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Show [I9] [ i8 ] {cries of defperate meafures which you thought fhifts and devices, full ofmeannefs and full of mitchief, in order to pilfer piecemeal a repeal of an act, which they had not the generous courage, when they found and felt their error, honourably and fairly to difclaim. By fuch management, by the irrefif'tible operation of feeble councils, f0 paltry a {um as three-pence in the eyes of a financier, f0 intignificant an article as tea in the eyes of a philofbpher, have fhaken the pillars of a Commercial Empire that circled the whole globe. Do you forget that, in the very lall: year, you flood on the precipice of general bankruptcy? Your danger was indeed great. You were diflrefibd in the affairs of the Eall India Company; and you well know what fort of things are involved in the comprehenfive energy of that iignificant appellation. I am not called upon to enlarge to you on that danger, which you thought proper yourfelves to aggravate, and to difplay to the world with all the parade of indifcreet declamation. The nonopoly of the mofi: lucrative trades, and the poll‘eflion or ‘ imperial revenues, had brought you to the verge of beggary and ruin. Such was your reprefentation-fuch, in fome meafiite, was your cafe. The vent of Ten Millions of pounds of this commodity, now locked up by the operation of an injudicious Tax, and rot- ting in the warehoufés of the Company, would have prevented all this diflrefs, and all that yourfelves obliged to take in conl‘equcnce of it. America would have furnifhed that vent, which no other part of the world can furnith but America; where Tea is next to a neceftirry of life; and where the demand grows upon the fupply. I hope our dear-bought. Eall India Committees have done us at leall ii) nuch good, as to let us know, that without a more extenfive file of that article our Hall India reV‘enues and acquilitions can have no certain conneétion with this country. It is through the American trade of Tea that your Eaf‘t India conquefts are to be prevented from crulhing you with their burthen. They are pon- derous indeed; and they mull have that great country to lean upon, or they tumble upon your head. It is the fame folly that has loft you at once the benefit of the \Vef't and of the Eaf't. This folly has thrown open folding- doors to contraband; and will he the means of giving the profits of the trade of your Colonies, to every nation but your-Elves. Never did a people fut-fer to much for the empty words ofa preamble. lt mull: be given up. For on what principle does it fiand? This famous re- venue fiands, at this hour, on all the debate, as a deicription of revenue not as yet kndwn in all the comprehenfive (but too comprehen- five !) vocabulary of finance-a preambuflzzy tax. It is indeed a tax of fophiftry, a tax of pedantry, a tax of difputation, a tax; of War B 2 7 {cries ' Ethel |