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Show dandy able, were you but truly willing to p37 and not at all exceflive ; " It may neverthelefs For how, and in what Manner do " be laid on, very unfeafonably; it may be this Tax. you prove your Allegations? Why truly, by breaking forth into Riots and Infurreétions, and by committing every Kind of Violence, that can caule Trade to l'tagnate, and lndul'try to ceafe. And is this the Method, which you have cholen to purfue, in order to make the World believe, that you are a poor People 9 Is this the Proof you bring, that the Stamp Duty is a Burthen too heavy for you to bear ? Surely, if you had really intended our Conviclion, you would have chofen fome other Medium: And WEI/.1 mm: were your Inability, or Poverty the fingle Point in uellion, you would not have taken to fuch Couries, as mull infallibly render you {till the poorer. For in fact, if, after all your Com- plaints of Poverty, you can fiill afford to idle away your Time, and to walle Days, and Weeks, in Outrages and Uproars, what elfe do you prove, but that you are a prodigal, and extragavant People? For you mul't acknow- ledge, that if but Half of this Time were fpent, as it ought to be, in honei't lndul-lry and ufeful Labour, it would have been more than fullicient to have paid double the Tax which is now required. BUT you will fiill fay, that though the Tax may b6 allowed (nay indeed it mull be allowed) to be very moderate, every thing confidered, and " wrong‘timed, and ill-digel'ted." Now, here I muf't own, that I am {omewhat at a Lofs how to anl‘wer you, becaufe lam not quite certain that I underl'tand your Meaning. If, for Example, by the Term ill-"digzfled, you would infinuate, that the A'Mefz'mn Stamp Duty would grind the Faces of the Poor, and permit the Rich to efcape ;---that it would affeét the Necellaries, and not the Superfluities of Life; -that it would prevent the Building of Houfes, or the clearing of Lands, or the Cultivation of Efiates already cleared -,-or lafily, that it would diminilh the Number of your Shipping, or [top the Pay of your Sailors : If thefe, or any of thefe are the Evils, which you would lay to the Charge of the Stamp Duty, nothing upon Earth could be a falfer Charge; and you could not give a [tronger Proof either of your Defect in Judgment, or Want of Integrity, than by ut-l tering fuch Afi"erti'ons as thefe ;---Afl"ertions,' which both daily Experience and the Nature of Things evidently demonf't‘rate to be Void of Truth. We in Britain have been fubjeét to 2. Stamp Duty for many, very many Years -, a Duty much higher than that which is intended for America; and yet we know by long Experience, that it hath not been attended with any of the dreadful Confequences which are here fuppofed. Q AGAIN, . await... mugging:ii!;.i??!ib§§" i [ 121 ] ' UCmfifl'fll" mu, [ 120 ] |
