Excerpt from Records of the Cape Colony, Vol. 27: From June to September 1826, Copied for the Cape Government, From the Manuscript Documents in the Public Record Office, London My Lord, - With reference to the latter part of your Lordship's despatch of the 20th February last addressed to Lord C. Somerset proposing that an Ordinance should be promulgated for levying a tax upon slaves, I beg leave to submit the following statement. I was aware previously to the receipt of Your Lordship's despatch, from communications made to Lord C. Somerset and to me by His Majesty's Commissioners of Enquiry, that the proposed tax on Slaves made part of a general arrangement for the financial concerns of this Colony which the Commissioners intended to recommend to Your Lordships consideration. I was aware by that arrangement was contemplated the removal of several taxes considered by the Commissioners as inexpedient or oppressive, and that upon the whole they imagined the proposed alterations would not impose much additional burden on the People. I therefore thought it right to communicate to them Your Lordships instruction, requesting them at the same time to acquaint me with the nature and amount of the taxes proposed to be taken off, and expressing my opinion of the inexpediency of laying on at. this period of commercial distress and actual scarcity of food, any additional taxation without the relief proposed to accompany it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.