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Show [ 34 3 , and looked at the aét, which fiands jul‘t before in the Statute Book. The American revenue act is the forty-fifth chapter; the other to whiChI refer is the forty-fourth of the fame femon. Thefe two arfts are both to the fame purpofe; both revenue acts; both tasting out of the kingdom ; and both taxing Britifh manufactures CXPOl‘lICCl. As the 45th is an a& for railing a revenue in America, the 44th is an aél for railing a revenue in the lfle of Man. The two acts perfectly agree in all refpeé‘ts, except one. In the a& for taxing the 1er of Man, the noble Lord will find (not, as in the American aé‘t, four or five articles) but almoft the wbole body of Britifli manufactures, taxed from two and an half to fifteen per cent. and fome articles, fuch as that of fpirits, a great deal higher. You did not think it uncommercial to tax the whole mafs of your manufactures, and, let me add, your agriculture too; for, I now recollect, Britilh corn is there alfo taxed up to ten per cent. and this too in the very head-quarters, the very citadel of iinuggling, the Ifle of Man. Now will the noble Lord condefcend to tell me why he re- pealed the taxes on your manufaclures fent out to America, and not the taxes on the ma- nufac'turcs exported to the Ille of Man? The principle was exaél'ly the fame, the objefis charged infinitely more extenlive, the duties without eompariion higher. \Nhy? why, not- withfianding all his childiih pretexts, becaufe the i 35 l the taxes were quietly fubmitte'd to in the Ifle of Man ; and becaufe they raifed a flame in America. Your reafons were political, not commercial. The repeal was made, as Ldrd Hillfborough's Letter well expreflés it, to re- gain " the confidence and affection of the " Colonies, On which the glory and fafety o'f " the Britifh Empire depend." A wife and juf'r motive furely, if ever there was fuch. But the mifchief and difhonour is, that you have not done what you had given the Colonies juf't caufe to expect, when your miniflers dif- claimed the idea of taxes for a i'CVenue. There is nothing fimple, nothing manly, nothing ingenuous, open, decifive, or Ready, in the pro-a ceeding, with regard either to the continu- ance or the repeal of the taxes. The whole has an air of littlenefs and fraud. The article of tea is {lurred over in the Circular Letter, as it were by accident--nothing is faid of a refolution either to keep that tax, or to give it up. There is no fair dealing in any part of the tranfaétion. If you mean to follow your true motive and your public faith, give up your tax on tea for railing a reventte, the principle of which has, in eflfeét, been difclaimed in your name ,- and which produces you no advantage;- no, not a penny. Or, if you choofe to go on with a poor pretence inflead of a folid reafon, and will {till adhere to your cant of commerce, C a you |