Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Report Of The Proceedings Of The British Parliament.
REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT .
THE SECOND SESSION OF THE EIGHTEENTH PARLIAMENT .
HOUSE OF LORDS . TUESDAY , Jan . 9 . THE Order of the Day for the second reading of the Assessed Tax Bill being read , and at the same time the Address of the two Houses to his Majesty , of the 15 th November last , Lord Grenville proceeded to a' brief notice of
the Bill before the House , observing that it was founded on the Address , by which both House ' s stood pledged to support his Majesty . It . ivas expedient to raise part of the Supply within the year ; but the burden was to fall chiefly on the higher classes . After a few words more , he proposed that the Bill be now read a second time . Lord Holland , in a maiden speech , opposed the Bill with much ability . The Address , he said , only proved that Ministers had brought us to an alarming exigency ; and now they ivere imposing- a burthen unprecedented in its npture , and
raising millions which would probably be expended with as- little advantage as the hundreds of millions expended already . What new hopes ilkl they entertain ? What promise did they make of changing that destructive system in which they had been supported by a complying Parliament , and a confident majority . At the end of five years'he was justified in asking what pledge ivas offered for better conduct ? To this the answer was , ' Would you stop the supplies ? ' But the fact was , if their Lordships threw out the Bill , Ministers must be dismissed , and the business would be settled with less delay than was occasioned by a noble Duke ' s forgetting his robes 1 The contest in which ive were unfortunately
engaged would then be immediately al an end . If their Lordships adopted a different conduct , they would add fuel to the fire ; and facilitate an invasion by degrading the national character . He understood that the people were unanimous against the Bill ; and led by despair to calculate whether the French could levy more . They doubted with good reason whether the money to be raised would , as it was asserted , keep the French from the coast , every other object which Ministers had had in view during the war having been . completely lost sight of . While they saw that Ministers owed their places to court-intrigues and
corruption ; while they saw so many members of the lower House nominated by the peers , it was impossible the people could place , any confidence in government . His Lordship then urged several ot ihe arguments ' so often brought forward against the Bill . The giving a man an option , he observed , between being ruined by paying the new taxes , or by a disclosure of his property , was like saying , ' We graciously leave you an option between suicide or murder . ' After making some further remarks to show that the Bill was unequal in its pressure , and that it would injure the existing revenuehis Lordshi - gave it his decided negative .
, p The Duke of Bedford went largely into those objections which we have had already occasion to report . Me preferred the funding System '; but if the present were to be adopted , he begged their-Lordships to attend to some particular cases . In the first plan he saw 110 exemption for boarding houses , ov j >« b \ ic schools ( Lord Grenville said they were included ) . He next objected to the tax on farmer's horses , as much as four pounds having been laid last year upon every , horse , which he thought sufficient to ruin thc small farmers . He also thought that country
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Report Of The Proceedings Of The British Parliament.
REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT .
THE SECOND SESSION OF THE EIGHTEENTH PARLIAMENT .
HOUSE OF LORDS . TUESDAY , Jan . 9 . THE Order of the Day for the second reading of the Assessed Tax Bill being read , and at the same time the Address of the two Houses to his Majesty , of the 15 th November last , Lord Grenville proceeded to a' brief notice of
the Bill before the House , observing that it was founded on the Address , by which both House ' s stood pledged to support his Majesty . It . ivas expedient to raise part of the Supply within the year ; but the burden was to fall chiefly on the higher classes . After a few words more , he proposed that the Bill be now read a second time . Lord Holland , in a maiden speech , opposed the Bill with much ability . The Address , he said , only proved that Ministers had brought us to an alarming exigency ; and now they ivere imposing- a burthen unprecedented in its npture , and
raising millions which would probably be expended with as- little advantage as the hundreds of millions expended already . What new hopes ilkl they entertain ? What promise did they make of changing that destructive system in which they had been supported by a complying Parliament , and a confident majority . At the end of five years'he was justified in asking what pledge ivas offered for better conduct ? To this the answer was , ' Would you stop the supplies ? ' But the fact was , if their Lordships threw out the Bill , Ministers must be dismissed , and the business would be settled with less delay than was occasioned by a noble Duke ' s forgetting his robes 1 The contest in which ive were unfortunately
engaged would then be immediately al an end . If their Lordships adopted a different conduct , they would add fuel to the fire ; and facilitate an invasion by degrading the national character . He understood that the people were unanimous against the Bill ; and led by despair to calculate whether the French could levy more . They doubted with good reason whether the money to be raised would , as it was asserted , keep the French from the coast , every other object which Ministers had had in view during the war having been . completely lost sight of . While they saw that Ministers owed their places to court-intrigues and
corruption ; while they saw so many members of the lower House nominated by the peers , it was impossible the people could place , any confidence in government . His Lordship then urged several ot ihe arguments ' so often brought forward against the Bill . The giving a man an option , he observed , between being ruined by paying the new taxes , or by a disclosure of his property , was like saying , ' We graciously leave you an option between suicide or murder . ' After making some further remarks to show that the Bill was unequal in its pressure , and that it would injure the existing revenuehis Lordshi - gave it his decided negative .
, p The Duke of Bedford went largely into those objections which we have had already occasion to report . Me preferred the funding System '; but if the present were to be adopted , he begged their-Lordships to attend to some particular cases . In the first plan he saw 110 exemption for boarding houses , ov j >« b \ ic schools ( Lord Grenville said they were included ) . He next objected to the tax on farmer's horses , as much as four pounds having been laid last year upon every , horse , which he thought sufficient to ruin thc small farmers . He also thought that country