Lord Hollandsaid, he had come down to the House on Monday for the purpose of presenting some petitions, but happened to be a few minutes too late. They were against the additional duty on Leather, which he considered a most oppressive and impolitic tax, Notwithstanding the decision which had been come to in another place, he considered it his duty to lay the petitions on the table, in order that their lordships attention might be turned to the subject, 1225 and that those who asserted that the continuance of such burdens was indispensable to meet the expenditure of the country, should consider themselves called upon to show, that various objects of that expenditure, which far exceeded this tax, were necessary; among these objects were certain monuments, and also churches, for which a very large sum had recently been voted. There was likewise the establishment at Windsor, which occasioned an expenditure nearly of the same amount as the produce of this leather tax; that was an establishment which afforded no comfort to any one, and was not very creditable to those who persisted in maintaining it. Nothing had yet been said to convince their lordships or the country of the necessity of that expenditure, which formed the apology of the present intolerable taxation. His lordship concluded by presenting petitions from the tanners of York, Nottingham, and King's Lynn, against the tax.
§ Ordered to lie on the table.