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a third than some years ago , I think that the imposition of the tax cannot reasonably be condemned on pecuniary grounds . It is therefore but placing a tax where it is not felt , or at least where an individual has , from a change of circumstances , received so great a benefit , and this as much from legislation as from enterprise , as not to constitute any formidable item in bis expenditure . It may be added , while on this part of the subject , that money is seldom more plentiful than with a traveller , and I think the small pittance here exacted would not prevent or disturb the present course of transit .
There may be a question raised as to the uniformity of the tax—a penny on all tickets!—but it must be borne in mind that this is not an . " Income-tax ; " it is not of * so complicated a nature , and hence differential calculations may easily be taken , and I think the wealthy , or first class passengers , could afford 3 d . a journey , and on such occasions carriages' and horses ' tickets need not be taxed . I have already stated that season-tickets ,
periodtickets , and return-tickets would be treated on a principle at once fair and considerate . A merchant travelling backwards and forwards every day in the year , 'half-year , quarter , or month , would be charged ad valorem , having reference to the difference between the daily-ticket and this composition or bargain , so that by an ordinary arithmetical computation ( known among schoolboys as " The golden rule" ) we may arrive at the amount at a glance .
Schedule 2 . —On the subject of bills of cost , I believe there does not exist any difference of opinion ; it has been universally conceded that the tax on a bill is synonymous with a tax for receipt—and inasmuch as a bill must be delivered , bui a receipt stamp may be and frequently is avoided , I think there cannot be a question with any financier which course to adopt . There is no doubt that a Id . stamp on receipts is a boon as it stands to those who give them , and an incentive not to avoid giving them ; but it is not a " prepayment , " as regards the boon it is as great in the one case as the other .
This tax might be extended to solicitors' or attorneys ' letters , commonly called "lawyers' letters , " for payment of a debt , thereby precluding the " sham attorney " from using false pretences . I think this part of the scheme may be submitted to the public with perfect confidence in their appreciation of it , and be responded to by " the craft . " Schedule 3 . —The proposed duty on law documents is , I think , particularly inoffensive . They bore not many years ago a very heavy duty , and at the present time many documents have a stamp affixed—deeds , agreements , insurances , attested copies , and some affidavits . Magisterial summonses are certainly among documents of a kind to which a Id . stamp may well be applied . If the summons be correct , it would
full on the party condemned , if discharged , on the party unjustly accusing . As all of these documents would come to the public through an indirect channel , there would not be the most common motive for complaint . There can be no doubt that many of tlie . se documents , from the want of any positive value , arc used for almost any ordinary purpose—become in fact lost , mislaid , or destroyed . Am regards the amount of the tux , I will just remark , thnt at present one affidavit in Chancery is stamped with a 2 s . 6 d . and a Is . ( yd . stump , and that under my proposition the whole of the proceedings in a suit or action would not cost that amount or very little more , and in many actions less . Ah regards County Court-summonses , the public have derived ho great a benefit by reduction of costs , that the ntamp would b ( 3 cheerfully submitted to .
tSchedulo 4 . — In excluding national exhibitions from the operation of the prepaid ticket-tax , I think 1 have acted in accordance with public sentiment , and in including amusement tickets of all classes , to have gone , hh tlid Times HiiyH Sir Itobort Peel did , to where " money is to be got" There can bo no doubt that the Kxetcr-hall-ticketrt , the Horticultural-gnrdenntickets , and othern of tho class , arc hold by those of the public to whom n penny is no object . Tho gross amount , I believe , will nevertheless bo large . We have some shrewd men in tho present ndininintration who havo heard , and probably known from their infancy , that " ninny a mickle makes n mucklo !"
Schedule 5 . —With respect to bunkers' cheques , ho completely Imvo tho public coincided with my proportion , that it would Heem there aro " Six liichmondn in tho field ! " Tho Time * and other newspapers havo treated on thnt part of tho plan without ono despairing remark ; indeed it bun received recommendations and approval from various quartern . Tho amount to bo received under thin head would be very largo indeed , and would l , o augmented by tho imposition of tho tax on Hcrip-Hlmres , trwwfoni of haros , and of ntocks . It would
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give substantiality to a scheme ; and many a delusion might be checked and speculation prevented by a tax on scrip and shares . I believe it to be a decided advantage to the public and a gain to the exchequer . Conclusion . —I had occasion to submit some of these propositions to the Chancellor of the Exchequer , but either from want of time or that I did not need so much consideration as a Birmingham clerk , I had not the honour to receive anything but a reply , that " Her Majesty ' s Government did not propose to recommend a tax of this nature to the consideration of Parliament . "
I am not required to criticise the right honourable gentleman ' s Budget , but of course I should not do justice to your kindness if I were to treat my own proposition as not worth defending . I have not among those " out of doors , " to whom I have mentioned it , met with a single dissentient , but general approval ; and from what I see and hear on the subject-matter of the present Budget , I am satisfied I should be doing the State some service if my scheme had met with inore
consideration from Government than it has secured . . I have not however any reason for fearing the result . I am sure that no plan , however specious or highly recommended , will eventually exist if it cannot stand the test of public criticism . In making such a proposition , I am not exercising a wish to propose taxation , but to adjust it—to relieve the burden and to place it , if it must be borne , just where it will not practically be felt . I remain , Sir , your obedient servant , RlCHABD JOHlf C 01 E .
12 , Furnival ' a Inn , 26 April , 1853 . N . B , —In the hurry of copying or composition , Iremark that my previous letter speaks of " laying my proposition to the Parliament , " &c , it should be " before the Parliament , " &c . " Not to extend to natural exhibitions , " should be " national ; " and my initials are " JR . J . " Cole , not " J . B . "
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A SUPPLEMENT TO THE " TIMES . " Most of our readers have no doubt seen in last Monday ' s Times an article extracted from the Spectator , and headed , " The Refugees and the Government . " It is not from any sympathy with either of those journals that we point out the incompleteness of the copy , and supply the concluding lines of the original , which the Times omitted , for reasons best known to itself . Here they are : —
" He ( Kossuth ) may complain that the Times newspaper assumed the case against him , and made an elaborate statement which rested on a slight foundation ; but he has his remedy against the Times for defamation , if he has been defamed by that journal . To presume the responsibility of the Government for a leading article in the Times , is quite a new doctrine in England , however it may Buit the rS ime of Franco ; and it would lead to strange results . The result of Lord Palmerston ' s proceedings must be ,
upon tho whole , for good . They will prove to foreign Governments that English statesmen are not fomenters of clandestine preparations for insurrection , and to refugees that their conduct is watched while their persons aro protected . They will prove , too , wo venture to predict , how exaggerated aro tho alarms on tho Continent of tho powor of rofugees in England to make formidable preparations ; while , as M . Kosnuth has come out of tho investigation uuscathed , it will bo to him a great triumph very cheaply purchased . "
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f _ IN TIIIB DHl'AllTMBIfT , AH AT . I . OPINIONS , HOWKVKB BXTEKMH AHB ALXOWICIJ AN KX I'HKHWON , TUB K 1 HTOB Jf KOKHBA JllIiY I 10 M ) H II 1 MHKMC RRNTONHI 111 . lt FOE NONE . ]
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There ia no learned mini bul , will c : onl ' ena ho hul . Ji much profited by reiulin ^ coiit . rovciHietf Inn senneHuwiilcened . and nia judgment , Hlnirponrirt . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , wh . y Hhowldil , not , at loauL , tolerable for hia adveruiuy to wiiI . cj . —Miltoh *
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MODEL LODaiNO-HOUSBS AND SUNDAY REFORM PETITIONS . { To the JSditor of the Leader . ) Stu , —When , a few weeks ago , I read tho article ox » traded from tho Tribune into your journal , on tho mproved lodging-housos which havo lately boon croctod
in New York , I thought , " Well , it is very good ; but then there was the sad drawback of the buildings being in Twenty-seventh-street , a locality something like what Somers-town is in relation to the great centre of city business . Still I am much pleased at the beginning ; and even in that quarter the apartments will certainly fill well ; and , no doubt , also pay well . Tho earnestness of Mr . Greeling ' s impulses in such a subject is clearly discernible in the account ; and I hope from him , should he see the " Strangers' Homes , " as ready a sympathy with the difficulties of the emigrant , and acknowledgment of the necessity for a remedy .
You will see by the lists ( pages 30 and 50 ) of newspapers and other periodical publications taken in by us " Modellers , " that the Leader is one of these ; and > again , is it not gratifying that mere cheapness is not solely sought where the money is easily forthcoming through the subscription process ? though still this is no reason , as I conceive , that cheap papers should not be good papers , only that , as matters now are ordered , the dear must be the preferable newspaper because of the richer and more amplified manuring it receives in its production .
May I , while I am now writing , beg to be allowed to suggest a mode of petitioning in favour of the Sunday opening of the new Crystal Palace , which I feel certain cannot but eventuate in the very best results . This would be by street or neighbourhood , or even by house petitions in peculiar cases , as for the purpose of giving any special interest or distinct colouring to the wording of any petition emanating from any particular class of workers , or aa expressive of any common agreement of mind . An instance , as illustrative and in support of tins view of the matter , I will here state .
A few days ago I put my own name , trade , &c ., as the first on some paper properly ruled for the purpose , and in the course of that evening and early next day the signatures amounted to nearly a hundred in all , the whole of them being from the inmates of the publio lodging-house , whence I now writ *—the Metropolitan Chambers ; the refusals being very few indeed , not more than one out of ten , if so much . I may also state , that we are going to have our own particular form of prayer to place at the head of these
signatures , and by which we shall endeavour to make known to the gentlemen of Parliament that , although the working brewers in this neighbourhood have been cajoled to place their names to a remonstrance against the so much dreaded Sy denham desecration , still that all who live in the vicinity of Brick-lane , Spitalfields , are not brewers' , but assume ( as we have done ) to have an opinion of their own , and are in possession of sufficient intelligence to know the why and the wherefore they hold , and ought to hold , such opinion .
Hoping that some good results may arise from the fore-stated suggestion , in conjunction with the proof which has just been advanced in confirmation of what , in various ways and under various circumstances , may be effected by street or neighbourhood petitions , I remain , sir , &c .,
The Atjtuob op " The Sydenham Sunday . Metropolitan Chambers , Albert-street , Spitalfiolds , March 30 , 1853 .
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Iruur , Ci ^ ANMNEBS of FnENon PribSTS . —Cleanliness , according to tho Eng lish proverb , is next to godliness ; but M . Reaumo feels himself obliged to give it precedence . First , ho discusses tho spirit of order in general , and then comes a chapter , De la ProprietS . Men of the world , ho says , aro generally clean , and , like a schoolboy in his theme , ho illustrates this by examples of tho virtue and its opposite—Napoleon and
Louis XIV . for good ; slovenly Jean Jacques llousseau for evil . Once on a time , indeed , filthiness was privileged to style itself humility , self-denial , and contempt for earthly thingB ; but now-a-days nobody will look at it in any such light . Nothing more repulsive in this nineteenth century than an Unkempt and nasty priest . Wherefore , my reverend young brother ( is tho burden of tho Abb 6 ' 8 exhortation ) , do you keep your hair in good order , neither too long nor too short ; and—superstitious as euch earo may seem—comb and bnmh it every day . Wash idl such parts of your body as are exposed without a covering— " , I nay , mark that f
for what good would it do you to havo clean hands , if your nniln are dirty , as is very common ; if your neck , your oars , or Borne part of your faeo , bear tho marks of your negligence P" Whether tho pnrte which are not exposed need ever make acquaintance with nonp and water , our author docs not inform us . Clean your teeth ( continues tho Abbe" ); a eoft brush , Rome bark , charcoal , and uugnr , mixed in equal quantities , aro all that you need , and thcuo don't cost much . And finally ( to complete this subject by a direction given in another placo ) shave once in two day « . —From Urasvr ' s Magazine for May .
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.... — , % , ^ tf % THE LEADER . _ [ SATttfegAV ^
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Leader (1850-1860), May 14, 1853, page 472, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1986/page/16/
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