"THE IGNORANT IMPATIENCE OF TAXATION."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Although Castlereagh is usually credited with the phrase—or debited, for it was quoted against him while he yet lived, and is no doubt what he intended to say—there is ground for supposing that he never actually used it. Mr. Frank Hill in his monograph of Canning (" English Worthies ") says Castlereagh really spoke of "the ignorant impatience of the relaxation of taxation." Mr. Hill gave no authority for the assertion, but he may have relied upon Lord Brougham, who in "Historical Sketches of Statesmen" quoted the phrase in this form as an example of Castlereagh's confused and disjointed rhetoric, "which often baffled alike the gravity of the Treasury Bench and the art of the reporter." It may be observed that Mr. Gladstone cited the phrase (as usually given) in introducing his Budget of 1860, for the purpose of saying that were Castlereagh to return from the grave be would be more likely to complain of the
ignorant patience of taxation.—I am, Sir, J. S.
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