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out an enemy, and the facility of the conquest diminished the pleafure of it. I foon became weary of dry augmentation, and eagerly panted to wear the bufkin, and to mouth the fonorous periods of fome tragic bard.

"It happened that I had formed a connection with a young member of the club, whofe genius was entirely fimilar to my own, and who had been engaged with a ftrolling company of players. He had often folicited me to go with him on an acting tour into the north of England; and I had as often refufed, from a principle of pride. But at length my ardent defire of exhibiting on a stage overcame every regard to duty, and every compunction of confcience. In a fatal hour (I blush to mention it) I embezzled a fum of money with which I was trufted in the courfe of bufinefs, packed up my clothes, and privately left my father's house, in order to accompany a fet of vagabonds, who, like myself, had abandoned every reputable occupation, and devoted themselves to infamy and indigence, for the fake of enjoying the plaudits of a few ruftics affembled in a barn.

"And now commences the æra of all my mifery. The money I had fraudulently taken from a parent, was foon fquandered away in a fociety of thoughtless mortals, who regarded not to-morrow, if they could feaft to-day. We were, indeed, received with applaufe; but the audience was commonly fo fcanty, that the expences of reprefentation often exceeded the receipts. In every town we

were

looked upon with fufpicion, and treated as vagrants. We were fometimes reduced to fuch extremities, by the expences of travelling, and the loffes of acting to empty barns, that we have wanted even food to

fupport nature. Above charity, we could not be relieved, and deftitute of credit, we could not be trusted. At length I faw my folly, and after various refolves, fent to a friend to enquire whether my father was difpofed to receive me, fhould I return and confefs my fault. How, alas! was I ftruck, when I was told in anfwer, that my father died a few days ago of a broken heart; and that his death was fo fudden, that he had not time to alter his will, in which, in the firft rage after his difcovery of my elopement, he had cut me off with a fhilling.

"It is impoffible to give you an adequate idea of my grief on this occafion, and I fhall only inform you, that it would have proved fatal, had it not been foon removed by emotions of a different kind. During my indisposition, one of the actreffes of our company, whose beauty is only exceeded by the goodness of her heart, watched me with all the anxiety of a parent, and foothed me under the horrors of defpair with the fofteft blandishments of tenderness. I foon felt a flame kindling in my breaft, which was anfwered with a fympathetic paffion. In fhort, I was no fooner reftored to health and vigour, than I married the lovely Emilia: We have now been united near a year, and yefterday fhe was fafely delivered of twins."

I cannot help expreffing my wish that all thofe not acquainted with his hiftory, who, deluded by a heated imagination, feel themfelves inclined to quit the comforts of a parent and a home, in pursuit of a profeffion which is prohibited by law, and which conftantly entails on its followers mifery and difgrace, may receive a proper impreffion from this narrative.

I am, Sir, &c.

NEMO.

Mr.

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SIR,

Mr. SH

's SPEECH against the ABSENTEE TAX.

AM against the general idea of this law; however modified, or in whatever fhape propofed, it appears to me monftrous and impoffible, whether I confider it as a punishment or a tax.

If intended for a punishment, a crime must be pre-fuppofed, and a reformation intended; we are to expect from this law, that all our abfentees fhall be compelled to return home and live in Ireland.

That reformation, in many inftances, is impoffible to be effected, fo that the defign of the intended law will be greatly disappointed.

But I deny that any delinquency arifes upon the abfence of a man from his country in which he has land; whether he is confidered as going intirely out of the ftate in which he has fuch property, or if he goes from one part of the ftate where he has fuch property, to another part of the fame state, he is not a delinquent. し

By the Law of Nature, every fach perfon may go out of the ftate of which he is a member, into that of a foreign prince, and return or not as he thinks proper, without fine or forfeiture; for, it is the first principle of liberty, to have an option to keep or part with one's right, either in part or in the whole, Individuals, going out of their country fingly, and refiding abroad, was never held to be criminal.

Our particular fituation in a corner of the globe, feldom vifited by foreigners, requires this indulgence for polishing and improving our people.

The Muscovites, before the time of the Czar Peter the first, were the moft barbarous nation in Europe, because by a law, no one could go out of that country without the licence of the patriarch, which was almost impoffible to obtain.

That great prince abrogated this law, and thereby laid the foundation of the prefent grandeur of the Ruffian empire.

It is faid there was a law of this kind at Naples, but it feems queftionable, as Naples was fo long a member of the Spanish monarchy, which has no fuch law; but I be lieve no inftance can be produced, where a Neapolitan nobleman was punished for refiding at Madrid, by any law made at Naples.

If it is no crime to go from one ftate to another, the cafe is ftronger, where the perfon goes only from one part of the state to another part of the fame state.

All the natural born fubjects of the one common fovereign have a common allegiance; it is of no confequence in what part of the dominions a man is born, or in what part he has property; he is equally bound to allegiance with the na tives of every other part of the empire-the defigned law annihilates the law of allegiance.

But it is a crime to emigrate in
large companies, except where the
tyranny of the government at home,
or want of employment or fubfift-rate
ence, occafion it.

By our municipal law, every man
may go abroad, who is not ex-
prefsly forbid by the king's writ or
proclamation.

The question also refpects fepa

legislation-how far the legiflature of part of the ftate can make that criminal, which is allowed by the law of every other part of the ftate, or by the law of the empire at large For the law of allegi

ance

ance muft be the law of the whole empire.

Natives of Great Britain hold fome of the most lucrative places in Ireland, and can it be intended to preclude Irishmen from holding places in Great Britain by an Irish law?

Many inconveniences muft follow if this intended law should take place.

The king cannot force any man to live in Ireland; but if he has lands there, the parliament of Ireland will.

The king may fummon a man from Ireland under the privy feal, and if he disobeys, he forfeits his lands and goods; this will not excufe his paying a land tax for obeying the fummons.

An Irishman who has lands here, and is alfo a peer of Great Britain, if he is accufed of treafon here, must be tried in Great Britain; but his going there for that purpose will not excufe the tax.

Nothing will excufe. Not a feat in either house of parliament, at the council, nor any office in Great Britain.

But one thing fails us, and that is power; thofe who inflict punishment ought to have the full power of inflicting it. But Ireland could not claim an Irish abfentee, refident in England, and confequently cannot punish fuch abfentee by a confifcation of his property.

To confider this as a tax, it ought to be neceffary and equal; nothing but the utmost neceffity can juftify, nothing but the ftricteft equality can reconcile taxes to thofe who are to pay them; where the tax is partial it deferves no longer the name of a tax, it is a confifcation (for fo much) of the property of thofe upon whom it is directed to fall.

There is this peculiarity attend

ing an abfentee tax, that the public will accept the produce of it with regret, and look upon every increase of it with horror.

It is faid, that every member of the community ought equally to contribute to the expence of the public. So they ought; it must be the fault of the legislature if the contribution is not equal.

The abfentee pays every tax impofed by parliament poffible for him to pay; there is no general land tax or he would pay it; quit rent, crown rent, and compofition rent, are the only taxes which charge lands; thefe the absentee pays as well as the refident; there are no poll taxes, if there were, an abfentee, in refpect to his lands or honours, might be included in the law the fame as a refident. All the other taxes are upon confumption. In this clafs even hearth money, paid for the enjoyment of houses, may be comprehended; tithes and road prefentments are, it is true, a particular fpecies of land tax, but, as they fall upon the immediate tenants or cultivators of the land, are not involved in the confideration of the prefent queftion; for he who does not ftay at home to farm his lands, fets them to another who does, and pays those taxes.

Our principal taxes arife from confumption. We are affured, that every perfon in Ireland, who lays out twenty fhillings upon the neceffaries or conveniences of life, pays fix fhillings out of that twenty fhillings in taxes; and it is infifted that the lands of the abfentees fhall be taxed, to the amount of the taxes paid by the refident on confumption, by this new law.

Such a tax is unneceffary at this time; for if the profits arifing from all the lands in this kingdom, to fuperior and inferior landlords, were equally taxed, a very fmall

rate

rate would fupply the fum for which a very large rate is infitted upon, from the lands of the abfentees. You begin, it is true, with two fhillings in the pound, but from the argument made ufe of, this tax will end in fix fhillings in the pound, the fum to which the confumption

taxes amount.

Neither is this tax equal, either in appearance or fubftance. I call upon gentlemen to fhew an inftance of taxation, where part was taxed and not the whole; on the contrary, where goods are taxed, all of the fame fpecies are taxed; where lands, every man's land; and the apparent partiality in this cafe cannot be fubftantially equalized by the confumption taxes paid by the refidents, for confumption taxes are, in their nature, uncertain, and cannot be liquidated; they are voluntary, and not compalfory; no refident is obliged to confume; the confequence is, that even the residents do not equally contribute to the public expence.

By what line are we to measure this fuppofed equivalent for confumption taxes? Is it equal to fay, that every abfentee fhall pay fix fhillings, four fhillings, or even two fhillings in the pound, when you cannot ascertain what the confumption taxes of any one abfentee would amount to, were he refident? Is the abfentee to pay a certain liquidated fum annually, and the refident what he pleases ?

Suppofe one or more men, having one thousand pounds a year each in lands in Ireland, fhould choose to live, coarsely clad, in lodgings on a milk diet, go on foot, keep no fervants, and fee no company; if refidents, could you tax their lands to make up to the public revenue the lofs fuftained by their non-confumption? It was never thought of; if not, how can you impofe a certain yearly tax on

them, in cafe they should be abfent, if the tax to be impofed on their lands fhould exceed what their confumption taxes (if they were refident) would amount to, would that be equal?

As to the particular objects of the prefent intended tax, they have this juftifiable excufe for not being liable to it, that it must be pretumed, that their abfence from Ireland is for the general benefit of the whole empire; and it is not agreeable to the principles of government, that a useful fubject, by a particular local law, fhould be reduced to the neceffity of going, reluctantly, into any department of the general public fervice when called upon.

It must be admitted, that the incomes of the great Irish eftates fpent in England is a lofs to this country, but this is an inconvenience we muft fubmit to from the peculiarity of our fituations.

Let us fee, however, whether this inconvenience is not balanced by the refidence of many of them in the feat of empire; many of them are of very great weight and confequence, and have been known to fupport our linen manufacture, and to prevent laws being made in Great Britain, which indirectly tended to injure it; not without reafon, as it is found by experience that the linen manufacture, introduced into any eftate in this country, adds near four fhillings an acre to the former value of the lands.

This country, upon occafions of emergency, fent deputies to England at a great expence; now we have a flanding council there, and Ireland may be faid, in fuch fup. porters, to have the benefit of an union without its difadvantages, as it is fuppofed, that inftead of eight hundred thousand pounds, the prefent calculated fum of ab

fentee

fentee remittances, there would be two millions yearly drawn out of this country by an actual union. Moreover, the income of Irifh eftates spent in Great Britain cannot be confidered as an absolute lofs to a country protected by her fleets, and aided by her councils.

The effects of reftraint on mens minds, ought to have weight in the confideration of the prefent quef. tion. It may operate to give uneafinefs, and a distaste for refidence in this country, or it may be an incitation to vanity. If paying this tax fhould be confidered as a fashionable luxury, and thereby increase the number of abfentees, what will the framers of this law have to answer for? There was an inftance of an inhabitant of fome town in Italy, who was remarkable for never having gone out of the territory he was born in, and for being the happiest man it: he committed fome offence at fixty, his punishment was, that he fhould not depart the ftate, and it broke his heart.

The whole of this extraordinary tax, if collected, would not, it is faid, produce fifteen thousand pounds a year, and the ftamp act will produce (more than is wanted) above fixty thousand pounds a year. Where then is the occafion of precipitating fo very inconfiderately into a measure, which to many feems to be prepofterous and impoffible.

The Greek comic poet ridicules thefe forced and unnatural taxes, by recommending to the Athenians to fhut up the air, and make the gods pay tribute for enjoying the Imoak of their victims.

The obfolete laws respecting abfentees do not apply.

By 28 H. VIII. c. 3. the lands of particular abfentees, in the act mentioned, are declared forfeited, and vested in the crown, upon the rebellion of the earl of Kildare, to whom they were leafed.

By to Ch. I. c. 21. perfons refident in England made earls, vifcounts, or barons of Ireland, were to be liable to all public payments, and charges affeffed by the parliament of Ireland.

The first admits an exception directly repugnant to the prefent intended law. The fecond was not a general law. And the last relates to a poll tax.

It is ridiculous to draw precedents from the laws of the Pale, which did not include a fifth of the ifland.-Until the 28th year of Henry the eighth, chap. 11. the towns of the Pale paid tribute to the Irish chiefs for protection.

As to the ftatutes of G. I. and G. II. which tax the penfions and places of abfentees; the penfion tax has exceptions, and that the place tax has none, is owing to this principle, that an office implies perfonal attendance.

You complain of the abfence of men of fortune, and of the emigrations of the middling people; take away taxes on confumption, make it cheap and pleasant to live in the country, and it will not be deferted. Confumption taxes are very proper for the centre of an empire, to which fo many people, not only fubjects but foreigners, are neceffitated or induced to go; but extreamly unfit for a remote part of the flate, to which people must be invited to come.

Sir, I could not on this occafion give a filent vote, as I happen to differ in opinion from gentlemen By the 25 H. VI. c. 2. and 9. to whofe abilities and difcernment abfentees from Ireland, by com- I pay the utmost deference. mand of the king, are not to forfeit lands or offices.

Political

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