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lot of many from such a system * although they still had their share of beef ;—to what effect on shoemakers let some of our late and present taxes tell . Here , then , is enough to account for the peculiar repugnance everywhere felt to taxes . It is true that the advantages for which they pay—order , security , quiet , are of the very first necessity ; but we do not see that a . highf > rice of coffee , or a prohibitory , duty on wines" or window ' s , has anything to do with it . We shirk the payment , and we get individually just as much advantage from Government , whatever it is , as
though we most conscientiously paid in full . If the assessment on the income of a merchant should be regulated by means of some fancied proportion between the number of stools in his counting-house , and the extent of his business , he would soon think the stool-tax oppressive , and his clerks would have to learn to work standing . Meanwhile , his counting-house , his warehouses , and his ships , would be as well watched , and the courts would be as open to him for redress , as though each of his clerks had a stuffed arm-chair , and a tax were paid for it .
It has been alleged in favour of indirect taxation , that it permits a man to tax himself or not , as he pleases : if tobacco be highly taxed , he may smoke or not , or so pay or not > at will . This is only partially true ; for indirect taxes are not , and cannot be , all on articles which may be dispensed With . But , as far as ' this allegation is true , it tells the other way . The necessary wants of the community incur certain inevitable costs , and the contribution to them is so apportioned by indirect taxation , that any individual may avoid his own share , and leave his fellows to pay it .
So also it has been said , that taxes are paid quietly on the indirect system , which , could not be raised at all with undisguised directness , So much the worse . Let people see what they have to pay for the follies of rulers , and rulers will be careful what follies they commit . Let a man find that he has to pay , say in some classes , two or five pounds , in others , two or five shillings more this year than last , on account of a Kafir war , a ^ Greek demonstration , or a Portuguese dynasty and one of two things will happen;—either he and his neighbours will make so much stir about the cost ,, that
Greeks , Kafirs , and Portuguese dynasties will thenceforward be very charily dealt with ; orhewill gain so much the more respect for the object accomplished , for having consciously and approvingly paid his own money towards its cost . By either process , the direct system of taxation reduces the acts of the Government into a more national identification with the general sentiments of the people , and all the more so , from its being impossible , on that system , for any class—rich , agricultural , or noble , to shift the burden , and the consequent responsibility of expense , on their countrymen less favourably conditioned .
We pause on the threshold of the subject . The true principles of taxation will hereafter claim our attention . Nor will illustrations , both of true and false principles , be wanting . " ' Q .
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THE IMPROVED CHARACTER OF WORKING CLASS CONTESTS . Theee is much right jn the world which docs not triumph because no one affords the conditions whereDy it can be done . [ Right is a distant shrine , and the road to it lies through man ' s pride and prejudice . A man may see the right afar off—may wish to approach it—may be aisposed to do homage at its shrine ; but if you block up the avenues through which ho has to pass , you make allegiance to the right impossible : the man never gets there . Every now and then we are on the eye of a public acknowledgment of some great principle , when some folly , indiscretion , or obstinacy turns it aside , and condemns us to twenty years more of agitation . A national voice is heard in St . Stephens for Parliamentary Reform , when a monster Petition , with fabricated signatures , turns a tide of derision upon it . Personal protests arrest the busy ear of the public , when a
10 th of April creates an absurd reaction ; and so we go on , clamouring and frustrating—fraternizing and antagonizing . It is pleasant to turn from theqe disastpra to the contest conducted by the Amalgamated Engineers . They will fail in their particular objects of abolishing p iecework and systematic overtime . £ To Trades-union can compete against a Capitalunion . This was well known before . But the
Amalgamated Engineers have put upon record a case of well-considered resistance , which elevates Labour in the eyes of the public . The Employers appealed to Political Economy . Mr . Ludlow , in his admirable lectures , has indisputably shown that Political Economy was on the pide of the
Men . The temper , tone , and tactics of the Masters , have been throughout palpably lower than the Mien's . Poor in means , poor in knowledge , poor in opportunity of acquiring it , poor in the externals of refinement , the working Men ' s advocacy has infinitely surpassed in moderation , in good se . , in good feeling , a body of wealthy capitalists , understood conventionally to be gentlemen . When two gentlemen go out on the deadly business of a duel , if one chooses to withdraw the ground of offence , the matter is considered to end . " No case occurs in which one persists in shooting at his . antagonist after he has
avowed his intention of not returning the fire . Such a duellist would be hooted from all clubs as a savage . In shame be it written , such duellists are the gentlemen called the " Employers' Association . " The men have withdrawn the Circular of offence , and submit . The masters refuse to leave the field , but persist in shooting down their disabled and helpless antagonists . Such an exhibition of brutality was never exhibited by a body of English gentlemen before . Montalembert horrified the Friends of Order in France byavowing that the " red republicans" shot at a rei 1 _ K nA *« 4 . ¦ ¦ . lA . T ~ - * . --. J . _ . ~_ MW « **« . * vl « A j > 1 « AW 4 * H A l"fc £ Va ^ W ~ wxtuuuo t ^
Bpeoiauio vuau uanuj ; yyuouuci ^ c xxaxu of a friend or a foe beat under it . What do our Friends of Order say at the spectacle of a body of British gentlemen avowing their intention to shoot at a poor . ' s tatters , without caring whether an empty stomach collapses under them —of making war not only upon his poverty and defencelessness , but upon his spirit . Are we to come to the conclusion that capitalists are the only " red republicans" among us ? If this is the lesson gentlemen are to teach the working class , Jet it not be forgotten whom we shall have to thank if a sad day of reckoning shall come to
be a matter of household hope among the-poor . Another Instance of working-class goocf sense has occurred far away from the metropolis , under local influences entirely- —I allude to Cpngleton . At a municipal election in-that town , an address was issued from Zion School , ( signed by Mr . David Hitchen , Chairman , ) of a note-worthy character—so far , at least , as the spirit of the address adopted is considered . Laying down the maxim , that " Independent voting was a matter of right and conscience , " it proceeded to reason with the working men , who in Congleton have municipal votes in considerable numbers ; and with the employers who appeared disposed to intimidate them , as follows : —
" Warned by experience , we might say the disgraceful experience of the past—the experience of many working men being coerced or intimidated into voting contrary to their judgment , or injured afterwards in their employment in consequence of haying acted independently—we are induced to offer you , ( brotherworkmen , ) a few words of advice as to your conduct at the municipal election . " Hurtful to all interests us must be all antagonism
between workmen and their employers—regretting as we do the present instance of it—we yet p lead that the cause of the antagonism does not originate with us . Having votes , to give them in purity and conscientiously , is a duty no less devolving on us than on those who have the good fortune to be above us . And whoever raises any impediment in the way of its just discharge strikes both at our duty and our character . " At public-house meetings , recently held , men have been addressed by persons who have told them that at the election ono of the candidates ' would see who were his real friends '—meaning that he would judge those to bo his real friends who voted for him , and judge those to be his enemies who did not . With respect to
other employers the same kind of vicious logic is used . If in respect to a parliamentary election language like thia . were employed , it would bo deemed disreputablo alike in those who employed it and in those who sanctioned it . Whether wo are to beliove that our employers sanction it wo hardly know . Master * give us no guarantee that wo shall bo free , and also harmless , as to the course wo may fool it to bo our duty to pursue At an interview which the ribbon weavers had , by deputation , with one employer , that gentleman indeed
said , ' Vote us you please / which niigjit equally moan , Ruin yourself if you please , ' ' Put yourselves out of work if you ploaso . ' Had ho said , ' Vote as' you please , and I shall equally respect and employ you afterwards , ' wo could have understood , trusted , and reppoctod sucli a declaration . Otherwise , wo cannot forgot , that though n master may not directly or nvowedly diachargo a man on account of his vote , ho may do it indirectly , or may put him to such inconvenience in his work as shrill compol him to discharge himself . We therofore ecok the public protection , whose influonco wo
crave to convinceour employers thatthough . they have a right to the best industrial service of their workmen they have no right to command the consciences of their workmen . If the operative burgess give , to the best of his judgment , his vote for the good of the municipal interest , he is the friend of the town j how then can he be the enemy of hfs employer P jHe is the ' real friend ' of his Employer who gives , his vote conscientiously for
the good of the town , 'because his master ' s interest and those of the town are the same . A . workman ; therefore , who votes for the public welfare , to the best of his judgment , cannot be the enemy of his employer unlesB his master is the enemy of the public or municipal good , which we suppose is not the case . Then it is plain that the well-meaning employer should be the friend of the well-intending workman who gives his vote conscientiously for the town ' s advantage .
" But beyond the question of truth and right there is that of personal character , which ought to influence the operative burgesses of Congleton . None are so ready to talk of the venality , cowardice , and want of public spirit of the working class as are those classes now taking part against us . Let us not give them the shadow of ah occasion to do it I In Parliament ^ the tone of contempt with which the people are spoken of is too well known . When a demand is made for universal suffrage it is refused on the ground of the servile character of the working class , who , it is said ,
would be sure to abuse it or betray it ; and none are so ready to accuse us as they who put impediments in the way of independent voting . First , they coerce us into dishonour and then reproach -us for submitting to it . Therefore let the operative burgesses see how much depends upon their conduct . Let not the Congleton municipal election become an argument against the political rights of our fellow-couhtrymeh . The discharge of our duty honourably , respectfully , but independently , is a question of personal character and public
privilege , and the public ought to encourage us ; and our employers ought to be gratified if we take an upright course . " _ - The morality of the House of Commons , so occupied at this time with the Puritjr-of-Election Question , might be refreshed by the perusal , of this address . There is perhaps no ease in which any body of working men in the country have taken a more dispassionate view of their electoral duties , or arguea them more respectfully towards their Employers .
Such cases elevate the character of the working class . If moral fitness is to become the sole test of electoral fitness , it will le the . duty of the House of Commons to proceed in its next session to disenfranchise sundry bodies of gentlemen , metropolitan and provincial Employers Associations , and transfer the franchise to certain workmen , who in forbearance , good feeling , and good sense , are incontestably their betters . Ion .
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CONSEOBATED © BOUND IW CITIES . A cobbespondent calls our attention to the renewed frequency of burials in the narrow slip of ground surround ' ing the church of St . Clement Danes ; and complains , as ho may well do , that during the whole of Sunday last , a grave ¦ was left open , and uncovered , thereby affording a vent for the poisonous vapours arising from the mass of corruption below the surface , and wbioh might bo recognised by persons entering or leaving the church . Here we find the religious and venerable system of intramural interment still flourishing in the face of an Act of Parliament providing for its discontinuance .
" Dust to dust , ashes to ashes , " amidst the jeerfl of cabmen , and the ribaldry of a staring rabble . Such is tho daily spectacle , such tho audience , presented to tho gaze of English civilization in 1852 . Such is one of our g lorious institutions , naked to the admiration of foreign visitors . Our churches , become charnel-houses , hideously gorged-And as to tho " graves of our ancestors , " no " ancestor' « euro of a week's repose , ovon in the grave !
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EaMITTON TILTB AT THE PBEBB . Xobd CiiA . BBNDON , truo to his diplomatic instincts , subsidized—it would bo improper to say tho press—but a print with pretensions to outspoken journalism . I ^ Eglinton . adopts a straightforward and Icbb oxponsivo policy :-ho sbtB up an index ea' purgatorius for tho j .. clerks . Far above buying up tho support of a paper »* the World , ho oxpols a roally honest and able journ ^ , « Northern Whig , from tho prooincts of Dublin Oafltlo , tho politest manner . To wit : — Chief Sooret . uy ' 8 Office , tho CtxMo ,
AprllS , 1852 . " Sib , —I am to acquaint you that tho Northern . ^ newspaper is no longer required to 1 ) 0 furnished . office . You will , thoreforo , bo good enough to et I from thia date—Your obodionfr Servant ; , „ "Hbnwy Tox . bb .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 17, 1852, page 372, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1931/page/16/
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