March 20 Many of the regulations to which retailers of excised commodities, and manufacturers, are subjected, cannot, in the nature of things, be complied with. For example, a grocer is obliged, by law, to insert in a book every pound of tea he sells; to the veracity of which book, he must make oath within a stated period. Every one knows that a grocer cannot, without devoting a very great portion of his time to it, make up such a book; and the consequence is, that he puts down his tea now and then, from his memory, in the best way he can, without being able to comply with the statute. The same thing takes place with a retailer of wine, and several other articles that are under the excise. An excise officer may, at any time he pleases, without the smallest controul, oblige a tea dealer or a tobacconist to weigh over all his stock, however considerable; and if any inaccuracy takes place, either in the books kept by the dealer, or in the account taken at weighing, so as to occasion a difference betwixt the actual stock on hand, and what appears in the books of the officer, the party not only forfeits a quantity of the goods, equal to the difference, but is also liable in a considerable penalty, which he is condemned to pay, by a set of justices of the peace, without either jury or power of appeal. Hence it is very evident, that a rascal of an excise officer, (and many of them certainly are rascals,) on taking a spite at any man in businefs, may, without the smallest dread of punishment, curb his operations in trade to such a degree as to hurt him very materially. And moreover, in spite of all his care and endeavours to comply with the laws, bring him often before the justice courts, under suits for penalties; and thus not only make him pay great sums of his money, gained perhaps with hard industry, but also make him waste the time that would otherwise be employed in the regular course of his business, by dangling after solicitors of excise, petty-fogging attornies, and overbearing justices of the peace. How can the the people be blamed for complaining against such a ruinous system of legislation? Nay, these are but small matters in comparison to some of the evils that the people groan under. I have only picked them out, because they can be easily discerned, and sooner told than many other heavier grievances. It will be alleged that these curbs are necefsary to prevent smuggling. If smuggling cannot be prevented but on these terms, the duties ought certainly to be reduced to such a pitch as to render them unnecefsary. The duties are imposed for the general good, and ought to be borne by the community at large, not by one clafs of men; and in the present case it is certainly the manufacturers and traders that bear all the part that is really grievous of these excise laws; for the simple amount of the duty is of almost no consideration, in comparison to the hardships incurred in consequence of the regulations imposed for securing them. With regard to the oaths so universally required in the present system of revenue laws, I think almost any person, on mature reflection, will agree, that they are very pernicious; and I refer the reader for the consideration of that part of the subject to a paper that appeared in the Bee about eighteen months ago. I do not present these reflections as invectives against administration, for the present ministry has certainly had great merit in supprefsing smuggling; but, unfortunately, it has been done in many cases at the expence of the liberties of the people. It is therefore with a view to turn the attention of the well disposed members of our legislature, towards the remedy of the opprefsion so much felt, that this and my former fheets are offered to the public. The true test of the integrity of a minister, is certainly the attention he pays to the complaints of the people in matters affecting their own welfare. Such complaints are now coming in from all quarters, and upon the proper hearing of them, the stability of a minister ought to depend, and in these days I begin to hope it will. If the Editor of the Bee indulge me so far, I fhall make some remarks, in a future paper, on the manner in which the effects of smuggling are so much felt, in consequence of the excise duties, in many manufactures carried on in North Britain. TRADER POLITICAL. Leith, Oct: 1792. OBSERVATIONS AND OPINIONS OF J. W. SPENCER. Valencia. It is difficult for one who has never been out of Britain, to conceive the serenity and settled appear 95 ance of a Valencian fky. Even now, near the middle of winter, the weather is mild, and the air agree. ably perfumed with the fragrant odours exhaled from the delicious fruits that are not yet all gathered. The country is rich, fertile, beautiful, and gay. Trees, rising grounds, streams of water, diversify the landscape. The fruits that are common to this place with Britain, are not all here in greater perfection; but some of them are infinitely superior; and there are others, to which, on being directly transplanted to it, our climate would be immediate death. The time, however, is coming, when ours will rival the first in quality, and when we will be enabled to cultivate even the others with succefs. When peaches were first raised in Italy, all the world was surprised that they could be brought to perfection out of Persia. What would Cæsar and Diodorus Siculus say, were they told that the most esteemed wines in Europe, are produced in Gaul, where they thought vines would not grow? or Strabo, if he knew that figs can be propagated in the north of Scotland? or Lucullus, that cherries will grow almost any where, which in his days were known only in Cerasus and the mild climates of Europe? It is probable that the fluids of the animal and vegetable kingdoms circulate in nearly the same. manuer; and I have ever believed, that there is in, many respects, a much greater similarity between them than is generally imagined. Cause a native of the gold coast exchange habitations with an Es March 20. quimaux, or with an inhabitant of Terra del Fuego, and both will directly perish. But if the change be gradually made, a few generations will enable each to live in the climate of the other. Trees and fhrubs being altogether passive, will accomodate themselves much more slowly to the change'; but I have not a doubt, that those even of the torrid zone" will move towards the poles, and become slowly inured to the climate; that the climate itself will be changed for the better; and that some thousands of years hence, reposing under their own olive tree, our posterity may quaff their own wine, and sip their own tea, sweetened with the juice of their Delicious idea! Perhaps it may own sugar cane. be thought, that I push this analogy too far; but if we once admit a progrefs in these matters; (and here it cannot be denied,) there is no stopping. The Spaniards speak with much gravity and solemnity. I studied hard at their language for a month at Marseilles, and I make myself understood tolerably well. My knowledge of Latin, French, and Italian, afsists me greatly. Of all the languages with which I am acquainted, the Spanish approaches the nearest to the Latin. I stay in an inn, or hotel, if you please, where every person takes me for a German. I live in much the same way as I did at Paris. The waiters are dirty fellows; the cookery is also abominable. There are no tides in the Mediterranean, and yet many historians relate, that Scipio surprised Carthagena, by entering the bason when it was low water. It seems, too, that his army was quite unac、 |