An Account of the Total Number of Persons to whom half-a-year's Dividend on 3 Cent. Consols, 3 Cent, Reduced, 3 Cents., 4 Cents., Long Annuities, and New 4 Cents. were paid on the 10th, of October 1822, and the 5th. of Jan. 1823, specifying the Number respectively of those whose Dividends did not exceed the rate of £10., £ 20., £ 100,, £ 200., £ 400., £ 600., £ 1000., £2000., £ 4000., and of those whose Dividends exceeded £ 4000. H Annum. The above Statement is to a certain extent very interesting, although very incomplete; to have been more complete the total sum divided among each respective Class of Annuitants should have been stated, and further the larger holders of Stock have it divided amongst several, if not in euch denomination of Stock. The total sum divided among the 283,958 stated above, was £25,772,296 The following is a Statement of the several Denominations of Stock, and of the Dividends thereon amounting to £25,772,296 divided amongst the 283,958 Persons according to the preceding Statement. Unredeemed Cent. Consolidated Annuities..... Capitals, Dividends. £ 365,775,886 | £ 10,973,276 3 3 Cent. Reduced Do. Do..... Do. Long Annuities, (terminable in 1860.) Total Sum held by the 283,938 persons as stated above £ 737,130,668 £ 25,772,296 And the annexed is a Statement of all the Charged by the Bank of Englnd for Manag Jan.& 5th. of Jul. Total FUNDED. Unfunded, Exchequer Bills outstanding on the 5. of Jan. 1823. at an Int. of 2d. 100%. day 42,209,505 Int.1,285,867 Total FUNDED & UNFUNDED. £ 838,829,656 £29,869,139 In addition to the above large aggregate amount of fixed Money Incomes abstracted from the hard earned pittances of the productive and labouriag Classes, there is a further amount of £5,315,692 of Life Annuities under the head of Military & Naval &c. half-pay and Pensions; which, by an Act of the Session of Parliament 1823. was converted into a fixed Annuity of £2,800'000 Annum for 45 Years, expiring in 1867: there are Pensions, also te he amount of about £400,000 Annum, in England and a similar amount in Ireland & Scotland, not included in the beforementioned amount: but the greatest oppression of all, because unnecessary and uncalled for, either for the interest or for the honour of the State, is, that of Taxing the labor of the People of England £5,000,000 Ann. to make forced purchases of 3 Cent. Stock at the rate of about 25 Oz. of Gold, for the same amount of Stock for which only 10 Oz. were received in 1813 & 1815. STATEMENT sewing the ANNUAL VARIATION in the STATE and CONDITION of GREAT BRITAIN, as regards her COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, TAXATION, and PAROCHIAL ASSESSMENTS, on an Average of each five Years, since the general Peace in 1783. The above Statement exhibits a considerable diminution in the Money Amount of both Taxes and Parochial Assessments, but, resolving itself, as all TAXATION does, into labour, and the products of labour the Taxation of 1823, both State and Parochial, will, on a fair investigation be seen to be greater than that of any Year during the WAR. The Accounts of Parochial Assesments are made up to Easter in each Year. In the above Statement the Accounts end at Easter in the Year affixed, but in the Statement below at Easter in the following Year. COMPARATIVE VIEW of the INCREASE and EXTENT of PAUPERISM and CRIME in ENGLAND & WALES, at different Periods since 1748; and Statement shewing the Total Amount of Parish Assessments, and the Proportion thereof expended for the Relief of PAUPERS and the EQUIVALENT of that Amount in Quarters of Wheat, according to the Average Price of Wheat in each Year; The No. of Committals for CRIME in England & Wales; The total Amount of TAXES in GREAT BRITAIN, and of BRITISH PRODUCE and MANUFACTURES Exported therefrom in each Year since 1811. In further illustration of the fact, of the burthen of TAXATION having increased, notwithstanding the diminution in the MONEY AMOUNT, and of all Taxation, however indirect and insidious its operation, and however remote its effect may be, ultimately resolving itself into LABOUR and the products of Labour, the DEPRECIATION in the Value of British Produce and Manufactures EXPORTED, will be seen to present itself in strong confirmation of the fact, it will be seen, that since 1803, whilst the QUANTITY annually Exported has nearly doubled, the Value is upwards of £4,000,000 Annum less, and the aggregate Depreciation in 1823, comparing the Value with the Average-Value of the six Years 1798-1803, upwards of £37,000,000. And in the Summary of a Report of a SELECT COMMITTEE of ARTIZANS, appointed in 1823 "to enquire into the causes which have led to the extensive depreciation or reduction in the remuneration for labour, and the CALAMITOUS DISTRESS conseqeunt thereupon," it is shewn, that as TAXATION progressively increased, the remuneration for LABOUR as progressively decreased, and that the aggregate increase of Taxation, corresponds exactly with the aggregate decrease in the Remuneration for Labour, and proves to DEMONSTRATION, that not only direct Taxation, but that all subsistence, and all Income acquired by any other means than productive occupation, resolve themselves into an abstraction from the fair reward due to productive labour. Estimating therefore the pressure of Taxation either by its Amount in GOLD, which in 1819, after an interval of one and Twenty Years, without any Standard at all, was again made the Standard of Value for all commodity, or by Commodities themselves, the pressure of TAX ATION in 1873 will prove greater than that of 1815, which was the maximum of Money Amount STATEMENT of the Charges of Collection on, and other Payments out of the PUBLIC INCOME of GREAT BRITAIN, in its Progress to the EXCHEQUER, in the Year 1823; shewing the proportion of Charge on, and Payments out of each respective department, or source of INCOME, and also the several Items of Charge, and of Payments. Heads of INCOME. Charges of Collection Items of Charge. Centage .... Special Services Tradesmen's Bills LAW CHARGES Superannuations Compensations Incidents Conveyance of Mails, Packets, Transit Postage, & Ship Let. Customs Excise. Stamps A. Tax | P. Ofi.C.Lds. | all oth.! TOTAL. -£- -£ -£ -£- 48,671 90,017 167,384 797 657 107 163,090 92,739 inoting Fisheries, Linen Manufactures &c. 85,613 137,996 port of the Civil Government of SCOTLAND Expences incurred in securing His Majesty's Woods, Forests & Lands | 219,028 >Sums paid or advanced to Commissioners of Roads Expence of Irish Packet Establishment Augmentation of Stipends to Scot's Clergy Militia and Deserters' Warrants PENSIONS Total of other 2,396,601 1,839,916 | 198,534 | 409,564 | 615 981 | 223,981 18,426 5,742,293 COMPARATIVE Statement of the Nett. Produce of the REVENUE of GREAT BRITAIN in the Years 1823 and 1824, shewing also the Gross Receipt of each article assessed under the EXCISE in 1823, and the increase noted by +, or decrease noted by —, of each article These Statements with the exception of the Column of Gross Receipt of the Excise, are termed the Exchequer Account, and are the same order of accounts which appear in the Newspapers quarterly; whilst all the preceding Statements relating to Fi nance have been compiled from what are termed the Treasury Accounts. The Exchequer Account it will be seen does not include the £5,742,293 stated above, nor £4,241,997 which appears in the Treasury Accounts for the Year 1823, as repaid for Drawbacks, Bounties of the nature of Drawbacks, Allowances, &c. &c. ** In further Illustration of the FINANCE ACCOUNTS of the Government of GREAT BRITAIN, it may be observed generally, that "if Suspicion itself had dictated the plan" it could not possibly have been more calculated to confuse and deceive than the plan which they at present pursue, as will be manifest from the following elucidation of some of the details. The Exchequer Account, let it be kept in mind, is the one published quarterly, and copied by every Newspaper and other periodical publication in the Kingdom, and let the actual result be what it may, inferences indicative of the unbounded prosperity, of the Country are uniformly proclaimed. On the other hand the Treasury Accounts, which more fully afford the means of detecting any fallacy or misrepresenta tion, are made up to the 5th. of Jany, in each Year, but not published till the Months of June, July, or August; last Year they were not delivered until after Parliament was prorogued, and when they do appear, they are in a form so diffuse and varied from those of the Exchequer, that much severe application is required to detect and elucidate the fallacies and impositions which they con tain. A VINDICATION OF THE DRAMA, THE STAGE, AND PUBLIC MORALS, PLAGIARY. A Thief in Literature; one who steals the thoughts or writings of another. Johnson's English Dictionary. PREFACE. THE author of the following pages sincerely asserts that it is with great reluctance he intrudes on the public. He has done so, impelled by a sense of duty. The subject is of no mean importance-the influence of a popular amusement on PUBLIC MO RALS. The literary history of the drama and the stage records various periodical controversies on the effects of dramatic representations and reading: it is not therefore probable that Mr. James has written any thing novel or particularly worthy publication by parity of reasoning this remark would apply to these observations and comments on him; but there are local reasons which justify the publication of these pages. First, a gross insult has been committed in Mr. James's publications on sixty-four of the principal inhabitants of Birmingham, the projectors and proprietors of the present Birmingham theatre -a public company of individuals the most respectable and influential members of the several political and religious classes of the town and neighborhood. The author feels himself called on in their behalf to justify their liberal and disinterested re-establishment of the theatre, after its destruction by fire in 1820: and when it is known that he is not a proprietor of the Birmingham. theatre, and had never entered the doors of that theatre when this publication was commenced, he will not be considered as a partial or interested defender. Secondly, as Mr. James is a preacher possessing local popularity, and exercising considerable influence, it is desirable that his admirers should form a just estimate of his talent, judgment, and writings; they will have an opportunity of doing so in the perusal of these sheets. It has been reported that Mr. James considers he has hitherto enjoyed a triumphant argument, and that the flood of |