so prosperous a
condition as he had represented; and after specifying certain supposed
errors and fallacies, they called on the minister to supply the alleged
deficiency by the imposition of new taxes. Pitt, however, defended
his own estimates; contending that it was his duty to render, by every
possible means, the taxes already established more productive, rather
than increase the burdens of the people. In following out this judicious
line of policy, he afterwards proposed a measure for enabling the board
of treasury to divide the country into districts, and to farm the duty
on post-horses, the greater part of which was now lost to the exchequer
by collusion between innkeepers and collectors. To make it certain that
the revenue would not suffer by this experiment, he suggested that the
tax for each district should be put up at the highest point it had
ever reached. This was opposed as contrary to the principles of the
constitution, and as tending to oppression, like that exercised in
France, where the taxes were generally farmed. Pitt, however, defended
the measure by the analogy of turnpike-tolls and cross-posts, and by
showing that the oppression alluded to arose, not from the system of
farming, but from an arbitrary form of government, which naturally led
to oppressive modes of collection. The bill passed the commons by a
large majority, and was carried in the upper house without a division.

MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE CORPORATION AND TEST ACTS.

Great exertions had recently been made by the Protestant dissenters,
to show the public the injustice of that policy which restricted
eligibility to office by a religious test. Pamphlets had been written by
able pens, and when it was found that they had produced their intended
effect, delegates were appointed to arrange a plan, and it was
determined to bring the subject before parliament. The dissenters,
moreover, thought the present a favourable opportunity for seeking
relief from their disabilities, because in the late general election
they had, as a body, warmly espoused the ministerial cause. On the 28th
of March, therefore, Mr. Beaufoy, member for Great Yarmouth, himself a
dissenter, and a friend of the minister, made a motion for taking into
consideration the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, as things
grievous to a large and respectable portion of Society. His general
arguments, with those of Fox, who ably supported the motion, were, that
the Test Act