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THE BEVENXJE.^NATIONAL PROGBE8S.
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• scope of the preposterous allegations recklessly made regarding the new franchise , was , that instead of 203 , 000 additional borough voters , the £ 6 suffrage would admit 300 , 000 . ; other ' s said 400 000 ; and Mr . Edwin James outbid all his competitors by talking of 500 , 000 . It is almost unnecessary to Teiterate the explicit contradiction given to each and all or these statements .: As the Home Secretary sarcastically observed , the assertions and arguments brought forward by the would-be panic-mongers only prove that they have not taken the trouble to understand the facts or figures about which they -talk . : l . Bill as introduced by ministers , founds the suffrage upon a given amount of annual value ; but it also requires occupation , residence , and personal rating to the relief of the poor . By these tests the occupiers of all tenements , no matter what their value who do not permanently reside , and whose names are not found -upon the rate book , will be excluded from the borough franchise . The returns do not , therefore , profess to include them . They -would be false and deceptive if they did . Nevertheless , a shout is raised that they are unreliable , because all the persons whom it is not intended " to enfranchis e are not included in the estimated constituencies ; and the member for Marylebone seriously tries to make the unlearned believe that all the poor people who pay two-and-sixpence a week in London and else where , for houses , _ or separate portions of houses , ' will be enfranchised uiider'the Bill ; their landlords , who now compound for the rates , being regarded in point of-law as the agents of these weekly occupiers ! W hether it would be right so-to dejil with them is a totally different question ; uut nothing is more certain under the sun than that there is not the shadow of a pretence for saying -that they arc so dealt with by the Government Bill .
Untitled Article
April 7 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 321
The Bevenxje.^National Progbe8s.
THE BEVENXJE . ^ NATIONAL PROGBE 8 S .
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rpHOUGH the financial year is now coeval with the common X year , the March quarter , being-always the period for the Chancjelloii of the Exchequer to present his accounts to Parliament- ; is the most interesting portion of it . The full account is now published , and we see with no surprise -but- much satis ; - faction , as an evidence of our continual ... progress , that the _ revenue for the year is no less tl ^ an £ 71 , 089 , 669 , or £ o 11 , 669 more than the CiiAN'CELLbn of the Exchequer estimated it at on the 10 th ult ,, —^ 70 ; 57 S , 000 : And from his estimate , too , is to be deducted the decline in the customs' revenue for the quarter in consequence of the reductions made in the customs ' duties by his Budget ,, which , he estimated at £ 640 . 000 . As a specimen of its effects , we may mention that in February , 1860 , the wine entered for consumption was only 1 . 6 . 1 , 924 gallons , against 604 , 762 Mi February , 1859 , and 503 , 365 in February , 1858 . So of the silk manufactures of Europe , there was entered for consumption iri February ,. I 860 , only 4 , 271 lbs ., against 96 , 787 lbs . in February , 1 S 59 * . ' Accordingly , the Customs' revenue in the quarter ended ' March 31 , 1 SCO , is £ ' 5 , 550 , 618 , against £ 5 , 914 , 295 in the corresponding quarter of 1859 , or £ 363 , 677 less . As it was greater in every other quarter of 1850-60 than of" 1858-59 , we may ass nine ' that , the Customs' revenue has actually suffered in the quarter at least to t ^ ve extent estimated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer , from the alterations proposed by him in the Customs' duties . The decline is not the consequence of any falling off in consumption , but of the remission of duties . . Notwithstanding the loss , the revenue for the quarter is upwards of £ 5 , 000 , 000 -more than the revenue for the corresponding quarter of 1850 . The bulk of this increase , we scarcely need inform our readers , as they have felt the heavy hand of the tax-gatherer , is due to the property mid income tax , which yielded £ 3 , 519 , 000 more than in the . corresponding quarter of 1859 . In the year this tax y ields £ 9 , 590 , 106 , against £ 6 , 083 , 587 iu the previous year . M ' ore than the wholes gain in the your therefore accrues in the last quarter , and the -toti . il yield of the tax is actually £ 298 , 000 less than the Chancellor of the ExauiQumt ' s estimate . He calculated the Excise at £ 19 , 724 , 000 ; it is ' £ 20 , 861 , 000—T-the chief increase being derived from mull :, which waSj , in part due to certain differences in the barley harvests . The Stamps yield . £ 43 , 000 more than he oxpoctod . The postoffice and the asaessocl tuxos also oaoli surpass his calculations . The total result is , as we . have said , a revenue of £ 71 , 089 , 669 , being £ 511 , 609 more than he oxpectod , nncr £ 5 , 0 l 2 , 380 > more than the revenue of last year— - £ 05 , 477 , 288 . Lot ua plaioo these figures , to make them more impressive , and show how the wants and tho waste of the 'Government ' inoroaso with its menus , in a tabular form before our renders :- — Revenue of the Xear ended March 31 . Calculated by . the Chanokwui of the ExoiiMQunn" ) for 1860 , without deducting losses by Customs' > g £ '/ 0 , 578 , 000 . alterations )
Actual revenue , after deducting those losses of 1860 . 71 , 089 , 669 Income above his calculation . . - . - 511 , 669 Actual revenue of 1859 ... ' . ... . . ' . . ' . - : 65 , 477 , 283 Less than the revenue of 18 G 0 . • • • £ 5 , 612 , 386 This increase of revenue from old sources is most satisfactory , but the increase of expense which it indicates is most disheartening and offensive . It is satisfactory not because it gives the Government so muelnmore to ' expend * , but . because it testifies to the continued progress and prosperity of the nation . At this we rejoice , at this every patriot will rejoice , for power increases with prosperity , and enables the nation , by using it well , to ensure perfect ' security ; but we do not rejoice at it , and no patriot should rejoice at it , because the pecuniary resources of the Government are increased , for they are taken from the . resources of the people , and are notoriously wasted , while , if left with the people , they would be carefully and wisely used . It is customary , indeed , and especially amongst functionaries , to attribute the prosperity of the nation to the action of the . Government , and for the Government to claim , therefore , and take the lion ' s share of our increasing wealth . Between 1842 and IS 59-60 , as we pointed out on the 25 th of February last , by Mr . Gladstone ' s own figures , the wealth of the country increased at the rate of thirty per cent ., while the optional expenditure of the Government , that is , expenditure exclusive of i the debt , in the same interval , increased seveuly per cent ., or more than twice as fast as the national wealth . It "is high time that this claim of the ' Government to be so largely remunerated for its services , should be inquired into , particularly ' as we find it made the ground for increasing the taxation of the inhabitants of India . Notoriously we have subdued and appropriated that country—have ruled it , perliapsy somewhat better than the conquerors whohad previously ¦ subdued arid appropriated it ; but it shocks all common sense to hear it avowed there and repeated here . , that the growing prosperity of the people justifies still . further taxing and oppressing them . The increase of society in wealth is the natural r-osi tit of industrious exertions . It is ' the natural reward oj individual skill and labour ; and for ofjicials to found on it a claim to tax or plunder people either in liindostan or Britain , is . to mock our reason while they take awa . fr our-property : Tho French have , prospered since lSJ-3 , though not equal to us .. Our free trade has promoted their prosperity ; the . trade , between the two countries , since 1851 , lms increased . fLIiy-nve per cent . . 1 ' aris has been ' wonderfully improved -of late years ; , railways , within the last twenty , have contributed to the prosperity of France , ; but nobody dreams of saying that this progress , was due to the . ¦ exertions of ' . the shabby government of Louis-Piiil / liMM .:, the eonvulsionary governments of 1 S-18 , or the despotism of Louis Napoleon . ' So the United States Imyc made great progress ever since America was ' peopled from Europe ; but no person , we believe , thinks that tho Government ' which they discarded- — and prospered all the more for discarding it—^ -or fliu . CJoverrmient wliich was established in its place , and has- now become : _ notorious ns at source of corruption , -waste , , and dissension , is the cause , of this prosperity . It is high , lime , therefore , unless we are resolved to be for ever duped as well as plundered , that we should look a little Closely into the claims of oflicjala to have ; the lion ' s share c , l the national wwailth , because , as . they assert , its "growth is duo to their fosterij ^ j ; care ,. The . increase of wealth , as indicated by the increase in the customs' and excise revenue , is an inde . x . to increased consumption , which the Government , instead of promoting , checks , as much as the people will bear , by taxation . The population is rapidly and continually increasing . In 1 'mgland anil Wales , it was lh , 124 , 000 in 1842 ; 10 , 033 , 000 in IBf . S ; and now , somewhere about 80 , 000 , 000 . Thcs increase , wholly due to natiirnl onuses , and not promoted by any uetion of the- ( jovonmieiit , curries with it that increased consumption by which' tho . Government is enriched , and in which the oflleiiil ' H who' handle the wealth very naturally exult . To <; nnblo the increasing »> ultiturie to oonsumo , indu . stry uiuat ineivune in proportion . An iuoroiiHing quantity of wealth is oonl . iinmlly ercnlcd ; but . tho Govomment , far ' from promoting and laeilitatiii ^ industry , hampers it and crnmjis it by a . multitiuli : ol ^ uxciao ciifltoins iiiul linenso vcgulntjons . It Iiiih Ixmhi coiivieled- — it lniw isonvmtod itself— -of having , from iynoninee , ( Ioihj a great deal of uiuiloessary wrong by suHi rcgiihitions ; yet , at this very moment , by tho mouth of Mr . Olahstonk , while it , in colleotiMg . this inoronaintf nftd ofionuoua revtmue , it ]) roposcB to inflict sovenil additional petty roBtriotions on industry to raise a jialtry buiii ol £ 380 , 000 . It wociuh nbsolutoly untcuohable and inoorny ; il ) J (); and corttinuos , by regulations contrary to all oxporimioo , to ' provent tjio inorenBB of wealth , while it exacts an ovoMnorenuiiifl
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1860, page 320, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2341/page/5/
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