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Show 66 ON SMUGGLING, [(3.1%] I fell into thefe reflections the other day, on hearing two gentlemen of reputation difcourling about a fmall eltate, which one of them was inclined to fell, and the other to buy; when the feller, in recommending the place, remarked, that its fituation was very advantageous on this account, that being on the fea-coaft in a {muggling country, one had frequent opportunitles of buying many of the expenfive articles ufed in a family, (fuch as tea, coffee, chocolate, brandy, wines, cambricks, Bruffels laces, French filks, AND ITS VARIOUS SPECIES. 67 The people of GreatBritain, unde r the happy ' ftitutio n 0f thi scountry, h 3/6 1n v a priv ' rleg ' e few other countries enjoy, that of choofing the third branch of the lcgir‘lature; which branch has alone the power of regulating their taxes. Now whenever the government finds it neceflary for the common benefit, advantage, and fafety of the nation, for the fecurity of our liberties, pro- perty, religion, and every thing that is dear to us; that certain fums {hall be yearly raifed by taxes, duties, 86c. and paid into the public and all kinds of India goods,) 20, 30, and in treafury, thence to be difpenfed by gove rnment fome articles 50 per cent. cheaper than for thofe purpofes ; ought not every dong/ Z 7mm freely and willingly to pay his juft proporti on they could be had in the more interior parts, of traders that paid duty.-The other bomfl gentlemen allowed this to be an advantage, but infit'ted that the feller, in the advanced price he demanded on that account, rated the advantage much above its value. And neither of them {cemed to think dealing with fmugglers, a prac- tice that an bamfl man (provided he got his goods cheap) had the leaf: reafon to be thamed of. At a time when the load of our public debt, and the heavy expence of maintaining our fleets and armies to be ready for our defence on occa- fion, makes it neceflary not only to continue old taxes, but often to look out for new ones; perhaps it may not be unufeful to Rate this matter in a light that few feem to have confidered it in, - of this neceifary expence? Can he poflibly preferve a right to that character, if by any frau d, firatagem, or contrivance, he avoids that pay- ment in whole or in part ? What {hould we think of a companio n, who having fupped with his friends at a tave rn, and partaken equally of the joys of the evening with the reft of us, would neverthelefs contrive by fome artifice to fhift his [bare of the reckonin g upon others, in order to go off fcot~freeP If a man who praé‘rifed this, would, when dete cted, be deemed and called a fcoundrel; what ought he to be called, who can enjoy all the ineflimable benefits of public fociety, and yet by fmuggling, or dealing with fmugglers, contrive to evade paying his juft {hare of the expence, as fettl ed by his own reprefentatives in parliament,- and wrongfully throw it upon his honefier and perThe , K :2 haps |