LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM PITT, IN 1792, FOR RAISING SIX MILLIONS STERLING, AND FOR EMPLOYING THAT SUM IN LOANS TO NECESSITOUS AND LETTER, &c. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. EVER solicitous for the welfare of my fellow-citizens, and firmly persuaded that in promoting their interests I was contributing to the happiness of my Sovereign, (the first and most virtuous among men) I lately did myself the honour of laying before the minister (Mr. Pitt) a plan for the relief of necessitous and industrious persons, by a capitation or poll-tax: which tax was to be imposed on the affluent and prosperous in proportion to their respective incomes or situations in life. I must here beg leave to observe that it was proposed not only from a principle of humanity, but of policy; yet, as our rulers, by reason of the present state of affairs in a neighbouring country, appear to be averse to advance the interests of the community at large, in the belief that with an increase of fortune they must necessarily increase in power-in other words, that on finding themselves easy they would consequently become factious-I shall endeavour to show, by some few, but I hope not contemptible, arguments, that the fears which have been manifested on the occasion are groundless; and that the very reverse of what is apprehended would assuredly be the effect of an adoption of my scheme. The levelling principles held out by Paine and his abettors, have contributed not a little to awaken the fears alluded to. When I talked, in my letter to Mr. Pitt, of the too great inequality among the people of England, it was evidently from a so totally different motive, with a view so diametrically opposite to that of the quondam secretary to the American congress, that I cannot but express my surprise (commended as the plan has been by those who have investigated it throughout) that no one has yet stood forward and become its advocate with the existing powers. As the present publication may possibly fall into the hands of many who had not an opportunity of considering the plan originally suggested by me in my Letter to the Right Honourable Gentleman whose attention I had solicited in the matter, I shall take the liberty of again submitting it to the consideration of the public. In doing this, the clearer way will be, in my opinion, to reprint the pamphlet in question exactly as it at first appeared (especially as the impression is entirely sold off,) and afterwards to subjoin to it such further reasons for carrying the aforesaid scheme into execution as may since have presented themselves to my mind. The Letter to the Minister is as follows:— TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM PITT. SIR, It was the opinion of Lycurgus, that "the two extremes of great wealth and great indigence are the source of infinite mischiefs in a free State." Such being the condition of the inhabitants of Sparta,* that eminent lawgiver, as you remember, in order to banish arrogance and envy from the Commonwealth to which he belonged, persuaded the people to reduce the entire country to a *The words of Plutarch are as follow:-"There was a very strange inequality among the inhabitants of Sparta, so that the city was overcharged with a multitude of necessitous persons, while the lands and money were engrossed by a few." |