llen upon the inhabitants
of the Upper Province. There, whole villages, had been burned, by the
enemy, and grain fields laid waste. It was only right to indemnify the
sufferers. Upper Canada was, however, totally destitute of means. The
cost of her civil government had been altogether defrayed out of the
imperial treasury, until very recently. She only received, for all
purposes, a fifth of the duties on imports collected at Quebec. To
enable the government of Upper Canada to carry out the objects sought
to be attained by the passage of the War Losses Act, the British
government had consented to a loan of L100,000, the interest on one
half of which the British government guaranteed. The other half,
L2,500, was to be provided for by Upper Canada. How to manage it was
the difficulty. Already the government had been compelled to resort to
the miserable stratagem of heavily taxing traders, so that any dumb
inhabitant of the province, and every implement of trade appeared to be
the absolute property of the government, distributed among the people
for a consideration. Neither a man's ox nor ass was his own. He paid to
government a consideration, not for the land on which the cattle
grazed, nor on the profits which they yielded, but for using them. It
was a similar kind of stupidity to that which in Scotland and England
refused to permit a man to make a pair of trowsers, sole a boot, or set
up types, however capable he might have been, unless he had served an
apprenticeship to the craft of seven years. It was not considered that
while the horses of a pleasure carriage would be a proper source of
revenue to a government, a carter's horse is not a proper subject for
taxation. It was not considered that the laborer should give of the
fruits of his labor an offering to the State which countenances and
protects him, while labor is not to be prevented by taxation. It was
not considered that while manufactured goods are properly dutiable, it
is unwise to tax the raw material. An occupation ought not to be taxed.
It is a wrong policy to tax an auctioneer, a pedlar, a carter, a
merchant, a tavern keeper, or an editor, because of his occupation; but
the stuffs which are traded in may very properly be taxed. Yet
occupations were taxed in Upper Canada, and, of course, rather to the
disadvantage than advantage of the province. It would not do to
increase the taxation on inn keepers, pedlars, hawkers, boatmen, and on
public carriages on land