Leader (1850-1860), 10th December 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1347

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  She gives at ail times all wealth to labour ; and the laoouring multitude are only poor because an eve r-increasing sum—now upwards of ^ £ 70 , 000 , 000 a-year- —is constantly taken from them by a system which , at the same time , places innumerable restrictions on their industry . We go cordially , therefore , with Mr . Brig ht and with the Financial Keform Association , in condemning the State , on account of the enormous sum which it annually takes from the multitude , and the manner of taking it . L >
  
  ; We cannot give the same support to Mr . Bright ' s plan for increasing direct taxation . H estimates the property of the country at . £ 6 , 700 , 000 , 000 , and he proposes to levy a tax of 8 s- for every . £ 100 of this property , excluding from the tax every one whose property is not of the value of £ 100 . The produce of such a tax he estimates at £ 27 , 000 , 000 a-year , and collecting it he would give up the present income tax ; all the customs duties on small articles ,
  
  amounting to . £ 750 , 000 ; and all the duties on sugar , tea and coffee , on corn , currants raisins , pepper , provisions , paper , books , the assessed taxes , taxes on insurance , and he would reduce the duties oh wine to Is . per gallon . He would retain the duties on spirits . and tobacco . This would be an immense change ; it would be a great advantage to trade , but , desirous as we are of getting rid of Custom-house and Excise duties , it does not command our approbation .
  
  Bad as any fiscal system may be , society gets accustomed to it , and to it all the relations of property adapt themselves . Accordingly , it has long been and is now universally acknowledged , that changes , even in a bad system , should not be lightly made . Repeated and continual changes are worse than the worst established system . Mr . Bright ' s plan is ^ clearly not a fiscal reform . It does not imply any reduction of taxation
  
  —nor any diminution of expenditure , and we ought to look for a reduction in the amount of taxation as well as a change in its form . Without an addition of direct taxation it is impossible to keep up anything like the present expenditure and relieve trade from Custom-house restrictions . But it would probably be better to continue and ex ^ nd the present income tax , or the present assessed taxes , objectionable as all of them are , than to add another form of taxation to the
  
  complicated jumble which already exists . ^ The practice of the United States is according to the principle of Mr . Bright ' s plan . It ie the practice in every parish in England , all the rates being levied on property , but they , as the rule , both' iii the States and in parishes , are levied on all fcinds of property , and do not stop at any fixed sum . Mr . Bright stops at £ 100 , and exempts all property below it . His project is really a class
  
  tax , an imitation of the class taxation he condemns . It will rouse against it much hostility , when it ought to unite the tax-paying classes of all descriptions against taxation . In all its phases , direct and indirect taxation is essentially mischievous . In truth , it is u violation of the right of property , which the State is established to protect , and should be kept at a minimum . Mr . Bri g ht agrees with us in desiring to extend the franchise ? when he proposes , therefore , to levy this tax , and to give the franchise to those who are exempt from it , he would eunblo them to dispose of other people ' s
  
  property . How many of the twenty-four millions who live in liouscs below -CIO value would be subjected to this 8 s . on £ 100 tax Mr . Bright did not state . We presume , however , that only a very small proportion would huvo * to pay it . The move destitute and degraded are the multitude , according to his statement , tho greater would be the injustice of a tax which was not to fall on thorn . To exonerate than , from their fair share of the national burdens is a presumption akin to that of
  
  excluding thorn from the franchises . It givos charity where justice should bo done . ( ? Tho great principle of fiscal and political reform is to connoct contribution with appropriation ; to muko every man a contributor , and give every one an equal voice over tho nppro-Snation-of tho contributions . Mr . Bright ' s plan oparte from this essential principle of reform , and is , at the eanxo time , an unnecossarilv groat change A reduction of expenditure , cutting clown tlio civil and miscellaneous estimates , and abolishing indirect taxation to tho extent of the amount reduood , —with , if nocesaary , an extension of tho
  
  house tax to all dwellings , and an increase in . its amount—would be , we think , " a wiser , safer , and , more practicable course than that recommended by Mr . Bright . The least acquaintance with the subject niust convince every man that the true art of making each one contribute justly to the public service i « f proportion to his means , as society expands , as industry spreads into innumerable ramifications , as credit promotes production and assists distribution , and as the classes multipl y who collect the debts , distribute the credit , and keep the accounts of all
  
  the other classes , is yet most imperfectly known . Were the principle adopted by Mr . ^ Bright made the basis of all taxation , and carried into efiect ^ as rates are now levied , by local or municipal bodies , it might lead to some improvement . We conclude that , till the art be better known , and till means be found to collect from every man his just contribution at the time most convenient to him to pay it , and in the manner the least injurious to the nation , it is wiser to insist on reduction of taxation than propose extensive changes .
  
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  THE CHOICE OF PLENIPOTENTIARIES . The approaching Congress continues to be the subject of discussion , as it no doubt will remain , until its inauguration , and to its close . The choice of plenipotentiaries by each state affords ground for endless speculation and interminable siftings of character political , personal , and diplomatic . Though much was urged in favour of sending Lord Palmerston to represent England , and though , in many respects , so fit a representative cannot be found , yet on the whole , we think he is better at a distance from the scene of action .
  
  His private views are in favour of Italian independence , and these he will have the opportunity of pressing upon the English agent during the course of the sittings of Congress ; while , if he were present , he would be liable to be acted upon by passing circumstances and events ; perhaps be induced , by motives of expediency , to yield on points in themselves apparently of but little importance , yet involving questions of principle , and , in short , be less useful to the cause of constitutional freedom , progress , and enlig htenment , than when inhaling the liberty-inspiring air of England , and animated by the independent and outspoken sentiments of the "' British nation . That _ Lord Palmerston is one of the most , if not , emphatically , the most , remarkable men of modern England , is
  
  undeniable . None of our statesmen- can surpass him in grandeur of combination , quickness of perception , Boldness of execution , and , above all , n \ his knowledge of men , whom he can , with magnificent adroitness , bring to concur in the accomplishment of his designs . His great strength resides in himself alone , and not in a party , since he represents none , is the leader of no political body , and owns no army enrolled under his parliamentary banner . More than any other man he may be considered as the representative of the British public at large . And yet , in spite of this , we find his political exertions , at various epochs ot his diplomatic career , intimately connected with the most retrogressive and repressive measures , as
  
  well at home as abro ad . The massacre at I eterloo , the app roval of the slaughter of the Manchester lindicals , the enactment of the Six Acts , are so many . charges brought against his liberal and progressive policy b y his political , opponents . The acts of the Vienna Congress , when the populations of Europe Were disposed of aa if they had boen so many flocks of cattle bred for slaughter ; the restoration of tho Bourbons in France , Spam , and Italy ; tho reconstruction of Denmark and Germany ; the cession of Belgium to Holland , of Finland to Russia , of "Venice and Lombardy to Austria , and tho repartition of Poland , havo all mot with tho co-operation , of Lord Palmerston . It will not be : forgotten that tho haste with which ho mnnifafitod his adhesion to tho covernment
  
  following the coup dotut of December 2 , 1851 , brought about a . ministerial crisis in England . Nor is ms voracity loss open to attack ; though wo are by no moans prepared , to deny that ho and his mends are fully at liberty to shelter themselves behind tho ploas of political expediency and misinterpreted expressions , under which meaner men are permitted to seek safety < md impunity . During the debate on tho answer to the Queen ' s opening speech of the 3 rd February , 1857 , Mr . Disraeli alluded to a secret treaty concluded between
  
  France and Austria , which contained a formal guarantee to Austria of her Italian possessions . The existence of such a document was at first contradicted by Lord Palmerston , "I am bound , " he said , "to say that this ; is the first time I have ever heard of it . " His lordship ' s peremptory aud unconditional denial gave the impression that the assertions of Mr . Disraeli were totally unfounded , and that no treat y of such a nature as described by him could be . in existence . A week afterwards , however , in consequence of a renewal of the subject , we find Lord Palmerston admitting the existence of such a document , though only as a scheme or draft : — "I am inclined to think that the information we
  
  received yesterday iscorrect , and that that treatythat convention— -for it was only a temporary convention , to have force only during the period of the continuance of the war— -never was signed . " But three days later the noble lord fully and freely acknowledged its existence to the House He attempted to gloss over its object , nature , and intended duration , and said that it was ibr " the mutual regulation of the French and Austrian troops which might be in Italy , in the contingency of Austria declaring war against Russia : — - and Austria never having declared war against
  
  Russia , that convention , although signed , became a dead letter , and never had any application or effect whatever . " In the rejoinder of Mr . Disraeli the following words occur : — " I state again that there is a treaty—a secret treaty— -between France and Austria , the object of which is to guarantee the security of the Italian possessions of Austria—that it has been extensively acted upon—that , to the best of my belief , it contains on its surface no limitation of the period of its operation , and that the character given of it by the noble lord the other ni ^ ht is entirely incorrect . " feel that it is
  
  On various grounds , then , -we matter of rejoicing that England should not send the Premier to the approaching Congress ? . It is better that a diplomatist should be employed who , while of undoubtedly inferior abilities and standing , will not be liable to be betrayed into taking the part of the strong against the weak , and whose subordinate position will offer some advantages , as giving England the opportunity of expressing her opinion in a more decided way then she could do if the statesman , who nominally represents it , were sent to Paris empowered to act on his own responsibility , and according to his own unsupported judgment .
  
  If mere repetition and reiteration would suffice to inspire confidence in the declarations of the French Emperor , we might consider it as a settled fact that the late rulers will not be restored . He says they shall not be replaced by force , and all the world knows that their former subjects will never receive them back voluntarily . But the great fear is , that the imperial language , declaring that foreign intervention shall not be employed to force the dukes upon the Italians against their will , will be found to be susceptible of political nnrl imnorial auibble and . lusfflery . The annals of
  
  diplomacy tell of two different species of intervention . The first has in view the maintenance of the equilibrium of the great powers , so that one state may not be rendered powerfnl to the prejudice of another . This species of intervention arose in tho 15 th century and was largely applied inthe 16 th , serving as the basis of the religious wars of that period , and ultimately occasioning the Wars of Succession . The seoond speoies of intervention relates to the changes which occur in , the internal imvermnent of states . It originated in 1772
  
  with the first division of Poland , served as a pretext to Prussia , in 1788 , to re-establish the House ot Oran ge to Holland , and occasioned the nrst wars against tho Fronch Revolution , undertaken . to prevent Franco from governing herself according to her own will . Finally , the Holy Alliance made it a European law and a perpetual system , in order to prevent any change in the internal form ot nivowunont of tho respective states , when such change might appear to threaten tho existence of tho reigning dynasties and monarchies as reestablished by tho Government of Vienna . Intervention of the first kind may be justified on
  
  principles of right , and is undoubtedly practical ^ Conefioial . Intervention of tho latter kind i * totally destructive of the right appertaining to every people to govern itself , and consequently is a direct violation of international law as at present established . If the Emperor Napoleon IU .
  
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  No , 507 . Pec . 10 , 1859 ] THE LEADER . 1347
Citation
- Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 10, 1859, page 1347, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2324/page/15/

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