fubmit to every wanton excurfion of minifterial infolence, and buy from man what man cannot fell. Many of our taxès are an invasion on the right of the human race; but this on window lights is an invafion on the rights of Heaven, and a profcription of the Sun.

We have already been fubjected to laws which were contrary to the original charter of our liberties, and which have been impofed by avaritious and griping minifters. We have yielded to taxations on all the neceffaries of life, while our fuperiors, as they think themfelves, enjoy almost every branch of luxury free from taxes. We have allowed our liberties to be trampled upon by excife laws, and our properties to be taken from us; muft we also fubmit to be fhut up in unwholefome caves and condemned to fpend our days in darkness, or fubmit to be amerciated for admitting light and air into our houfes ?

VELLEIUS PATERCULUS.

[When the fcheme of the above tax was brought. into a great affembly, Mr. P. attended, but finding that was the bufinefs, he retired into a private room with Lord C-d-n; which occafioned the following letter.]

Diurna pepuli per provincias caratus legantur ut nofcatur quid Thrafea non fecerit.

TACIT.

HOUGH I do not approve of circulating personal reflections, and of calling the attention of the public to the private squabbles and conduct of individuals; yet I have ever thought that public men are to be publicly judged; and for this reafon I wish to ftate my obfervations on the part which a man of very popular character has lately not taken on a very interesting occafion, hop

ing to receive from his profeffed apologists fome fatisfactory explanation.

When the tax, which may now be well confidered as impofed, was firft brought on in a refpectable affembly, this gentleman, without even the pretence of ill health, thought proper to abfent himself.

He could not be ignorant of what every body knew, that on the day on which this tax was to be propofed, the state of the nation, with refpect to its finances, was to be explained. It was of importance that he fhould be then prefent to examine the truth of it, and to bear his teftimony, or oppose his influence, as the occafion might require. It was expected, that a tax, already called confeffedly grievous, was to be extended to a lower rank of men, than had been yet made fubject to it. His duty to his conftituents required his attendance, and he should have remembered, that the preferving them from grievous or unneceffary taxes.was one chief reafon of his being deputed by them. Be the merits of this tax what it may, thofe conftituents have a right to complain, that he did not think that merit worth his enquiry, or the protection of them deferving of his care; but though well enough, and actually appearing in the metropolis, went to his villa in the country. But this is the lighteft caufe of complaint. When this matter underwent a fecond confideration; when all informations relative to the tax must have been received; when all his doubts refpecting the objects of it must have been removed; and when it appeared by the confeffion of thofe who impofed it, that more than half of the neceffary fum was to be wrung from the hands of our lowest peasants, he, who had oppofed the lighteft tax on America, would not hold up his hand to prevent the impofition of the heavieft in

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Great-Britain. His friends had pledged him, and the character on which he most relies, that of the man of the people, required him to exert all his eloquence in their defence. Their breath had formerly supported him against his most dangerous rivals-and he repaid them, by deferting their intereft in the moft critical moment: nay, he was actually as even present when this point was in difcuffion, and immediately retired. This favoured tribune of the people could fit for five long hours, almost within hearing of the arguments used in their defence, and refused to lend one helping voice for their relief; perhaps he reserved that voice for the purposes of his own ambition and revenge. It could not be his confideration for the prefent m-y, which kept him filent. In his adjacent cabin he was meditating thofe expreffions of refentment andcontempt, which he afterwards fo liberally applied to them. The interest of these they have feen, eluded, and defpifed; and I cannot but lament, that he wafted upon an occafion of fo much inferior importance, an indignation, which might have been employed in the relief of his country.

A CITIZEN Of Bath.

On domeftic grievances, the dearness of provifions, &c.

IN

NTESTINE evils carry in their faces a more fubverfive tendency to the British state, than any war it can poffibly wage against the combined powers of its natural enemies; and when these evils are various and complicated, they must neceffarily perplex and embarrass the wifeft minifter; whose fituation is not then unlike that of a merchant, when his affairs are intricate and confused; and if there is not a spirit of fortitude for perfeverance equal to a capacity for contrivance, deftruction and re proach muft enfue. Abilities alone, on thefe occafions, are infufficient; there must be a refolu VOL. II.

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tion to combat, and an industry not to be wearied, in fuppreffing and removing every impediment that lies before him; attentive always to engage thofe firit, which are the most noxious and ruinous, that others of an inferior nature may fall the easier conqueft. An united exertion then of thefe qualities in an upright minifter, can alone effect a happy redress of these our prefent grievances, which neither admit of controverfy, nor challenge abftrufe enquiries, but are felt by every houfekeeper, and vifible to every beholder; and which cannot be overlooked without endangering the public tranquility, nor delayed without incurring a popular abhorrence.

Want is to be confidered in various lights, and eftimated from its different confequences, or the best arguments can draw no juft conclufions, neither will the moft fkilful difputants be able to give perfect fatisfaction. The want which I propofe to examine in our prefent letter, is a national one; not more big with mischief, than full of diftrefs; we are therefore to reckon it of the most dangerous fort in its events, and alfo of the most interesting importance to the people. Whoever hath in the leaft attended to the miferies of our poor, need not be told, that the want I mean, IS THE WANT OF FOOD.

Life cannot poffibly be fupported without its neceffaries, and when these are not within the reach of industrious poverty, we are to confider it as a pofitive evil, and not more injurious to individuals, than dangerous to the ftate. That the common neceffaries of life do not fall to the fhare of many thousand families in this kingdom, is easily to be proved from a proper infpection into the prefent exorbitant price of every article of provisions, which are raised to fuch an oppreffive and iniquitous degree, that even fome private gentlemen of fix and

feven hundred pounds a year clear eftate (to fupport their ufual propriety of character) find it now difficult to maintain a family of any moderate number of children; and men too that are enemies to luxury, addicted to no vices, keep no equipage, and admit of no fupernumerary fervant whatever. As this therefore is a notorious truth, (for the proof of which I appeal to every gentleman who is poffeffed of that fortune, and who has a family of four or five children to maintain) how then is it poffible for mechanics and inferior tradefmen to fuftain the complicated evils of oppreffion, escape the danger of bankruptcy, or preferve their families from ruin, when their net comings in, perhaps, does not exceed fourfcore pounds a year? Experience is the strongest teftimony of facts; and every contradiction to experienced facts, infers a baseness of principle, or a weakness of understanding: least our ministers then should be imposed on, or misled, by the partial reasoning of our pauper adverfaries, let me earnestly recommend to their confideration a full furvey of their own domestic expences, divested of all the fuperfluous charges of luxurious and vicious articles, and they will then have a juft view of the impoffibility of the poor obtaining the worst offal meats to feed their families, or even a little cheese to relish their bread; and at the fame time they will be also convinced of the neceffity of the fpeedy adoption of fome scheme that may adminifter relief, and felicitate the people.

Prudence and œconomy were never become fuch neceffitated virtues as in thefe hard times of oppreffion and scarcity, and if many private gentlemen of middling fortunes cannot referve any fum for contingencies, much lefs to fave any part of their income for their children; if THEY are fo deeply affected from our present grievances as to utter their fears with a feeling emphafis, and indicate ruin with

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