On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    December 4, 1852.] THE LEA D E R. 1161

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Taxation Rfahjckl) To Unity And Simplici...

    to cultivate an exact acquaintance with their own ffairs ; many vexatious and burdensome taxes would be superseded ; consumption , and consequently production , would be extended ; the wealthier classes would become the most active guardians of integrity and economy in the affairs of the nation ; the interests of the poorer classes , which are those of industry , of the springs of wealth , and of the greatest number , would be cared for in a manner more befitting justice and their intrinsic importance ; the greatest numbers of

    the people , and the classes now the most dangerous , would become interested in the maintenance of the Government , and so afford the wealthy classes a degree of security they have never yet enjoyed , and perhaps never can enjoy by any other means . To these reasons , and to others which are the converse of those given for rejecting the other bases of taxation , there follows a short chapter of points of contrast between a tax on income and one on capital ; for the most part , these contrasts are perfectly just , and they are all excellently expressed .

    It will be seen at once that these reasons for preferring a tax on property apply in their full force chiefly to France , not , however , without having weight and significance here also , if we allow for some errors of principle and some difference of circumstances . They are , moreover , of a kind to carry conviction to many minds which prefer a proof of probability of advantage in practice to the stricter method of deduction from the nature of the case which we have followed in our

    former articles . We therefore gladly add these views to those we have ourselves propounded , although on several points we can hardly concur with our talented author . Nor are we the less willing to express our estimation of the great general value of this part of his investigations , from our having in all candour to state some differences , and to sustain them . On the points which thus call for discussion , it will be seen that M . E . de Girardin has been chiefly influenced by that looking to Government for help , indemnity , and control in all the affairs of life , which has grown up in France with ages of centralized bureaucracy .

    M . E . de Girardin , regretting the idleness of much capital , encouraged , as he thinks , by the existing taxation , says that under a tax on property , " capital would be condemned to a forced activity , " ( page 190 , ) for it would then have to realize a satisfactory return beyond the tax on it . But , without staying to show that it is not now the capital which is idle , but the capitalist , and that this distinction materially affects the argument , it is more important to remark that it is no part of the business of a Government to force capital either to idleness or activity . Probably , indeed , under more just taxation , cap italists would be pressed by a necessity for personal care and diligence which they do not now

    feel , and if it were so , they , as well as society in general , would be gainers by the change in every view ; but it is not for Government designedly to thru » t on them as a special class either the risks or the advantages of that or any other state of . things . To admit the right of Government to control capital for the advantage of labour , is to admit also its right to control labour for the advantage of capital ; and the end of such a course can onl y be the delegation of all the powers of society , as well as the custody and direction of individual energies to the Government , to the destruction of individual care , foresight , and vigour , and of all the consequences on human character , contentment , and progress , which they alone ran insure .

    If a , Government profess to force capital or capitalists into a particular mode of action , no mutter liow advantageous , it will commonly excite resistance , or it will he defeated by evasion , or counteracted by remote continences of its measures manifesting themselves in "" expected quarters . \\\\\ , if that Government content if self with removing the obstructions former legislation hud put in the way of industry , of individual action , and of improved modes of association , and with cautiously , ( irmly , ami impartially administering justice and protection to all classes in matters of taxation : ts well

    » M in nil beside , then capital und capitalists , labour and labourers , will always find their true best , p laces in the «<> ciul system , according to the requirements and intelli gence of the tiine . s . We undoubtedly do greatly wmit bettor modes of association ; but they are neither to bo discovered nor applied by Governments . M . do Girar-| bn himself Hays , admirably , ( page ' Mid , ) in I'Ynnco " "ty- ^ y will not enter profoundly into ideas and mtm-1 IOI " » until centralization Khali have ceased to create a "ution of functionaries in tho midst of a people- of taxpayers . " Theno reinarkw will mipply the key to any objections W () have to make to the plans of our author ; which plavin Wo llow ,,,.,,,.,. ( ., 1 to Htu | , (; . Napoleon naid ( in 1 HO (> , when I'Yunco was larger •'" in at present , thut GOO millions of francs per annum

    ( twenty-four millions sterling ) ought to be a sufficient amount of taxes in time of peace ( page 283 ) ; and this was about the extent of the expenditure before 1789 . The revenue is now about fifty-five millions sterling ; and M . do Girardin proposes to reduce it to the old standard . He insists on the possibility and the justice of this reduction . Our . author wishes to make taxation voluntary . Wa can hardly understand this phrase until we remember that in France many matters are supported by taxation and regulated by the state , which in England and the United States are left wholly or in great part to voluntary zeal—religion , charity , science , amusements , & c . M . de Girardin proposes , and we think quite rightly , to relieve the state of all concern with these subjects . But he means also something more , as we shall see .

    In many respects Government resembles an insurance against certain evils , and taxation resembles the premium , M . de Girardin pushes this idea so far as to include in the evils against which the insurance is effected , not only violence and wrong , but poverty , fire , inundations , hail , frost , epidemics amongst cattle , and shipwreck ( page 313 ) . This , however , he does , not as a matter involved in the nature of the case , but only as a contrivance of expediency ; and we think it highly requisite to point out the distinction , lest the plans proposed in the remarkable work before us should he supposed to result necessarily from the principle of direct taxation . The author's words are these : —

    " The principle of assurance is only a spring in the machinery of the tax on capital . Assurance fulfils there only the office of the necessary counterpoise ; it is a premium offered to the sincerity of the tax-payer ' s declaration . The tax -payer having an interest in diminishing the reputed value of his possessions , in order to reduce his tax , what ought to be done P Seek another interest with an opposite effect , that they may balance each other . " For this purpose , it is proposed not only to take up the trade of assurance , but that of lending on mortgage

    and pledge . The right of pre-emption , with an addition of one-tenth to the declared value , is suggested aa an additional security for correctness . Moreover , one person wants commercial credit , another social consideration , another to marry one of his children , and so on ; all of which require him to make the best public statements of his circumstances which they permit . It is believed that under such arrangements not five persons in a thousand would be without greater motives to be sincere than to be otherwise . M . de Girardin

    thus expects to render taxation in great part voluntary as well a 3 accurate , and to prevent future revolutions by interesting great numbers in the stability of the Government . We need hardly stay to remark that any possible value of these plans , as mere machinery of administration , depends on the question whether other and better cannot be found ; and that , at best , their value in that sense would he far outwei ghed by the immense evils of so placing all interests in the hands of the Government . It is proposed also to consolidate the mortgage debts of all the French landowners , and to place the consolidated obligations under charge of the stato ; the whole

    to be represented by Government engagements , transferable and irredeemable like the national debt . The difference between the interest paid by tho landowner to the state , and that paid by the state to its creditors , would go pro ianto to the relief of tho taxes . That any reflecting man , acquainted with tho condition of the landed proprietary of France , and with the dangers it portends , . should be tempted to propose . some such plan , is indeed no wonder . It is , however , much more likely that hucIi a device would aggravate the ills of France , merely meanwhile concealing them by change of form , than that it should work that radical cure which France imperatively requires . *

    Every poison would have Ins name inscribed in the hooks of the state , with « Kl this chief incidents of his life as they occurred , a register available ns well for the purposes of private liii k , as for the relations ol the individual with the ( iovernment . The . statistics of every town would bo regularly preserved , nhowing the classes and condition of tin ; inhabitants of each , together with quantity and value of tho lands , vines , & . i : Hut how prevent simulations , forgeries , and other IVsukIh ? or how prevent , official currency and sanction to frauds when once effected ? 1 h society found to need any such labelling of individuals , or can true labelling he effected ? We talk of the inquisitiveness of our income-tax ; but what is it to thin ? Tho hooks of tho Government would either he , as is probable , one ma . su of error and 1 ' ruud ; or if not , so , then an . , . , L __ „„ . * Something of MiLs nort niuuii . h now hoiri £ commenced : a ( tank to deal in landed , ( Jovcrimxmt ., railway , and other Hi'Ciii-ilic . M , il . M wiroH hning ( Milled from behind tho I mperial throne . An iinmoiiMO oHfitMiHlunont , investing largo nuiiih in uimogol . iablo Hoeurit . ieH , would bo miflicientlv certain of failure : it was hardly necessary to ndd ( , o it | , Jio complications and corruptions of an uriHcrupulouH Government , struggling for Uh life

    enormous mirror , in which every incident of private life is held up to the general gaze . Every workman would be at liberty to pay as a special assurance one centime for each hour he was in actual employment ( about one penny a-day ) , for which he would be insured against wounds received or infirmities contracted in the pursuit of his calling , as well as against premature death , and some other foreseen evils ; he would also have a right to a" retiring pension after 90 , 000 hours of labour- If the rate of payment here required is sufficient to cover the indemnities , then any other agency would be sufficient to manage the organization , and would bo better than that of the State . If the payments are not sufficient for the indemnities , then the workmen would be pensioners of the State for the balance—a balance sure to

    mcrease , and equally sure to swallow up the independence and vigour of the workman in the all-controlling , all-dispensing , partially-favouring power of the State . A charge of one centime per diem , about three farthings a-week , to be made for a certificate , which certificate signed by the authorities preparatory to the elections , would testify the legal blamelessness , up to that date , of the person holding it . Surely it cannot be necessary to give every Frenchman a certificate that he is not a thief ?

    The right to devise property by will to be abolished . A living person to be at liberty to give away his property under certain restrictions already established by law . The succession to property to be regulated as at present with the following changes only . The widow or widower has now no right to participate in the property of the deceased , if there be children , legitimate or illegitimate , or relations within the twelfth degree ; it is proposed that the survivor should count as one with the children . It is also proposed that the Commune and the State shall together count as another child , and shall part their share equally between them .

    The funds thus arising to be employed by the State in the redemption of the national debt , and by the commune—first , in the support of foundlings , the sick , infirm , insane , blind , deaf and dumb , aged , & c . ; next , in paying the debts of the commune ; and afterwards , in the support of institutions of utility , enjoyment , or taste . Every person , other means failing him , to have a resource in the funds of the commune in which he was born .

    A principal object [ here is to connect each person with his natal commune , under the title of communemhre . Eut if the ordinary course of human life be examined where it is left free as in England and the United States , it will be seen how widely families soon disperse themselves , and , consequently how violent and unnaturalmust be the force which attaches men artificially to ono spot . Moreover , to take a share of every property at death for such purposes is , in fact , a poor rate levied once for all at tho end of each man's life ; but with this difference , that the shorter the life the heavier the payment in proportion to the time . What difficulties come of poor laws , cven | without this aggravation , let English experience testify .

    Afflictive punishments , oven for the greatest crimes , to be replaced by restraint of residence to the natal commune of the criminal , under bail and guardianship of his family , or of the commune ; tho oUoneo to bo registered in bis certificate . Failing the willingness of these , or of some friend to undertake for him , the offender would be driven to beg an asylum , at the expense of the State , in Nome colony of like characters abroad . Civic degradation follows . some offences , and repetition

    of a grave crime is punished with transportation . Tho chief reliance for the dloct of punishment is on tho continued residence of tho culprit , for a term or for lift ; , amongst those who know his crime . Reduction of expense in one motive to this proposal . We are unwilling to say one word adverse to any attempt to supply new principles to our mournfully inefficient systems of punishment , however unlikely we may think the . success of this proposal .

    Hy these various measures , by giving up the vain attempt to maintain a naval forces of the first class , * and by remitting to local authorities , or to voluntary support , tho objects best ho provided for , M . K . d Girardin calculates that the budget may l > c reduced to 000 millions of francs , or 24 millions sterling . Thai ; . sum , he says , may bo raised by a rate of one half per cent , on the 12 , 000 millions of francs , or 4 HO 0 millions aterling , of property which hoiiio say Franc * : po . sne . snes .

    All mention of these plans of M . deGirnrdin ' s might perhaps havo been omitted , as beyond the limits of tho present discussion , but Unit , the proponing of them in prominently associated with , and might appear to ariiso out of , the great principle of taxation on which we * Tho prosont activity of t . Uo French naval arsenals nnd Government dockyards shown Mint ; thin part , of M . K . ( Ui Ciiirardiu'M pluuM Hilda no favour with tho present Govorumont .

    December 4, 1852.] The Lea D E R. 1161

    December 4 , 1852 . ] THE LEA D E R . 1161

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1852, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04121852/page/13/