On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
Untitled Article
them as too vast , too theoretically good , too comprehensive . Yes , the leading public servant of this day , to justify his own want of will to serve the People—the feeble will belonging to short sight and faint heart—has sneered at comprehensive measures ; and he is the leader and spokesman of the party whom , in its perplexity , the People suffers to rule the country ! I have said this before : it cannot be told too often , aloud , that but for the deliberate choice of the rulers the People might be sure of just labour , plenty , and enjoyment of life .
How ? By what practical means ? asks the political atheist , hoping that you cannot give him
an answer . By such means , I answer , as the very wants and mistakes dictate of themselves . You have but to follow your understanding . All the talk about the difficulties of amendment in a " highly artificial state of society "—the beauty of " theory / ' and its impracticability—as if practical science does not always get as near to theory as it can !—about " preservation of our time-honoured institutions , " " progress of the nation , ' * " success of existing system "—( ask if " success" sits on the care-worn face of the People , or even of the money-making class ?)—all this is but the jargon of " the voices on the mountain , " to call off the steadfast march of true progress .
Wants dictate their remedies ; our conception of the wants being the clearer if the mind be freed from some of the dogmas which have so curiously encumbered the utilitarian philosophy of the day . We should not distinctly understand how some of the very greatest overriding evils of society are far from being irremediable if we still supposed accumulation of capital to be so unmixed a good , that
the prime object of commercial legislation should be to promote and protect that accumulation ; or if we supposed that competition is entirely constructive and not at all destructive , —abating the cost of production , but not subtracting from the substantial return of labour even to the verge of starvation : or if we supposed that land is the " real" property of any but the human race .
Enumerate the few most striking evils that press upon the country : the pre-disposing- evils seem to be , the combination of classes which keeps the People shut out from a practical influence on the Government of the country ; the ignorance of the People , which at once renders that exclusion possible , and , on a superficial view , desirable to other classes ; and the dogmatic state of oeconomical science , which makes men persevere with courses practically mischievous , in the thorough belief that they really are doin # the best they can .
The ultimate evils which we see are a gradual alienation of the People from the land—with its two branch evils , the collapse of agriculture and the formation of a pauper peasantry ; a disproportionately developed system of trading carried to such extremes that it is impossible to draw a practical line between the vast region of sharp
speculalion and the gigantic bankruptcy which appears to be the complement of trade . A huge funding system , which engenders at oncethatovertrading and forms a hopeless burden of taxation ; immense crowds of the working-classes dependent upon that precarious trade , and not knowing which is to be the fortune-making- speculation , which the bankruptcy , —which is to be for them , jolly wages , or which their starvation . Such facts suggest the
measures . For a transition state discreetly to be traversed , I would hold it necessary to recognize three distinct facts : first , that the transition need not be abrupt ; secondly , that it is only politic and honest to make generous provision for justice to existing interests set aside ; thirdly , that the present system does not succeed . For proof that it does not succeed , I appeal to the countenance of all society . Look to any class , except some few favoured rather by temperament than moneyed fortune . The landowner — once land / or */ by feudal service , since landowner by encroachment— is anxious about his land because of
the fanners unable to pay rents , hecause of the labourers multiplying into paupers , because of the discussion brewing like a storm on the validity of individual property in land . The farmer is anxious between his rent and poorrates , free trade and the want of capital for land wlrieh cannot be made to serve as security to the capitalist . The labourer is anxious between lowering wukcs am | tne un j on , "i'i 10 merchant is anxious between the passing chance that may inake his fortune and the bankruptcy at his heula ; between the ambitions of Belgrave-square
and the exposure of Basinghall-street . The shopkeeper is anxious between the custom that he must court by " favourable terms " and bad debts—between the competition in shop-palace-making and the ghastly truths of his ledger . Every variety of the working class knows what it is to work in carking care , between the abatements of the master , the wants of the home , the changes of trade , the claims of poorer dependents , the cruelties of the
Poor-law . The present system may be an improvement upon what it has been , but it is in no complete sense of the word " a success . " I agree with those who say that we cannot jump to new systems , but that the better must grow out of the present ; who say that the rich " are not to be exterminated , or subject to spoliation or confiscation . But " property has its duties as well as its rights "—that is the very condition of its own existence ; and we can at least begin to mend .
To make a beginning we do not need to establish a new system , or to deal at once with all the forms of evil amongst us ; but a national party , possessed of foresight and courage , might at once grapple with the most salient forms of evil , and yet not step beyond measures naturally suggested by our wants . Such as the following : — I . To strengthen the People and inspire it with confidence . A law enacting Universal Suffrage ,
living interests—but I will not , for the sake of interests yet unborn , maintains a burden to the people yet unborn . Andr the very fact of settling the matter would have a beneficial influence on our future progress . I would not repudiate , I would define . I would not dabble with palliatives , I would deal comprehensively with the whole . ' A measure to convert the whole of the permanent annuities in the public funds into terminable annuities would be followed next day by a revolutionary fall of prices on the Stock Exchange . The commercial fact , that terminable annuities on a
fair lease are almost equal in value to permanent annuities , —the operations of " speculators for the fall" and " speculators for the rise , " by which , if many fortunes were lost to individuals , as many would be made—the perception of the stability given to our political institutions by a national act of justice—would soon exhibit sound results in restored confidence , and perhaps by the end of a week prices would not be far from their original mark . I would therefore accompany the readjustment of taxation by a simple act of Parliament , at once converting the whole of the permanent annuities into terminable annuities .
To revise the laws of labour , in order to set it free from regulations mistakenly granting protection to capital against labour , and to authorize partnership among working men—hitherto discountenanced and even impeded—would be a work of time , though it might be expeditiously pursued ; to revise the laws relating to the tenure of land , facilitating transfer , and gradually converting all tenures into a
with accompanying measures necessary to render it effectual . I have said that no great reform can be pushed if we have not the strength of the People to do it . The People will not lend its strength unless we thoroughly trust it ; and , therefore , it is not only desirable that we should endow the People with the fullest amount of power which we can attain for it , but it is absolutely necessary that all reformers who mean to carry measures worth carrying should make that pledge of confidence on both sides .
single one direct from the State , would also be a work of time ; with reformers who hold it necessary to inflict no personal injury , England , with juster laws , would be a more prosperous nation , and , therefore , more able to be generous to those who might suffer from the change . Both these branches of legislation would require to be instituted at once , and carried on with a clear foresight as to the point to be attained .
II . To redress the pressure of taxation . On the plea of sparing capital , wealth has hitherto cast the chief burden of taxation upon the great body of the people ; that is to say , upon the poor and industrious classes . We have seen that this notion of sparing capital is not only needless , but that the artificially-fostered accumulation of capital produces amongst us mischiefs of a positive kind and gigantic dimensions . In dealing with taxation anew , therefore , we are freed from that delusion which has warranted so many honest but half-seeing men in aiding to cast the burden upon those least able to
Meanwhile , there is a law already existing amongst us which has a bearing on both these subjects ; on the relations of labour with capital and employment—on the relations of labour with land , and of land with the State ; and if that law were rendered thoroughly effective , we might immediately realize some of the benefits to be anticipated—1 mean , the law which , in its imperfect state , is called the Poor-law . The operation of a thorough Poor-law would be , to check the exile of the labour from the land , to check the excessive competition which induces the labourer in towns to give a whole day ' s work for half a day ' s wage , or less , for less than a subsistence : and it is , therefore , an engine which the State holds in its hand , and may be used to regulate the condition of the People . It has been called both by ceconomists of the old school and of the newest school , a Communistic institution ; and it is so . A natural aversion to the nature of it induced the ceconomists who presided at its last reform , to do nothing less than to render it as ineffective as possible . It was regarded not as a law beneficial in its direct object—which all laws ought to he—but as a " necessary evil . " It was called so in plain terms . The landlords had cried out at the burden of the rates , although they had shifted them mainly upon the farmers : they might have been told that the poor-rate is , in its nature , a composition for land which private ownership withholds from the People , to whom it belongs . The land belongs to the natives of the soil , who have a right to seek their subsistence therefrom ; and so long as he shuts out labour from that primary use of the soil , the landowner is bound to pay a composition in subsistence money , or the State on his behalf to give the opportunity of labour for subsistence .
bear it . Excepting a Police-law and municipal wants which chiefly fall under the head of rates , by far the greater cost of Government is incurred in the protection of trade or of property—of property most especially ; and he should pay who receives the value . Freedom of trade , too , is still imperfect , while any taxes upon consumption remain . It is an intervention between the produce of the earth and the industrious man working for that produce ; and there can be no doubt that in numberless cases the tax actually does keep food and necessaries from the industrious man , who
might otherwise have them . Tea and soap are two signal instances . Next year the Income and Property Tax—that very well intended but imperfectly contrived device—will have to be revised . Its beneficial working in regard to the trade of the country has been proved—its intolerably inquisitorial and vexatious nature has equally been proved ; the feeling of the country is gradually
tending towards a measure for laying the mam burden of taxation upon property accumulated and real property ; and there is no reason except the want of sufficient will and vigour why such a measure should not be passed at once . It would be passed , I believe not long hence , if the People were to demand it ; and I believe , further , that the People would demand it , if the working men could see the amount to which it would relieve their
III . The third measure , therefore , would be one to regulate the relations of labour . A thorough reform of the Poor Law , rendering it effective for that purpose , would consist of three branches : — 1 . Industrial employment for the able-bodied destitute . 2 . Free provision for the aged and disabled . 3 . Separation of the Penal Vagrant Law from the auxiliary Poor Law . I am bound to explain more in detail how these
scanty resources . I heard with surprise , at a popular meeting the other day , a leader of the People speak as if the abolition of taxes would not be a vast and tangible benefit to the working man . The working man , however , knows better . The measure which I should propose , therefore , under this head would be , to transfer the whole or the major part of the burden of taxation from consumption to accumulated or real property .
But the burden itself might in process of time be halved . Full half of the burden is paid yearly , by a mistaken conception of justice , to make good the spendthrift promises of those who have no right to bind us . We might at once take steps towards the extinction of the National Debt—not , indeed , to effect its extinction to-morrow , for I adhere to the principle that it is necessary to spare
measures might be carried , and how they would apply to the practical progress of the nation the principles of Communism , upon which I take my stand . I shall do so in separate letters on the several subjects with all the speed I may—here only saying further , that , I firmly believe the measures which I have indicated , " sweeping " they are , would redound to the safety , welfare , and en-
Untitled Article
758 &t ) e yLeatoet . [ Saturday ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 2, 1850, page 758, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1857/page/14/
-