It is, indeed, possible, that the duties now proposed may be found not
sufficient; but for this defect there is an easy remedy. The duty, if
it be found, by the experience of a single year, to be too small, may,
in the next, be easily augmented, and swelled, by annual increases,
even to the height which is now proposed, if no remedy more easy can
be found.
It may be objected, that this fund will be mortgaged for the payment
of the sums employed in the service of the war; and that, therefore,
the state of the duty cannot afterwards be altered without injustice
to the publick creditors, and a manifest violation of the faith of the
senate; but, my lords, though in the hurry of providing for a pressing
and important war, the commons could not find any other method so easy
of raising money, it cannot be doubted but that when they consider the
state of the nation at leisure, they will easily redeem this tax, if
it shall appear inconvenient, and substitute some other, less
injurious to the happiness of the publick.
It was not impossible for them to have done this in the beginning of
this session; nor can it be supposed, that men so long versed in
publick affairs, could not easily have proposed many other imposts;
but it may be imagined, that they chose this out of many, without
suspecting that it would be opposed; and believed, that they were at
once raising supplies, and protecting the virtue of the people.
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