SERM. argue on the propriety of it, and ridicule XII. any doubts of its rectitude.-Permit me to state this affair clearly, and perhaps the defrauding of government may appear in a different light. When a tax is laid, it is always calculated that it will produce a cer tain sum; if it does not, another must be invented to supply its deficiency: now the most probable method of making it fall short, is, to evade it, not to pay it at all, or not to pay so much as we ought to do: if one has a right to do this, another has suppose, therefore, all to do it, another tax must in consequence be imposed, of equal burden, and we are none of us gainers. But suppose again (what is really the case) that some do pay what they ought, and some do not, still there will be a deficiency, and something else must be found out to make up the sum of what it falls short, and to this, observe-he, who paid to the full what he ought to do to the former, must XII. likewise contribute his share. Now they SERM. who do not pay fairly are the cause of this additional burden to him, and whether they rob their neighbour with their own hands, or do it through the medium of government, makes little difference; his loss is the same, and, when the matter is properly considered, their guilt scarcely less. It is no excuse for a man to say-What sig ⚫ nifies what little I diminish the revenue!' because, if one man has a right to do this, another has, and if all were to do it, the consequence is sufficiently evident. Nor, again, is it any excuse to say- The ge⚫nerality of my neighbours are as bad as myself;' for reformation must begin somewhere, and it behoves every one, without attending to his neighbour, to take care of his own conduct. Next to frauds on government, I believe, frauds on the church are looked on as of the smallest consequence. This is a SERM, subject which will not appear to advantage XII.. in the hands of the clergy; I shall therefore merely observe, that the owner in purchasing, and the occupier in hiring an estate, pay proportionably less for it, in consideration of the tithes which are to come out of it; that the clergyman has the same title to the latter, as they have to the possession and profits of the former,—that which all derive from the law of the land, and therefore the eighth commandment is violated, whenever his dues are unjustly withheld from him. The next breach of this precept, of which I shall take notice, is that which the rich man is guilty of, when he refuses to do his poor brethren justice, and sets them at defiance, because they have not the means of applying to the law for protection in this country, thank God! the law is impartially administered, but it requires in many cases much expence to come at it. Now, where a great XII. a great man unjustly deprives a little one SERM. of his rights, merely on this idea, I declare to you I think a housebreaker is an honest character in comparison with him. But this crime is of so flagrant a nature, that I hope it is not very common; we will pass to one which I fear is: there are many who would be greatly hurt at the idea of finally refusing their right to those with whom they are concerned, who yet make no scruple of vexatiously delaying it, who are in the habits of withholding from their tradesmen and dependants beyond the time which has been stipulated by agreement, or which custom has established, the wages of their honest industry. This offence is frequently forbidden and menaced in the scriptures in the twenty-fourth chapter of Deuteronomy we read-" Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant, that is poor "and needy; at his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go "down SERM. down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth "his heart upon it; lest he cry against "thee unto the Lord, and it be a sin unto "thee." St. James, in his address to the rich, calling on them to weep for the miseries which they are about to endure, mentions this crime as one of the causes : "Behold the hire of the labourers, who "have reaped down your fields, which is "of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are "entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth." But as the wealthy are tempted to refuse or to delay doing justice to the poor, from a consciousness that their riches give them the power of doing it with impunity; so are those very riches a temptation with the poor to be less scrupulous in their conduct towards the wealthy: What,' say they, will a rich man be the worse for what little we take from him? he will scarce |