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dDjmr CmtttriL
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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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the injury of the interests of the republic , without subjecting themselves , as before time , to a due proportion of the expense . It is , at any rate , clear that if so simple and just a law excited those violent contentions , the previous state of the taxation must have been extremely bad ; a conclusion confirmed by the ecstasy of contemporary chroniclers , who declared the new law not merely justice , but holiness . The richer classes , however , contrived , by means of
their influence with the magistrates , gradually to debase the assessment to their own profit , by screening great part of their own property from the impost . The law was therefore re-established in its original force in 1458 , and the success of the commonalty on that occasion was again considered a triumph . Ten commissioners were at that time charged with the assessment , probably in supercession of the magistrates , who had mismanaged or corrupted it . In 1471 the law , on whatever occasion , was again enforced . This tax was one of the measures Avhich most distinguished the successful and popular policy of the earlier Medici , in opposition to that of the oligarchical rulers of Florence ; and the decline into which it fell with the consequent necessity of renewal , was probably much connected with the party strifes and changes of the time in which that distinguished family were principal actors . But the fundamental cause of the instability of so just a tax , was evidently the condition of law and morals at the time . In a state where violence was commonly resorted to , whether for private revenge or for the accomplishment of public changes , it is quite clear that calm equity had no chance of success , although it might happen to be expressed in the terms of a law .
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[ IN Tins DliPABTMKNT , AS ATX OriNIONS , HOWEVER EXTREME AKE ALLOWED AJN" KXI'llKKSION , TUB KDITOB NEClCSttARII / X HOLDS JIIMSJiLF HEHI'ONSJJU 1 , IS I'OR HOHK . ' j
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JNCOMK TAX . A PLEA FOR Tir'K MHOUEKK . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) SlH , — I believe the object of the valuable series ol papers which have appeared in the Trader on Taxation , is to show tlu ; truth of the principle that it is only realized property which should bo taxed directly for purposes of ^ oveniinciit . i have long held this view myself , and urged it , in several places ; and sis my grounds for doing no are somewhat different from yours , perhaps you will allow me to stale them , and to challenge contradiction to them by any of your readers . 1 wonder that the quoters of J ) r . Adam Smith have never stumbled on such passages iih these : — "Taxes upon the produce of land are in reality tuxes upon the rent , and though they may be originally advanced by the fanner are finally puid by the landlord . " (» . 5 , ( Jimp . 2 . ) " The revenue or profit arising from stock divides itself into two puj-ts—Unit ; which pays the interest , and belongs to the Owner of the stock , and that surplus part which in over and above what is necessary for paying the interest . The latter part of the profit is evidently a subject not taxable directly . " ( H . 5 , Chap . 2 , - Tart ' 2 . ) And in Iijh nrticlo on taxing wages mid labour , which l 4 ( ' . WS l '/'\ ' ^ Micludes all professional income , he HiiyH that such taxes ,- ..., _ , [ Tp /^ ~ JifcjLabsurd and destructive , and thut the labourer will / - •„ ' ' ) \} . V' ^' v ^ W ^ V « aso pay thehi . fct ^ ; , ¦ / . „ ^ \ i /\ VAfx »« result of all his remarks on those subjects leads V (•'¦ > " ' ' ( t >¦ " ' y ^ fV" * jmT ^ I conclusion that it . is not unfai r to lay nil din'ct , . 1 \ - <^ 5 ' ; ' >>"' , /«• / roHfcou on realized property ; that it ia not , us Mr . j | a » Kjkaavai
Disraeli said , confiscation to tax one income more than another ; that it is not politic in Government to interfere between a person and the servants he pays , and stop a part of the wages ; that it is a false principle to believe such interference necessary ; that this tax , if it have any effect , is only to punish most that capitalist who pays most in wages , and that it must therefore check enterprise . ' In fact , Government is the immediate superior of realized property , but it is not so of the income I receive from my master , perhaps as his clerk , steward , chaplain , or physician .
Let Government tax my master in the first place on his means and property—he can and will afterwards regulate my salary according to his power , or in some cases his choice . Let it tax me on my means ; that is to say , on my property , or the estimated good-will of my business , judged externally ; but it has no business with my actual salary or profits . It might , indeed , without injustice to any one , disregard so mere a trifle as the estimated good-will of any business ; but if it should put a tax on this , it mig ht be done without such interference as is practised at present with so much damage to morality .
Sir Robert Peel was , perhaps , justified in imposing such a law as a temporary measure , and , indeed , he was forced to do it ; but as a permanency it is perfectly indefensible . Your obedient servant , An Arithmetician .
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THE MORALITY OF WOMAN ' S RIGHTS . ( To tJie Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , — In the belief that there are many women watching the signs of the times , and waiting , like myself , for guidance out of the narrow and miserable life of the present into something nobler , I feel justified in asking space for a few remarks , suggested by the admirable letter of Mr . USTieholls in last week ' s Leader .
All he says is too emphatically true to need repetition ; my object is , therefore , simply to point out where I believe the chief difficulty in the way of its reception is to be looked fofr , and to ask counsel as to the best method of dealing with it . The main difficulty , I conceive , to rest with women themselves , and to arise from their looking at the question from a false point of view . So long as they
continue , either through ignorance or perversity , to treat as a matter of taste that which is really a question of principle , so long as they take their stand on grace instead of worthfulness , and plume themselves on forbearing to demand as a right that influence , the faithful exercise of which God has laid upon them as a duty , —so long must all efforts to raise their position bo unavailing , because unscconded by their own exertions .
This brings us to the subject of female education , in which reform is sadly needed . If women are to be what God intended them , their nature must have fair play , and instead of the careful toning down to inanity which characterizes so much of modern education , there must be as careful a toning up to earnestness and vigour . Teach women by all means that they are to bo elegant and graceful , but show them that this is to bo accomplished at a less cost than the sacrifice of all that is deepest and holiest in their nature . Seo if careful training will not Bland in place of lopping , — if we cannot have the elegance ! of the hryony instead of the primness of the clipped hedge .
In our attempts to raise the social condition of women , then , we want , before all , a better system ol education ; but is then ; nothing we can < lo that will be more immediately efficacious - no seed to be sown , the fruit of which we may ourselves hope to gather ? To this question the letter of Mr . Nieholls appears to me to lit ) an answer ; and heartily thanking him for
calling upon women as he lias done , to work out for themselves a better position , I beg to inquire whether there is any means of working for this great cause , and inducing others to work for it , in which more can be doue by concert , than b y . single-handed exertion . Jl so , how is this concert , to he arrived at V Yours very faithfully , Novombor IK ) . ^ - ^ - ^'
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SABUATJI . O 15 SUKVANCU IN SCOTLAND . ( To the JCditor oftho Leader . ) Slit , —Will you permit me to oiler a few remarks in your paper , in which both sides of a . question obtain consideration , on your coi-respondent A . 'n letter , on "Sabbath Observance In Scotland . " He hns toldnomc home truths , but ho huu not told all llio truth .
The-greatest errors prevail , out of Scotland , as to the manner in which the Sabbath is spent in Scotland It is generally believed that the vast majorit y of the people consign it to gloom and moroseness . Now , what are the facts ? The facts are these . About one-tenth of the population , consisting of Irish Roman Catholics pay almost no regard to it at , all . Another large section , Protestant in name , disregard it also , and many of the moral virtues besides . A third , consisting of intelligent reading men , many of them liberal and benevolent , devote it to reading , amusement , and thp
like . A fourth spend it entirely in the exercises of religion . This fourth class , I venture to say , without fear of contradiction , and without any disparagement to the third class , which is small in numbers , is the cream of the country . You will find them sober , industrious moral , and intelligent . I know Scotland well , and I am prepared to take any stranger through any tow n in Scotland , and show him the serious worshi pper on Sabbath the true-hearted man during the week . I say nothing of bigots and hypocrites—they are to be found of all creeds , and are just as little the representatives of one as of another .
Mr . A . draws a dark picture of a Sabbath day in a Scotch Christian family . Does he not know that the system he so justly condemns has no necessary connexion with either the Bible or the Shorter Catechism ? It is a portion of that stern and unintelligent mode of education which was at one time universal ; which wielded the birch so unmercifully in the public school , and compelled youths to study Latin and Greek in grammars written in the Latin language . The evil yet exists , but is not to be found among the really intelligent pious of Scotland . But Mr . A . will have us believe that the morose
observance of the Sabbath is intimately connected with the immorality so vividly described by Dr . Buchanan of Glasgow . Why , three-fourths of those who have sunk to the degradation described by him are immigrants from Ireland , who are innocent of all acquaintance with Protestant clergy , or Bibles , or Shorter Catechisms , or Sabbath Observance . Is it fair , I ask , to charge the guilt of such men on anything peculiarly Scottish ? If you will just sweep away all the Irish Catholics who have come into Scotland during the last fifty years , and their children with them , you would see that Scotland , even yet , would present a spectacle at the least as moral as any country in Europe .
But then the drunkenness of Scotland : how superior ungodly France is to godly Scotland . Sir , I grant the superiority in this one particular . I abominate the drinking usages which prevail in Scotland , and think it rip extenuation that Norway and Sweden , where the Sabbath is not observed , are quite as bad . But who are these drunkards ? A considerable proportion , those immigrants I spoke of ; a still larger proportion those who never enter a church door , and who may spend their whole Sunday in the fields , if they choose ; and only a fraction those who arc members of Christian
churches . But I admit the inferiority of Scotland to Franco in point of sobriety . Is , therefore , Scotland inferior m morality as a whole ? Will any man who knows both countries assert that Franco , which has submitted without a struggle to the yoke of a petty profliga te tyrant , which never ventured one remonstrance when ts government trode out the spark ofliberty at lioino , where the clergy offer up blasp hemous adulation to a pinchbeck Emperor , and where the very first principles of good and evil are still in debate—that this is a coun-Drunken
try superior in moral principle to Scotland ? - ness is a monster evil : let every good man lift ini lu « voice against it ; but there aro other virtues 1 )« hi <«« sobriety , not less estimable . What shall we say ol < 1 (? virtue of 1 ' ariswn women , and the good laith of l ' roiu ; > - nien ? Is there enough of good principle in Kn » J «» »» send out one hundred and fifty thousand unpaid labourers , every Sunday , to touch our young and "tf ""'' " ' population What they believe to be God ' s truth ? " « man who prefers French morality , us a whole , t , o Scottish , must have vei y different ideas of riK »'' al "
wrong from those winch 1 entertain . As to the euro of Scotch diunkenneNH , 1 very inu < 'h fear that those . will not be reclaimed from it by daiieiiitf on th « green , and cheap theatres , who have rushed inU > it in npiteoftbe terrible warning of that volume wine we call the Hible , where it declares , that no drunkan shall inherit fho kingdom of heaven . Your obedient servant ,,
Ddjmr Cmtttril
dDjmr CmtttriL
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There is no learned man but , will confess he halh much profited b v rfadnnfcont . n iver . sie . s , his senses awakened , and ms jud ;; men I , sharpened . It ' , then , it be profitable for him to rend , why should it . not , at leatih , be tolerable for Ilia adversary to wnl . e . —Mn / roisr .
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1188 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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NOTJCICS TO COItlt lOHl'ONDKNTK . Our Corr « H |> oiHlcMit « iihih » , < . j < miho iih if wo ( l ; ' V' !} 'X , "' i .. | . | . o liutl . r quoHlion ; it in not from diH « . iirl . « -Hy . I '" , , iouriiHliHlii * uiipwu-i . " * ; « orr « H | . oml « 'iii « i <» ' «'" »>» H ' \ " rH i ,, li-L int .. rmiiml > n < . Wo opo . w « l tlio an na lo u 1 <<><»<>™ . jiutl . inu , liowovor , Unit- 11 . would not l . o ™ - <> pMiocl . Mr . JiunoM JlnJl , Oulanhi « ln , should « uldrc «» Jus comp ly tlio I ' oBtxflttator-QouoiwJ , Lvudvu .
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1852, page 1188, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1964/page/16/
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