The perseverance in the a...
The perseverance in the attempt to force tlhe continuance of the salt-tax is one of the most cutious instances of in- fatuation with wlich we are aequainted. It is proper to state, however, that Ministers rejected the fraudulent pro- positiou offered to their acceptance with every maxk of sin- cerity: 'there is, therefore, no reason to suppose that they were in any degree privy to the scheme. The arguments by which it was attempted to gloss over the breach of pro- mise, nvcre as offensive. to good morals as the proposition itself:-" A person who makes apromise is at all times com- peLent to re-consider the expediency of executing the thing promised, and under that seconit consideration to act as if no engagemnent hasl been entered into." WYe, on the con- trary, bad thought that when a promise was made, the con- sent of two parties at least was necessary to the revocation of it,-iiamely, the consent of those to whom a right has been conveyed by the promise, as well as of those who have conveyed the right, and given the power of acting as they please out of their owin hands. Suffice it to say, that the chicane offered te be substituted in lieu of the good oli faith and plain straighi-forward dealing was re- jected with becoming zeal. But it was argued (respecting the tax simply, and not respecting thepromise), that smuggling and perjury had diminished with the dlminution of the tax. There was niow but little perjury-but few prosecutions for smuggling. And are not these reasons for the total abolition of the tax,rather than for the retention of a little of it, with a little also of its attendant vices ? The nearer people are to a state of virtue in any one instance, the more necessary, and the more easy also, it is to place themn in that state entirely. One might have supposed that they who proposed the continu- ance of the remaining tax had argued in this manner:- " By your reduction of the tax, You have almost destroy- " ed smuggling and perjury: foi the love of goodness, stop " where you are; for by repealing the tax entirely, vou will " entirely abolish those practices. The destroyers of ver- " min never eradicate the race entirely-they always leave " a rat or two to breed afresh ; anid so ought you to act " in the present instance: people will get out of the habit " of forswearing themselves, if you incautiously take away " from them all occasion !"