The only means of

obtaining a working and honest

the exclu

sion of

of legislation, it can be no subject for surprise or disappointment if the unfledged hereditary senators should, like other apprentices, botch a good deal of the work entrusted to them.

A further examination of the composition of the House of Commons, must convince all reasonable beings that to look to it for any real and substantial reform of abuses, by which the Parliament privileged few profit at the expense of the unprivileged many, is by paywould be to afford another illustration of the vanity of expecting ing its members to grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles. In addition to the direct aristocratic element already mentioned, it contains-of patronage. placemen in possession or expectancy, who have both a decided preference for the existing system of management,-of officers in the army and navy, who, for the most part, regard economy with horror and its advocates with contempt,-of officers in the militia and yeomanry, who have a strong fellow-feeling with their more warlike brethren in arms,-of barristers, of whom there are at the present moment no less than thirty-one aspiring to the bench, or longing for colonial judgeships, fat commissionerships, and other good things at the disposal of the Minister of the day,-of pensioners grateful, not to the public who furnish the money they receive, but to the party, Whig or Tory, which has given it to them,-and of other waiters on Providence, many of them endowed with the maws of cormorants and the tenacity of the horse-leech,-more than a full half of its whole number, in which it would be difficult to name fifty individuals who on all occasions are ever free from the operation of personal interests and motives on the one hand, and unwarped by aristocratic influence on the other, perform conscientiously their duty to the people.

From a body so composed, and subject to such influences, what results, political or financial, could be expected other than those which have been attained? What material change can rationally be looked for whilst that body remains what it is? Constitutionally, the people, through their representatives in the House of Commons, have the absolute control of the public purse, so that not a shilling can be levied from them, in the shape of taxation, without their own consent, and not a shilling expended otherwise than subject to their sanction and revision.

(To be continued.)

THE NEFARIOUS INCOME TAX alias TAX UPON

INTELLECT AND LABOUR.

noxious,

less.

THE tax on incomes-wages, as well as salaries-amounting The incomo to one hundred pounds per annum, is incomparably the most ob- tax is obnoxious, tyrannical and heartless, that has of late years received tyrannical, the sanction of the three estates of the realm. It is irrefragable and hearttestimony that there is little or no sympathy in the House of Commons for the operative and the clerk-for those who, owing to the narrowness of their incomes, and the enormous taxation of the country, have always found it difficult to make both ends meet." Not content with putting a tax on almost everything, our legislators must visit specifically the pockets of the labouring and intellectual classes, and, with the vulture hearts of insatiate despots, wrest from them that which belongs to themselves and their families.

66

The poor man's food and raiment are heavily taxed-a "revenue" is derived from nearly every article that he uses→→ from every luxury within his reach.

What is £100 per annum in our large towns to a hard working artisan, clerk, or professional. The two latter are obliged to appear respectable. The former-engineer, cooper, or shipwright-it is necessary he should live on strengthening food. He has, as is generally and very properly the case, a family to support-in sickness and in health. His rent is high, fuel, oil, and candle-light are expensive. As a prudent man, and in order to avert the misery that inability to work would entail upon his family-for the creed of wages is, no work no pay-he belongs to a benefit society, insuring him so much per week in case of sickness. Nay, further, if he is endowed with a disinterested as well as natural affection for his family, he is a member of one of the life assurance societies, which now offer such facilities to the industrial community. Lastly, when business allows and his finances admit, it is only natural that he should take his family beyond the impure atmosphere, to elevate their minds and invigorate their bodies, for at least a few hours once or twice a year,--

"The glow of the sunshine - the balm of the air,

The wor ders of heaven,

Would steal to their hearts, and make all pure there." Now, if the income tax be extorted from either of the classes we have mentioned, it follows that retrenchment must take place in

The tax upon in

tellect and labour is engender

the actual necessaries of life, and an important one of which must not be overlooked, is relaxation and change of atmosphere. That the law is engendering hatred towards the powers who ing batred permit the continuance of the iniquity, we believe, is not doubted. The discontent throughout the country is spreading itself, until it becomes ripened into a necessary evil.

against the State, and likely to

ripen into a necessary

(To be continued.)

An inquiry

the House

of Com

mons into

the perpe tration of

p under by

in Chan

IMPEACHMENT OF THE LORD HIGHI CHANCELLOR
OF ENGLAND.

GEORGE REX. His Majesty having reason to apprehend that ordered by the suitors of the Court of Chancery were in danger of losing a considerable sum of money from the insufficiency of some of the masters, thought himself obliged in justice and compassion to the said suitors, to take the most speedy and proper method the The masters law would allow for inquiring into the state of the master's accounts, and securing their effects for the benefit of the suitors: and his Majesty having had several reports laid before him in pursuance of the directions he had given, has ordered the said reports to be communicated to this house, that this house may have as full and as perfect a view of this important affair, as the shortness of the time, and the circumstances and nature of the proceedings, would admit of.

cery.

And the said reports, together with some of the papers referred to in them, were read and ordered to be taken into further consideration upon the Friday morning next following.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, February 12th, 1725. The house took into consideration the several reports and papers referred to in his Majesty's most gracious message to this house, the 9th instant; after the reading part of the said papers, Sir George Orenden, Bart., member for the port of Sandwich, rose up, and among other things, said, "That it manifestly appeared, by these reports, which, after the strictest inquiry and upon the maturest deliberation, had been drawn up by persons of the greatest weight and authority for their abilities, experience, high stations, and integrity. That enormous abuses had crept into the High Court of Chancery, chiefly occasioned by the magistrate who was at the head of that court, and whose duty consequently it

Chancellor

widows, or

lunatics of

their pro

imagistrate of the king

dem fallen

into infamy

was to prevent the same. That the crimes and misdemeanors The Lord of the late Lord Chancellor were many, and of various natures, detected in but might be reduced to these three heads:-1st. That he had plundering taken into his own hands the estates and effects of many widows, phans, and orphans, and lunatics, and either had disposed of part of them arbitrarily to his own profit, or connived at the officers under perty. him making advantage of same. 2ndly. That he had raised to an exorbitant price the offices and places of the Masters of Chancery, and in order to enable them to pay to him those high prices and gratuities for their admission, had trusted in their hands large sums of money belonging to suitors in Chancery. 3dly. That, in several cases, he had made divers irregular orders. So that in his opinion, that first magistrate in the kingdom was The first fallen from the height of the dignity and honours to which he had been raised by the king's royal bounty and favour, to the depth of infamy and disgrace. And therefore he moved that and dis Thomas Earl of Macclesfield be impeached of high crimes grace. and misdemeanors. This motion was seconded by William Strickland, Esq., and thirded by the Honourable George Doddington, one of the lords of his Majesty's treasury, who failed not aggravating the misdemeanors of the late Lord Chancellor, which they said were of the greatest and most dangerous consequences, since most of the estates in England, once in thirty years, pass through the Court of Chancery. The Right Honourable William Pulteney, who stood up next, said in substance, "That it was far from his thoughts to endeavour to abate the just resentment which the gentlemen who spoke last showed against the great abuses that had been committed in the Court of Chancery; but that in his opinion they went a Estates little too fast in so weighty and important an affair, by which once in thirty years means they might lose the very end they aimed at, viz., the effectual punishing the person by whose neglect, at least, those abuses had been committed. That whatever deference they Chancery. ought to pay, on this occasion, to the capacity, experience, integrity, and authority of the persons who had drawn up the reports that had been laid before them, yet it little became the dignity, and was even derogatory to the prerogative of that house, which is the grand inquest of the nation, to found an impeachment upon those reports, without a previous inquiry and examination into the proofs that were to support it; and therefore, he was now of the same opinion he was of three days before, and moved, that this affair might be referred to the

ess

through the

court of

consideration of a select committee." Ile was backed by several members, particularly by Sir William Wyndham, Bart., who, among other arguments, urged, "That by proceeding by way of impeachment upon reports laid before them from above, the Commons would make a dangerous precedent, and seem to give up the most valuable of their privileges, viz., the inquest after state criminals." These reasons had a great weight with several members, particularly on Sir Wilfred Lawson, and Sir Thomas Pengilly, who supported Mr. Pulteney's motion. Mr. Yonge, one of the Lords of the Treasury, and Sir Clement Wearg, Solicitor-general, answered those objections, whereupon the previous question was put, whether the question be now put upon Sir George Oxenden's motion? which after some further debate, was carried in the affirmative, by a majority of 273 voices against 16-1.

Then the main question being put, it was resolved, by the same majority, that Thomas Earl of Macclesfield be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors; and ordered that Sir George Oxenden do go up to the Lords, and at their bar, in the name of the House of Commons, and of all the Commons of Great Britain.

(To be continued.)

THE PACKED MILITARY COMMISSION TO ENQUIRE
INTO THE CONDUCT OF CRIMEAN OFFICERS.

To the Editor of the Morning Advertiser.

SIR,-The names of the members of the court who are to try Sir John M'Neill and Colonel Tulloch for their Crimean report, and to whitewash the authorities for the appointments of Lords Lucan and Cardigan, Sir Richard Airey and Colonel Gordon, are at length published. Perhaps the following memorandumus respecting them may be interesting to you :

:

The youthGeneral Lord Seaton; 81 years of age.-Personal friend of ful military Lord Hardinge.

whitewashing Sebastopol commission!

General Sir Thomas M'Mahon; 78 years of age.-Amiable man, but in his second childhood.

Lieut.-General Sir John Bell; 75 years of age.-Perfectly

deaf.