PULTENEY, William.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A Review of the Excise-Scheme; In Answer to a Pamphlet, intitled The Rise and Fall of the late projected Excise, impartially considered. First edition of this attack on Robert Walpole's controversial tax reforms, specifically those relating to wine and tobacco. Walpole had sought to transform the basis of taxation on a number of commercial goods from customs duties into excise duties, but faced widespread resistance that ultimately proved insurmountable.The historian Raymond Turner describes this period as "one of the most striking instances in former times of a minister being coerced by clamour and opinion", represented "as had often been the case before, in innumerable little pamphlets" (Turner, p. 34).Pulteney (1684-1764) was a prominent Whig and opponent of Walpole who was asked to form a government after Henry Pelham's administration collapsed in 1746. Within two days, lacking sufficient support, he withdrew and Pelham returned to office, leading some to describe Pulteney as Britain's shortest-serving premier, though he never officially held the office.

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