A review of the excise-scheme : in answer to a pamphlet, entitled The rise and fall of the late projected excise, impartially considered with some proper hints to the electors of Great Britain.

William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath

Date:: 1733

Credit: A review of the excise-scheme : in answer to a pamphlet, entitled The rise and fall of the late projected excise, impartially considered with some proper hints to the electors of Great Britain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

57/68 (page 61)

$jector and Executor of it? Was there no View of obliging his Creatures, Dependents, and learned Advocates with ihefe Places ? Were no Perfons to be favoured with them, who have Votes, or Inte- reft, in Boroughs and Corporations ? Would not the Recommendation of any Lord, or Member of Par* liament, in Behalf of their Friends, have been ac¬ cepted ?—-What peculiar Diiintereftnefs and Inte- grity is all This ? Nothing but the publick Good, nothing but the Welfare of our Conftitution, ac¬ cording to the Conjiderers Way of Reafoning, was the Delign and End of this memorable Bill. What ilrange Infatuation therefore mult all the People be under, that no Body, belides Hackney Writers, or Men in Office, fhould draw their Pens in Defence of it * that not one Perfon in the whole Kingdom, except the Relations, and Tools of the Projector, or Thofe immediately under his Influence, fhould pre¬ fume to jultify the Bill, after it was publickly known \ nay, that even fome of Thefe fhould admit, in private Convention, that it was a Plan of Power, calculated to keep Jlurdy Beggars in due Awe, as well as the Projector in due Power and Dominion over the People ? Belides, if it is true that theVxo]c(kox had no pri¬ vate Views, nor propofed any perfonal Advantages to Himfelf by this Scheme, He would do well to anfwer us a plain Queltion or two. Why was the Ctaufe, to reltrain 600 Salt-Officers from voting at Elections, rejected ? And are there no Inltances of Excifemen, and other Officers, or Dependents on the Revenue, even fo low as Watermen, who have been obliged to qualify Themfelves for their Pla¬ ces, by taking up their Freedom, or buying a Vote to difpofe of, according to Order ? It is very remarkable that the Q)nftderer does not fay one Word in Jultification of his Patron's Aflertion,$