffion, and afterwards of diverting himself with fuch inadequate, impracticable, puerile methods for our relief? If these had been the dreams of fome unknown, unnamed, and nameless writer, they would excite no alarm; their weakness had been an antidote to their malignity. But as they are univerfally believed to be written by the hand, or what amounts to the fame thing,

1

under the immediate direction, of a perfon who has been in the management of the highest affairs, and may foon be in the fame fituation, I think it is not to be reckoned amongft our greatest confolations, that the yet remaining power of this kingdom is to be employed in an attempt to realize notions that are at once fo frivolous, and fo full of danger. That confideration will justify me in dwelling a little longer on the difficulties of the nation, and the folutions of our author.

"I am then perfuaded that he cannot be in the leaft alarmed about our fituation, let his outcry be what he pleases. I will give him a reason for my opinion, which, I think, he cannot difpute. All that he bestows upon the nation, which it does not poffefs without him, and fuppofing it all fure money, amounts to no more than a fum of £.300,000 a year. This, he thinks, will do the bufinefs compleatly, and render us flourishing at home, and refpectable abroad. If the option between glory and fhame, if our falvation or deftruction, depended on this fum, it is impoffible that he should have been active, and made a merit of that activity, in taking off a fhilling in the pound of the land tax, which came up to his grand defideratum, and upwards of £,100,000 more. By this manœuvre, he left our trade, navigation, and manufactures, on the verge of deftruction, our finances in ruin, our credit expiring, Ireland on the point of being ceded

to