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Untitled Article
(" on the true faith of a Christian ") which was then first imposed . The legislature should look beyond the contentment of sectarian leaders , —gratified and proud , perhaps , if their priesthood be placed on a level , in some points , with the Established
clergy , —and should regard the effect of its measures upon all classes . The registration and marriage questions are of universal interest . Both should be provided for , independently of religious profession . A municipal officer would be the best registrar ; and his entry ( under proper regulations ) should be made all the evidence of marriage , as well as of birth or death , which the state requires ; leaving religious ceremony entirely to the choice of the parties .
The agricultural interest will have its motion for a Committee ; and with getting , or not getting , a Committee , there will probably be an end of the matter . For this and all other interests , there is nothing like the let alone principle ; especially if its application be made to include the undoing of
former interferences . The day is gone by for levying new taxes for the benefit of a class , although it be not yet come for the repeal of those that have been levied . It is devoutly to be desired that its approach should be hastened . Our bread costs us above thirty per cent , more than we might eat it for in France . Let that score be settled first . There will
then remain two ways , and there are only those two , in which the producers of corn can be benefited ; first , by their landlords , in the reduction of rents ; and secondly , by a complete revision of the whole system of taxation . That revision becomes every year more needfuL The enormous cost of collection , —the irregularity and particular hardship with which the burden falls , —the pressure upon
productive industry , and on the poorer classes , with a host of other evils , all point for their remedy towards a simple tax on property , —the most expedient , and the only just impost . Taxation
is a premium for the national insurance of property ; and by property , not by labour , should it be paid . It is the dictate alike of justice and of national interest , that the expenses of the state should be defrayed out of the unearned incomes which it guarantees to individuals . A small proportion of them
would suffice . Not only would the collection become comparatively inexpensive ; not only would a strong and wholesome stimulus be given to all kinds of useful production ; not only would there be a constant and powerfully operating motive to keep down the outlay of public money ; but probably even from the first , such is the manifold pressure of indirect taxation , no one person would have to pay more than at present ,
while millions would pay incalculably less . While it is not likely that any general revision of taxation will come under discussion—and if it should , we know what a
Untitled Article
68 Principles of Legislation for the ensuing Session .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1836, page 68, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2654/page/4/
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