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July 7, I860.] The Saturday Analyst and ...
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ARISTOCRACY AND TAXATION fjHHE aristocra...
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MJfiJEO HI A r ra:U>;i0A. ON Tncsflny ev...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The British '< Tie,." Old Times Are Comi...
of that vast army can only practise rifle . ¦ shooting' at the expense of one guinea per dozen . shots * what hope is there that one tithe of them will , ever be able to fire a shot at all ? The effect of the regulations this week at Wimbledon is to exclude from the competition any but the rich , and those whom former practice has made confident -of success .- How many shopmen or clerks could -afford to pay four o-uineas , or even one guinea , for" the privilege to compete for . these prizes ? ' How many of those . who-could spare the -money have ever even fired a rifle ? Many of them have never seen a cartridge * and would be puzzled how to lo ; id their weapon-were they provided with the requisites . The institution of the , British Tir on
Wim-Med . 01 . 1 . Common on Monday was no tlnubt an imposing spectacle ; but we cannot help the conviction that it was altogether premature . Our riflemen want opportunities of practice- before they can venture to compete with the marksmen of Hythe and the crack shots of Switzerland . If we are to emulate the skill of the bowmen of old , so proudly alluded to in the address to Hee Majesty , butts must be erected in every county and district of the ' kingdom , and our volunteers must have at least weekly opportunities of practising their shootin « r . And certainly , if this movement is to be a national one , and is meant to be in earnest , iho action of the Volunteers must not be hedged round with class distinctions and invidious restrictions .
July 7, I860.] The Saturday Analyst And ...
July 7 , I 860 . ] The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 631
Aristocracy And Taxation Fjhhe Aristocra...
ARISTOCRACY AND TAXATION fjHHE aristocracy are oscillating between the terror and the - * - scandal of the . iuea of the people being'iu a position to tax them—ji description of fable turning more surprising than any of the . Teats of natural magic . They havo niade concessions more or less graciously , but with the salvo , more or less piausible , that these Concessions- have been made with their will , and by their will . In the matter of the Oorn Laws there was no question of the thuxn'b-. sci-ew . Direct-income taxation struck them , it is true ; but the blade passed more painiully and dangerously through the sides of that lower class labouring hardly for u small and-barely respectable income—ill-left . vvitlows of liard-Working proieKsional men , et Jidc genus omne . It was . ' . a-sacrifice' of tlie middle , and lower middle classes , ' fallaciously represented as the upper classes , but really only 3 d-wh en compared with the absolute poor . For those ' on whom it falls heaviest it is a real sacrifice—made to save the pocket , and , still
anore , to-satisfy the spirit of the unquestionably poor . Indirectly , the poor lnun' may ivot be greatly a gainer by the system , as the sum - ¦ total scattered among his class is diminished ; tmt -you / have ^ taken the words of discontent out of his mouth ; he is niuve sensible of a-drain ,-, than of a ' failure of supply , though it may produce the Same depletion : he cannot s : iy you put your hand into"his pocket as deeply as you . might do , —you have made an efforthi his behalf , and lie su ' biniti ? more easily to ' inexorable laws from nature than from "man . For men with incomes , vising from a thousand a year to every imaginable .-. height above it , to have niade the slightest attempt , at resistance to a-tax which ' " . pinching those ' on the verge of respectable poverty , ami to which the latter submitted fts a matter of political neefcsiiit . v for the sake of tlieir still poorer brethren , would have been— -had it been possible—an outrageous and insolent farce . Tiie - class on whom the burthen must then have been entirely thrown would have boon too strong even for tlie : * ~ 3 andlor < ls"Vif "JSngluW to cope . with ,, and they knew it full \ voll . ; -. Therefore , we give them small thanks fur income taxes , ' reduction , ; of duvies , or any other measure in which they have been fain to- ; join wi-tli the classes fur beneath them in income , ( or the benefit of j " those who are working- through their , years , of strength for their ; pittance . of from eig ht to thirty . shillings a week ; oven if force ; could not , siimne must have . compelled . The poor labourer is still taxed heavily enough , indirectly , for the very few luxuries wlijch -, he enjoys—too heavily ; not thut we wish to see him a legifdutor or voter wit bout being a tax-payer ; indeed , ho would coitso to have a right to dictato in any way to a Government towards the . support of which ho contributes absolutely nothing . As it is , lie contributes in a far greater proportion than he fairly ought to do , : and we believe that ho would rather bear his duo but small ' fraction nf direct taxation , than suller as he . dues from malt and ¦ ' tobacco duties . " ' ' . ¦ ¦ ' Taken as individuals , the improvement in tho character of our aristocracy is immense , especially' as regards tlieir conduct iinrt ; feeling towards the poor . Many of them stand honourably iiml worthily in the van of the many annios of philanthropists who yi > forth in every direction to the l'esoue of humanity ; but nothing is better known than the ( inference of the same individual perse , mid \ as the member of an order , and as to positive charity that' is not the j main question . As to the general disposition of aristocracies j towards thoHO whom they have had the power to oppress by their I strength and drain for their own benefit , lot . tho " question bo j decided , not by themselves , but by persons of considerably greater importance—men who lmvo earned thomselvoj-t a numo us great writers . Take divines , historians , moralists , poets , and deduce i * i -voi * -diot .- Tuke tha chiiritublo ^ unccjiaoi-iouH Ai-ahhishop , JjiauuTu-v , j 'when j » c . ' wpv ! i \ Ua ' . of tho " oppression _ and hard , exactions of mvA \ : \ a | are superiors of hinds , priiulin { r the faces of the poor , and squeezing them till the bloud come . " We could cram ournrlicle with st | eh passages on the conduct of tho landed aristocracies , wherever they havo lmd tho power . It has been tho numo everywhere . Lou / s INapolkon , tho father of tho present Emperor , complains , in hi * | " Doeu . mo . nH Historiqucs , " that in Holland '' every lord tried to J throw tho burthens nnd imposts on tho people . " Every one knows j whht Trance jmfibred in tho sanio way , and how long it had
suffered . In Sully ' s time a hundred and fifty million francs were raised from the people j and from this , of which they paid nothing" , placemen and aristocrats clipped so much for their private benefit , that thirty millions only came into the king ' s treasury . In Ireland , says Lord Strafford , " the nobility contrived to lay the taxation almost entirely on the . poor tenants . " He gives , as an instance , one " Lord Cork , who only paid about six and eightpence a quarter towards the twenty thousand pounds of yearly contributiin . " This is the aristocratic tendency ; and great as may have been their internal improvement , owing partly to external pressure , since they have suffered , as well as exercised , the squeezing power , still a . little of the old leaven is left . Why , actually , when money was wanting at the time of the last French war , when , in tlie way of voluntary contribution , " regiments were called out to be asked whether they
would give a week ' s pay , and ships' companies brought on deck to subscribe their contribution , " such is the general love of the rich who have money to keep it , that Sheeida ^ was able boldly in a speech , Jan . ' 4 th , 1798 , on a motion for an increase of taxes , to state that "From the highest to the lowest of those connected with the Government there had been no example to the people of a spirit of sacrifice . ... . * . . Xo disposition to contribute voluntarily has y « t been displayed from the very hi < rhest to the lowest ranks in the administration of Government . " There were generous men—Pitt himself was one ; but this is a fair illustration of money tenacity on the part of the Tory party at no very distant date ; and what makes it all the worse , this was the question of a single act , not a final or continuous concession of power or principle —\ o most of them evidently another name for hard cash .
The notion that a great and reckless rush is going to be made at the property of the aristocracy , is a mere scarecrow ; the very class whom we " have before represented as offering their sides to the weapon ' which went througli their ribs and grazed the s ™ in -of the wealthy , would again throw their bodies as a barrier against any attempt upon property of a really unprincipled character , and so armed with a just quarrel that tiie weapon would pierce neither . England is no countuy for sans culotie desperation , and the aristocracy know it as well as we can tell them . This last matter is not of much consequence , except as not a . straw but a paper kite sent up to show the direction ami strength of the wind ; and the paper is still up , thanks ^ to the breath of the Lords . We da not make any great grievance of the matter taken by itself . . ' . - . '•¦ ¦ - ¦ ¦¦ " . ^ ' ' ' /¦ > ¦ ¦ - ¦ ¦¦ - ' : ¦ '
. ; . , . ,. ; ; . . ;_ ; .. . , . . After all , the taxation from which the richer classes in England ! have been made to suifer— -we are almost ashamed to use the word j - ^ is aniere flea-bite , when we look at tlieir -equi ' paires , their ! luxuries still unlopped . ; and when we consider the eiioriuously 1 " greater debt which they owe towards the maintenance of the-Go-I vernment that secures to them tlie safe enjoyment . of alT their snpev-I fl . uiti . es , than " a poor man does for those bare necessaries—m ) Jew , j that his country seems scarcely -worth staying in , when ' emigration often offers him happier prospects elsewhere . < f Quesont aux riches lesiinpota ? Queiiiuos rats de plus dans leur grange . "
; ¦ " "What are taxes to the rich p" ssiya KKnAxoKit ; " only a few more rats in tlieir barn , " Vfhen they see and know the privations and struggles of the poor , this jealousy of taxation on the p . 'irt of the tLtled ^ nd ^ he-jycaltlAyJs-jils'jriist . ing ., «) itUgJXobJii ., .. Wm vdli CO » cIudiL ^ with si ' . few- words from " Hero ATorship . " " Liberty to ' tax oneself ? No ¦ century , I tliink , but . a ratlier barren oho , would have fixed oil thiit as the first right of man . A just niavi ( still more a wealthy one ) will generally have better cause than money , in what shape soeverbefore deciding to revolt against his Government .
, Ours is a most confused world , in which a-good man will jiu pleased to see any kind of Government maintain itself in a not insupportable manner ; nnd here , in England , if he is not readv to pay a great many taxes wliich lie can see very small reason in , it will not go well with him , 1 think ;"—words which have much sense in ' a . rich tnnn' -i , none in n pour inan ' s mouth , thougli the author puts them into both iiidisoriininatoly ,
Mjfijeo Hi A R Ra:U>;I0a. On Tncsflny Ev...
MJfiJEO HI A r ra : U >; i 0 A . ON Tncsflny evening , tho : $ rd inst .. ]) r . Pick , of Yionn : ; . whoso system oi' ^ rueni'Oiiif . 's lias recently attracted a . large amount ; of attention in . England , : is well as in France and ( iirniiiny , delivered : i lecttire . cNp ' iiiiiitiiry of the basis of his system at Warwick College ¦ Warwick S ^ uaiv , UVlgnivc llosul . In udditiou to the lady principal , ]\ frs . JJt . anciiaki ) , and other . ladies conm-clcd \ vit ) i tlie , <; . ' - { abli .- 'hniout , the announciiiiKv . it of the lecture httraclyd a l ' nuncroiis lisseinblngo cmnprising 1 lieV ?// 7 of tliu ncighbonrboftd , inul many persons interested in hi . siorual rwoiircli . Wo shall tnla ' thi . V
opportunity of giving an analysis of the systovn so fur as in a singlo lecture it could bii unfolded . The lyi-turcr coniinenciid by observing , that siA u Irreigncr he should stand in nei'd of tho iM
miming at the same time the ' coinp . n'tmiMit ; in which t ! it « y < h > n'cd Ihuni to bo placed , no tlmt when all weio lillcd Ihoiv w .-n- Hi-vfiifyfive fiifiirt ' N on tho bonnl , lln » onlcr of wlu ' cli Un' A hi'i-n jn ; i . M . ' niii--Doselv ' aM irregular as posNil ) lo . ]) r . VifK . . who had dnriugtho wholo process aloud ' with lain buck to tho board , the figures being written
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 7, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07071860/page/7/
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