On small and middling estates it is lighter (as it is intended to be)

than the commutation tax. It is not till after seven or eight thousand

a year that it begins to be heavy. The object is not so much the produce

of the tax as the justice of the measure. The aristocracy has screened

itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost

equilibrium.

As an instance of its screening itself, it is only necessary to look

back to the first establishment of the excise laws, at what is called

the Restoration, or the coming of Charles the Second. The aristocratical

interest then in power, commuted the feudal services itself was under,

by laying a tax on beer brewed for sale; that is, they compounded with

Charles for an exemption from those services for themselves and their

heirs, by a tax to be paid by other people. The aristocracy do not

purchase beer brewed for sale, but brew their own beer free of the duty,

and if any commutation at that time were necessary, it ought to have

been at the expense of those for whom the exemptions from those services

were intended;*[37] instead of which, it was thrown on an entirely

different class of men.

But the chief object of this progressive tax (besides the justice of

rendering taxes more equal than they are) is, as already stated, to

extirpate the overgrown influence arising from the unnatural law of

primogeniture, and which is one of the principal sources of corruption

at elections.

It would be attended with no good consequences to enquire how such vast

estates as thirty, forty, or fifty thousand a year could commence, and

that at a time when commerce and manufactures were not in a state to

admit of such acquisitions. Let it be sufficient to remedy the evil by

putting them in a condition of descending again to the community by the

quiet means of apportioning them among all the heirs and heiresses of

those families. This will be the more necessary, because hitherto the

aristocracy have quartered their younger children and connections upon

the public in useless posts, places and offices, which when abolished

will leave them destitute, unless the law of primogeniture be also

abolished or superseded.

A progressive tax will, in a great measure, effect this object, and that

as a matter of interest to the parties most immediately concerned, as

will be seen by the following table; which shows the net produce upon

every estate, after subtracting the tax. By this it will appear that

after an estate exceeds thirteen or fourteen thousand a year, the

remainder produces but little profit to the holder, and consequently,

Will pass either to the younger children, or to other kindred.

TABLE III

Showing the net produce of every estate from one thousand

to twenty-three thousand pounds a year

No of thousand Total tax

per annum subtracted Net produce

L1000 L21 L979

2000 59 1941

3000 109 2891

4000 184 3816

5000 284 4716

6000 434 5566

7000 634 6366

8000 880 7120

9000 1100 7900

10,000 1530 8470

11,000 1930 9070

12,000 2380 9620

13,000 2880 10,120

(No of thousand (Total tax

per annum) subtracted) (Net produce)

14,000 3430 10,570

15,000 4030 10,970

16,000 4680 11,320

17,000 5380 11,620

18,000 6130 11,870

19,000 6930 12,170

20,000 7780 12,220

21,000 8680 12,320

22,000 9630 12,370

23,000 10,630 12,370

N.B. The odd shillings are dropped in this table.

According to this table, an estate cannot produce more than L12,370

clear of the land tax and the progressive tax, and therefore the

dividing such estates will follow as a matter of family interest. An

estate of L23,000 a year, divided into five estates of four thousand

each and one of three, will be charged only L1,129 which is but five per

cent., but if held by one possessor, will be charged L10,630.

Although an enquiry into the origin of those estates be unnecessary, the

continuation of them in their present state is another subject. It is a

matter of national concern. As hereditary estates, the law has created

the evil, and it ought also to provide the remedy. Primogeniture ought

to be abolished, not only because it is unnatural and unjust, but

because the country suffers by its operation. By cutting off (as before

observed) the younger children from their proper portion of inheritance,

the public is loaded with the expense of maintaining them; and the

freedom of elections violated by the overbearing influence which

this unjust monopoly of family property produces. Nor is this all. It

occasions a waste of national property. A considerable part of the land

of the country is rendered unproductive, by the great extent of parks

and chases which this law serves to keep up, and this at a time when

the annual production of grain is not equal to the national

consumption.*[38]--In short, the evils of the aristocratical system are

so great and numerous, so inconsistent with every thing that is just,

wise, natural, and beneficent, that when they are considered, there

ought not to be a doubt that many, who are now classed under that

description, will wish to see such a system abolished.

What pleasure can they derive from contemplating the exposed

condition, and almost certain beggary of their younger offspring? Every

aristocratical family has an appendage of family beggars hanging round

it, which in a few ages, or a few generations, are shook off, and

console themselves with telling their tale in almshouses, workhouses,

and prisons. This is the natural consequence of aristocracy. The peer

and the beggar are often of the same family. One extreme produces the

other: to make one rich many must be made poor; neither can the system

be supported by other means.

There are two classes of people to whom the laws of England are

particularly hostile, and those the most helpless; younger children,

and the poor. Of the former I have just spoken; of the latter I shall

mention one instance out of the many that might be produced, and with

which I shall close this subject.

Several laws are in existence for regulating and limiting work-men's

wages. Why not leave them as free to make their own bargains, as the

law-makers are to let their farms and houses? Personal labour is all

the property they have. Why is that little, and the little freedom they

enjoy, to be infringed? But the injustice will appear stronger, if we

consider the operation and effect of such laws. When wages are fixed

by what is called a law, the legal wages remain stationary, while every

thing else is in progression; and as those who make that law still

continue to lay on new taxes by other laws, they increase the expense of

living by one law, and take away the means by another.

But if these gentlemen law-makers and tax-makers thought it right to

limit the poor pittance which personal labour can produce, and on which

a whole family is to be supported, they certainly must feel themselves

happily indulged in a limitation on their own part, of not less than

twelve thousand a-year, and that of property they never acquired (nor

probably any of their ancestors), and of which they have made never

acquire so ill a use.

Having now finished this subject, I shall bring the several particulars

into one view, and then proceed to other matters.

The first eight articles, mentioned earlier, are;

1. Abolition of two millions poor-rates.

2. Provision for two hundred and fifty-two thousand poor families, at

the rate of four pounds per head for each child under fourteen years of

age; which, with the addition of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds,

provides also education for one million and thirty thousand children.

3. Annuity of six pounds (per annum) each for all poor persons, decayed

tradesmen, and others (supposed seventy thousand) of the age of fifty

years, and until sixty.

4. Annuity of ten pounds each for life for all poor persons, decayed

tradesmen, and others (supposed seventy thousand) of the age of sixty

years.

5. Donation of twenty shillings each for fifty thousand births.

6. Donation of twenty shillings each for twenty thousand marriages.

7. Allowance of twenty thousand pounds for the funeral expenses of

persons travelling for work, and dying at a distance from their friends.

8. Employment at all times for the casual poor in the cities of London

and Westminster.

Second Enumeration

9. Abolition of the tax on houses and windows.

10. Allowance of three shillings per week for life to fifteen thousand

disbanded soldiers, and a proportionate allowance to the officers of the

disbanded corps.

11. Increase of pay to the remaining soldiers of L19,500 annually.

12. The same allowance to the disbanded navy, and the same increase of

pay, as to the army.

13. Abolition of the commutation tax.

14. Plan of a progressive tax, operating to extirpate the unjust

and unnatural law of primogeniture, and the vicious influence of the

aristocratical system.*[39]

There yet remains, as already stated, one million of surplus taxes. Some

part of this will be required for circumstances that do not immediately

present themselves, and such part as shall not be wanted, will admit of

a further reduction of taxes equal to that amount.

Among the claims that justice requires to be made, the condition of the

inferior revenue-officers will merit attention. It is a reproach to

any government to waste such an immensity of revenue in sinecures and

nominal and unnecessary places and officers, and not allow even a decent

livelihood to those on whom the labour falls. The salary of the inferior

officers of the revenue has stood at the petty pittance of less than

fifty pounds a year for upwards of one hundred years. It ought to be

seventy. About one hundred and twenty thousand pounds applied to this

purpose, will put all those salaries in a decent condition.

This was proposed to be done almost twenty years ago, but the

treasury-board then in being, startled at it, as it might lead to

similar expectations from the army and navy; and the event was, that the

King, or somebody for him, applied to parliament to have his own salary

raised an hundred thousand pounds a year, which being done, every thing

else was laid aside.

With respect to another class of men, the inferior clergy, I forbear to

enlarge on their condition; but all partialities and prejudices for,

or against, different modes and forms of religion aside, common justice

will determine, whether there ought to be an income of twenty or thirty

pounds a year to one man, and of ten thousand to another. I speak on

this subject with the more freedom, because I am known not to be a

Presbyterian; and therefore the cant cry of court sycophants, about

church and meeting, kept up to amuse and bewilder the nation, cannot be

raised against me.

Ye simple men on both sides the question, do you not see through this

courtly craft? If ye can be kept disputing and wrangling about church

and meeting, ye just answer the purpose of every courtier, who lives the

while on the spoils of the taxes, and laughs at your credulity. Every

religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that

instructs him to be bad.

All the before-mentioned calculations suppose only sixteen millions

and an half of taxes paid into the exchequer, after the expense of

collection and drawbacks at the custom-house and excise-office are

deducted; whereas the sum paid into the exchequer is very nearly, if not

quite, seventeen millions. The taxes raised in Scotland and Ireland are

expended in those countries, and therefore their savings will come out

of their own taxes; but if any part be paid into the English exchequer,

it might be remitted. This will not make one hundred thousand pounds a

year difference.

There now remains only the national debt to be considered. In the year

1789, the interest, exclusive of the tontine, was L9,150,138. How much

the capital has been reduced since that time the minister best knows.

But after paying the interest, abolishing the tax on houses and windows,

the commutation tax, and the poor-rates; and making all the provisions

for the poor, for the education of children, the support of the aged,

the disbanded part of the army and navy, and increasing the pay of the

remainder, there will be a surplus of one million.

The present scheme of paying off the national debt appears to me,

speaking as an indifferent person, to be an ill-concerted, if not a

fallacious job. The burthen of the national debt consists not in its

being so many millions, or so many hundred millions, but in the quantity

of taxes collected every year to pay the interest. If this quantity

continues the same, the burthen of the national debt is the same to all

intents and purposes, be the capital more or less. The only knowledge

which the public can have of the reduction of the debt, must be through

the reduction of taxes for paying the interest. The debt, therefore,

is not reduced one farthing to the public by all the millions that

have been paid; and it would require more money now to purchase up the

capital, than when the scheme began.

Digressing for a moment at this point, to which I shall return again, I

look back to the appointment of Mr. Pitt, as minister.

I was then in America. The war was over; and though resentment had

ceased, memory was still alive.

When the news of the coalition arrived, though it was a matter of no

concern to I felt it as a man. It had something in it which shocked, by

publicly sporting with decency, if not with principle. It was impudence

in Lord North; it was a want of firmness in Mr. Fox.

Mr. Pitt was, at that time, what may be called a maiden character in

politics. So far from being hackneyed, he appeared not to be initiated

into the first mysteries of court intrigue. Everything was in his

favour. Resentment against the coalition served as friendship to him,

and his ignorance of vice was credited for virtue. With the return

of peace, commerce and prosperity would rise of itself; yet even this

increase was thrown to his account.

When he came to the helm, the storm was over, and he had nothing to

interrupt his course. It required even ingenuity to be wrong, and

he succeeded. A little time showed him the same sort of man as his

predecessors had been. Instead of profiting by those errors which had

accumulated a burthen of taxes unparalleled in the world, he sought,

I might almost say, he advertised for enemies, and provoked means to

increase taxation. Aiming at something, he knew not what, he ransacked

Europe and India for adventures, and abandoning the fair pretensions he

began with, he became the knight-errant of modern times.

It is unpleasant to see character throw itself away. It is more so to

see one's-self deceived. Mr. Pitt had merited nothing, but he promised

much. He gave symptoms of a mind superior to the meanness and corruption

of courts. His apparent candour encouraged expectations; and the public

confidence, stunned, wearied, and confounded by a chaos of parties,

revived and attached itself to him. But mistaking, as he has done, the

disgust of the nation against the coalition, for merit in himself,

he has rushed into measures which a man less supported would not have

presumed to act.

All this seems to show that change of ministers amounts to nothing.

One goes out, another comes in, and still the same measures, vices, and

extravagance are pursued. It signifies not who is minister. The defect

lies in the system. The foundation and the superstructure of the

government is bad. Prop it as you please, it continually sinks into

court government, and ever will.

I return, as I promised, to the subject of the national debt, that

offspring of the Dutch-Anglo revolution, and its handmaid the Hanover

succession.

But it is now too late to enquire how it began. Those to whom it is

due have advanced the money; and whether it was well or ill spent, or

pocketed, is not their crime. It is, however, easy to see, that as

the nation proceeds in contemplating the nature and principles of

government, and to understand taxes, and make comparisons between those

of America, France, and England, it will be next to impossible to keep

it in the same torpid state it has hitherto been. Some reform must,

from the necessity of the case, soon begin. It is not whether these

principles press with little or much force in the present moment. They

are out. They are abroad in the world, and no force can stop them. Like

a secret told, they are beyond recall; and he must be blind indeed that

does not see that a change is already beginning.

Nine millions of dead taxes is a serious thing; and this not only for

bad, but in a great measure for foreign government. By putting the power

of making war into the hands of the foreigners who came for what they

could get, little else was to be expected than what has happened.

Reasons are already advanced in this work, showing that whatever the

reforms in the taxes may be, they ought to be made in the current

expenses of government, and not in the part applied to the interest

of the national debt. By remitting the taxes of the poor, they will be

totally relieved, and all discontent will be taken away; and by striking

off such of the taxes as are already mentioned, the nation will more

than recover the whole expense of the mad American war.

There will then remain only the national debt as a subject of

discontent; and in order to remove, or rather to prevent this, it

would be good policy in the stockholders themselves to consider it as

property, subject like all other property, to bear some portion of the

taxes. It would give to it both popularity and security, and as a great

part of its present inconvenience is balanced by the capital which it

keeps alive, a measure of this kind would so far add to that balance as

to silence objections.

This may be done by such gradual means as to accomplish all that is

necessary with the greatest ease and convenience.

Instead of taxing the capital, the best method would be to tax the

interest by some progressive ratio, and to lessen the public taxes in

the same proportion as the interest diminished.

Suppose the interest was taxed one halfpenny in the pound the first

year, a penny more the second, and to proceed by a certain ratio to be

determined upon, always less than any other tax upon property. Such

a tax would be subtracted from the interest at the time of payment,

without any expense of collection.

One halfpenny in the pound would lessen the interest and consequently

the taxes, twenty thousand pounds. The tax on wagons amounts to this

sum, and this tax might be taken off the first year. The second year the

tax on female servants, or some other of the like amount might also be

taken off, and by proceeding in this manner, always applying the tax

raised from the property of the debt toward its extinction, and not

carry it to the current services, it would liberate itself.

The stockholders, notwithstanding this tax, would pay less taxes than

they do now. What they would save by the extinction of the poor-rates,

and the tax on houses and windows, and the commutation tax, would

be considerably greater than what this tax, slow, but certain in its

operation, amounts to.

It appears to me to be prudence to look out for measures that may apply

under any circumstances that may approach. There is, at this moment,

a crisis in the affairs of Europe that requires it. Preparation now

is wisdom. If taxation be once let loose, it will be difficult to

re-instate it; neither would the relief be so effectual, as if it

proceeded by some certain and gradual reduction.

The fraud, hypocrisy, and imposition of governments, are now beginning

to be too well understood to promise them any long career. The farce

of monarchy and aristocracy, in all countries, is following that of

chivalry, and Mr. Burke is dressing aristocracy, in all countries, is

following that of chivalry, and Mr. Burke is dressing for the funeral.

Let it then pass quietly to the tomb of all other follies, and the

mourners be comforted.

The time is not very distant when England will laugh at itself for

sending to Holland, Hanover, Zell, or Brunswick for men, at the expense

of a million a year, who understood neither her laws, her language, nor

her interest, and whose capacities would scarcely have fitted them for

the office of a parish constable. If government could be trusted to such

hands, it must be some easy and simple thing indeed, and materials fit

for all the purposes may be found in every town and village in England.

When it shall be said in any country in the world, my poor are happy;

neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are

empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the

taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I

am the friend of its happiness: when these things can be said, then may

that country boast its constitution and its government.

Within the space of a few years we have seen two revolutions, those

of America and France. In the former, the contest was long, and

the conflict severe; in the latter, the nation acted with such a

consolidated impulse, that having no foreign enemy to contend with, the

revolution was complete in power the moment it appeared. From both those

instances it is evident, that the greatest forces that can be brought

into the field of revolutions, are reason and common interest. Where

these can have the opportunity of acting, opposition dies with fear, or

crumbles away by conviction. It is a great standing which they have now

universally obtained; and we may hereafter hope to see revolutions, or

changes in governments, produced with the same quiet operation by which

any measure, determinable by reason and discussion, is accomplished.

When a nation changes its opinion and habits of thinking, it is no

longer to be governed as before; but it would not only be wrong, but

bad policy, to attempt by force what ought to be accomplished by reason.

Rebellion consists in forcibly opposing the general will of a nation,

whether by a party or by a government. There ought, therefore, to be in

every nation a method of occasionally ascertaining the state of public

opinion with respect to government. On this point the old government of

France was superior to the present government of England, because, on

extraordinary occasions, recourse could be had what was then called the

States General. But in England there are no such occasional bodies; and

as to those who are now called Representatives, a great part of them are

mere machines of the court, placemen, and dependants.

I presume, that though all the people of England pay taxes, not an

hundredth part of them are electors, and the members of one of the

houses of parliament represent nobody but themselves. There is,

therefore, no power but the voluntary will of the people that has a

right to act in any matter respecting a general reform; and by the same

right that two persons can confer on such a subject, a thousand may.

The object, in all such preliminary proceedings, is to find out what the

general sense of a nation is, and to be governed by it. If it prefer a

bad or defective government to a reform or choose to pay ten times more

taxes than there is any occasion for, it has a right so to do; and so

long as the majority do not impose conditions on the minority, different

from what they impose upon themselves, though there may be much error,

there is no injustice. Neither will the error continue long. Reason and

discussion will soon bring things right, however wrong they may begin.

By such a process no tumult is to be apprehended. The poor, in all

countries, are naturally both peaceable and grateful in all reforms in

which their interest and happiness is included. It is only by neglecting

and rejecting them that they become tumultuous.

The objects that now press on the public attention are, the French

revolution, and the prospect of a general revolution in governments.

Of all nations in Europe there is none so much interested in the French

revolution as England. Enemies for ages, and that at a vast expense,

and without any national object, the opportunity now presents itself of

amicably closing the scene, and joining their efforts to reform the rest

of Europe. By doing this they will not only prevent the further effusion

of blood, and increase of taxes, but be in a condition of getting rid

of a considerable part of their present burthens, as has been already

stated. Long experience however has shown, that reforms of this kind are

not those which old governments wish to promote, and therefore it is

to nations, and not to such governments, that these matters present

themselves.

In the preceding part of this work, I have spoken of an alliance between

England, France, and America, for purposes that were to be afterwards

mentioned. Though I have no direct authority on the part of America,

I have good reason to conclude, that she is disposed to enter into a

consideration of such a measure, provided, that the governments with

which she might ally, acted as national governments, and not as courts

enveloped in intrigue and mystery. That France as a nation, and a

national government, would prefer an alliance with England, is a matter

of certainty. Nations, like individuals, who have long been enemies,

without knowing each other, or knowing why, become the better friends

when they discover the errors and impositions under which they had

acted.

Admitting, therefore, the probability of such a connection, I will state

some matters by which such an alliance, together with that of Holland,

might render service, not only to the parties immediately concerned, but

to all Europe.

It is, I think, certain, that if the fleets of England, France, and

Holland were confederated, they could propose, with effect, a limitation

to, and a general dismantling of, all the navies in Europe, to a certain

proportion to be agreed upon.

First, That no new ship of war shall be built by any power in Europe,

themselves included.

Second, That all the navies now in existence shall be put back, suppose

to one-tenth of their present force. This will save to France and

England, at least two millions sterling annually to each, and their

relative force be in the same proportion as it is now. If men will

permit themselves to think, as rational beings ought to think,

nothing can appear more ridiculous and absurd, exclusive of all moral

reflections, than to be at the expense of building navies, filling them

with men, and then hauling them into the ocean, to try which can

sink each other fastest. Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with

infinitely more advantage, than any victory with all its expense. But

this, though it best answers the purpose of nations, does not that

of court governments, whose habited policy is pretence for taxation,

places, and offices.

It is, I think, also certain, that the above confederated powers,

together with that of the United States of America, can propose with

effect, to Spain, the independence of South America, and the opening

those countries of immense extent and wealth to the general commerce of

the world, as North America now is.

With how much more glory, and advantage to itself, does a nation act,

when it exerts its powers to rescue the world from bondage, and to

create itself friends, than when it employs those powers to increase

ruin, desolation, and misery. The horrid scene that is now acting by the

English government in the East-Indies, is fit only to be told of Goths

and Vandals, who, destitute of principle, robbed and tortured the world

they were incapable of enjoying.

The opening of South America would produce an immense field of commerce,

and a ready money market for manufactures, which the eastern world does

not. The East is already a country full of manufactures, the importation

of which is not only an injury to the manufactures of England, but a

drain upon its specie. The balance against England by this trade is

regularly upwards of half a million annually sent out in the East-India

ships in silver; and this is the reason, together with German intrigue,

and German subsidies, that there is so little silver in England.

But any war is harvest to such governments, however ruinous it may be

to a nation. It serves to keep up deceitful expectations which prevent

people from looking into the defects and abuses of government. It is the

lo here! and the lo there! that amuses and cheats the multitude.

Never did so great an opportunity offer itself to England, and to all

Europe, as is produced by the two Revolutions of America and France. By

the former, freedom has a national champion in the western world; and by

the latter, in Europe. When another nation shall join France, despotism

and bad government will scarcely dare to appear. To use a trite

expression, the iron is becoming hot all over Europe. The insulted

German and the enslaved Spaniard, the Russ and the Pole, are beginning

to think. The present age will hereafter merit to be called the Age of

Reason, and the present generation will appear to the future as the Adam

of a new world.

When all the governments of Europe shall be established on the

representative system, nations will become acquainted, and the

animosities and prejudices fomented by the intrigue and artifice of

courts, will cease. The oppressed soldier will become a freeman; and

the tortured sailor, no longer dragged through the streets like a felon,

will pursue his mercantile voyage in safety. It would be better that

nations should wi continue the pay of their soldiers during their lives,

and give them their discharge and restore them to freedom and their

friends, and cease recruiting, than retain such multitudes at the

same expense, in a condition useless to society and to themselves. As

soldiers have hitherto been treated in most countries, they might be

said to be without a friend. Shunned by the citizen on an apprehension

of their being enemies to liberty, and too often insulted by those

who commanded them, their condition was a double oppression. But where

genuine principles of liberty pervade a people, every thing is restored

to order; and the soldier civilly treated, returns the civility.

In contemplating revolutions, it is easy to perceive that they may arise

from two distinct causes; the one, to avoid or get rid of some great

calamity; the other, to obtain some great and positive good; and the two

may be distinguished by the names of active and passive revolutions. In

those which proceed from the former cause, the temper becomes incensed

and soured; and the redress, obtained by danger, is too often sullied by

revenge. But in those which proceed from the latter, the heart, rather

animated than agitated, enters serenely upon the subject. Reason

and discussion, persuasion and conviction, become the weapons in the

contest, and it is only when those are attempted to be suppressed that

recourse is had to violence. When men unite in agreeing that a thing is

good, could it be obtained, such for instance as relief from a burden

of taxes and the extinction of corruption, the object is more than half

accomplished. What they approve as the end, they will promote in the

means.

Will any man say, in the present excess of taxation, falling so heavily

on the poor, that a remission of five pounds annually of taxes to one

hundred and four thousand poor families is not a good thing? Will he say

that a remission of seven pounds annually to one hundred thousand other

poor families--of eight pounds annually to another hundred thousand poor

families, and of ten pounds annually to fifty thousand poor and widowed

families, are not good things? And, to proceed a step further in this

climax, will he say that to provide against the misfortunes to which

all human life is subject, by securing six pounds annually for all poor,

distressed, and reduced persons of the age of fifty and until sixty, and

of ten pounds annually after sixty, is not a good thing?

Will he say that an abolition of two millions of poor-rates to the

house-keepers, and of the whole of the house and window-light tax and of

the commutation tax is not a good thing? Or will he say that to abolish

corruption is a bad thing?

If, therefore, the good to be obtained be worthy of a passive, rational,

and costless revolution, it would be bad policy to prefer waiting for

a calamity that should force a violent one. I have no idea, considering

the reforms which are now passing and spreading throughout Europe, that

England will permit herself to be the last; and where the occasion and

the opportunity quietly offer, it is better than to wait for a turbulent

necessity. It may be considered as an honour to the animal faculties

of man to obtain redress by courage and danger, but it is far greater

honour to the rational faculties to accomplish the same object by

reason, accommodation, and general consent.*[40]

As reforms, or revolutions, call them which you please, extend

themselves among nations, those nations will form connections and

conventions, and when a few are thus confederated, the progress will

be rapid, till despotism and corrupt government be totally expelled, at

least out of two quarters of the world, Europe and America. The Algerine

piracy may then be commanded to cease, for it is only by the malicious

policy of old governments, against each other, that it exists.

Throughout this work, various and numerous as the subjects are, which

I have taken up and investigated, there is only a single paragraph

upon religion, viz. "that every religion is good that teaches man to be

good."

I have carefully avoided to enlarge upon the subject, because I am

inclined to believe that what is called the present ministry, wish to

see contentions about religion kept up, to prevent the nation turning

its attention to subjects of government. It is as if they were to say,

"Look that way, or any way, but this."

But as religion is very improperly made a political machine, and the

reality of it is thereby destroyed, I will conclude this work with

stating in what light religion appears to me.

If we suppose a large family of children, who, on any particular day,

or particular circumstance, made it a custom to present to their parents

some token of their affection and gratitude, each of them would make a

different offering, and most probably in a different manner. Some would

pay their congratulations in themes of verse and prose, by some little

devices, as their genius dictated, or according to what they thought

would please; and, perhaps, the least of all, not able to do any of

those things, would ramble into the garden, or the field, and gather

what it thought the prettiest flower it could find, though, perhaps, it

might be but a simple weed. The parent would be more gratified by such

a variety, than if the whole of them had acted on a concerted plan,

and each had made exactly the same offering. This would have the cold

appearance of contrivance, or the harsh one of control. But of all

unwelcome things, nothing could more afflict the parent than to know,

that the whole of them had afterwards gotten together by the ears, boys

and girls, fighting, scratching, reviling, and abusing each other about

which was the best or the worst present.

Why may we not suppose, that the great Father of all is pleased with

variety of devotion; and that the greatest offence we can act, is that

by which we seek to torment and render each other miserable? For my own

part, I am fully satisfied that what I am now doing, with an endeavour

to conciliate mankind, to render their condition happy, to unite nations

that have hitherto been enemies, and to extirpate the horrid practice of

war, and break the chains of slavery and oppression is acceptable in his

sight, and being the best service I can perform, I act it cheerfully.

I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points,

think alike who think at all. It is only those who have not thought that

appear to agree. It is in this case as with what is called the British

constitution. It has been taken for granted to be good, and encomiums

have supplied the place of proof. But when the nation comes to examine

into its principles and the abuses it admits, it will be found to have

more defects than I have pointed out in this work and the former.

As to what are called national religions, we may, with as much

propriety, talk of national Gods. It is either political craft or the

remains of the Pagan system, when every nation had its separate and

particular deity. Among all the writers of the English church clergy,

who have treated on the general subject of religion, the present Bishop

of Llandaff has not been excelled, and it is with much pleasure that I

take this opportunity of expressing this token of respect.

I have now gone through the whole of the subject, at least, as far as it

appears to me at present. It has been my intention for the five years I

have been in Europe, to offer an address to the people of England on

the subject of government, if the opportunity presented itself before I

returned to America. Mr. Burke has thrown it in my way, and I thank

him. On a certain occasion, three years ago, I pressed him to propose a

national convention, to be fairly elected, for the purpose of taking

the state of the nation into consideration; but I found, that however

strongly the parliamentary current was then setting against the party

he acted with, their policy was to keep every thing within that field

of corruption, and trust to accidents. Long experience had shown that

parliaments would follow any change of ministers, and on this they

rested their hopes and their expectations.

Formerly, when divisions arose respecting governments, recourse was had

to the sword, and a civil war ensued. That savage custom is exploded by

the new system, and reference is had to national conventions. Discussion

and the general will arbitrates the question, and to this, private

opinion yields with a good grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted.

Some gentlemen have affected to call the principles upon which this

work and the former part of Rights of Man are founded, "a new-fangled

doctrine." The question is not whether those principles are new or old,

but whether they are right or wrong. Suppose the former, I will show

their effect by a figure easily understood.

It is now towards the middle of February. Were I to take a turn into

the country, the trees would present a leafless, wintery appearance. As

people are apt to pluck twigs as they walk along, I perhaps might do the

same, and by chance might observe, that a single bud on that twig had

begun to swell. I should reason very unnaturally, or rather not reason

at all, to suppose this was the only bud in England which had this

appearance. Instead of deciding thus, I should instantly conclude, that

the same appearance was beginning, or about to begin, every where; and

though the vegetable sleep will continue longer on some trees and plants

than on others, and though some of them may not blossom for two or three

years, all will be in leaf in the summer, except those which are rotten.

What pace the political summer may keep with the natural, no human

foresight can determine. It is, however, not difficult to perceive

that the spring is begun.--Thus wishing, as I sincerely do, freedom and

happiness to all nations, I close the Second Part.

APPENDIX

As the publication of this work has been delayed beyond the time

intended, I think it not improper, all circumstances considered, to

state the causes that have occasioned delay.

The reader will probably observe, that some parts in the plan contained

in this work for reducing the taxes, and certain parts in Mr. Pitt's

speech at the opening of the present session, Tuesday, January 31, are

so much alike as to induce a belief, that either the author had taken

the hint from Mr. Pitt, or Mr. Pitt from the author.--I will first point

out the parts that are similar, and then state such circumstances as I

am acquainted with, leaving the reader to make his own conclusion.

Considering it as almost an unprecedented case, that taxes should

be proposed to be taken off, it is equally extraordinary that such a

measure should occur to two persons at the same time; and still more

so (considering the vast variety and multiplicity of taxes) that they

should hit on the same specific taxes. Mr. Pitt has mentioned, in his

speech, the tax on Carts and Wagons--that on Female Servantsthe lowering

the tax on Candles and the taking off the tax of three shillings on

Houses having under seven windows.

Every one of those specific taxes are a part of the plan contained in

this work, and proposed also to be taken off. Mr. Pitt's plan, it is

true, goes no further than to a reduction of three hundred and twenty

thousand pounds; and the reduction proposed in this work, to nearly six

millions. I have made my calculations on only sixteen millions and an

half of revenue, still asserting that it was "very nearly, if not quite,

seventeen millions." Mr. Pitt states it at 16,690,000. I know enough of

the matter to say, that he has not overstated it. Having thus given the

particulars, which correspond in this work and his speech, I will state

a chain of circumstances that may lead to some explanation.

The first hint for lessening the taxes, and that as a consequence

flowing from the French revolution, is to be found in the Address and

Declaration of the Gentlemen who met at the Thatched-House Tavern,

August 20, 1791. Among many other particulars stated in that Address, is

the following, put as an interrogation to the government opposers of the

French Revolution. "Are they sorry that the pretence for new oppressive

taxes, and the occasion for continuing many old taxes will be at an

end?"

It is well known that the persons who chiefly frequent the

Thatched-House Tavern, are men of court connections, and so much did

they take this Address and Declaration respecting the French Revolution,

and the reduction of taxes in disgust, that the Landlord was under the

necessity of informing the Gentlemen, who composed the meeting of the

20th of August, and who proposed holding another meeting, that he could

not receive them.*[41]

What was only hinted in the Address and Declaration respecting taxes and

principles of government, will be found reduced to a regular system in

this work. But as Mr. Pitt's speech contains some of the same things

respecting taxes, I now come to give the circumstances before alluded

to.

The case is: This work was intended to be published just before the

meeting of Parliament, and for that purpose a considerable part of

the copy was put into the printer's hands in September, and all the

remaining copy, which contains the part to which Mr. Pitt's speech

is similar, was given to him full six weeks before the meeting of

Parliament, and he was informed of the time at which it was to appear.

He had composed nearly the whole about a fortnight before the time of

Parliament meeting, and had given me a proof of the next sheet. It was

then in sufficient forwardness to be out at the time proposed, as two

other sheets were ready for striking off. I had before told him, that

if he thought he should be straitened for time, I could get part of

the work done at another press, which he desired me not to do. In this

manner the work stood on the Tuesday fortnight preceding the meeting of

Parliament, when all at once, without any previous intimation, though I

had been with him the evening before, he sent me, by one of his

workmen, all the remaining copy, declining to go on with the work on any

consideration.

To account for this extraordinary conduct I was totally at a loss, as

he stopped at the part where the arguments on systems and principles of

government closed, and where the plan for the reduction of taxes, the

education of children, and the support of the poor and the aged begins;

and still more especially, as he had, at the time of his beginning to

print, and before he had seen the whole copy, offered a thousand pounds

for the copy-right, together with the future copy-right of the former

part of the Rights of Man. I told the person who brought me this offer

that I should not accept it, and wished it not to be renewed, giving him

as my reason, that though I believed the printer to be an honest man, I

would never put it in the power of any printer or publisher to suppress

or alter a work of mine, by making him master of the copy, or give to

him the right of selling it to any minister, or to any other person,

or to treat as a mere matter of traffic, that which I intended should

operate as a principle.

His refusal to complete the work (which he could not purchase) obliged

me to seek for another printer, and this of consequence would throw

the publication back till after the meeting of Parliament, otherways it

would have appeared that Mr. Pitt had only taken up a part of the plan

which I had more fully stated.

Whether that gentleman, or any other, had seen the work, or any part of

it, is more than I have authority to say. But the manner in which the

work was returned, and the particular time at which this was done, and

that after the offers he had made, are suspicious circumstances. I know

what the opinion of booksellers and publishers is upon such a case, but

as to my own opinion, I choose to make no declaration. There are many

ways by which proof sheets may be procured by other persons before a

work publicly appears; to which I shall add a certain circumstance,

which is,

A ministerial bookseller in Piccadilly who has been employed, as common

report says, by a clerk of one of the boards closely connected with

the ministry (the board of trade and plantation, of which Hawkesbury is

president) to publish what he calls my Life, (I wish his own life and

those of the cabinet were as good), used to have his books printed at

the same printing-office that I employed; but when the former part of

Rights of Man came out, he took his work away in dudgeon; and about a

week or ten days before the printer returned my copy, he came to

make him an offer of his work again, which was accepted. This would

consequently give him admission into the printing-office where the

sheets of this work were then lying; and as booksellers and printers are

free with each other, he would have the opportunity of seeing what was

going on.--Be the case, however, as it may, Mr. Pitt's plan, little and

diminutive as it is, would have made a very awkward appearance, had this

work appeared at the time the printer had engaged to finish it.

I have now stated the particulars which occasioned the delay, from the

proposal to purchase, to the refusal to print. If all the Gentlemen

are innocent, it is very unfortunate for them that such a variety of

suspicious circumstances should, without any design, arrange themselves

together.

Having now finished this part, I will conclude with stating another

circumstance.

About a fortnight or three weeks before the meeting of Parliament, a

small addition, amounting to about twelve shillings and sixpence a year,

was made to the pay of the soldiers, or rather their pay was docked

so much less. Some Gentlemen who knew, in part, that this work would

contain a plan of reforms respecting the oppressed condition of

soldiers, wished me to add a note to the work, signifying that the part

upon that subject had been in the printer's hands some weeks before that

addition of pay was proposed. I declined doing this, lest it should be

interpreted into an air of vanity, or an endeavour to excite suspicion

(for which perhaps there might be no grounds) that some of the

government gentlemen had, by some means or other, made out what this

work would contain: and had not the printing been interrupted so as

to occasion a delay beyond the time fixed for publication, nothing

contained in this appendix would have appeared.

Thomas Paine

THE AUTHOR'S NOTES FOR PART ONE AND PART TWO

[Footnote 1: The main and uniform maxim of the judges is, the greater the truth

the greater the libel.]

[Footnote 2: Since writing the above, two other places occur in Mr. Burke's

pamphlet in which the name of the Bastille is mentioned, but in the same

manner. In the one he introduces it in a sort of obscure question, and

asks: "Will any ministers who now serve such a king, with but a decent

appearance of respect, cordially obey the orders of those whom but the

other day, in his name, they had committed to the Bastille?" In the

other the taking it is mentioned as implying criminality in the French

guards, who assisted in demolishing it. "They have not," says he,

"forgot the taking the king's castles at Paris." This is Mr. Burke, who

pretends to write on constitutional freedom.]

[Footnote 3: I am warranted in asserting this, as I had it personally from M.

de la Fayette, with whom I lived in habits of friendship for fourteen

years.]

[Footnote 4: An account of the expedition to Versailles may be seen in No. 13 of

the Revolution de Paris containing the events from the 3rd to the 10th

of October, 1789.]

[Footnote 5: It is a practice in some parts of the country, when two travellers

have but one horse, which, like the national purse, will not carry

double, that the one mounts and rides two or three miles ahead, and then

ties the horse to a gate and walks on. When the second traveller arrives

he takes the horse, rides on, and passes his companion a mile or two,

and ties again, and so on--Ride and tie.]

[Footnote 6: The word he used was renvoye, dismissed or sent away.]

[Footnote 7: When in any country we see extraordinary circumstances taking

place, they naturally lead any man who has a talent for observation

and investigation, to enquire into the causes. The manufacturers of

Manchester, Birmingham, and Sheffield, are the principal manufacturers

in England. From whence did this arise? A little observation will

explain the case. The principal, and the generality of the inhabitants

of those places, are not of what is called in England, the church

established by law: and they, or their fathers, (for it is within but a

few years) withdrew from the persecution of the chartered towns, where

test-laws more particularly operate, and established a sort of asylum

for themselves in those places. It was the only asylum that then

offered, for the rest of Europe was worse.--But the case is now

changing. France and America bid all comers welcome, and initiate them

into all the rights of citizenship. Policy and interest, therefore,

will, but perhaps too late, dictate in England, what reason and justice

could not. Those manufacturers are withdrawing, and arising in other

places. There is now erecting in Passey, three miles from Paris, a large

cotton manufactory, and several are already erected in America. Soon

after the rejecting the Bill for repealing the test-law, one of the

richest manufacturers in England said in my hearing, "England, Sir, is

not a country for a dissenter to live in,--we must go to France." These

are truths, and it is doing justice to both parties to tell them. It

is chiefly the dissenters that have carried English manufactures to the

height they are now at, and the same men have it in their power to carry

them away; and though those manufactures would afterwards continue in

those places, the foreign market will be lost. There frequently appear

in the London Gazette, extracts from certain acts to prevent machines

and persons, as far as they can extend to persons, from going out of the

country. It appears from these that the ill effects of the test-laws and

church-establishment begin to be much suspected; but the remedy of force

can never supply the remedy of reason. In the progress of less than a

century, all the unrepresented part of England, of all denominations,

which is at least an hundred times the most numerous, may begin to feel

the necessity of a constitution, and then all those matters will come

regularly before them.]

[Footnote 8: When the English Minister, Mr. Pitt, mentions the French finances

again in the English Parliament, it would be well that he noticed this

as an example.]

[Footnote 9: Mr. Burke, (and I must take the liberty of telling him that he is

very unacquainted with French affairs), speaking upon this subject,

says, "The first thing that struck me in calling the States-General,

was a great departure from the ancient course";--and he soon after says,

"From the moment I read the list, I saw distinctly, and very nearly as

it has happened, all that was to follow."--Mr. Burke certainly did not

see an that was to follow. I endeavoured to impress him, as well before

as after the States-General met, that there would be a revolution; but

was not able to make him see it, neither would he believe it. How then

he could distinctly see all the parts, when the whole was out of sight,

is beyond my comprehension. And with respect to the "departure from the

ancient course," besides the natural weakness of the remark, it shows

that he is unacquainted with circumstances. The departure was necessary,

from the experience had upon it, that the ancient course was a bad one.

The States-General of 1614 were called at the commencement of the civil

war in the minority of Louis XIII.; but by the class of arranging them

by orders, they increased the confusion they were called to compose. The

author of L'Intrigue du Cabinet, (Intrigue of the Cabinet), who

wrote before any revolution was thought of in France, speaking of the

States-General of 1614, says, "They held the public in suspense five

months; and by the questions agitated therein, and the heat with which

they were put, it appears that the great (les grands) thought more to

satisfy their particular passions, than to procure the goods of the

nation; and the whole time passed away in altercations, ceremonies and

parade."--L'Intrigue du Cabinet, vol. i. p. 329.]

[Footnote 10: There is a single idea, which, if it strikes rightly upon the mind,

either in a legal or a religious sense, will prevent any man or any body

of men, or any government, from going wrong on the subject of religion;

which is, that before any human institutions of government were known in

the world, there existed, if I may so express it, a compact between

God and man, from the beginning of time: and that as the relation and

condition which man in his individual person stands in towards his Maker

cannot be changed by any human laws or human authority, that religious

devotion, which is a part of this compact, cannot so much as be made a

subject of human laws; and that all laws must conform themselves to this

prior existing compact, and not assume to make the compact conform to

the laws, which, besides being human, are subsequent thereto. The first

act of man, when he looked around and saw himself a creature which he

did not make, and a world furnished for his reception, must have been

devotion; and devotion must ever continue sacred to every individual

man, as it appears, right to him; and governments do mischief by

interfering.]

[Footnote 11: See this work, Part I starting at line number 254.--N.B. Since the

taking of the Bastille, the occurrences have been published: but the

matters recorded in this narrative, are prior to that period; and some

of them, as may be easily seen, can be but very little known.]

[Footnote 12: See "Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain," by G.

Chalmers.]

[Footnote 13: See "Administration of the Finances of France," vol. iii, by M.

Neckar.]

[Footnote 14: "Administration of the Finances of France," vol. iii.]

[Footnote 15: Whether the English commerce does not bring in money, or whether the

government sends it out after it is brought in, is a matter which the

parties concerned can best explain; but that the deficiency exists, is

not in the power of either to disprove. While Dr. Price, Mr. Eden, (now

Auckland), Mr. Chalmers, and others, were debating whether the quantity

of money in England was greater or less than at the Revolution, the

circumstance was not adverted to, that since the Revolution, there

cannot have been less than four hundred millions sterling imported into

Europe; and therefore the quantity in England ought at least to have

been four times greater than it was at the Revolution, to be on a

proportion with Europe. What England is now doing by paper, is what she

would have been able to do by solid money, if gold and silver had come

into the nation in the proportion it ought, or had not been sent out;

and she is endeavouring to restore by paper, the balance she has lost by

money. It is certain, that the gold and silver which arrive annually

in the register-ships to Spain and Portugal, do not remain in those

countries. Taking the value half in gold and half in silver, it is about

four hundred tons annually; and from the number of ships and galloons

employed in the trade of bringing those metals from South-America to

Portugal and Spain, the quantity sufficiently proves itself, without

referring to the registers.

In the situation England now is, it is impossible she can increase in

money. High taxes not only lessen the property of the individuals, but

they lessen also the money capital of the nation, by inducing smuggling,

which can only be carried on by gold and silver. By the politics which

the British Government have carried on with the Inland Powers of Germany

and the Continent, it has made an enemy of all the Maritime Powers, and

is therefore obliged to keep up a large navy; but though the navy is

built in England, the naval stores must be purchased from abroad, and

that from countries where the greatest part must be paid for in gold

and silver. Some fallacious rumours have been set afloat in England to

induce a belief in money, and, among others, that of the French refugees

bringing great quantities. The idea is ridiculous. The general part of

the money in France is silver; and it would take upwards of twenty of

the largest broad wheel wagons, with ten horses each, to remove one

million sterling of silver. Is it then to be supposed, that a few people

fleeing on horse-back or in post-chaises, in a secret manner, and having

the French Custom-House to pass, and the sea to cross, could bring even

a sufficiency for their own expenses?

When millions of money are spoken of, it should be recollected, that

such sums can only accumulate in a country by slow degrees, and a long

procession of time. The most frugal system that England could now adopt,

would not recover in a century the balance she has lost in money since

the commencement of the Hanover succession. She is seventy millions

behind France, and she must be in some considerable proportion behind

every country in Europe, because the returns of the English mint do not

show an increase of money, while the registers of Lisbon and Cadiz

show an European increase of between three and four hundred millions

sterling.]

[Footnote 16: That part of America which is generally called New-England,

including New-Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island, and Connecticut,

is peopled chiefly by English descendants. In the state of New-York

about half are Dutch, the rest English, Scotch, and Irish. In

New-jersey, a mixture of English and Dutch, with some Scotch and Irish.

In Pennsylvania about one third are English, another Germans, and

the remainder Scotch and Irish, with some Swedes. The States to the

southward have a greater proportion of English than the middle States,

but in all of them there is a mixture; and besides those enumerated,

there are a considerable number of French, and some few of all the

European nations, lying on the coast. The most numerous religious

denomination are the Presbyterians; but no one sect is established above

another, and all men are equally citizens.]

[Footnote 17: For a character of aristocracy, the reader is referred to Rights of

Man, Part I., starting at line number 1457.]

[Footnote 18: The whole amount of the assessed taxes of France, for the present

year, is three hundred millions of francs, which is twelve millions

and a half sterling; and the incidental taxes are estimated at three

millions, making in the whole fifteen millions and a half; which among

twenty-four millions of people, is not quite thirteen shillings per

head. France has lessened her taxes since the revolution, nearly nine

millions sterling annually. Before the revolution, the city of Paris

paid a duty of upwards of thirty per cent. on all articles brought into

the city. This tax was collected at the city gates. It was taken off on

the first of last May, and the gates taken down.]

[Footnote 19: What was called the livre rouge, or the red book, in France, was not

exactly similar to the Court Calendar in England; but it sufficiently

showed how a great part of the taxes was lavished.]

[Footnote 20: In England the improvements in agriculture, useful arts,

manufactures, and commerce, have been made in opposition to the genius

of its government, which is that of following precedents. It is from

the enterprise and industry of the individuals, and their numerous

associations, in which, tritely speaking, government is neither pillow

nor bolster, that these improvements have proceeded. No man thought

about government, or who was in, or who was out, when he was planning

or executing those things; and all he had to hope, with respect to

government, was, that it would let him alone. Three or four very silly

ministerial newspapers are continually offending against the spirit of

national improvement, by ascribing it to a minister. They may with as

much truth ascribe this book to a minister.]

[Footnote 21: With respect to the two houses, of which the English parliament is

composed, they appear to be effectually influenced into one, and, as a

legislature, to have no temper of its own. The minister, whoever he

at any time may be, touches it as with an opium wand, and it sleeps

obedience.

But if we look at the distinct abilities of the two houses, the

difference will appear so great, as to show the inconsistency of

placing power where there can be no certainty of the judgment to use

it. Wretched as the state of representation is in England, it is manhood

compared with what is called the house of Lords; and so little is this

nick-named house regarded, that the people scarcely enquire at any time

what it is doing. It appears also to be most under influence, and the

furthest removed from the general interest of the nation. In the debate

on engaging in the Russian and Turkish war, the majority in the house

of peers in favor of it was upwards of ninety, when in the other house,

which was more than double its numbers, the majority was sixty-three.]

The proceedings on Mr. Fox's bill, respecting the rights of juries,

merits also to be noticed. The persons called the peers were not the

objects of that bill. They are already in possession of more privileges

than that bill gave to others. They are their own jury, and if any one

of that house were prosecuted for a libel, he would not suffer, even

upon conviction, for the first offense. Such inequality in laws ought

not to exist in any country. The French constitution says, that the law

is the same to every individual, whether to Protect or to punish. All

are equal in its sight.]

[Footnote 22: As to the state of representation in England, it is too absurd to

be reasoned upon. Almost all the represented parts are decreasing

in population, and the unrepresented parts are increasing. A general

convention of the nation is necessary to take the whole form of

government into consideration.]

[Footnote 23: It is related that in the canton of Berne, in Switzerland, it has

been customary, from time immemorial, to keep a bear at the public

expense, and the people had been taught to believe that if they had not

a bear they should all be undone. It happened some years ago that the

bear, then in being, was taken sick, and died too suddenly to have his

place immediately supplied with another. During this interregnum the

people discovered that the corn grew, and the vintage flourished, and

the sun and moon continued to rise and set, and everything went on

the same as before, and taking courage from these circumstances, they

resolved not to keep any more bears; for, said they, "a bear is a very

voracious expensive animal, and we were obliged to pull out his claws,

lest he should hurt the citizens." The story of the bear of Berne was

related in some of the French newspapers, at the time of the flight of

Louis Xvi., and the application of it to monarchy could not be mistaken

in France; but it seems that the aristocracy of Berne applied it to

themselves, and have since prohibited the reading of French newspapers.]

[Footnote 24: It is scarcely possible to touch on any subject, that will not

suggest an allusion to some corruption in governments. The simile of

"fortifications," unfortunately involves with it a circumstance, which

is directly in point with the matter above alluded to.]

Among the numerous instances of abuse which have been acted or protected

by governments, ancient or modern, there is not a greater than that of

quartering a man and his heirs upon the public, to be maintained at its

expense.

Humanity dictates a provision for the poor; but by what right, moral or

political, does any government assume to say, that the person called

the Duke of Richmond, shall be maintained by the public? Yet, if

common report is true, not a beggar in London can purchase his wretched

pittance of coal, without paying towards the civil list of the Duke of

Richmond. Were the whole produce of this imposition but a shilling a

year, the iniquitous principle would be still the same; but when it

amounts, as it is said to do, to no less than twenty thousand pounds per

annum, the enormity is too serious to be permitted to remain. This is

one of the effects of monarchy and aristocracy.

In stating this case I am led by no personal dislike. Though I think

it mean in any man to live upon the public, the vice originates in the

government; and so general is it become, that whether the parties are in

the ministry or in the opposition, it makes no difference: they are sure

of the guarantee of each other.]

[Footnote 25: In America the increase of commerce is greater in proportion than in

England. It is, at this time, at least one half more than at any period

prior to the revolution. The greatest number of vessels cleared out

of the port of Philadelphia, before the commencement of the war, was

between eight and nine hundred. In the year 1788, the number was upwards

of twelve hundred. As the State of Pennsylvania is estimated at an

eighth part of the United States in population, the whole number of

vessels must now be nearly ten thousand.]

[Footnote 26: When I saw Mr. Pitt's mode of estimating the balance of trade, in

one of his parliamentary speeches, he appeared to me to know nothing

of the nature and interest of commerce; and no man has more wantonly

tortured it than himself. During a period of peace it has been havocked

with the calamities of war. Three times has it been thrown into

stagnation, and the vessels unmanned by impressing, within less than

four years of peace.]

[Footnote 27: Rev. William Knowle, master of the grammar school of Thetford, in

Norfolk.]

[Footnote 28: Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connected that

the world, from being so often deceived, has a right to be suspicious of

public characters, but with regard to myself I am perfectly easy on

this head. I did not, at my first setting out in public life, nearly

seventeen years ago, turn my thoughts to subjects of government from

motives of interest, and my conduct from that moment to this proves the

fact. I saw an opportunity in which I thought I could do some good, and

I followed exactly what my heart dictated. I neither read books, nor

studied other people's opinion. I thought for myself. The case was

this:--

During the suspension of the old governments in America, both prior to

and at the breaking out of hostilities, I was struck with the order and

decorum with which everything was conducted, and impressed with the idea

that a little more than what society naturally performed was all the

government that was necessary, and that monarchy and aristocracy were

frauds and impositions upon mankind. On these principles I published the

pamphlet Common Sense. The success it met with was beyond anything since

the invention of printing. I gave the copyright to every state in the

Union, and the demand ran to not less than one hundred thousand copies.

I continued the subject in the same manner, under the title of The

Crisis, till the complete establishment of the Revolution.

After the declaration of independence Congress unanimously, and unknown

to me, appointed me Secretary in the Foreign Department. This was

agreeable to me, because it gave me the opportunity of seeing into the

abilities of foreign courts, and their manner of doing business. But

a misunderstanding arising between Congress and me, respecting one of

their commissioners then in Europe, Mr. Silas Deane, I resigned the

office, and declined at the same time the pecuniary offers made by the

Ministers of France and Spain, M. Gerald and Don Juan Mirralles.]

I had by this time so completely gained the ear and confidence of

America, and my own independence was become so visible, as to give me a

range in political writing beyond, perhaps, what any man ever possessed

in any country, and, what is more extraordinary, I held it undiminished

to the end of the war, and enjoy it in the same manner to the present

moment. As my object was not myself, I set out with the determination,

and happily with the disposition, of not being moved by praise or

censure, friendship or calumny, nor of being drawn from my purpose by

any personal altercation, and the man who cannot do this is not fit for

a public character.

When the war ended I went from Philadelphia to Borden-Town, on the east

bank of the Delaware, where I have a small place. Congress was at this

time at Prince-Town, fifteen miles distant, and General Washington

had taken his headquarters at Rocky Hill, within the neighbourhood of

Congress, for the purpose of resigning up his commission (the object

for which he accepted it being accomplished), and of retiring to private

life. While he was on this business he wrote me the letter which I here

subjoin:

"Rocky-Hill, Sept. 10, 1783.

"I have learned since I have been at this place that you are at

Borden-Town. Whether for the sake of retirement or economy I know not.

Be it for either, for both, or whatever it may, if you will come to this

place, and partake with me, I shall be exceedingly happy to see you at

it.

"Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this

country, and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best

exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who

entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who, with

much pleasure, subscribes himself, Your sincere friend,

G. Washington."

During the war, in the latter end of the year 1780, I formed to myself a

design of coming over to England, and communicated it to General Greene,

who was then in Philadelphia on his route to the southward, General

Washington being then at too great a distance to communicate with

immediately. I was strongly impressed with the idea that if I could get

over to England without being known, and only remain in safety till I

could get out a publication, that I could open the eyes of the country

with respect to the madness and stupidity of its Government. I saw that

the parties in Parliament had pitted themselves as far as they could go,

and could make no new impressions on each other. General Greene entered

fully into my views, but the affair of Arnold and Andre happening just

after, he changed his mind, under strong apprehensions for my safety,

wrote very pressingly to me from Annapolis, in Maryland, to give up

the design, which, with some reluctance, I did. Soon after this I

accompanied Colonel Lawrens, son of Mr. Lawrens, who was then in the

Tower, to France on business from Congress. We landed at L'orient, and

while I remained there, he being gone forward, a circumstance occurred

that renewed my former design. An English packet from Falmouth to

New York, with the Government dispatches on board, was brought into

L'orient. That a packet should be taken is no extraordinary thing, but

that the dispatches should be taken with it will scarcely be credited,

as they are always slung at the cabin window in a bag loaded with

cannon-ball, and ready to be sunk at a moment. The fact, however, is

as I have stated it, for the dispatches came into my hands, and I

read them. The capture, as I was informed, succeeded by the following

stratagem:--The captain of the "Madame" privateer, who spoke English, on

coming up with the packet, passed himself for the captain of an English

frigate, and invited the captain of the packet on board, which, when

done, he sent some of his own hands back, and he secured the mail. But

be the circumstance of the capture what it may, I speak with certainty

as to the Government dispatches. They were sent up to Paris to Count

Vergennes, and when Colonel Lawrens and myself returned to America we

took the originals to Congress.

By these dispatches I saw into the stupidity of the English Cabinet far

more than I otherwise could have done, and I renewed my former design.

But Colonel Lawrens was so unwilling to return alone, more especially

as, among other matters, we had a charge of upwards of two hundred

thousand pounds sterling in money, that I gave in to his wishes, and

finally gave up my plan. But I am now certain that if I could have

executed it that it would not have been altogether unsuccessful.]

[Footnote 29: It is difficult to account for the origin of charter and corporation

towns, unless we suppose them to have arisen out of, or been connected

with, some species of garrison service. The times in which they began

justify this idea. The generality of those towns have been garrisons,

and the corporations were charged with the care of the gates of the

towns, when no military garrison was present. Their refusing or granting

admission to strangers, which has produced the custom of giving,

selling, and buying freedom, has more of the nature of garrison

authority than civil government. Soldiers are free of all corporations

throughout the nation, by the same propriety that every soldier is

free of every garrison, and no other persons are. He can follow any

employment, with the permission of his officers, in any corporation

towns throughout the nation.]

[Footnote 30: See Sir John Sinclair's History of the Revenue. The land-tax in 1646

was L2,473,499.]

[Footnote 31: Several of the court newspapers have of late made frequent mention

of Wat Tyler. That his memory should be traduced by court sycophants and

an those who live on the spoil of a public is not to be wondered at. He

was, however, the means of checking the rage and injustice of taxation

in his time, and the nation owed much to his valour. The history is

concisely this:--In the time of Richard Ii. a poll tax was levied of one

shilling per head upon every person in the nation of whatever estate or

condition, on poor as well as rich, above the age of fifteen years. If

any favour was shown in the law it was to the rich rather than to the

poor, as no person could be charged more than twenty shillings for

himself, family and servants, though ever so numerous; while all other

families, under the number of twenty were charged per head. Poll taxes

had always been odious, but this being also oppressive and unjust, it

excited as it naturally must, universal detestation among the poor and

middle classes. The person known by the name of Wat Tyler, whose proper

name was Walter, and a tiler by trade, lived at Deptford. The gatherer

of the poll tax, on coming to his house, demanded tax for one of

his daughters, whom Tyler declared was under the age of fifteen. The

tax-gatherer insisted on satisfying himself, and began an indecent

examination of the girl, which, enraging the father, he struck him with

a hammer that brought him to the ground, and was the cause of his

death. This circumstance served to bring the discontent to an issue. The

inhabitants of the neighbourhood espoused the cause of Tyler, who in a

few days was joined, according to some histories, by upwards of fifty

thousand men, and chosen their chief. With this force he marched

to London, to demand an abolition of the tax and a redress of other

grievances. The Court, finding itself in a forlorn condition, and,

unable to make resistance, agreed, with Richard at its head, to hold

a conference with Tyler in Smithfield, making many fair professions,

courtier-like, of its dispositions to redress the oppressions. While

Richard and Tyler were in conversation on these matters, each being on

horseback, Walworth, then Mayor of London, and one of the creatures of

the Court, watched an opportunity, and like a cowardly assassin, stabbed

Tyler with a dagger, and two or three others falling upon him, he

was instantly sacrificed. Tyler appears to have been an intrepid

disinterested man with respect to himself. All his proposals made to

Richard were on a more just and public ground than those which had

been made to John by the Barons, and notwithstanding the sycophancy of

historians and men like Mr. Burke, who seek to gloss over a base action

of the Court by traducing Tyler, his fame will outlive their falsehood.

If the Barons merited a monument to be erected at Runnymede, Tyler

merited one in Smithfield.]

[Footnote 32: I happened to be in England at the celebration of the centenary of

the Revolution of 1688. The characters of William and Mary have always

appeared to be detestable; the one seeking to destroy his uncle, and

the other her father, to get possession of power themselves; yet, as

the nation was disposed to think something of that event, I felt hurt at

seeing it ascribe the whole reputation of it to a man who had undertaken

it as a job and who, besides what he otherwise got, charged six hundred

thousand pounds for the expense of the fleet that brought him from

Holland. George the First acted the same close-fisted part as William

had done, and bought the Duchy of Bremen with the money he got from

England, two hundred and fifty thousand pounds over and above his pay as

king, and having thus purchased it at the expense of England, added it

to his Hanoverian dominions for his own private profit. In fact, every

nation that does not govern itself is governed as a job. England has

been the prey of jobs ever since the Revolution.]

[Footnote 33: Charles, like his predecessors and successors, finding that war was

the harvest of governments, engaged in a war with the Dutch, the expense

of which increased the annual expenditure to L1,800,000 as stated under

the date of 1666; but the peace establishment was but L1,200,000.]

[Footnote 34: Poor-rates began about the time of Henry VIII., when the taxes began

to increase, and they have increased as the taxes increased ever since.]

[Footnote 35: Reckoning the taxes by families, five to a family, each family pays

on an average L12 7s. 6d. per annum. To this sum are to be added the

poor-rates. Though all pay taxes in the articles they consume, all do

not pay poor-rates. About two millions are exempted: some as not being

house-keepers, others as not being able, and the poor themselves

who receive the relief. The average, therefore, of poor-rates on the

remaining number, is forty shillings for every family of five persons,

which make the whole average amount of taxes and rates L14 17s. 6d. For

six persons L17 17s. For seven persons L2O 16s. 6d.

The average of taxes in America, under the new or representative system

of government, including the interest of the debt contracted in the

war, and taking the population at four millions of souls, which it now

amounts to, and it is daily increasing, is five shillings per head,

men, women, and children. The difference, therefore, between the two

governments is as under:

England America

L s. d. L s. d.

For a family of five persons 14 17 6 1 5 0

For a family of six persons 17 17 0 1 10 0

For a family of seven persons 20 16 6 1 15 0

[Footnote 36: Public schools do not answer the general purpose of the poor.

They are chiefly in corporation towns from which the country towns and

villages are excluded, or, if admitted, the distance occasions a great

loss of time. Education, to be useful to the poor, should be on the

spot, and the best method, I believe, to accomplish this is to enable

the parents to pay the expenses themselves. There are always persons of

both sexes to be found in every village, especially when growing into

years, capable of such an undertaking. Twenty children at ten shillings

each (and that not more than six months each year) would be as much as

some livings amount to in the remotest parts of England, and there are

often distressed clergymen's widows to whom such an income would be

acceptable. Whatever is given on this account to children answers two

purposes. To them it is education--to those who educate them it is a

livelihood.]

[Footnote 37: The tax on beer brewed for sale, from which the aristocracy are

exempt, is almost one million more than the present commutation tax,

being by the returns of 1788, L1,666,152--and, consequently, they ought

to take on themselves the amount of the commutation tax, as they are

already exempted from one which is almost a million greater.]

[Footnote 38: See the Reports on the Corn Trade.]

[Footnote 39: When enquiries are made into the condition of the poor, various

degrees of distress will most probably be found, to render a different

arrangement preferable to that which is already proposed. Widows with

families will be in greater want than where there are husbands living.

There is also a difference in the expense of living in different

counties: and more so in fuel.

Suppose then fifty thousand extraordinary cases, at

the rate of ten pounds per family per annum L500,000

100,000 families, at L8 per family per annum 800,000

100,000 families, at L7 per family per annum 700,000

104,000 families, at L5 per family per annum 520,000

And instead of ten shillings per head for the education

of other children, to allow fifty shillings per family

for that purpose to fifty thousand families 250,000

----------

L2,770,000

140,000 aged persons as before 1,120,000

----------

L3,890,000

This arrangement amounts to the same sum as stated in this work, Part

II, line number 1068, including the L250,000 for education; but it

provides (including the aged people) for four hundred and four thousand

families, which is almost one third of an the families in England.]

[Footnote 40: I know it is the opinion of many of the most enlightened characters

in France (there always will be those who see further into events than

others), not only among the general mass of citizens, but of many of the

principal members of the former National Assembly, that the monarchical

plan will not continue many years in that country. They have found out,

that as wisdom cannot be made hereditary, power ought not; and that, for

a man to merit a million sterling a year from a nation, he ought to have

a mind capable of comprehending from an atom to a universe, which, if he

had, he would be above receiving the pay. But they wished not to appear

to lead the nation faster than its own reason and interest dictated. In

all the conversations where I have been present upon this subject, the

idea always was, that when such a time, from the general opinion of the

nation, shall arrive, that the honourable and liberal method would be,

to make a handsome present in fee simple to the person, whoever he may

be, that shall then be in the monarchical office, and for him to retire

to the enjoyment of private life, possessing his share of general rights

and privileges, and to be no more accountable to the public for his time

and his conduct than any other citizen.]

[Footnote 41: The gentleman who signed the address and declaration as chairman of

the meeting, Mr. Horne Tooke, being generally supposed to be the person

who drew it up, and having spoken much in commendation of it, has

been jocularly accused of praising his own work. To free him from this

embarrassment, and to save him the repeated trouble of mentioning the

author, as he has not failed to do, I make no hesitation in saying,

that as the opportunity of benefiting by the French Revolution easily

occurred to me, I drew up the publication in question, and showed it to

him and some other gentlemen, who, fully approving it, held a meeting

for the purpose of making it public, and subscribed to the amount of

fifty guineas to defray the expense of advertising. I believe there

are at this time, in England, a greater number of men acting on

disinterested principles, and determined to look into the nature and

practices of government themselves, and not blindly trust, as

has hitherto been the case, either to government generally, or to

parliaments, or to parliamentary opposition, than at any former period.

Had this been done a century ago, corruption and taxation had not

arrived to the height they are now at.]

-END OF PART II.-