The above are all we have been able to collect from the beft accounts we could procure. There are doubtless both omissions and errors in it, but if any gentleman will be fo obliging as to fend us notice of them, hall be very glad to correct them in our next. we The following having been printed in one of the Red Books of this Year, we hope it will be confidered as no improper Supplement to the above Lift. 1768, 24 Nov. 29 15 Decem. Elections appointed at the Bar. Pontefract Henry Strachey, Efq; Prefon Sir H. Houghton, J. Burgoyne, Efq; Northampton Hon. Thomas Howe Yarmouth, I. W. G. L. Parker, T. Dummer, Efqrs 1769, 14, Jan. Winchelfea Sir Thomas Shewell, Rich. Phillipfon, Efqs Bewdley Sir Edward Winnington Radnor, Abington Edward Lewis, Efq; Pembroke Co. Hugh Owen, Efq; 17 19 31 Nathaniel Bayly, Efq; 2 Feb. 7 Forwey 9 Kinross J. Williams, T. Arthington, Efq; 14 Cirencester Samuel Blackweil, Efq; Carmarthen Jofeph Bullock, Efq; Before Committee of Elections. Poole Bramber Morpeth 23 Jan. Inverness T. Thoreton, Ch. Ambler, Efq; Peter Taylor, Efq; For the POLITICAL REGISTER, Infcription for the Villa of a decay'd Statesman on the fea coaft. LD and abandon'd by each venal friend, Here H**** form'd the pious refolution, To fmuggle fome few years, and strive to mend A broken character, and conftitution. On this congenial fpot he fix'd his choice, (Earl Goodwin trembled for his neighb'ring fand) Art he invokes new horrors ftill to bring. And mimic defolation covers all : Ah! (faid the fighing peer) had B**e been true, "Nor's, 's,'s friendship vain, "Far other fcenes than thefe had crown'd our view "And realiz'd the ruins that we feign. Purg'd by the fword, and beautify'd by fire "Then had we feen proud London's hated walls; "Owls might have hooted in St. Peter's choir, "And Foxes ftunk and litter'd in St. Paul's". For the POLITICAL REGISTER. The causes of the decay of trade in London; the real and pretended Merchant diftinguished; the ufe of flock-jobbing, origin of funds, &c. : TE HO' all the amazing wafte of wealth, in the govern ment, has been fupply'd by the fkill and addrefs of the merchant, yet, that traders were too rich, too wanton, too prefuming, has been often known to be the cry of minifters; and it would be no very difficult task to point out a period, when a series of very fincere endeavours were made use of, to impoverish them firft, in order to enflave them afterwards. It is yet fresh in memory, that the merchants of England were publickly treated, by thofe in power, as vagrants and incendiaries, for only demanding that protection which they paid fo dearly for, and which they ftood fo notoriously in heed of. And many perfons have not forgot, that our VOL. III. -IS m. rs of that day, were charged with a fettled design to humble the city of London in particular; and that they were more intent upon it, than it is probable they would have been, if the citizens had been French or Spaniards. Whether there was any truth in this charge, or whether the fucceffors of him, against whom it was more particularly laid, have adopted that defign, as well as all the other maxims of his an, I do not take upon me to decide: perhaps fuch is already the state of the English trade in general, or fuch it may foon become, that it is fcarce worth enquiring, at which port our merchants will be firft undone. In virtue of our fuperiority at sea (though so late exerted), we were in a fair way of getting poffeffion of the whole; poffibly, if the war had been continued at fea for a few years longer, we might have levied on the world in general fuch profits, as would have enabled us to fuftain the load of duties impofed on all our importations: but, as that fuperiority was facrificed for m -1 purposes, as the French are not only refuming all the advantages which they have been juft deprived of, but putting themselves into a better condition to defend them for the time to come; and as that load will grow more infupportable, in proportion as we grow weaker, our trade, without a miracle in its favour, muft gradually fink under it: in which cafe, the least that can be required of our rulers, is, that the preffure may be every where equal, that it may fink in all places alike, and, above all, that the head may not come to the ground first.It is afferted by thofe, who are in a fituation to be fully informed, that the trade of London has been upon the decline for fome years paft, and, among the feveral caufes affigned for it, two are faid to be apparent and undeniable: 1. High duties upon our importations, which are in their own nature fo ruinous to trade, are unequally collected: 2. A way has been found, to detach mercantile men from the mercantile intereft; or, in other words, not only to admit drones into the hive, but to give the whole direction of it into their hands. In illuftration of the firft, it is fcarce neceffary to obferve, that the evil of fmuggling arifes wholly from high duties: every body fees, that defperate men fet the danger at defiance, for the fake of the profits: every body is of opinion, that there is no way fo effectual to remove it, as to remove the temptation and every body wonders, that the fame duties, which are fo rigidly levied in the port of London, (that it is carce poffible for any confiderable fraud to be committed : there,) there,) are not levied with the fame rigour elsewhere: that the officers in the out-ports are not kept under the same discipline as in London: that there is a fpecies of importers in many of thofe places, who are little better than licenfed fmugglers: That these half-fmugglers, half-merchants, have most inviting opportunities (which they feldom fail to make use of) to manage matters with the officers, that fometimes goods are landed without any entry at all, and fometimes fraudulent entries are made. Laws are not always agreeable to reafon and right; but, whether they are fo or not, they ought to be administered impartially: there is no difpenfing-power, that I know of, lodged in any part of the government; and, if there was, no one member of a community ought to be favoured at the expence of another. The citizens and inhabitants of London require no exemptions: but then they may infift, and, I hope, will, on being put on a level with the reft of their fellow-fubjects. This, I think, is the least that can be done for them: And if it should be urged, that, in regard of the refidence of the nobility and gentry from all parts, for a great part of the year amongst them, and other advantages, they are able to bear an over-proportion of taxes, I anfwer, that they pay dear enough for thofe advantages for not to urge the loffes they annually incur by irrecoverable debts, they are liable to feveral duties and fervices, which the reft of the kingdom are free from The tax upon hackney-coaches, for example, is peculiar to them; and those upon coals, which affect the manufactures of all forts, in fo eminent a degree, extends but little beyond the bills of mortality: then the price of provifions and labour is far dearer there, than in any other part of England; and as to the convenience of navigation, it is well known, that almost all the ports in England have the advantage of London; that demurrage alone, often devours the profits of a voyage; and that fhips from the western ports have reached the Weft-Indies, before those from London have been able to get clear of the channel. We come now to the fecond caufe of the decline of trade at London-but, by way of preparatory, it is fit to obferve, that when the demands, or, as they were then called, the neceffities of government, first began to rise so high, that the ministers, who made those demands, did not think it fafe for themselves to raise fuch supplies within the year, as were sufficient to answer them, but rather chose to double the burden gradually, and imperceptibly, by a procefs of mortgage and anticipation, fo little were the people in general aware of the Y y 2 confe |