On this page
-
Text (3)
-
aea /pjeee leai^eb, pso. 36i, SATre^^
-
THE EMPEROR'S PICTURE OF THE EMPIRE. X/o...
-
POLITICAL SOUNDINGS. We have remarked wi...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Financial Position. Thebe Is No Budg...
£ ea d" of ordinary taxation . If it is not truly honeet , it would be exactly proportionate , and then the wealth of the country would be paying- ; whereas everybody knows that the arrangement is such as to let off the wealth lightly , and to press heavily upon the middleclass and the needy . The inequality- with which it falls , the peremptory manner in which it is exacted , constitute in fact , not a tax as
taxes are ordinarily understood , but a forced levy , a compulsory contribution . 1 b may be justified for definite purposes , but cannot " be maintained as a permanent institution . The larger the sum required , the greater the justification for an extraordinary measure of the kind ; but the machinery becomes the more odious-in proportion as the sum realized by it is small .
Sir Geohge's continuation Budget is of a kind which begs permission to pass by its ' moderation , its ' practical' character , and its large obvious sacrifice of nine millions . It may pass on these grounds , but it is not really a Budget— -it is an evasion ; it is a begging to be let off a real account this year . The Cha-N-cei / loii oir the Excheqtjeii relies upon " the prosperity of the country ; " but the prosperity is not inconsistent with a great , amount of suffering amongst the
working-classes , and very great difficulties amongst the humbler of the middle-class , to say nothing of difficulties among richer people . Although the exports have increased , although the amount of "business done exceeds any of previous years , the money-market is tight . ' In other words , an immense proportion of our wealth goes to increase the aggregate amount of goods , and the enormous fortunes of those who deal largely in goods ; but the same process is continually tightening the margin for men of smaller incomes , and
extracting larger exertions from , the labouring classes . Income , therefore , is one of the worst commodities to tax among the most numerous classes . Sugar , the luxury of the million , is growing scantier and dearer , and it ought to have been spared . Tea , which " cheers but not inebriates , " and which is threatened , by the China war , should likewise have been spared . A sound economy exercised in the military and naval expenditure ,
and in some few other departments of the State , would have enabled the Cha-xtcei / lor . or the Exchequer , not to reduce the Income-tax to 7 d . or even 5 d ., but to cut it out altogether ; and the simple reason why we have not that performance of duty from the Government is , that the Government does not represent the people—not the millions of Englishmen , but only the electors , the one man in seven who is better off than the other six .
Aea /Pjeee Leai^Eb, Pso. 36i, Satre^^
aea / pjeee leai ^ eb , pso . 36 i , SATre ^^
The Emperor's Picture Of The Empire. X/O...
THE EMPEROR'S PICTURE OF THE EMPIRE . X / ouia Napoleon , in his speech to the senators and deputies of the Empire , hazarded a curious admission . Ho snid they " had a difficult task to perform—that of reconciling the country to' new institutions . " " We have so long been , required to believe that the new institutions were the free choice of Prance , that it is difficult to comprehend an avowal that f is
ranco not oven reconciled to them . A wide distinction is to be observed between acquiescing in the existence of a de facto Government and establishing it b y acclamation ; so that tho Emperor's confession is of no little importance . Prance , then , did not preiar the Empire ; it is " tho difficult task " ot tho senators and deputies' to " reconcile " nor to it . Sympathizing with men upon Whom so onerous a duty is imposed , wo may express our gratification derived from the tact that thoBo hoavily-workcd
functionaries are liberally paid . But -what shall we think of Loins Napoleon , who so long proclaimed his peculiar institution as the result of an irresistible national impulse , now discoursing on the difficulty of inducing France to accept those institutions—based on " the will and interests of the people , " yet obnoxious and not easily reconciled to them ! Is this illogical declaration a sign of returning conscience or of departing reason , or does ifc simply imply that Louis ] STa : po : leo : n , in
power , utters what he pleases , in a country where no one may criticise or contradict him ? ^ Returning conscience is out of the question , for the entire speech is made up of oracular sophistries . It contains a boast of the " free debate" permitted in Prance . "Whom is this intended to deceive ? Not the French people , surely ; because they know that the voice of public opinion has sunk into a whisper , that the journals in Paris are oppressed by unexampled severities , that all discussion on
the subject of the approaching elections is absolutely prohibited , that , in , fact , free debate is extinct . Nor can foreigners be deluded by so transparent a mockery of the truth . This , however , is not the most characteristic point in the Imperial oration , Louis Napoleon ; , with a piety emulating that of the Soman Emperor who pretended to be on speaking terms with the Capitoline Jove , announces that his prayers have been heard , that peace has been signed , that the
Neufehatel question has lost its warlike aspect , that Greece is to be evacuated "b y the Allied troops , that Naples is still contumacious , and thai ? his own . policy is to act everywhere on behalf of humanity and civilization . It was , indeed , " idea wholly philanthropic" which had prompted , him to deport political offenders to Cayenne . " We now understand the word philanthropy in its Imperial sense . Louis Napoleon " acts
everywhere on behalf of humanity" — as , for example , among the fens and blistered rocks of Guiana . He pats M . Thiebs on the back of his History , but does he not ; compliment M . ILouis Blanc more impressively by practically admitting that , the Exile had fortunately directed his attention to the circumstance that Cayenne is not a healthy spot , congenial to the philanthropy pf the Empire ?
The economy of the Empire seems to repose on a similar basis . It is the economy of John" Law . Credit , the Etnperor says , is an inexhaustible source of wealth ; hitherto , in France , however , it has produced distress , not opulence ; the swollen fortunes of a few gamblers represent the riches that have been created ; the wide-spread misery of the industrial classes represents a . n equivalent result of poverty . At alL events , the public are in need of relief—and relief ., surely , is easy ,
when a state of war has been exchanged i ' a state of peace . But what are the elements of the Emperor ' s Budget ? He will , next January , suppress the war tithe on registration dues ; but lie must , in its stead , impose a new duty on all negotiable share property . That is to say , he wilL reduce the public taxation by twenty-three millions , and increase it—so the official organs calculate—by a hundred millions , the administration , ia the third year of peace , costing upwards of seventy millions
more than in the last year of war . Setting aside these figures , however , wo may congratulate ourselves that we have not a strong Government . While England , with representative institutions on their trial , ia reducing her taxes by nineteen millions of gold twenty-shilling pieces , Pnuicc , enjoying tho unity of absolutism , is cutting otl' a tux ot ( . wenty-three millions of silver tenpcimy pieces —udUing , at the same time , another tax of at leaat double the amount . So that tho
Empire is to be kept up at an aamual cost beyond its former average , equivalent to that of a Russian -war—a Sebastopol siege and a Baltic campaign—exclusive of extraordinary loans . But , then , the army and the civil service are to receive higher pay , for Napoleon must not stint the guards and the agents of his power . Besides , he has vast public works in hand to satisfy the workmen whom he has crowded into Paris ; but what "will his masonryyield as a return for taxes wrung from the provincial population ? And what will be the expense of imprisoning the rivers and the revolution Avithin boundaries marked bv
JNapoleout , oi reconciling the country to the institution voted five years ago by acclamation ? Speculation , the Emperor says , ruins many an individual , but credit is an inexhaustible source of wealtli , and while he extends the operations of credit , he -will check the excesses of speculation ; he will have schemes without schemers . The schemes and the schemers appear , nevertheless , to decline in an equal ratio : —the Bourse is
comparatively deserted ; exhaustion has followed excess ; manufacturing industry stagnates ; the markets of the Empire are universally dull . Louis Napoleon ' s picture of the Empire is a deception which does not deceive .
Political Soundings. We Have Remarked Wi...
POLITICAL SOUNDINGS . We have remarked with pleasure that the Administrative Heforni Association has reformed itself , by extending its plans . At first , it professed to have no political object , and it fell , naturally and inevitably , into a state of premature collapse . As originally constituted it was a failure . Mr . Roebuck was then solicited to rehabilitate the forlorn
Society . He undertook the task ; and his earlier programme seemed to promise no larger- results than , liad been , obtained \) y the congress of citizens , pure and simple . To collect information , and to influence the Government through the House of Commons and the constituencies , was the limit of his enterprise , as announced last year . " We then said that such an . organization would not command the confidence of the Liberal
party ; nor did it . Mir . Roebuck has made that discovery , in conjunction , it would appear , witli the three Honorary Secretaries of the Association , for he and they are now working with vigour and zeal in the direction of Parliamentary Beform . They recognise the leading fact—that tho House of Commons has its genesis in a system even more corrupt than that which distributes app ointments to the Parliamentary supporters and family connexions of the Cabinet . The
association now includes among its objects an effectual Reforin Bill . "We see no reason , therefore , why it should not be developed into a political League , and take up an historical position . Remembering every word we have said , with reference to its original constitution , we cannot hesitate , under existing circumstances , to promise it the cordial sympathy of many earnest Liberals , who have long refused to identify themselves , in any way , with its
operations . We may count the Administrative Reform Association , then , among the props of the Liberal Platform . Another prop id the Ballot Society—one of the most successful organizations in existence . It exercises a real influence over many constituencies . With its aid the Ballot lms ' been made a question ot the day—a certainty of the future , lhc subject is better understood than formerly , and tlvifcj on account of iho well-directed vigour of tho Ballot Society . Even movo important , however , than these cadres of the
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 21, 1857, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21021857/page/14/
-