An agitation is already rising out of doors against the
Income-tax. It is spontaneous and genuine, and needs none of that machinery which has been so extensively used to "get up" popular agitations in support of special objects. But how is Parliament to know the difference between petitions sent up proprio motu and those emanating from organized con- spiracies ? The parchment will be the same to the sight, touch, and smell ; perhaps no weightier, in the gross cart-load sense of the term. If there be any difference, it will be in some trifle of artistic inferiority in the composition. The right of petition has been, undoubtedly, much abused ; and there is some danger that the public will now be punished, in their slighted remonstrances, for having played into the hands of pro- fessional agitators and traders in petitions.
Previous page
