A PROPOSAL Humbly Presented to the Right Honourable the HOUSE of COMMONS, by which it is Reasonable to Suppose a Million may be Raised (and as it is hoped much more) without Oppressing any Person, every one being at their Liberty to Pay, or not to Pay.
IF this Honourable Assembly think good to Enact, That no Person of any Rank, Quality, or Condition whatever, shall in their Wearing Apparel, use or wear any thing that is not of the true Growth, Product, and Manufactury of this Kingdom; for and during one whole year, to Commence from the 25th of March next, except they take out Lisences for the same at a certain Rate; some Rates being hereafter specified, which are Humbly Submitted to the Candid Censure of this August Assembly to Judge of the Equality of.
That every Duke, Dutches, Marques and Marchioness, Earl and Countess, pay for such Lisence Five Pounds each, and for their Children under their Tuition, Two Pounds each; that all Persons under the Degree of an Earl and Countess, to a Knight and his Lady inclusive, do pay for such Lisence Four Pounds each, and for their Children, One Pound Ten Shillings each; That all Esquires by Birth or Place, all Gentlemen, all Clergy Men, all Lawyers, all Merchants and Whole-Sale Trades Men, and all Officers either in His Majesty's Customs or elsewhere, whose Salaries are Forty Pound a Year, or above, and their Wives to pay for such Lisence Two Pounds Ten Shillings each, and for their Children One Pound each; That all Yeoman Men and Rich Farmers, all Servants, or Men that have any Place whose Wages or Sallary is Twenty Pounds a Year or upward, and under Forty; all Retale Trades-Men (except such Handy-Craft Trades that get their Living only by their Work) and their Wives, do pay for such Lisence one Pound each, and for their Children Ten Shllings each; That all other, be they Handy-Craft Trades or Servants, or any other Person not before mentioned, and their Wives that take such Lisence, shall pay for each Ten Shillings, and for their Children Five Shillings each.
And it is Humbly Supposed, That at the Rates before specified, it may rise to a far greater Summ than is first mentioned; but if it should fall short of such a Sum (as in all probability it will not) yet whatever Money it doth raise, will be present Money, and therefore much better than any that will be longer in raising; and for the better Effecting the same, Books with Blank Lisences may be Printed and Numbered, and room left in the said Books where the Lisence is cut out, to insert the Person's Name, Quality, and Place of Abode that hath such Lisence: And other Cautions are ready to be Proposed, that will be sufficicnt to secure the Act for being Evaded, or any Person Wrong'd, if this most Honourable and August Assembly shall think fit to make such Act, and to Rectifie the Rates before Proposed, if found in any part unequal: And it is Humbly Supposed, That such Act can be no hindrance or disadvantage to any Trade whatever, for it may reasonably be conjectured, that most People will take out such Lisences rather than lay by the Cloaths they have already, and buy others conformable to the Act, which will cost more than the Lisence by much; and it is hoped, that such Act in one years time may discover such Advantages for the Publick good, as may induce it hereafter to be turned into a perpetual Law; All which is Humbly Submitted to the Wisdom and Candid Censure of this Honourable Assembly, by a Real Lover of the present Government, and the Liberty and Property of the Subject, and is Your Honours most Dutiful, Obedient, and Humble Servant,