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86 THE LEADER. [Bannu^
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THE LAUNDRY AND THE LAZARETTO. " Healtk ...
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TAXATION REDUCED TO UNITY AND SIMPLICITY...
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Transcript
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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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A Voice From India. The Indian Populatio...
than our own , the antiquated nonsense of our corrupted feudality . Now matters of this kind cannot be settled on apriori reasoning , nor without local knowledge , nor without consulting the experience and even the wishes of the natives themselves . If it was possible to do so some few years ago , the much more enlightened condition of the influential classes amongst the natives themselves would render it more difficult and
infinitely more impolitic now . , Nor are the natives unsupported by British countenance . Already we see that certain British and Christian inhabitants of Calcutta are petitioning Parliament much in the sense of the Bombay Native Association , only insisting more strongly upon practical and extensive law reforms . The committee of the British India Association perseveres in its labours to improve the local administration of the country , and it attests the progress which has been made in its own presidency and in those of Madras and Bombay .
" It will be satisfactory to the members of the Association / ' says the report , " to observe that there is a similar concurrence of opinion in their petition and in that about to be forwarded from this presidency on the part of its British and other Christian inhabitants . This circumstance cannot but induce a serious consideration by Parliament of the necessity of obtaining information as to the working of the present arrangements from others than those who are concerned in directing them . That point gained , the results cannot but be favourable to the general interests of all connected with this country . "
" We learn from the Bombay Gazette that the mercantile community of Bombay—meaning , we suppose , of British origin— " were about to do something with a view to indicate their feelings to the Parliament and people of Great Britain on this momentous occasion , " the revision of the Charter . Thus we have every independent class in the country—the British mercantile community of Bombay , the British residents of Calcutta who are not essentially pledged to Government
views , the British inhabitants of Madras , the native gentlemen in all the presidencies , the Sirdars of Mahratta , the native working classes of Bombay , the Zemindars , the Parsees , the Euro-Eeanized Brahmins , with a large contingent of alf-caste population in all the presidencies , concurring in the same claims for better administration , and , at all events , for a hearing on the subject of their own government , when next the imperial Parliament shall have the whole question under consideration .
86 The Leader. [Bannu^
86 THE LEADER . [ Bannu ^
The Laundry And The Lazaretto. " Healtk ...
THE LAUNDRY AND THE LAZARETTO . " Healtk of body , peaco of mind , a clean shirt , and a shilling , " is one of those toasts which , in the fulness of spirits flowing through a convivial assembly , one good fellow in old J ^ nglish fashion wishes another . It is not the most dignified combination of words , perhaps ; it is one , however , the items of which we prize separately and collectively ; but all of which , it appears from recent information , arc not so easy to obtain as we imagined . The means adopted to get the first
boon , go far towards realizing the second ; and though the number is happily decreasing who are without the fourth , we are left in a state of uncertainty as to the third . Neither the occupations nor the inclinations of many of us are compatible with the wail ing upon ourselves to ensure the luxury of a clean under garment ; but really itis nlrnoHt enough to induce a trial , when we are told by " S . T ., " in a letter to the Times , on Saturday last , tliat in one tub , in one water , at one time , the linen of the healthy and the sick , the living
and the dead , are bundled together for washing . Garments of " those who have died of typhus fever , scarlet fever , amaU pox , " and of other ills that honk is heir to , are indiHCriminately mixed ; and , says S . T ., " hundreds can testify my statement in not in tho leant overdrawn or exaggerated . " All JuimdrieH are not thus conducted , but too many are . S . T . thinks that " fastidioun ladien and gentlemen would be greatly horrified b the
to wee their linen occasionally anging on railH of a tent bed , with two , and womotiinos even three , children , with tho measles or whftoping cough , lying underneath , gasping and breathing an utnioHpliere loaded with impure ntonm , and , by way of aggravation , a large fire in the small room close to the bed , and tho children ' s pulse at iy <) ricgrccH -, " for those whose business is in a small way , have but one room wherein to " eat , live , and sleep , oarning their miserable existence
by standing over a steaming wash tub for eight , ten , and occasionally twelve hours a-day . " People are not bo slow to perceive as to adopt . Citizen John still drinks a strange-looking fluid , to quench his thirst , which he calls water ; and he will , also , for a time , we presume , continue to wear his throat-cutting collar , and expose his snowy front , without seriously troubling himself if there lie between those threads so virgin-white , the elements of epidemic and the seeds of death .
But , there is a class of man and womankind springing up in our midst , who are prepared " do the dirty work of society , " to undergo the brain toil of routing out its corrupt parts , and purifying them ; and , to such missionaries , let us invoke attention for the poor washerwoman , vainly struggling to create cleanliness in the midst of foulness . Cleanliness is next to
godliness , when that cleanliness is genuine purity , m fact , as well as appearance . The dens of the 50 , 000 thieves and vagrants of this metropolis are in process of a most effectual ransacking , and the lowest of the low are forced to recognise the better from the worse . These are unwilling converts ; the washerwoman means to be the very minister of cleanliness , and she devotes to the work all she has—her little capital ( her tub and
soap ) and her toil , till the very skm is wrung from her iing-ers . But society , that uses her , does not supply her with water , or with a place to work in . A beginning , indeed , has been made , where really pious men prevail in parish councils , as in Sfc . Martin ' s-in-the-fields ; but elsewhere we see the duty is repudiated . In Islington , it ^ seem 3 , they prefer to have shirts white-washed amid suffering and disease—a whited tomb-stone on the breast .
Taxation Reduced To Unity And Simplicity...
TAXATION REDUCED TO UNITY AND SIMPLICITY . THE ULTIMATE INCIDENCE OF TAXATION . The general name of taxation is applied to payments which , in different countries and ages , are really of diverse and , not unfrequently , even of opposite characters . In some cases , a tax is merely an exaction of the strong hand , the profits of king-wealth . ; in others , it is a contribution , by each , to the expense of some or other objects accomplished for the benefit of all , —the incidental cost to each person of his share in the common-wz & lih In the progress of society , these characters of taxation become mingled ; that which comes of the principle of king-wealth . —a consequence of the decaying ascendancy of wrong , gradually diminishes , and eventually disappears , with the opposing growth of healthy and intelligent social forces ; that which comes of the principle of commo ? i-wea \ th remains , and is gradually purified , —a permanent necessity of every social system . During the slow and imperceptible change , the two principles and their consequences dwell confusedly together .
In England , we have advanced so far , that no pretence now remains of the principle of king-wealth , whether in favour of a monarch or of a class , —or , to speak more accurately , of a class through a monarch , or of a class without one . Taxation , for tho profit of royalty , irrespective of public advantage , lias long disappeared ; taxation for the profit of a class , another stem from the same evil root , is at length given up , in principle , with tho late final surrender of Protection . No tax is now defended , but on the plea of its being necessary to the raising of the funds required by tho common cost . So fur , in bur own caso , tho ground is well cleared .
Tho great question which remains , and which ban not yet received attention proportionate to its importance , in tho distribution of this common cost amongst tho members of the community . It is true that much has been said about the tuxes borne by different classes , but nothing in decided , or , on yet , even clearly neon , by the public mind , hh to tho principlo on which tho distribution ought to take place . There are allegations of injustice , but uo proofs of it , although tho allegations themselves ne < WKKurily imply some standard ofright . There are assertions of hardship , but no tracing of the hardship to the original error . Evidently , however . Micro 5 h a
vague and almost uneonnoiou 8 assumption of hoi no goneral principle , which in yet but obscurely apprehended . Wo need not , junt now , ins ' int on any particular Hpoci float ion of this principle , whether our own or other . Our preHcnt object in HufHoicntly answered , by the irrevocable ! admiwHiou brought about by time , that the common cost ought to bo raised from each individual in proportion to an advantage of Homo kind which he rercivcH from the State . The necessary accompaniment of thin principlo is , that bo much an tho State tijike . s of any individual which i « not in proportion to that advantage i « taken in wrong ? If this bo admitted , then what is called indirect
taxation must be defended , if at all , on the ground that it eventually reaches each member of the community m the same proportion as the advantage which it is agreea he receives from the State . If it cannot be shown that it does and must reach the individual in this due proportion , the defence of indirect taxation on the ground of equity fails . It is not enough that on this plan the tax may possibly reach the tax-payer in this just proportion : it ought to be shown that it must
do so . . . Now , nothing was more conspicuous in the recent financial debates , or is more observable in all such discussions , than extreme uncertainty and difference of opinion as to the party on whom any particular tax ultimately falls . This uncertainty is almost as fatal to any defence of indirect taxation on equitable grounds , that that taxation
as it would be to prove positively certainly fell on the wrong parties . We purpose to show that this uncertainty cannot be removed ; that it is an uncertainty not merely in our conceptions , but inherent in the case ; that the operation of indirect taxation is at no two periods alike j and , for anything we know , we may at any given time be ruining some classes by crushing taxation , the accumulated incidence of many taxes on one point , and pampering others by complete
immunity . # An indirect tax is an impost on an article to be afterwards transferred to another possessor before it is consumed or enjoyed . The tax is presumed to be added to the natural price , and thus drawn from a second party by him who paid it in the first instance . The second is supposed to obtain repayment from a third , and so on , until either because the article is consumed , or for some other reason , the original tax can no longer he drawn from a subsequent possessor of the article taxed .
Now , we admit that , on the whole and on the average , indirect taxes are paid by the consumer ; for . if not , the trade to which they relate could not long exist ; just as , on the whole , every other part of the cost of an article must be repaid to the dealer by the consumer , or transactions in that article would cease . But this general effect is not enough to justify indirect taxes , or to account for their operation . It is perfectly consistent with this average result that we should find , at the same time , cases of extreme impolicy , injustice , and oppression . The contribution to commoa expenses may reach consumers on the average of years and cases ( which is all that the continuance of the trade requires ) , and yet burden individuals always , and whole classes at times , beyond all tolerance or reason .
The necessity for distinguishing between averages and cases on this subject is very great . For , if our former deductions are near the truth , we are dealing with a question which involves one-sixth of the income of our whole people . And if it be one-sixth of tho whole—that is , one sixth on the average—it may easily be made to fall in particular cases , or classes of cases , with the weight of one-third or one-hnlf . Moreover , as indirect taxation falls most commonly with greatest severity on the poorer classes , this accumulation of taxes , to tho amount of half their income , is much more likely to happen to them than to their wealthy neighbours , who could far better sustain it .
Tho tax on an article to be sold becomes part of tho price . Whether tho price will be realized again at all , and if realized , with how much or how little profit it will bo accompanied , are matters affected with an uncertainty of which tho ordinary contingencies of trade sufficiently assure us . Let us trace the operation of an indirect tax in tho caso of a pound of currants . If this fruit bo cheap , and the working population in good circumstances , tho consumer will pay tho tax ; for tho impost will bo handed on to tho successive purchase ™ of the currants aa part of tho price , and the working-man , out of Inn camfortablo means , will not refuse tho purchano for tho sftko of tho advance which the tax occasions in tho
( supposed ) moderate price of tho articlo . Hut if currants bo dear , and tho working population bo in distressed circumstances , the working- man will go without tho currants , and others will pay tho tax . Tho oflect of tho tax ia to deprive the consumer of tho pleasure or Advantage of the consumption , and thi « in ono form , and often a grievous one , of the burden of tuxution , although it figures for little or nothing in woino diHCUHmons on tho Hubiect . Tho tax tho consumer would
have paid had ho remained a consumer , in paid by othcru in thifl way : —the grocer , if ho is to keep up tho consumption of currantH , must lower his profit on thorn , and then he , not tho consumer , puyu tho tax . A lower profit , or none , forces him back on tho merchant , who , in hid turn , nuflerH either in diminution of prioo or in Ioshos from failures of retailor * . If tho grocer relinquinh the attempt to keep up tho consumption of eurrantH , he Ionch tho profit of tho sale , and ho boors along with tho coiiHumor , but not at till ip his relief , tho bur-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1853, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22011853/page/14/
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