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The Earl of Moira faid, their Lordships were apprifed, from what he faid on the fubject in the courfe of the preceding week, that he condemned the principle in every point of view; he thought the tax ill-chofen, that it was alfo ill-timed, and that, according to his conception, little folid argument could be urged in fupport either of the measure itself, or the means the Bill provided in order to render the measure effectual. He was aware that fome captivating arguments had been advanced, in order to colour the tax, and render it palatable. Among others, it had been faid, that the manufacture of hair-powder confumed Jarge quantities of wheat; and that in a moment like the prefent, when bread was fo intolerably dear, it was highly effential to the Public in general, and to the relief of the poor more particularly, to prevent and restrain, as much as poffible, the waste of fo neceffary an article as flour: Every thing that conduced to that effential object must be highly defireable. The whole of that argument, however, he muft contend, was plausible and fallacious. The farmer, when he put his grain into the ground, did not govern himself by any confideration, how the confumption of his crop would be affected by the manufacture of hair-powder; and if it were true, that hair powder would be very little lefs generally worn, after the tax was made a law-the operation of it, with regard to the dimi nution of the waste of wheat flour, would be too infignificant to bear out the argument. His Lordship faid, he could not believe that the tax would be popular; but fure he was, that if it were, its popularity must be built on an erroneous foundation. It had been faid, that the burden of it would fall only on the more wealthy and the higher orders of fociety, and that the middling ranks and the poor would either be wholly exempt from its operation, or feel it very little. This he wholly denied: Many, who could ill afford to pay the tax, muft, from their fituations in life, continue to wear powder; and others, who from the rank they had held in life, ought to wear pow der as they had been accustomed to do, would feel themfelves ...mortified and degraded, because they would be obliged to forego the ufe of it, from not being able to find the money to pay it. The half-pay officers, mentioned by a Noble Lord the other day, would feel it in that manner; and it had been fhewn (at leaft what had been faid in the favour of that refpectable class of men had not been contradicted), that they were well enti tled to the confideration of their Lordfhips, even to a partial extent. Was it not cruel to throw a difficulty in the way of a poor half-pay fubaltern, who wished to wait on a general officer at his levee, to beg for an increase of bread, and prevent him from paying his refpects accordingly, because he could not afford to pay the tax, which he knew he must incur

if he attempted to give his appearance an air of decency, by dufting his hair with powder? Students in the learned profeffions, and many others, who obviously must make themfelves fit to mix in company with perfons their fuperiorsin professional situation, would also feel it feverely, by having a check given to that line of conduct, without being allowed to continue which they could fcarcely make their way to thofe steps of preferment, by which alone they could one day hope gradually to attain thofe emoluments and honours, which it ought to be their honeft ambition to afpire to. The principle of the tax was at war with the morals of the people; it ferved to confound and mislead their fenfe of moral rectitude, by converting what was not in itself immoral into a crime. It had indeed, his Lordfhip faid, been too much the practice of Tax Bills of late to make this confufion of right and wrong, by felecting objects of taxation not immoral in themselves, and yet declaring them fo, for the purposes of the revenue. So convinced was his judgment of the mifchievous effect of this, that he declared he had been more than once inclined to oppofe them on that ground.

Another, and a radical objection alfo, in his mind was, the invidious diftinction the tax would make between the indigent and the affluent; all diftinctions of that nature ought at all times to be avoided, in a country like this. The Bill went to fix a certain badge or token, which could not be mistaken, and which, if the accounts of combinations and confpiracies that had been so industriously circulated were true, which he, for one, did not believe, would give perfons concerned in fuch proceedings a certain mark for diftinguishing thofe of their own way of thinking, by Act of Parliament. Let their Lordships alfo recollect, that this tax might give rife to a watch-word, which, however ludicrous and abfurd in the first inftance, might lead to ferious confequences. The newspaper writers already talked of the contraft between the Guinea Pigs and the Swinifh Multitude, and the print-fhops who dealt in caricature had exemplified the idea. Surely at this time paft experience had not been fo wholly unattended to, as not to have strongly indicated the impolicy of fuffering watch-words to get into ufe too eafily. The diftinction of Roundhead and Cavalier, in the 17th century, originated in a circumftance equally trivial as that of wearing or not wearing hair-powder; and yet they all knew to what fcenes of inveterate animofity and fatal mischief thofe idle nick-names gave rife. Perhaps the diftinction of Whig and Tory might be traced to a fource as infignificant; and they all knew, that the distinction had entirely governed the world of political party ever since. Even the fong of Lillibullero, fung in

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the camp of James the IId. did more than fo trifling a cause could previously have been imagined likely to effect. Their Lordships would do well to pause a moment on thofe historical facts, and call to mind that this was the first time that a British fubject had been laid under restrictions refpecting the drefs he thought proper to wear; besides the manifest injustice of obliging those who had not a fiftieth part of his income to pay the fame price of duty for powdering his hair, that he was called upon to pay on that account. In the cafe of persons, who, like the students he had mentioned, had but flender incomes, it would prove a moft oppreffive tax. How ill, f, inftance, could a fubaltern officer on half-pay afford a guinea out of his scanty receipt! In fact, he could not afford to pay it.: An old proverb faid, the additional weight of a fly on a perfon fuffering under extreme prefiure, would render that pressure intolerable; and yet this metaphor of the weight of a fly fell fhort of the degree of preffure of forcing one guinea a year out of the pocket of a man, whofe whole income amounted to no more than £34 a year. Let their Lordships for a moment turn that in their minds, and he was perfuaded their humanity would induce them to fupport the clause a Noble Lord meant to offer that day.

The Bill, the Earl obferved, would have a further pernicious. effect—it would encourage informers by giving them one half of the penalty; and how eafily might an information be grounded againft even thofe, who might not mean to offend against the ftatute! If powder was worn once only in the year, the tax was incurred, and if a certificate had not been taken out, the penalty might be demanded, and the party, if not able to pay it, rendered liable to great difficulty and diftrefs. His Lordship put the cafe of a kitchen-wench, out of a Christmas frolic, feizing the dredging-box on a holiday night, and dusting her hair for once with flour, perfectly unconfcious of the confequences. The wench might be informed against, convicted, the penalty levied, and the, unable to pay the informer his half, although the other moiety might be remitted, was liable to be fent to jail, and thus without a hope of extrication, from the humility of her ftate and condition, compelled to fpend the remainder of her days in a prifon. Were their Lordships aware when they felt willing to vote this tax, that they were about to vote fuch a fevere punishment as imprisonment for life to a poor wretch, for the mere frolic, innocent in itself, of catching up the dredg ing-box once, and dufting her hair with a little flour?

Lord Grenville in reply faid, there never was a period when the unpleafant duty of finding taxes capable of producing a

revenue

revenue equal to the extraordinary exigencies of the times, preffed more irrefiftibly on minifters. The tax in queftion, he owned, he had thought particularly excellent, as it was a tax on the vanity and luxury of individuals, a tax that fell more particularly on the rich, and those who were able to bear it, and did not affect the poor. It would undoubtedly bear hard on certain individuals, which he lamented as much as the Noble Earl did, but what tax could poffibly be found that would not prefs fomewhere in a manner much to be regretted? The tax on hair-powder, he really believed, was, and would continue to be, a popular tax, and with good reafon. With regard to what had fallen from the Noble Lord, in respect. to watch-words and nick-names, he believed that when ill-dif pofed perfons chofe to have their jeft at any price, they never were at a loss for occafions to fix upon, and that one occafion would ferve them juft as well as another. If, therefore, in a moment of prelling neceflity, minifters were to be terrified from doing their duty from a weak apprehenfion that their efforts would produce fuch idle confequences, they would in his mind be utterly unfit for their fituations.

To return more immediately to the tax-it could not be called oppreffive with any colour of juftice, as no man was obliged to wear powder in his hair; it was a matter for his own option entirely, and if he chofe to wear it, he at the fame time knew what he was to pay for that indulgence to his perfonal pride. With refpect to the penalty, the fame argument that the Noble Earl had ufed on that ground, would equally apply to every Tax Bill that ever paffed Parliament, and received the fanction of the Legiflature. When it was decreed to lay a new duty in order to raise a large fum for public purpofes, it became indifpenfibly neceffary to accompany it with the means of rendering it efficient and productive to the amount which it was clear it might reasonably be expected to raife. But before he fat down, he begged to remind the Houle of the period of the feffion, the near approach of the time when the operation of the tax was to commence under the Bill, and the known practice of the other House under the constitution, whenever an alteration was made by their Lordships in a Bill termed a Money Bill. He warned the Houfe, therefore, of the danger of rifking the fate of the Bill by any alteration, and he declared it did not appear to him that any alterations were neceffary.

The Earl of Moira replied and faid, he could not agree with the Noble Secretary of State on the fubject of making diftinctions, in their nature invidious, and which would af ford opportunities for watch-words and nick-names. People

were in times like the prefent prone enough of themselves ta form into clubs and parties without being ftimulated to it by, Act of Parliament. To one part of his argument the Noble Lord had not in his mind given any anfwer, viz. the principle of the tax being at war with the morals of the people. It was in his conception a ftrong objection against it, that it confounded morality and juftice, and converted that into a crime, which was not of itself immoral.

Lord Sydney paid a juft tribute to the talents and eloquence, of the Noble Earl who had juft fat down, and faid, he was, fure if the Noble Earl himself thought lightly of either, every other perfon entertained a very different opinion refpecting both; on the prefent occafion he could not help thinking that, the Noble Earl felt more apprehenfion, than the occafion appeared to him to call for. The tax he really confidered as a most unexceptionable one; it was clearly a tax on vanity and on luxury, becaufe hair-powder was certainly not a neceffary. of life, and no man was obliged to wear it unless he chofe it; he could not help therefore being fomewhat furprised at the oppofition which had been given to it. His Lordship faid, the Noble Earl had conjured up a cafe, which he fhould conceive the chicane of the moft ingenious advocate could not fo conftrue and colour, as to make it pafs before a judge for a crime, or that fort of violation of the Act which would incur the penalty, viz. the cafe of a kitchen-wench seizing a dredging-box and throwing fome flour in her hair on a holiday night, by way of frolic. He verily believed no very ferious inftance of the danger of becoming liable to the tax without intending it could easily be found, and therefore he did not much wonder that a ludicrous one should be felected. It was not very frequently his habit to refer to the newspapers to fee in what manner what he faid in that Houfe was represented, but he owned he was forry to find he had been mifapprehended, the last time he had fpoken on the Bill. It had, it feems, been conceived that he had spoken against the exemption in favour of half-pay officers, which a Noble Friend of his had recommended; the fact was, as fuch of their Lordships as were prefent would recollect, he had not faid one word on the fubject, half-pay officers not having been mentioned when he rofe to deliver his fentiments of the particular topic then in difcuffion, viz. the claufe which related to the obligation impofed on masters of families. No man living had a higher refpect for half-pay officers than he had; he thought them entitled to every poffible confideration, he would not fay out of favour, but on a principle of common gratitude. They had fought our battles, they had bled in the fervice of their

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