Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 15th March 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 246, wp if Of P T.©. . SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1851.

Page 246
Page 10
10 of 24

On this page

  • Departments (2)
    • wp if Of P T.©. . SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1851.
    • Mhiit Malts.
  • Text (7)
  • 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.

      Wp If Of P T.©. . Saturday, March 15, 1851.

      wp if Of P T . © . . SATURDAY , MARCH 15 , 1851 .

      Untitled Article

      WHY CAN'T WE HAVE A GOOD BUDGET ? The impotency of the Government is exposed in its defeats , but it is most immediately felt in its incapacity to make any progress with finance . We have a Government that cannot get so far as to produce a budget ; and , what is worse , we have an Opposition that connives at that non-Government . Next Friday , Ministers are to try again with a new financial statement , —a new budget ; but we are running no great risk in the way of prophecy , if we predict that they will not come up to the amateur budgets that are floating about . Such as the one which has obtained considerable

      attention in Nottingham , and not without reason . We only wish that its author , " R . " , were in Sir Charles Wood ' s place . R . proposes to repeal the advertisement duty , £ 160 , 000 ; the newspaper stamp duty , £ 200 000 ; and the window tax , £ 1 , 800 , 000 . Also he would reduce the tea duty to one-half of its present amount ; he would at once equalize and lighten the pressure of the income tax , by leaving £ 80 of every income untaxed , from whatever source . These changes would occasion a loss to the revenue of nearly £ 4 , 500 , 000 , of which about £ 2 , 000 , 000 would be met by the existing surplus , leaving a deficit of £ 2 , 500 , 000 . This he would supply by an increase of the property tax to Is . per £ 1 , and by certain reductions in the expenditure .

      Very good ; but we think that a Chancellor of Exchequer might do still better . He might get rid of the Income tax altogether ; and in lieu of that he might resort to a tax of five per cent , on the annual value of all property in the United Kingdom . According to the best accounts that lie to our hand , this Property tax of five per cent , would yield £ 12 , 000 , 000 . Add the present surplus , of £ 2 , 500 , 000 , and you would have a surn of £ 14 , 500 , 000 , or , deducting £ 5 , 000 , 000 for the existing Income tax , a nctt £ 7 , 500 , 000 , to work upon . Under cover of such a surplus he rni ^ ht relieve the trade and industry of the country from a vast portion of the burden which now presses it—striking oil" all the "knowledge taxes , " and the

      window tax ; with a mighty impulse to the progress of sanitary and social reform . There would still remain £ 4 , 500 , 000 ; and what is the best use to winch that sum could be devoted ? First of all , we should altogether abolish the duty on codec—a boon equally to trade and " the consumer , " that is , to everybody . Also , the duty of 5 s . per cwt . foreign cheese and 1 () k . on foreign butter , swept away outright . We should reduce the duties on tea , sugar , and tobacco to one half of what they iire at present , with provision for their entire aholition in a few years . All this might be done , and yet reductions on useless or mischievous expenditure , such as the African squadron , might leave an ample surplus .

      We have ; said nothing about the National Debt : that must be dealt with by itself ; and will be dealt with . Protectionists now shrink from the very name of a Property tux ; yet they have had examples . Jn the session of IH ' Mi , when Lord Althorp was somewhat in Sir Charles Wood's predicament , Mr . (» . I '" . Robinson brought forward a motion for the entire abolition of the Assessed Taxes , and the duties on malt , hops , tea , sugar , soup , candles , glass , bricks , with several lesser items ; instead of which he would have imposed a Property tax that would yield about £ 15 , 000 , 000 . Mr . IJankes , the Member for Dorsetshire , who had been chairman of the . Finance Committee , further pointed tho moral of this tale : — " ( iovernnu-nt mlmit they cannot go further without , a Rubntitution of taxation . 'I ' o thai I think we munt come : if we want to nlieve tho burdens of the country . Wo omjht to fwtcnvnur , as much an possible , to spare , the pour , and place the . harden on the opulent , no an to comii ; uto a luriM . " portion of t . uxeH , and let the weight lull on

      those who are best able to bear it . That can only be done by the imposition of a property tax ; and , if it be necessary , the sooner it is done the better . It is said that an income tax or property tax would bear with peculiar pressure on landed property . This I believe to be an error : such a measure would operate greatly for the good of the poor , and the landed proprietor wou ld receive his share pf the general benefit . " What is the real difficulty in breaking from our miserable cramped nightmare of inaction , to enter upon a new lease of genuine public exertion for the good of the country ? It is , that the classes who

      give the colour to our political system , the aristocracy and the middle class , have lost the full sense of nationality . They are suffering the function of Government to slip through their fingers . By neglecting its duties , property is losing its rights . Land used to bear the charge of military service , and that of the poor ; now charged on local rates and on the general taxation . Taxation has been extended , but not representation . Every effort has been made to keep public administration and lawmaking in the hands of cliques and interests .

      Jointstock companies of political traders have multiplied , and in their general rivalry they have grown strongenough to estop each other , until at last the universal resistance , coupled with indifferentism to national objects , ends in a perfect stand-still . Even now , limited as the constituency is , the great effort is not to " appeal to the country "; because the rivals expect that power will fly from their hands . They know that the time when they will be able to mismanage no longer is approaching ; they know that the next election will be the occasion for the

      outburst of vast latent discontents ; they dread a " confusion" which will disturb interests and unsettle clique arrangements . Therefore are they content to go on without real government—with a powerless Premier and a budgetless Finance Minister .

      Untitled Article

      COURTING LA " BELLE FRANCE . " Louis Napoleon is canvassing : that the supreme executive power will continue in his hands , no matter under what title , beyond his lawful term , we have not the least shadow of doubt . How it is to be brought about in the teeth of the constitution , with the compact hostility of the Assembly , is somewhat puzzling ; but what matters it ? Credimus quia impossibile . Constitutions in France ever since the days of Sieyes are a Iwus a , non lucendo : so called from their instability—something to be speculated—operated upon . The Assembly are a body of men , set up to talk sense—if they canonly to give zest to the people ' s incorrigible waywardness and perverseness .

      The French will keep Louis Napoleon for the same reason for which they had him at first , —to baffle the calculations of sober wisdom ; to give their vote to the very candidate whose pretensions convulsed the knowing ones with laughter . And truly , whatever might he thought of the first election , the French can hardly do better at present than to abide by the choice then made ; and by another freak of their wilfulness , disappoint those mere bunglers in Royalism , those Chambordists and Orleanists , who have not even grace enough to wear their mask till their pitiful farce is played out .

      The French do not understand freedom , we verily believe , and must rest satisfied with what they call " order . " But let order , at least , be purchased at the lowest possible rate . Let uh have no riots and bloodshed for a mere change of masters . Till France has learned to belong to herself—and how soon will that be ?—there is nothing to gain but very much to lose in the substitution of a Bourbon for a Bonaparte . What is , in for the best ; and restorations are the worst of revolutions . Franco

      must needs wring the neck of her poor Constitution . So be it : but a continuation of Louis Napoleon ' s Presidency can be effected by a mere shuffle in the Assembly — at the utmost , a dixhuit Urumoire . But the return of either ltoyal branch would cost years of civil and foreign war . Meanwhile it is simply curious , since , as we think , Louis Napoleon has become a necessity for France , to see how , he betakes himself to the task of inflicting himself upon the country . In the

      hrst place , he " reforms the departments ; a large batch of prefects and nub-prefects , bashaws with two and three , tails , has been lately published in the Moniteur . The appointments have taken every man by surprise . They are ohscure men , the creatures of the ohscure members of the Cabinot . ICven no : the President holds his Ministry in his pocket : the Ministera hold the prefects in theirs , and since time immemorial these latter have always carried a French election in their pockets .

      Next , Louis Napoleon bids for the goodwill of the National Guards . He stands up for un iversal suffrage . He is the " chosen of December . " The vote of all has made him . He has no finger in that sad mess of the electoral law of the 31 st of May . It was not he that robbed the people of their birthright . It was that desperate set of Reactionnaires , of pseudo-Democrats , who have but too large a majority in the Assembly , and who conspire against him no less than against the liberties of the

      French . So far as in him lies , he can see no reason why the militia of the Seine should not elect their officers , down to the very corporals , on the good old plan of equal rights . But the Assembly will have it otherwise . The elections of the 25 th of March must be put off . They are concocting a new law for the organization of the Guards in the Assembly . The same hand that disfranchised the people at large will equally defraud the citizensoldiers . The President grieves , but can afford no help or redress .

      Again : four regiments of the line are about to quit the capital , and the President will hold a review Be it understood , however , no cry is to be allowe d to the men under arms . Frenchmen are bidden to hold their tongues ! Good reason why . The President canters along the Boulevards on Sunday : the shouts of " Vive FEmpereur ! " burst from the crowd . A few recreants set up the opposition cry , " Vive la Republique ! " the zeal of the Imperialists breaks bonds , and the Democrats are silenced with fisticuffs .

      The four regiments are , therefore , requested to bottle up their enthusiasm . If there is among them a veteran that believes in the metempsychosis of an uncle into a nephew , who insists on associating Bonapartism with French glory , well , let him bide his master ' s time . 1852 has not yet dawned . The day is not far when the President will throw himself on French sympathies . He will then know how to bestow on the people , the army , and the National Guards a vote , ere he solicits it in his behalf .

      Untitled Article

      PROGRESS OF ASSURANCE . THE RAILWAY ASSURANCE COMPANY . Assurance is one of those practical applications of the principle of concert which are multiplying around us , —one of the most direct and most esteemed . It is the spreading of risk over a larger surface—quite against the doctrine of mere " competition" ; and it curiously comes as an alleviator to that hurried haste with which competition sends us travelling about by the flying railway , " to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest . ' * Our ancestors made their wills before leaving the wilds beyond Epsom or Harrow for London . In our own day , provident fathers find it a shorter and surer way to " insure" their lives . You may do it generally—investing your savings in the best of all forms , with the least trouble . A policy of insurance is a directer mode than any of laying by for y our progeny . You may do it also specially , for a journey , lest the horrors of the rail cut short your saving opportunities . You may now do it for all railway journeys . Everybody travels . The railway drags every man from his home . Mow few now die in the place of their birth ; how many live in two places at oncefor existence in one place , for business in another . The metropolis alone is daily entered by 20 , 000 persons , and daily do 20 , 000 leave it ! The accidents are few . It is safer , says the philosopher , to go by rail to Birmingham than to walk—so many risks does the slow pedestrian undergo . But , if rare , the railway accident is terrible when it comes .

      As the coachman , the surviving old many-caped Tory of the whin , Hays , to show his horror at the innovation— " When a coach does go over , well— - there y * arc ; but when there is a railwaiy c'lision , wit ere are ycr ? " Which is painfully true . Yet you must travel . After an old coach accident you might at least "save the pieces" of yourself : but now I—you arc diHtributcd on either side of an embankment , or amalgamated with a bridge , or sent into the next county . We well remember weeing a railway train after a sli ght accident . The mischief wan over before alarm could bo aroused ,

      and a stone truck had only cut off one side of half the train . But that was a trifle compared to a real " smash . " Yet you must travel . Tho worst part of that modern monster , the " collision , " in the reflection of what in done , not to you , but to those whom yon are to leave behind . You can bear the agony of the crushed limb , but

      Untitled Article

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the veiy law of its creation m eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold .

      Mhiit Malts.

      Mhiit Malts .

      Untitled Article

      246 Qtffe HeabtV . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 15, 1851, page 246, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1874/page/10/