TOPICS OF THE DAY. .
ENFORCEMENT OF THE TAX-TAW& MINISTERS have:at length determined to enforce the collection of the Assessed Taxes from all who.are-merely unwilling; not unable, to pay. them. Through the want of resolution, or the mismanage meet of their officers; the first attempt has failed;- but their measures- will be better- ordered another time, and; of-course, will not fail.
There can be no-question that it. is the. duty of the Executive to see that the existing - laws, those which. enjoin.. the, payment; of taxes as well as others, am obeyed by all classes. No rational person or good- subject can maintain a: different opinion: It would_ - be actinct.most iniquitously to- those, who pay the. taxes,. to permit. others, who have not the excuse of inability to-justify, their refusal: to pay Chem, to It appears to us, however, that inreference to the- whole subject of the Assessed Taxes; the Government has 0.ota with extreme' indiscretion. It cannot' be denied that the people- have received great provocation. Their hopes have been raised one week, and disappointed the next :. dgring the last session of Parliament, it would almost seem-that Lord ALTHORP had taxed, his ingenuity to tantalize them; he held one language in the Muse of Com- mons, and another in Downing Street ; and while in one parish the surcharges were ordered to be enforced,- in another they were remitted. This unstatesmanlike conduct certainly affords some " excuse for the conduct of the misguided associators of the Metro- polis. They are at a loss whom to -believe, or what to expect : and hence, no doubt, has sprung much of the present exasperation.
The result will be, that " the strong arm of the law " will enforce submission.; but the popular discontent- with the Go- vernment of the-country will be augmented; for it must not be supposed. that those only disapprove of its proceedings in this matter, who refuse to have any concern in imprudent associations.
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