of families, who had large eftablishments, knew whether their principal men fervants who attended upon them perfonally wore powder or not; but their Lordships would have the goodnefs to recollect that the female fervants did not usually ap pear before them. Neither could he coincide in the opinion that it must be the wish of any mafter that all his fervants, should wear powder. His Lordship, after further reasoning, faid, that one strong, and, in his mind, infurmountable objec tion ftruck him, viz. that the claufe in queftion must be nugatory for the enfuing year. By the Bill, mafters of families were called on to give in lifts of fuch of their fervants as wore powder between the 10th of April and the 19th in each year, and the 10th of April in the next year, a thing impoffible to be done the prefent year, as the tax was not to take place and commence its operation till the 5th of May next, confequently a month would have elapfed of the prefent year. His Lordship concluded with declaring, that he fhould vote with the Noble Duke, if he thought proper to take the fenfe of the House. Lord Hay (Earl of Kinnoul) faid, he thought the tax a most. eligible one, and that it particularly behoved their Lordships to give it their most cordial fupport. He had liftened to the arguments urged against the claufe in queftion with great attention, and he feared there was fomething valid in the Noble Duke's objection to the claufe, in which cafe, he fhould with to have it altered, but should feel great pain, if fo popular a tax Bill, all circumstances confidered, were loft. The Earl of Moira faid, he felt very differently from every Noble Lord who had spoken on the fubject. He not only objected to the particular claufe under confideration, but to the principle of the Bill itfelf. He thought the fubject of the Bill, not only an improper fubject of taxation, but peculiarly ill timed for the impofition of duty. The present moment was perhaps of all others the most unfitly chofen to draw a line of diftinction between the high and low, the rich and poor. Such a line of diftinction, in its nature invidious and disgusting, was at all times to be avoided, but most to be avoided juft now, because most unwife under the peculiar circumstances of Europe. Their Lordships would not therefore be surprised at hearing him declare that the Bill, generally confidered, revolted his feelings, and he would fay, his judgment likewife. So decided was his opinion on the fubject, that if he should happen to be prefent on the third reading, he would certainly give it his negative. If the objections of the Noble Duke were met, and the claufe in quellion were modified, it would certainly make the Bill lefs unpalatable to his mind. But even that could not do away away his diflike of the principle of the measure itfelf. The Noble Duke's objections were certainly valid, as applied to the particular claufe under confideration. The tax was fevere enough in every point of view; but the claufe appeared to him to be severe on mafters of families, without answering any adequate purpose; and when the Legiflature impofed a tax that was in its operation to bear particularly hard on one defcription of fubjects, the injuftice was in fome degree qualified by the neceffity to make the tax efficient, and the evident reafon was, that unless the individual hardfhip were permitted, it could not be fó rendered efficient. But here was injuftice which would not add to the efficiency of the tax. It was, he conceived, impoffible for mafters of families to know whether all their fervants wore powder or not, and yet, if, as has been stated, any of them did wear powder, and it could be proved that the mafter had accidentally feen the fervant powdered, he was to be liable to the heavy penalty of 201. His objections went however much farther than to the particular claufe. The tax was faid to be a tax on vanity; he did not mean to be ludicrous, when he afferted that a tax on wearing breeches might' with just as much reafon be deemed a tax on vanity: Breeches, in the confideration of a Highlander, would be regarded as a decoration originating in vanity, and by no means a covering. required by decency or neceflity, as he himself could by his daily habit and practice prove, that breeches might well be done without. He affured their Lordships he meant this as a grave and ferious argument, and he would ask the Noble Vilcount near him if he would next year recommend it to his Majefty's minifters to impofe a tax on wearing breeches. This might just as well be done, and if it were, he would ask if all men, at leaft all refident in the fouthern part of the country," would not revolt at it, and fay that breeches were not a luxury, but a neceflary, indifpenfible to general decorum, and to the comfort of individuals. The Highlander would nevertheless fay, No; breeches are an idle luxury, and not a neceffary. So in like manner if a man chofe to wear hair-powder by way of decoration of his head (if it might be termed a decoration), might not he fay, Hair-powder is not a luxury, the habits of life, the customs of the age, and the general practice, have all contributed to render it fo much and fo generally in ufe, that for me to leave off wearing it, would be to difgrace and make me ridiculous in the eyes of others? His Lordship added further argument to prove the bad policy of fuch a tax, at any time, but most efpecially under the prefent circumftances, and at length repeated his declaration, that if he should be present at the third reading of the Bill, he would give it his negative. In the mean time, he thought the Noble Duke's objections infurmountable, and therefore he wished the claufe in question might be either rejected or modified. Lord Sydney affured the Noble Earl he did not rife with any defign to accept the challenge, and propofe a tax of the extraordinary fort which the Noble Lord had mentioned. It was enough for his Majesty's minifters, whose peculiar duty it was, to find taxes, a duty which they had discharged for a long time in an unexceptionable, but this year particularly, in a moft commendable manner; he left it therefore to them to fuggest new taxes, whenever they were neceffary. What he rofe for was principally to make an obfervation or two upon the argument of the Noble Duke, who opened the debate. In the first place, he thought the tax an excellent one, and he had no doubt of its being extremely popular. Nor could he easily find out any folid objection to it. No man was obliged to wear powder, and it could not be termed a neceffary; the tax, there fore, as it had been called, was neither more nor less than a tax on vanity, and therefore one of the propereft fpecies of fubjects of impofition in times of exigency, when great fums were to be raised with leaft burden to the lower and most distressed ranks of the people. With regard to the claufe complained of by the Noble Duke, he really faw no great hardship in expecting the master of a family to give in a lift of fuch of his fervants who wore powder, once every year; and however at first mafters of families might feel fome little difficulty upon the fubject, that could only be trivial, and would foon vanifh entirely. His Lordfhip made feveral more obfervations in praise of the tax, and in defence of the clause objected to, The Earl of Moira fpoke fhortly in reply. The Duke of Norfolk rofe again, and profeffed himself anxious to call back the attention of the Committee to the particular tendency of the claufe, which he must still complain of as oppreffive upon masters of families, without any reasonable plea for it. It obliged masters of families either to pay the tax for their fervants, to render themselves liable to a heavy penalty, or to expose them to the chance of being proved to have falfified their own fignatures, and given in falfe and incorrect lifts, in inftances wherein they really might have no fuch intention. He repeated the cafe which he had put in his first speech, of the mafter of a family accidentally meeting one of his female fervants powdered, while in prefence of a third perfon, and through forgetfulness omitting to infert the name of that fervant in his lift, delivered in to the proper officer; he argued upon the confequences of fuch accidental omission, and contended, that the master must either turn informer against VOL. III. I his his fervants, or pay the tax for the poor girl. Above all, he infifted upon it that there was no real ufe in the claufe, and that the Bill would ftand, and every neceffary end of impofing the tax be answered, juft as well without the claufe as with it. The Earl of Hardwicke faw no fufficient ground for the ob jection raifed, but confidered the tax as a moft unexceptiona ble one-a tax likely to be extremely popular, and to prove productive, without in any degree falling upon the fhoulders of the lower and hard-working orders of the people. He could not by any means agree with the Noble Duke, that the clause under confideration would oblige the mafter of a family to turn informer against his fervants, in the invidious fenfe of the word Informer. Let their Lordships recollect the origin of the term, Informer; and how the odium of the populace became attached to it. It was formerly held invidious and difgraceful, when applied to informations for neglecting attending on religious fervice; but every thinking man must deem it meritorious to be an informer for the public good, as in cafes where frauds were attempted to be practifed to the dimi nution of the revenue. After having clearly laid down the diftinction, his Lordship faid, probably the claufe might admit of modification; but he fhould be extremely forry if the Bill were endangered, and a tax, that promifed to be equally popular and productive, materially defalcated in the amount of its probable produce. Among other recommendations of the tax, furely not the leaft in confideration was, that if it fhould happen to diminish the quantity of hair-powder manufactured and worn in future, it would leffen the confumption of those valuable effentials of life, corn and flour, which were wafted under the name of hair-powder. The Lord Chancellor, during part of the debate, had gone to the table, and run his eye over the claufes of the engroffed copy of the Bill; when opportunity offered, therefore, he rofe again, and delivered his opinion at fome length, in favour of the principle of the tax, and of the particular clause in queftion. The Bal, as well as he could catch the general tendency of its purview and provifions, from a curfory perufal of its claufes, meant this great object-to raise an efficient tax to a large amount; and every clause of it appeared to be drawn with a defign to further that purpofe. Without the clause objected to by the Noble Duke, the Bill would be good for nothing; fo material was that claufe to the general object. It was utterly impoffible to afcertain the particular meaning and bearing of each claufe, without confidering them collectively, with relation to each other, and as one ferved to illuftrate the other. other. The Noble Duke ftill perfifted in contending, that the clause under debate obliged the master of a family to turn informer against his fervants; he denied that it did fo in the odious fenfe of the term Informer, which the Noble Earl had correctly explained to have originated in its application to those who informed against their neighbours, for neglect of religious duties. With regard to the fuppofed cafe that the Noble Duke had put, of a master's happening accidentally, in the prefence of a fecond perfon, to have feen one of his female fervants powdered, the circumftance escaping his recollection, and his omitting to give in her name in his lift when he delivered it-it was in the first place an extreme cafe, and a case fcarcely likely to happen as long as the Bill endured. All mafters of families, he took it for granted, would pay for their fervants wearing powder; where that was not the cafe, fervants were by the Bill made refponsible for themselves, if they wore powder, as they ought to be. Mafters of families could not but know whether their fervants wore powder or not : Hair-powder would naturally and unavoidably challenge their notice; and if it had not excited their curiofity heretofore, the obligation of the Bill would call upon them to inquire. Servants, on the other hand, muft know whether their mafters were aware of their wearing powder or not; and they muft also know, that if they did put powder in their hair, either their master or they themselves must pay the duty, and take out a certificate. The claufe impofed no hardship on masters of families, whofe duty it was not to ftand by and fee the revenue defrauded, when they could not but fully know how much the exigencies of the times required that the public revenue fhould be rendered as productive as poffible. It seemed to have escaped the notice of thofe Noble Lords who complained of the hardship of the clause, that masters of families who meant to do what was right by the tax, were in no danger. They must be convicted of having knowingly given in falfe and defective lifts, before they could be made liable to the penalty. Having urged a variety of arguments in reply to the objections that had been ftated, the Lord Chancellor spoke of the great indifcretion of that Houfe interfering to throw a difficulty in the way of a Bill, profeffedly impofing a tax on a luxury, if not peculiar to families of rank and diftinction, infeparable from their habits. Did any Noble Lord imagine that an oppofition of that nature would come with a peculiar grace from that Houfe in a time of confeffed distress and public exigency? Let them for a moment confider the conftruction it would be liable to without doors. Let them alfo reflect upon the danger in which a rejection of the clause would 1 2 |