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1 ¦ . . . —^ —— ——I ——than our own , the antiquated nonsense of our corrupted feudality . Now matters of this kind cannot be settled on a priori reasoning , nor without local knowledge , nor without consulting the experience and even the wishes of the natives themselves . If it was possible to do so some few years ago , the much more enlightened condition of the influential classes amongst the natives themselves would render it more difficult and infinitely more impolitic now . _ .
. . , Nor are the natives unsupported by British countenance . Already we see that certain British and Christian inhabitants of Calcutta are petitioning Parliament much in the sense of the Bombay Native Association , only insisting more strongly upon practical and extensive law reforms . The committee of the British India Association perseveres in its labours to improve the local administration of the country , and it attests the progress which has been made in its own presidency and in those of Madras and Bombay .
" It will be satisfactory to the members of the Association , " says the report , " to observe that there is a similar concurrence of opinion in their petition and in that about to be forwarded from this presidency on the part of its British and other Christian inhabitants . This circumstance cannot but induce a serious consideration by Parliament of the necessity of obtaining information as to the working of the present arrangements from others than those who are concerned in directing them . That point gained , the results cannot but be favourable to the general interests of all connected with this country . "
We learn from the Bombay Gazette that the mercantile cojnmunity of Bombay—meaning , we suppose , of British origin— " were about to do something with a view to indicate their feelings to the Parliament and people of Great Britain on this momentous occasion , " the revision of the Charter . Thus we have every independent class in the country—the British mercantile community of Bombay , the British residents of Calcutta who are not essentially pledged to Government
views , the British inhabitants of Madras , the native gentlemen in all the presidencies , the Sirdars of Mahratta , the native working classes of Bombay , the Zemindars , the Parsees , theEuropeanized Brahmins , with a large contingent of half-caste population in all the presidencies , concurring in the same claims for better administration , and , at all events , for a hearing on the subject of their own government , when next the imperial Parliament shall have the whole question under consideration .
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THE LAUNDRY AND THE LAZARETTO . " Heai / th of body , peace of mind , a clean shirt , and a shilling , " ia one of those toasts which , in the fulness of spirits ilowing through a convivial assembly , one good fellow in old . English fashion wishes another . It is not the most cligniiied combination of words , perhaps ; it is one , however , the items of which we prize separately and collectively ; but all of which , it appears from recent information , are not ho easy to obtain as wo imagined . The means adopted to get the first boon , go far towards realizing the second ; and though the number is happily decreasing who are without the ! fourth , we are left in a state of
uncertainty as to the third . Neither the occupations nor the inclinations of many of us are compatible with the waiting upon ourselves to ensure the luxury of a clean under garment ; butrenlly itis almost enough to induce a trial , when wo are told by " S . T ., " iu a letter to the Times , on Saturday last , that in one tub , in one water , at one time , the linen of the healthy and the fliclc , the living and the dead , are bundled together for washing . Garments of " those who have died of typhus fever , Hcarlet fever , riiria . ll pox , " and of other ills that ileHh in ' heir to , are indiscriminately mixed ; and , HayH S . T ., " Jiundrtuls ( ran testify my
utatemeiit \ h not in the least , . overdrawn or exaggerated . " ¦ All JaimdrioH arc not Ihun conducted , but-too many are . S . T . thinks that " fastidious ladies and gentlemen would be greatly horrified to hoc then- Jineii occasionally hanging on the rails of a tent bed , with two , and sometimes even three , children , with the measles or whooning cough , lying -underneath , gasping and breathing an ntmoHphoro loaded with impure steam , and , by way of aggravation , a large firo in the small room clone to the bed , and the children ' s pulse at 12 <) degrees-, " for those whose business in in a small way , have but one room wherein to " oat , Jjvo , and sleep , earning their miserable oxintenco
I—3 . ' by standing over a steaming wash tub for eight , ten , and occasionally twelve hours a-day . " People are hot so slow to perceive as to adopt . Citizen John still drinks a strange-looking fluid , to quench his thirst , which he calls water ; and he will , also , for a time , we presume , continue to wear his throat-cutting collar ; and expose his snowy front , without seriously troubling himself if there lie between those threads so virgin-white , the elements of epidemic and the seeds of death .
But , there is a class of man and womankind springing up in our midst , who are prepared "to do the dirty work of society , " to undergo the brain toil of routing out its corrupt parts , and purifying them ; and , to such missionaries , let us invoke attention for the poor washerwoman , vainly struggling to create cleanliness in the midst of foulness . Cleanliness is next to
godliness , when that cleanliness is genuine purity , m fact , as well as appearance . The dens of the 50 , 000 thieves and vagrants of this metropolis are in process of a most effectual ransacking , and the lowest of the low are forced to recognise the better from the worse . These are unwilling converts ; the washerwoman means to be the very minister of cleanliness , and she devotes to the work all she has—her little capital ( her tub and
soajj ) and her toil , till the very skin is wrung from her fingers . But society , that uses her , does not supply her with water , or with a place to work in . A beginning , indeed , has been made , where really pious men prevail in parish councils , as in St . Martin ' s-in-the-fields ; but elsewhere we see the duty is repudiated . In Islington , it seems , they prefer to have shirts white-washed amid suffering and disease—a whited tomb-stone on the breast .
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TAXATION REDUCED TO UNITY AND SIMPLICITY . THE ULTIMATE INCIDENCE OF TAXATION . The general name of taxation is apjdied to payments which , in different countries and ages , are really of diverse and , not unfrequently , even of opposite characters . In some cases , a tax is merely an exaction of the stronghand , the profits of fciw ^ r-wealth ; in others , it is a contribution , by each , to the expense of some or other objects accomplished for the benefit of all , —the incidental cost to each person of his shai-e in the eomwoM-wealtli . In the progress of society , these characters of taxation become mingled ; that which comes of the principle of Icing-wealth—a consequence of the decaying ascendancy of wrong , gradually diminishes , and eventually disappears , with the opposing growth of healthy and intelligent social forces ; that which comes of the principle of comwoM-wealth remains , and is gradually purified , —a permanent necessity of every social system . During the slow and imperceptible change , the two principles and their consequences dwell confusedly together .
In England , we have advanced so far , that no pretence now remains of the principle of king-wealth , whether in favour of a monarch or of a class , —or , to speak more accurately , of a class through a monarch , or of a class without one . Taxation , for the profit of royalty , irrespective of public advantage , has long disappeared ; taxation for the prolifc of u class , another stem from the same evil root , is at length given up , in principle , with the late final surrender of Protection . No tax is now defended , but on tlio plea of its being necessary to the raising of the funds required by the common cost . So far , in our own case , the ground is well cleared .
The great question which remains , and which has iutf , yet received attention proportionate to its importune *! , in the distribution of this common cost amongst the members of the community . It is true that much has been said about the tuxes borne by different classes , but nothing is decided , or , as yet , even clearly seen , by the public mind , us to the principle on which the distribution ought to take place . There arc allegations of injustice , but no proofs of it , although the allegations themselves necessarily imply souk ; standard of right . There ; are assertions of hardship , but no tracing of the hardship to the original error . Evidently , however , there iH a
vague mid almost unconscious assumption of whdd general principle , which is yet but obscurely apprehended . Wo need not , just now , insist on airy particular specification of'this principle , whether our own or other . Our present object is sufficiently answered , by the irrevocable admission brought about by time , that the common cost' ought to be raised from each individual in proportion to an advantage o . f Home kind which lie receives from the State . The necessary accompaniment of this principle is , thai , ho much as the Slate hikes of any individual which is not in proportion to that advantage is taken in wrong . If this be admitted , then what in called indirect .
taxation must be defended , if at all , on the ground that it eventually reaches each triember of the community in the same proportion as the advantage which it is agreed he receives from the State . If it cannot be shown that it does and must reach the individual Itt this due proportion , the defence of indirect taxation on the ground of equity fails . It is not enough , that on this plan the tax may possibly reach the tax-payer in this just proportion : it ought to be shown that it must do so .
Now , nothing was more conspicuous in the recent financial debates , or is more observable in all such discussions , than extreme uncertainty and difference of opinion as to the party on whom any particular tax ultimately falls . This uncertainty is almost as fatal to any defence of indirect taxation on equitable grounds * as it would be to prove positively that that taxation certainly fell on the wrong parties . We purpose to show that this uncertainty cannot be removed ; that it is an uncertainty not merely in our conceptions , but inherent in the case ; that the operation of indirect taxation is at no two periods alike ; and , for anything we know , we may at any given time be ruining some classes by crushing taxation , the accumulated incidence of many taxes on one point , and pampering others by complete
immunity . An indirect tax is an impost on an article to be afterwards transferred to another possessor before it is consumed or enjoyed . The tax is presumed to be added to the natural price , and thus drawn from a second party by him who paid it in the first instance . The second is supposed to obtain repayment from a third , and so on , until either because the article is consumed , or for some other reason , the original tax can no longer be drawn from a subsequent possessor of the article taxed .
Now , we admit that , on the whole and on the average , indirect taxes are paid by the consumer ; for if not , the trade to which they relate could not long exist ; just as , on the whole , every other part of the cost of an article must be repaid to the dealer by the consumer , or transactions in that article would cease . But this general effect is not enough to justify indirect taxes , or to account for their operation . It ia perfectly consistent with this average result that we should find , at the same time , cases of extreme impolicy , injustice , and oppression . The contribution to common expenses may reach consumers on the average of years and cases ( which is all that the continuance of the trade requires ) , and yet burden individuals always , and whole classes at times , beyond all tolerance or reason .
The necessity for distinguishing between averages and cases on this subject is very great . For , if our Tormer deductions are near the truth , we are dealing with a question which involves one-sixth of the income of our whole people . And if it be one-sixth of the whole- —that is , one sixth on the average—it may easily be made to fall in particular cases , or classes of cases , with the weight of one-third or one-half . Moreover , as indirect taxation falls most commonly with greatest severity on the poorer classes , this accumulation of taxes , to the amount of half their income , is much more likely to happen to them than to their wealthy neighbours , who could fur better sustain it .
The tax on an article to be Hold becomes part of tho price . Whether tho price will be realized again at all , and if realized , with how much or how little profit it will be accompanied , are matters affected with an uncertainty of which the ordinary contingencies ol' trado sufliciently assure us . Let us trace the operation of an indirect tax in tho case of a pound of currants , jf this fruit be cheap , and the working population in good circumstances , tho consumer will pay the tax ; for the impost will bo handed on to the successive purchasers of the currants as part of the price , and tho workiiig-man , out of his
comfortable means , will not refuse the purchase for tho Hake of the advance which the tax occasions in tho ( supposed ) moderate price of the article . I Jut if currants be dear , and the working population be in distressed circumstances , the working-man will go without the currants , and others will pay tho tax . The olleot of the tax is to deprive the consumer of the pleasure or advantage of the consumption , and this is <> n « form , and often a grievous one , of the burden ol" taxation , although it figures for little or nothing in some
discussions on the subject . The tax tho consumer would have paid had he remained a consumer , in paid by others in this way : the grocer , it" he is to keep up tho con-Hinnption of currants , must lower his profit on thorn , and then he , not tho conHinner , pays tho tax . A lower profit , or none , forces him back on tho merchant , who , iu bis turn , sullers either in diminution of price or in losses from fnilurcH ol" retailers . If the grocer relinquish the attempt , to keep up tho consumption of currants , he loses tho profit ol" the sale , and so bears along with the consumer , but not at all to his relief , tho bur ^
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——[ E 86 flt LEAflfift . Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1853, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1970/page/14/
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