DROWSINESS OF LORD NORTH. TAXES. 295 bad one, and concluded with some excellent observations on the tendency of short Parliaments to deprive Members of the advantage of becoming qualified for their duties by experience, and the Speaker himself from presiding over their sittings. In short it was his opinion, that the proposition would go not to reform but to deform the constitution. The motion was lost by a majority of 88, the numbers being, against it 149, for it 61. In the debate on the recal of Admiral Rodney, Mr. Hill amused the House by accusing Lord North of sacrificing to Somnus, and declared that the Noble Lord went to sleep while Members were speaking, and then woke and misrepresented them. He had also an opportunity of speaking his sentiments with regard to the state of places of amusement, when the question of the Turnpike Tax was brought before the House. Mr. Hill's constituents, as well as himself, being much opposed to this tax, he thought it his duty to give his opinion against it. A Right Honourable Gentleman, he said, had observed that the Ministry were obliged to drink out the dregs of that bitter cup which had been left them by their predecessors. Bitter, however as the cup was, they had endeavoured to sweeten it by giving up the tax on public diversions, proposed by the previous government, because it was unpopular. "But," asked Mr. Hill, "in whose eyes would it be unpopular? Perhaps in the eyes of dissipated people, but not in the eyes of wise and thinking men; and therefore almost every Christian nation, except our own, taxes playhouses and other public diversions." He observed, "It is very hard that honest and poor families must be taxed over and over again for every bit of salt they use, for every morsel of candle they burn, for every bit of soap they wash with, for every drop of beer they 296 TAX ON PUBLIC DIVERSIONS. drink, and yet the nurseries of vice and idleness must pay nothing at all to the exigencies of the State. I am not against the people having proper recreations, but the extravagance attending public diversions is got to such a height, that it calls for the wisdom of the Legislature to lay some check upon it." In confirmation of this opinion he instanced the case of a masquerade, fresh in the memory of many members, where the subscribers had paid forty guineas each! He alluded likewise to the enormous sums which had been cleared by a celebrated female dancer. For his part, he thought it time to press for a tax on such amusements rather than on the necessaries of every day life. He then diverted the House by telling them he had lately heard a large party of senators gravely discussing for a long time, whether the dancing lady's foot looked best in a shoe or a slipper-but for himself, having seen her in neither, he could give no opinion. Such was the course pursued by Mr. Hill in the House of Commons till the prorogation of Parliament on the eleventh of July, 1782, after which he took a journey into the north that occupied him till the end of August, when he joined his family at Hawkstone. Jealousies had arisen in the Cabinet, among men who had only been united by the common object of removing Lord North, and whom all the influence of Lord Rockingham could scarcely hold together. At his death, therefore, which happened on the first of July, and on the appointment of Lord Shelburne in his stead, Mr. Fox and Lord John Cavendish resigned. The former avowed in the House, that the cause of his resignation was the difference of opinion that existed between him and certain individuals in his Majesty's councils. It was on this occasion that Mr. Pitt opened his severe battery of ani MR. PITT TAKES OFFICE. 66 THE SKY-ROCKET." 297 madversion on the conduct of his powerful rival, and the ambitious personal motives, which he felt convinced, rom his own admission of pique on the appointment of Lord Shelburne, had caused him to make a division, where he should have promoted union for the great object of his country's welfare. On the formation of Lord Shelburne's Cabinet, Mr. Pitt became Chancellor of the Exchequer, though only a youth of twenty-three, and soon after the prorogation of Parliament took place. As may be supposed, the religious sentiments avowed by Mr. Hill in the House of Commons excited considerable notice. To the various remarks such a fearless expression of his opinions called forth, were added many on a singular pamphlet1 called "The Sky-Rocket," of which the motto and matter at once convinced every person that he was the author, although it appeared without his name. The motto was Amica Patria, amicus Rex, magis amicus Christus, and the matter a review of recent events and questions, in a style which by its correspondence with that of his speeches, at once proclaimed it to have come from his pen. He submitted this production to the perusal of Sir James Wright, and received it again, with the remarks of that experienced politician and friend of the celebrated Marquis of Bute. The copy of the pamphlet, with Sir James Wright's observations on the margin, in his own hand-writing, is still in existence. It was chiefly directed against the administration of Lord North, and Sir James wrote at 1 Published during the Easter recess of 1782. 2 Sir James Wright was the person who commenced the fruitless negociation with Dr. Addington, respecting a ministerial union between Lords Bute and Chatham. It was the first political affair which brought Mr. Pitt into notice before he entered Parliament. See Tomline's Life of Pitt, vol. 1, p. 25. 298 66 the end of it, "I think this little, spirited, humorous, but truly Christian tract, a complete clinching of the nail with regard to the catastrophe of the late blunderers in administration." As a specimen of its humour may be taken Mr. Hill's remark on Lord Nugent's defence of Lord Sandwich, the drift of which was to prove that misfortune, and not mismanagement, was the cause of ill success in our naval affairs. Among other things in vindication of this First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Nugent said, "How should the Earl of Sandwich know which course the French fleet would take, since he is neither saint nor angel?" On this Mr. Hill observed, "if ever pure, uncorrupt truth dropt from the compliant bench on which the Noble Lord then sat," it was contained in those words, and if the question had been put simply, "It is the opinion of this House that the First Lord of the Admiralty is neither a saint nor an angel," it would have passed without a division. He could not refrain also from an allusion to Lord North's drowsy propensities during debates. Though he declared few members paid stricter regard to the debates than himself, yet, said he, "I must confess that once or twice, not being accustomed to midnight hours, I caught myself snoring a harmonious duet with a certain Noble Lord in a blue ribbon; though it appeared in the division afterwards, that we were not quite so much in concert when we were awake as when we were asleep, and that if our noses were at perfect unison, our voices were at absolute discord." But one of the principal subjects of this brochure, was the mode of taxation proposed to supply the deficiencies of the revenue. Mr. Hill was a great enemy to the design of taxing goods and merchandize sent by land or water, and agreed with Mr. Fox, that it would be a tax REASONS FOR TAXING DIVERSIONS. 299 upon the only free trade at that time left to the people. He also ridiculed the idea once entertained, of taxing maid-servants, but advised to tax all livings' and benefices above a certain value, all deans, chapters, bishoprics, and "all idle, non-resident clergy." Also prints exposed to sale, all who needlessly travelled on the Sabbath, as well as all gaming-houses; and "doubly and trebly those murderers of peace, health, time, and credit, cards and dice." Likewise friseurs, and every plate run for at Newmarket, or at other races, with snuff and perfumery of all sorts. "In short," said he, "tax the vices, follies, and luxuries of mankind to the utmost; but spare trade and commerce, spare industry, and as much as possible, spare the poor." But he next pro ceeded to enlarge on his favourite scheme for taxing playhouses and public diversions, which he supported in the following terms." First, waving the evil and corrupt tendency of the stage, and the dreadful evils done by it to the morals of thousands, no one is compelled to pay a farthing a year to this tax; so that it is entirely a voluntary tax. Secondly, it takes no more from any individual than what he himself judges he can very well spare, nay, it actually takes nothing but what is deemed superfluous after all the conveniences of life are supplied. Thirdly, it neither affects the poor, nor trade, nor any of the necessaries of life. Fourthly, if it decreases the number of players, and of such as exhibit at different places of diversion (which I much doubt), it may be the happy means of making those seek to get a livelihood in a useful, creditable way, who now live as drones upon the public. Upon the whole, if we except all those who 1 Sir James Wright's remark on this is, "A plan for this I some years ago proposed to the Administration, and sent them a scale to act upon." |