It is the complaint of an enlightened French statesman, M. Turgot, that the established rule of finance, in all doubtful cases, is to make the decifion in favour of the revenue; and that, by the complication of laws, almost every cafe is rendered doubtful. M. Necker also observes that, when the taxes are immoderate, when they even exceed certain limits, exactness is augmented in proportion to the difficulty of collection: It becomes neceffary to give greater authority to the collectors; to be infenfible to complaints; to venerate the science of finance; and to honour all the profeffors of it, without diftinction. As the finances of the kingdom are now faid to be in a flourishing state, and as the annual collection of more than fifteen millions bears fo large a proportion to the whole capital stock and income of the community, it may be hoped that the legislature will engage in a thorough revision of the laws of revenue, with a view, not merely to their productiveness, but to their equity and confiftency with the rights of the people. Tacitus records the juftice of an edict of Nero, commanding the prætor of Rome, and fimilar officers in the provinces, to receive complaints against the publicans, and to redress the wrongs, committed by them, on the spot.* Let us compare this with the conduct of Frederic II. king of Pruffia, whofe tax gatherers fupported the double office of exciseman and judge; fo that if a tenant did not pay his affeffment, on the very day appointed, the collector put on the magisterial robes, and fined the delinquent in double the fum.† • Annal. xiii. 51. + Towers's Life of the King of Pruffia, A very judicious writer, on the fubject of taxes,* remarks "that though vexation is not, ftrictly speaking, expence, it is " certainly equivalent to the expence, at which every man would "be willing to redeem himself from it." This important confideration pleads ftrongly for a revifal of the excife laws; by which fix millions and a half, a fum equal to two fifths of the whole revenue of the state, are raised chiefly from the arts and industry of the people. It is faid, that the number of informations, tried in one year, amounted nearly to five thousand; but the actual forfeitures only to feven thousand pounds. A fuller proof can hardly be adduced that frivolous and vexatious fuits are often instituted, even under the present juft and lenient government. What oppreffion, therefore, may be dreaded from a farther extenfion of an uninterrupted system of excise, if power and long ufage fhall hereafter filence the public voice against it! Note (H) page 30. OATHS. In the edict of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, for the reforma of Criminal Law, of which the benevolent Mr. Howard has favoured me with a copy, it appears that the number of oaths are greatly diminished; and that they are administered with the utmost folemnity and reverence. As this tract is not published, 1 shall transcribe the following paragraphs from it. "In confequence of the foregoing regulations, inftead of the warning to declare the truth, which it was for the judge in the process to give the witness, previous to his taking his oath, the faid officer fhall reprefent to him, that the laws, both human and divine, make it the duty of every man not to attest a falsehood, * Smith on the Wealth of Nations, book V. chap. II. part II, nor to declare himself ignorant; he is likewise to remind him, not only of the importance of that obligation, but also that he is liable to be obliged to confirm by oath, at the requeft either of the accufed, the plaintiff, or the injured párty, whatever he is about to declare, in reply to the fimple queries that are to be put to him." "And we order that, in whatever cafe and circumftance it may be permitted to adminifter an oath, let it be to whom it will, and on any occafion whatsoever, the judge or public officer, carrying on the trial, before he adminifters the faid oath, fhall reprefent, to the perfon, the obligation that accompanies it, explaining to him its meaning and importance; and to the end that it may make a greater impreffion, we abolish the fimple formality of touching a leaf of the Bible only, instead of which the person fhall kneel down, and fwear before a crucifix. When the perfon, who is about to fwear, is of a religion different from ours, he fhall take his oath in the form the most respected and dreaded by thofe of his own perfuafion, the great importance of the undertaking having previously been reprefented to him." Mr. Howard, in his Obfervations on Foreign Prifons, informs us that, in La Prifon Ordinaire at Bern, a ferious exhortation is hung up, concerning the awful nature of an oath, together with the forms of thofe, which are to be taken. He transcribes the one following. "My depofition, which has now been read to " me, I confirm before the face of God omnipotent, omnifci"ent, and true, to contain the truth, as I defire that God may "be my help, at the end of my days." The fame excellent author fpeaks, with much approbation, of the mode of adminiftering oaths in Scotland; and afferts that perjury is not frequent in that country. But I know not how to reconcile this obfervation with what Lord Kaims, a late refpectable judge of the court of feffion, has delivered, in his Loofe Hints on Education, "Custom-house oaths," fays his Lordship, "now a days, go for "nothing. Not that the world grows more wicked, but because "no perfon lays any ftrefs upon them. The duty on French wine "is the fame in Scotland, and in England. But as we cannot "afford to pay this high duty, the permiffion, underhand, to pay "Spanish more beneficial "Spanish duty for French wine, is found "to the revenue than the rigour of the law. The oath how"ever must be taken, that the wine, we import, is Spanish, to "entitle us to the ease of the Spanish duty. Such oaths, at "firft, were highly criminal, becaufe directly a fraud against "the public; but now, that the oath is only exacted for form's "fake, without any faith intended to be given or received, it "becomes very little different from faying, in the way of "civility, I am, Sir, your friend, or your obedient fervant. And "in fact, we every day fee merchants, dealing in fuch oaths, "whom no man fcruples to rely upon, in the most material " affairs." Such Machiavelian fentiments, offered by a learned judge, muft furprize and fhock every well-informed and well-principled mind. But I fhall make no other comment on them, than that they irrefragably evince the corrupting influence of the present multiplication of oaths, on the moral opinions as well as practices of mankind. Additional Note, page 19, line 16. TURPITUDE MARKED BY THE GROSS DEFECT OF GOOD PRINCIPLES, &c. The diftinction of pofitive and negative turpitude is of confiderable importance in ethics. Yet there may subsist great apathy, or defect of good principle, in a mind virtuous, as to its general conftitution. The people of Hindoftan are remarkable for the gentleness of their difpofitions, the softness of their manners, and the force of their attachments in love. Yet they feem to be devoid of compaffion and generofity. They are faid to be unaffected by the diftreffes, the dangers, or even the death of a fellow-creature. "An English Gentleman was ftanding by a Hindoo, when a fierce and ravenous tiger leaped from a " thicket, Tt 4 "thicket, and carried off a fcreaming boy, who was the fon of See Annual Register, for 1752, p. 36. INDEX |