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At last they proceeded to regulate the price of lands, to raise the price of labour, and to oppose the collection of the hearth-money and other taxes. The poor people of Munster lived in a MORE ABJECT STATE OF POVERTY THAN HUMAN NATURE COULD BE SUPPOSED EQUAL TO BEAR." "Grattan's Speeches," vol. i., p. 292. We are not, of course, in such a discussion to be governed by names.
In lieu of these, however, they indulged him with the tax of chimney or hearth-money; as well as with a test to be imposed upon all persons in office or parliament, declaring William and Mary their lawful sovereigns, and renouncing the pretended title of king James. All the laws in favour of episcopacy were repealed.
That the excise of beer, ale, brandy, &c., and hearth-money will be paid in such coin, the same falling first into the hands of the poor and middling people. 11th. That if any trouble should happen in this nation, no army could be raised with such specie, but an enemy in all appearance would be admitted with their gold and silver, and which would drive the nation before them. 12th.
This is simply hearth-money, an impost on each fireplace where food is cooked; the same tax which made trouble in old England, and was happily got rid of long ago. But the hungry plebs of Cotrone lacked vigour for any effective self-assertion; they merely exhausted themselves with shouting "Abbass' 'o sindaco!" and dispersed to the hearths which paid for an all but imaginary service.
William, with a view to conciliate the affections of his new subjects, and check the progress of clamour and discontent, signified in a solemn message to the house of commons, his readiness to acquiesce in any measure they should think proper to take for a new regulation or total suppression of the hearth-money, which he understood was a grievous imposition on his subjects; and this tax was afterwards abolished.
In the month of February, captain Campbell of Glenlyon, by virtue of an order from major Duncanson, marched into the valley of Glencoe with a company of soldiers belonging to Argyle's regiment, on pretence of levying the arrears of the land-tax and hearth-money.
The visit of the tax-gatherer, therefore, was less offensive in this tax than in the hearth-money. This tax was afterwards repealed, and in the room of it was established the window-tax, which has undergone two several alterations and augmentations.
They have regulated their taxes, therefore, according to some more obvious circumstance, such as they had probably imagined would, in most cases, bear some proportion to the rent. The first tax of this kind was hearth-money; or a tax of two shillings upon every hearth. In order to ascertain how many hearths were in the house, it was necessary that the tax-gatherer should enter every room in it.
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