3
262
and is the result of the labor of the
Committee
appointed by the Public meeting mentioned in my Despatch 152 of the 27th
August.
As the memorialists dwell much
J.
then
representing
the
"
enormity
of
the
Severe Community
as
a majority of
sinces
few, some
signing first directly for themselves -
and again for themselves through their
agents
and
employés.
It is not too much to say that, if I had proposed a tax on Houses, and the leading mercantile firms
had, in lieu thereof, suggested a Stamp
duty,
some 150 of the unwilling signatures
would have been appended to a demand for a Stamp law.
I trust it will not seem
invidious, if I remark, that although,
on the 17th of last month, they have had nearly
four
weeks to
get up their
Case,
the
enclosed bears 112 signatures less than the
Memorial, whilst the influence
of a few leading houses here commands
so many signatures of parties immediately dependent on them, that a document
like the enclosed is in a
great
measure
a reiteration of the opinions of comparatively
...
This is perhaps
a result
inseparable
from the preparation of almost any memorial here, and is only alluded to because the Memorialists treat the number of signatures
as a
leading argument. Once used as such it must be weighed and tested like other arguments.
4.
In
fact
that
argument has been