1 1814.] Methods of making good Coffee. of any use here. I apprehend that your Other articles are frequently used for I have been a coffee drinker for many Every one who has tried what may be produced from boiling the leaves of tea after the goodness has been extracted by infusion, must have found that a liquor deeply coloured and of a bitter taste may be procured, but that it has none of the 1 fine flavor of the tea left; and the case is nearly similar with coffee. However, I would recommend it to following manner: take any quantity of 517. and when it has stood seven, eight, or ten minutes, pour it off into your cup, and you will find it very fine and clear, (much more so than the boiled coffee); then pour out another cup of the boiled coffee, and compare them with respect to strength, flavor, and clearuess, and I have no doubt that those who are fond of coffee will give the preference to this lat ter mode of making it; but should they think it not quite so economical as the other mode, they may save the coffee for three or four days and boil it. With respect to coffee there is so much difference in the quality, both in the coffee itself, and whether newly roasted and newly ground, that I should advise all those who wish to have it in perfection, to buy it unroasted, and to roast only so much at a time as will last one or two weeks: if they cannot do this they may help it, by taking it when ground and laying on a plate before the fire for a few minutes before they put it into the pot. Whatever small difference there may be in the quantity of coffee necessary by infusion, it cannot be equal in expence to an egg, which for many months in the year will cost as much as an ounce of coffee; but I am of opinion no more is necessary, and the flavor is much finer. Many who use coffee biggins do not' give them a fair trial; when they make coffee for one person, the bag in which, the coffee is suspended does not hang low enough in the pot, and thereby the water only passes through it, whereas it. should lie and soak in it. J. R. P.S. I wish some of your other readers would try the above, and send you the result. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, facts and arguments tending to prove N your last Magazine I stated some that the questions relative to the Corn Bill are but the consequence of the jar ring of different interests in dividing the expences of the late EXTRAORDINARY and IMPOLITIC WARS. The people of England have on a thousand occasions been told of this inevitable result of those wars; yet they treated such warnings with levity, and many of them fool. ishly stigmatized the friends of peace as the enemies of their country. The annual conversion of a large proportion of the public property into circulating stocks and currency by loans. and taxes; the enormous and unnatural expenditure of the government in con 3 X tracts, tracts, salaries, and exorbitant wages of labour; and the consequent sudden accumulation of great private fortunes, gave so imposing an appearance of prosperity to all trade and manufac tures, that among numerous classes nothing could be heard but congratulations on the flourishing state of the country. War was considered as a public benest to so well organized a state and even debt and taxes were proclaimed by the passionate or deluded partisans of war to be sources of public prosperity, and stimuli of useful industry! Money in those times was never consi. dered as a simple numerator, or as a inere measure of price, but as WEALTH IT. SELF.* As more and more currency was required by the accumulating taxes and the expenditure of the government, so shillings became pounds, and in all computations of wealth hundreds be. came thousands, by the magic of the pen, no one measuring the exact relation of this money to property, but each considering himself as so much richer than before, and counting his wealth in pounds sterling without regard to the altered worth of that pound! "What a glorious thing is war! (exclaimed the land-owner.) My estate, which my Money is wealth to individuals, with relation to other individuals; but its general augmentation has a deteriorating effect on its own powers. Its value, like every other commodity, is proportioned to its quantity, that is, if there are 20 mil lions in circulation in a country, and other 20 are brought into it, or are factitiously ereated, the worth of money will ultimately be diminished one half; so also if the money income of a country be augmented in any proportion; as by the interest of a debt, the powers of all income as estimated in money, will be deteriorated in the same proportion, or will be raised in money price, without any increase of its powers. Men bring home fortunes from the Indies, or obtain currency by discounting sham bills, or by issues of fictitious paper, and thereby are enabled to build fine houses and make a figure in society; but such capitalists add not an iota to the real wealth of a nation. On the contrary, they put honest industry out of countenance, create a spirit of ruinous specalation, disturb the relations of currency to property, and delude those who look only on the surface of society, by an empty show of public prosperity. In a country devoid of other staple commodities, gold and sil ver serve as means of barter with other nations; but a paper currency has not this recommendation, while its operations more rapidly depreciate the value of money. father bought for ten thousand pounds, is now worth thirty, and as times mend will be worth fifty. In his time he used to let it for two, it now lets for five hundred per annum, and when the lease is out will produce a thousand! Never was country in so prosperous a state!-None under such obligations to any minister as PITT, in whose administration this advance in the rental of my estates took place!-He went to war with France in 1798, and ever since all my estates have improved in valuc-he has doubled the worth of the whole kingdom-what a heaven-born minister is Pitt! How erroneous was the notion of our ancestors, that wars are rui nous !-Under Pitt and the British constitution, War, instead of impoverishing the country, has made all men richer, has improved every thing, made money plentiful, and enlarged every man's in come!" Such were the general reasonings of men of property, during the protracted war which has just been terminated; not however without certain doubtings and twitches as often as the tax-gatherer knocked at the door, as the house-keeper's account book was examined, or as tradesmen's bills were to be paid. "The unconscionable taylors, notwithstanding two had been turned off for overcharging, persisted in gradually raising the price of a coat from three guineas to five gui neas; the shoemaker had cribbed sixpence after sixpence on shoes, till he had got them up from 7s. 6d to 14s. per pair; the linen draper had by degrees increased his linens from 2s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. per yard; the cheesemonger had added raised his old cheshire from 6d. to 13d. penny to penny on cheese till he had and his batter from 8d. to 2s; the butcher too demanded 1s. for his beef instead of 5d.; and the baker had not delivered a 6d. and 10d. for his mutton instead of quartern loaf for several years under a shilling, which before Pitt's time was usually at sixpence." All this seemed to the deluded man of estate passing strange! At one time he ascribed advances to conspiracies among middle men-at another to unlawful combinations among workmen at other times to temporary causes which would soon be removed, casional fluctuations. But it never occur and herein he was countenanced by ocred to this class of persons that the financial operations of the government, to ena ble it to carry on the war, had diminished the relative value of money-that more money must in future be given in exchange for every article- that their estates: 3 1814.] Principle of Taxation illustrated. estates had only risen in money-value in To those who have not fully considered on Again if 101. indirect taxes be levied o the coach of a nobleman, he is not content to suffer such diminution of his income, but he takes the first opportunity to increase the rental of some tenant in a higher ratio, who, if a shopkeeper, relevies it on his customers by adding to his profits double or treble the sum, or if a farmer, he adds, or endeavours to add, it to the price of the produce of his land, so as to indemnify himself with a profit. Every tax falls ultimately on articles of consumption, because no property is in so constant a state of transfer as ar ticles of consumption; and because it 519 can be levied only on the circulating income of the country, which is chiefly expended in articles of the first necessity. Sometimes Taxes operate through commodities on labour, and sometimes through labour on commodities, but they ultimately settle on necessaries, and through these affect the prices of all property, all labour, and all income. If a tax affect a nobleman he contrives to transfer it to his tenants, and these to their commodities: but if it affect any commodity consumed by labourers, these advance their labour, and conse quently the commodities produced by that labour. In all cases, and in every stage, something is successively added to remunerate him by whom the tax or increase is paid, for increased capitals and risks; and all these additions operate in a circle, like a stone moved in a sling, which though receiving a series of impulses in its rotation, and moving with an increased momentum, yet does but return to the same points. And inasmuch as ali taxes affect all necessaries the production of labour, and the price of these affects the wages of all other labour which is sustained by the consumption of those necessaries; so it is an effect of all Taxes to raise the price of all articles produced by labour, whe ther the result of the culture of the earth, or of mere human ingenuity. Hence taxes have the effect of raising the price of all the productions of labour, and it is upon these they fall with varied degrees of force. Corn is not exempted from the general law, but is a manufacture of the industrious farmer, as much as any other by the ingenious mechanic, and must be sustained by the policy which sustains the entire system of manufac tures, accompanied by a higher degree of caution, proportioned to its vast returns, and consequent influence on the public 6nances, and to its importance as the staff of human life. If therefore any other country, not bur thened by our taxes, is capable of producing Corn or any other commodity, or species of manufacture, it is evident that we ought not to permit the free importation of that article, unless we can dispense with that manufactory at home. If for example another country can manufacture broad cloth at 10s, per yard, and in England it cannot be manufactured with a fair profit to the manufacturer, at less than 20s. It would be felo de se in regard to that branch of manufactures, if the introduction of such foreign cloth were permitted, except on paying a duty of at 3 X 2 least least 10s. per yard. Than this no proposition in Euclid is more certain; and the principle equally applies to every production of human labour, CORN of course included, In regard to Corn the question is set at rest by the ascertained fact that an acre cannot now be cultivated in wheat for less than 121. estimating the land at 30s. or 40s. per annum; and if the produce is taken at a fair average of three qrs. then the cost to the farmer is 41. per quarter, and allowing for straw and stubble the market price cannot well be short of 41. 105. Consequently it is not the rent, or any augmentation of the rent, which produces this high price, but the cost of labour, and the direct or indirect taxes. If no rent were paid, corn could not be grown under 31. per quarter, and consequently could not be afforded by the farmer at less than 31. 10s. But if we were freed from the taxes entailed on us by the prosecution of an impolitic war, we might then allow the free importation of corn, and of all articles of foreign produce and manufacture, as a check on undue monopolies and combinations at home; but while we are obliged to labour, subject to those burdens, it is absurd to expect to purchase at reduced money prices, and ruinous to the important and vital manufactory of Corn to relieve ourselves from abroad!* Those who in public addresses talk of the expected relief from peace, forget that during the war we did not, and could not pay its current expences, but mortgaged all the property in the realm to the public creditors; and that it now remains so mortgaged, subject to an annual bur den,for interest and redemption, of nearly 40 millions sterling, a sum equal to the present rentals of the kingdom at its rack-rent, or double the whole of those rentals before the war! The war therefore is now operating, and seems likely, during this generation, to operate as perniciously on all industry as during its actual continuance. In a former paper, published Oct. 1812, It is singular that although money has fallen to a fifth of its worth since the Protectorate, and taxes have increased from 14 million to 65 millions, and the public expenditure from 2 millions to 120 millions, yet Corn averaged at that time 21, 11s. per quarter, and it has averaged this year but 68s. or one fourth more. Through the reign of Charles II. it averaged 50s. in that of William 41s. and in that of Anne 43s. in all which periods the public revenue averaged but 4 millions, and money was 4 times its present value. The present free impartation price is 635. Istated my doubts whether any public deb can be liquidated by a system of taxation because it is the necessary effect of taxes to add as much to the current expences of a government by their addition to all prices, as they can discharge from an old debt. I am therefore of opinion, that it would be more prudent and more easy for a minister to make such a disposition of all property, as should at once liquidate the entire debt, than to attempt to sustain the price of the quartern loaf at 6d. or 8d. above its natural level, and other provisions in the like proportion; to expose our manufactures to the hazard of competition; and to continue to levy the present complicated taxes. To the land-owner it would be better at once to part with one-third of his estate, than pay two-thirds of his income in taxes levied on every article of his consumption; to the house-owner better to possess two thirds of the number of freeholds, than pay in the like propor tion; and to the labourer better to return to his former shilling a day, than be subject to the impositions, adulterations, and grinding oppressions that arise from overwhelming taxation. To extinguish the national debt, and the entire burden and inconvenience of taxes, by a grand financial operation, is the desired POLITICAL PANACEA for the ills which threaten this empire! But does the minister live, who is equal in wisdom and courage to the task?-Does the quantity of virtue exist in the coun try which is requisite to sustain him?-Are not palliatives and temporizing measures always preferred by nations as well as by men in desperate circumstances, till it is no longer in their power to steer a wise and voluntary course? Five hun. dred and fifty millions of pounds sterling of property, would at this time discharge the public debt, and perhaps our 40 millions of acres of land may, at 30 years purchase, he valued at 1,200 millions; our 2 million of houses, at 350 mil. lions; and our foreign estates at 100 millions; making 1,650 millions to pay 550, a total agreeing with the produce of the property tax. It is therefore proposed to sacrifice ONE THIRD of the real property of the empire to discharge our paralyzing load of debt; or in other words, for every man to give up to the public creditor one third of his estate, rather than continue to pay two thirds of its produce in taxes, and in the va rious effects and consequences of taxes.* There are two kinds of taxes, the direet paid at once per quantum by the con We 1814.] Effect of Taxes and Remedy. We should thus get rid at once of all the obstructions to free trade, and should enjoy at first cost the luxuries of all the climates in the world, as the consequence of our commercial and political ascendancy. We should not then be under an imperious necessity to shut our ports against cheap foreign commodities, and every thing would be at liberty to find its proper and natural level. We should live, too, freed from the terror, nuisance, and vexation of revenue laws, and should recover those invaluable liberties that were lost by the introduction of the excise system. We should also free ourselves from all the expences and collateral effects of the taxes, which double their weight on the community, and impose the payment of two shillings for every shilling received by the government. Thus the present taxes, which produce about 65 millions per annum, average, after the rate of 5l. per head, or 2s. per week, on 13 mil. lions of souls; yet by adding together the increased expence of the items of consumption, it will appear that the necessaries of life cost each individual of a family at least 4s. per week more than they did 25 years ago;* so that the income 521 of the whole population being about 195 millions, (or one half more than the assessments under the property tax,) one third of that sum is received into the exchequer; one third is lost, without being gained by the exchequer, to the incomes derived from property and la bour, by the operation of taxes; and only one-third remains in the disposal of the individual. were How deeply it is now to be regretted, that these inevitable results not duly considered by those persons who, in 1802, raised so extraordinary a question about Malta, spent so many thousands in printing libels to raise the public mind to the war pitch, and then so disgracefully exulted in the commencement of hostilities! How deeply it is to be regretted, that the repeated overtures for peace were not listened to, and that the people were taught to believe that "it was necessary to spend their last guinea to save the remainder!" They have however done so; but as land and other property have, at this moment, risen in currency-value, by the effect of circulation and speculation, it seems still practicable to save TWO THIRDS of the present nominal worth, by promptly parting with ONE THIRD to the public creditors. This measure would effect a radical cure of our public difficulties; and raise the country to an unparalleled height of prosperity, glory, and security. Such is, however, not the language or policy of any existing party in or out of parlia ment. The writer stands perhaps alone, paid weekly by families of six souls, to- On bread-7 quartern loaves sumer, and the indirect paid by the manu. The duty or extra price at present On fire and candles Average per soul Paid more than taxes s. d. 3. 6 4.0 Ο 8 4.D 2 8 0 Hence 2s. per week, or 51. per annum, or 65 millions per annum, are lost to the ge vernment,and to the public property, by the mere effect and operation of the taxes.. and |