ulated to
delude the unhappy, and to disguise and conceal the wicked practices of
the professed enemies to his majesty's person, crown, and dignity.

REVIVAL OF THE SALT-TAX.

No motion during this session produced such a warm contest, as did that
of sir Robert Walpole, when, after a long preamble, he proposed that the
duties on salt, which about two years before had been abolished, should
now be revived and given to his majesty, his heirs and successors, for
the term of three years. In order to sweeten this proposal, he declared
that the land-tax for the ensuing year should be reduced to one shilling
in the pound. All the members of the country party were immediately
in commotion. They expressed their surprise at the grossness of the
imposition. They observed, that two years had scarcely elapsed since the
king, in a speech from the throne, had exhorted them to abolish some of
the taxes that were the most burdensome to the poor: the house was then
of opinion, that the tax upon salt was the most burdensome and the most
pernicious to the trade of the kingdom, of all the impositions to which
the poor was subjected, and therefore it was taken off; but that no good
reason could be produced for altering their opinion so suddenly, and
resolving to grind the faces of the poor, in order to ease a few rich
men of the landed interest. They affirmed, that the most general taxes
are not always the least burdensome: that after a nation is obliged to
extend their taxes farther than the luxuries of their country, those
taxes that can be raised with the least charge to the public are the
most convenient and easiest to the people: but they ought carefully to
avoid taxing those things which are necessary for the subsistence of the
poor. The price of all necessaries being thus enhanced, the wages of the
tradesman and manufacturer must be increased; and where these are high
the manufacturers will be undersold by those of cheaper countries. The
trade must of consequence be ruined; and it is not to be supposed that
the landed gentlemen would choose to save a shilling in the pound from
the land-tax, by means of an expedient that would ruin the manufactures
of his country, and decrease the value of his own fortune. They alleged
that the salt-tax particularly affected the poor, who could not afford
to eat fresh provisions; and that, as it formerly occasioned murmurs and
discontents among the lower class of people, the revival of it would,