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and State—has done the work of an Anti-State-Church Association . It is true that it is only an Hindu establishment ; but his proceeding amounts to cutting off Church and State in the Budh . No apology for that revolutionary act can be founded upon the question as to the authenticity of the tooth ,. We admit that mere human reason may have its scepticism about the most obvious tooth . Of this particular tooth , what are the evidences ? What right-minded dentist can vouch
for its probabilities , non-natural andBudhist , or natural and elephantine , or rhinoserontic ? If really a tooth , is it a bicuspid , a canine , or a grinder P Are there any traces of its having been devoted to chewing ; and if there are , would the proofs of authenticity be consistent with a divine superiority to wear and tear . ! For if we admit wear and tear , where are we to stop P If you allow reason to enter into these subjects at all , the pride of human intellect pushes us to the most irreverent lengths ; and there would not be
wanting men rash enough to seek for traces of a divine caries , and thus hinting hideous suggestions as to the possibility of a celestial toothache . Let us close these painful imaginings before we arrive at the advertising of some dissenting dentifrice ; for trade equally dogs the steps of fanaticism and scepticism , as the carrion crow impartially follows in the rear of either army . No , we must not permit logic to rush in where faith fears to tread ; because the familiar explorations of a Tooth , commanding the belief of the Cingalese , might be imitated by investigators into other transcendental substances .
Men might , for example , ask whether it is a tooth at all , or whether it is not that more established emblem of Budhism against which Heber so indignantly inveighs ; a question which suggests a desperate confusion of anatomical knowledge amongst the authorised custodians of the sacred relic . But once license anatomy , or science of any kind , to deal with these subjects , and what truth would be safe P This Tooth is the apostolic succession of the Cingalese , and it ought not to be interfered with . How should we like to submit our own most cherished convictions to a select committee—how like our own tooth to be
declared a mineral succedaneum ? But Sir John has proceeded a step further . Government used to enjoy the patronage of the established Church in Ceylon , as well as in other countries ; but that has been given up , and the Budhists " have been desired to act for themselves as to those appointments" —to appoint their own bishops over the Tooth . This is not only equivalent to restoring Convocation , but is recognising election of Bishops I Sir John has recorded the admission that officials have no infallible criterion , but that the only test of truth lies between the man ' s conscience and his Budh . Tin ' s is a most subversive principle ; it is downright Voluntaryism .
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TAXATION REDUCED TO UNITY AND SIMPLICITY . IX . FKfiNOII TAXATION . * lv tho fiscal condition of France , mxl the evils it threatens , be such as they were ; described in our last , it is no wonder that , an earnest thinker liko M . Kinile do ( Jirardin should devote his tiiicrL'ics U > the remedy .
Nor , amidst , the variety and vagueness of existing theories of ( Jovernmeut and taxation , and subject to authoritative usages oi' ancient derivation and universal acceptance , operating on opinion in one especial sense , is it strange that even so independent a . mind should propose pluns which , associated with much that is vitally important , are liable , nevertheless , to serious objection , when examined from other points of view .
Tins third division , or second part , of the work under review , is entitled " 1 'iinpot unique , l'impot tel (| u'il doit ctre . " The first chapter , entitled " general principles , " consists chiefly of quotations from the most eminent . French ntntennien and authors , from ISully downward * , slating-, in general terms , their views oi tho true subject-matters of taxation , and of the purposes for which the produce of tho taxes ought to he Hpent . They arc principally adduced to hIiow the importance of tho unity , simplicity , and directness of imposts ; but thoy also [ show how generally the principle suggests itsolf that property is tho true subject-matter of taxation ; while , however , they equally nhow how
commonly that sound and necessary principle is marred in its application both to reasoning and practice . Moreover , if correctness of view in a few of the greatest minds of a country were sufficient to establish just principles of national policy , these extracts amply prove that Trance would not now have to seek a fundamental reform of her fiscal system , nor be ever on the brink of new dangers from the want of it . Of the author ' s remarks in this chapter we quote but the following , which is striking and important , although perhaps not entirely correct : — . noble and the
" Just as before 1789 there were in France the villein , —the noble who escaped certain imposts , of which the weight consequently fell on the villein , so now there is the noble capital and the villein capital , —the noble capital , which escapes taxes through its idleness , and the villein capital , which bears all their pressure , because they are pre-levied on its activity , and are thus a condition of leave to industry to be industry at all- The second chapter , a short one , is devoted to " unity of taxation . " This also consists chiefly of interesting quotations from French writers . By a play on the French words , it opposes not unfairly " l'impot unique " to " l'impot inique , " and it insists that the constitution of France , by providing that each person shall contribute to the taxes " in the proportion of his ability and of his fortune , " establishes , by an inevitable inference , the directness and singleness of taxation .
"In effect , " argues our author , " whoever says ' tax proportional' says ' tax unique ; ' for that tax which is not unique cannot be made proportional . When taxation is multiplied under all forms and all names , —when it is levied sometimes on capital and sometimes on revenue , —sometimes in kind and sometimes in money , —in some cases on persons , in others on things , — simultaneously direct and indirect , —at once a cumulative capitation tax and a tax of repartition , —a tax in kind for some of a fifth part of the mean duration of life , and for others an insignificant pecuniary premium , —when , in fine , it is the medley and confusion of principles the most opposed to each other , how is it possible to establish , by its means , any proportion between the tax and the means of the tax-payer ? It is impossible ! Proportionality of tax and unity of tax are two different expressions for one idea . "
The next question is , shall this single tax be applied to consumption , revenue , or capital ? The three following chapters are devoted respectively to enquiries under each of these heads . To consumption , as the base of taxation , the following fatal objections are urged . If the taxation does not apply to every object , it becomes unjust ; for then some objects are taxed , others are not . Articles of luxury are generally not taxed , because the use of them being easily contracted or given up , the taxes on them often do not produce so much as the cost of managing them ; and the total consumption of the poorer classes being far greater than t hat of the wealthy , presents a larger and surer source of revenue , ( Adam Smith ;) taxation ,
then , falls chiefly on necessaries , and of these the poor cannot avoid consuming more in proportion to their means than the rich . The tax , then , becomes unjust . Taxes on consumption encourage smuggling and adulteration ; they irritate the people , diminish the sources of public prosperity , and , in the end , injure or destroy Governments . Taxes on articles of consumption , or on the raw mate rials required by industry , enhance prices ; they thus discourage and straiten consumption , and , consequently , production , industry , and , lastly , wealth , which results from industry alone . The poor , then , are taxed in ^ tho pri CO s of the articles they consume , and they are impoverished by the diminution of tho demand for labour which the tax occasions , —they are
twice struck . Some , indeed , have said that taxes on consumption are easy to assess . True ; but they are costly to collect . It is further said that these are the best of all taxes , and the least troublesome means of raising a revenue , because people do not recognize them in paying them . But if such a reason may justify an unjust tax , it may also justify robbery , the least troublesome means of getting money . Taxes on consumption , as far as they are effective , arc not as they have been alleged , optional : most commonly they have for their basis necessity . Hut , as far as they are optional , they are taxes against consumption . Kvery tax against consumption is a tax on labour , every tax on labour is a tax against wealth .
The most eminent economists are quoted in support of these views , and M . K . de ( Jirardin definitively rejects consumption as the base of taxation . To fix taxation on revenue or income is in liko manner condemned by our author . All incomes of tho samo value for the year have not the samo intrinsic value . Those of the landowner , the merchant , the salaried government-officer , the mercantile clerk , the artist , the workman , the labourer , have each it real value differing in its ratio to its annual value ; this ratio it is impoHHiblo , in many cases , to assign , as it is also to determine the proportion such incomes should in taxation bear to each other . Kven within the saino class there- are
differences not capable of adjustment . Ueorg-e nerves a master for KO / . per annum , and finds his own board and lodging : Itoltert has " MH . per annum , hut lives in his master ' s bourn ; . Ought not Robert to bo taxed on th < j viduo of his board and lodging au well a « on his
money wages ? The infinite variety of engage ment * renders it utterly impossible to do justice amongst the tax payers by any imaginable regulations : uome will pay too little , and others must then , pay more than their share to make up the deficiency . Incomes are always uncertain . A merchant gain s 1000 ? . this year , and loses 2000 Z . next ; a wine-grower makes 200 Z . profit on his crop this year , and next year he does not cover his expenses ; a workman has employment 300 days in one year , and not 100 in another
Nobody can tell what he will gain in the coming year - often it is difficult , sometimesimpossible , to know with any exactness what was gained in the last , so many are the unascertained contingencies which hang about almost every man ' s affairs . A rule of taxation so slippery is harassing to the tax payer , and an insufficient foundation for the proceedings of the State . Moreover , it has to resdrt to modes of assessment which vexatious in any case , give bad faith an opportunit y of profit , while good faith suffers . An impost which makes a dupe of him who tells the truth is detestable
A tax which is proportional to income is progressive in respect of consumption ; but it is inversel y progressive . For , of different incomes a much larger part is spent on objects liable to taxation in the small incomes than in the large ones . An income of 1000 Z . per annum in the hands of one man would pay much less to the State than the same income divided amongst 10 or 20 men ; and a much smaller proportion of his enjoyments or subsistence would be derived from taxable articles than , others .
If small incomes are taxed , then labour is taxed , and incomes often insufficient for the » wants of the tax payer are diminished still more . If these incomes are not taxed , then a large part of the total income of the country escapes taxation to the unfair burdening of the rest . A tax on gross income is a tax on wages—that is , a tax on labour—eventually a tax on consumption .
But , say some , so is all taxation , whatever its name and form , an indirect tax on labour , for it always eventually falls on labour . But even if it were so ( which is not here either asserted or denied ) , it is yet a vast question who shall find the ready money for the taxes , they who have possessions , or they who have none ? A tax on all incomes , so rigorously universal as to be just to all , would force ready money from those who often have neither necessaries nor credit . Let the
well-to-do pay it , and they will gain much more than a compensation for the advance ( if it be an advance ) by thus setting at liberty the consumption and industry of the working classes . It is only to avoid the obvious danger of directly taxing , according to their consumption , those who labour , that taxes , deceptively called indirect , have been invented ; these taxes do at least as much mischief as if they were openly exacted ; but they do it covertly . in
Promote consumption by removing taxes from - come ; then production must advance . National welfare requires that we produce all we can either consume or exchange . Does France , with her 36 millions of inhabitants , produce all she can , or the half of it ? Most assuredly not ; nor do her people consume more than half of the commonest necessaries of life which they might do to advantage . Hut why tax income ?—because it is a measure of a man ' s means of payment ? But how false a measure One man is a bachelor , without care but for himself ; another , with tho samo income , has throe or four children to educate and provide for . How can income ,
alone , then , be a true measure of the moans any man possesses of contributing without inconvenience to the expenses of the State ? If income is to be taxed at nil , it should be only on tho superfluity , which is the measure of the excess of the income over tho expenditure—that is , tho euving . But a tax on saving is , in fact , a tax on property ; all present property was originally only savings . V \ o
art ) thus led to the true fiscal basis . For tho preference to be given to capital as tho Imiho of taxation , M . K . do ( Jirardin assigns reasons drawn chiefly from convenience and advantage . It woiiu impartially tax all persons , and be app licable to oii things ; it would tax known and certain objects , not matters of problematical existence and value H ; s < ou " Kcouences would bo highly salutary : it would compel ni ; iiui"in * ir » wvmhu »/»> *** r > " J tf - - - idle it woui
capital to he active instead of , as now , ; < thus promote industry and enterprko , it would « inai - cipato agriculture from the consequences of tho Jng ' prico of land which follows from the competition oi capital tucking idle investment , with tho cultivator who would use the land as his own instrument of hicIuhuj , capital , skill , and labour , under such at nystem , won < soon find truer relations than those by which they »> at present connected ; money would flow from quarter * where it is now dormant to those whcroit «<»» j ' , nuule active with profit ; individual , would bo oMife" *
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* L' . lmvcH . 1 ' ar I'hiiilo do Ginirdiii . Nixie-mo Kdilion . 1 ' uiis : A la . Libruirio JNouvollo , Boulevard doa ItuliouH , J 6 , 1852 .
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1160 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1852, page 1160, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1963/page/12/
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