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    Peb. 11, 1-800,] The Leader and Saturday...

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    to bear on the conduct of individuals. N...

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    POJITUGAL. WE nrp probably reminding nin...

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    Peb. 11, 1-800,] The Leader And Saturday...

    Peb . , 1-800 , ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 131

    To Bear On The Conduct Of Individuals. N...

    to bear on the conduct of individuals . Numerous as the ill-doing part is , it ever exists only in a small proportion to the welldoing part . The consequence , therefore , of this extensive and rapid communication " is jto Incirease very much the power of the weli-doing , well-intentioned public ; and we now hear almost daily of some profligate thief or scoundrel murderer arrested in his flight to the Antipodes . The telegraph is so much swifter than even the rail , that ' no criminal can now reasonably hope to escape detection and punishment . The hope of reaping- enjoyment from criminality is at an end . By means of rapid communication , too , the highest political authorities are rendered additionally subservient to public opinion , and , withqut speaking hyperbolieally , we can affirm that by the same electrical power the wellrintentioned public can catch a murderer , stop a war , and every where promote peace and freedom .

    Within eighteen years we have become thoroughly convinced that freedom " - of industry is essential to social welfare . This is moral knowledge , as important as physical knowledge . It is an additional and most useful guide to conduct , inducing governments and individuals to abstain from much . mutual meddling . In consequence of the progress in moral knowledge , Her Majesty was able to inform the Parliament that both pauperism nnd crime were decreasing . Those who have , closely examined the criminal records are well aware that this pleasant decrease is in no degree due to the exertions of the Government , In spite , of an improved and extended police , in spite of new and more severe tests of pauperism , in spite of all the punishments which could be invented , it is notorious and certain that both criminality

    and pauperism increased continually and incessantly till 1842 , when pur chief commercial and fiscal reforms were begun . It is equally notorious and certain that , with slight vacillations the consequence of dear food and war , they have continually decreased since 1842 . They increased so long as the old system of restrictions was maintained , and decreased when it was lessened . Having regard to the increase of population , crime and pauperism have decreased very remarkably since food , by the repeal of bad laws , became cheap and , employment abundant . By the progress of knowledge , the people have improved , and there has been less occasion for . the services of Government as the cost of them has increased . The abolition of corn " and navigation laws and of numerous restrictions was an abatement of executive functions . Fewer

    Custom-house officers than before were required ; G-overnment had less to do , and should have cost less . Moreover , its functions , as in carrying letters , are performed at a less cost in proportion as the population is condensed . As men live together they are more under the control of one another , and require a smaller amount of extraneous coercive power to preserve order . An increase of people , an increase of knowledge and advance in civilization , make the task of government lighter , and should make it less costly . Jlence the . great progress which society has made in civilization since 1840 , renders the contrast between the service of Government to the people and their mutual services more striking . While they increase continually in efficiency and

    cheapness its service becomes less efficient , and doarer— -a burden fpr ever increasing . Should the proportionate increase between its cost and the amount of population go on as in the interval 1840— £ 8 , the discrepancy between the two in the cud will make the Government unbearable . Already iy demand to lessen its expenditure is heard throughout the land . In obedience to it , and in opposition fa all the dependnnts and hangers on of Ministers , both Whigs and Tories , Mr . Wise carried his motion by a hundred and twenty-one to ninety-three . The House of . Commons , then , has declared it to be desirable to appoint n

    Committee to control the Government . expenditure . This is almost unprecedented . It really takes from the Executive Government the power of determining in civil matters what it shall do , and how it shall be paid for what it docs . Such a motion would not havo'beon carried , had not the representatives of the people been convinced that the tiino has arrived when tho increase of the cost of government must be stayed , or oven very considerably lessened . Its increasing demands have exhausted the patience of tho taxpayers , and a majority of twenty-eight of thojv representatives has practically informed every ' ministry thut it must earnestly begin flnnnoiul reform .

    Mr . Wise , referring to ostimntes which wo regard ns somewhat fallacious bases for comparison , stated that in 1839 tho estimates for civil services amounted to J 82 , G 51 , O 00 , and in 1 S 3 S ) to $ 7 , 880 , 000 , which gives i \ n increnso three times as grout as wo have stated . Ho , gave the' following illustrations of tho ¦ manner in which the items had increased : — . Estimates . ¦ 1839 . 1859 . Public buildings , parks , & o . . . £ lp 7 , 000 £ 793 , 000 Salaries and expenses , Public \ » o i ai < i onn Departments .... $ ' 738 ' l , < U- > , 000

    Estimates . ; . 1839 . 1859 . Law and Justice . ... . . 666 , 000 2 , 544 , 000 Education , Sci & nce , and Art . . 175 , 000 1 , 328 , 000 > Colonial ahd Consular ., ' .. 339 , 000 " 428 , 000 Superannuation and allowances . 200 , 000 242 , 000 Miscellaneous ... . . . . .. 217 , 000 985 , 000 To this extraordinary list we will add a few items to show what noolcs and crannies the great stream fills . Trpm the finance accounts of the years 1846 and 1 S 58 we copy the following : — - ¦ •¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ ,. Sums Toted .

    1846 . 1858 . Home Department . . . . . ' . £ 16 , 000 ' £ 24 , 799 Foreign ....... ... 63 , 000 . 76 , 900 Colonial . .. . . . . . • 19 , 000 29 , 134 Board of Trade . . . . . . . 37 , 255 67 , 847 Poor Law Board . . . ... . 120 , 700 216 , 060 Factory Inspectors . ... • 15 , 324 22 , 010 We admit that more work may be done by the officials of the Home-office , the Foreign-office , the Board of Trade , & c , in 1858 than in 1846 ; but the increased work is supererogatory . What

    more useful business can the Home or Foreign Departments have to do in 1858 than in 1 S 46 ? We know that the functions of the Board of Trade have been increased by the control given toit of the mercantile marine , of railways , & c ., but its partial control of these great interests tends to divide responsibility and multiply calamities both by rails and ships . A country in wliieh industry is really free would find a Board of Trade not merely unnecessary biit a nuisance . But since the Legislature was compelled , by " the growth of public opinion , to set trade partially free , it has been wheedled by the Board , into nearly doubling its functions and its expense .

    We refer to these items with . earnestness , because we take a more serious view of this subject of taxation than niost of our contemporaries . We are aware that most of the Governments of Europe have been enibarrassed ,. or even convulsed , by financial diffiGulties ; , and what has been ruinous to them , cannot be safety ' fox her Majesty ' s Government . In fact , amidst numerous demands for the repeal of Custom-house and Excise tluties , ainidst urgent remonstrances against increasing income and other direct taxes , its position is at present one of great financial difficulty . It is no light matter , that , for the sake of a revenue not equal to half the unnecessary increase in the expense of our civil government since IS 39 , at the lowest estimate , we shut ourselves out from much trade with the South of Europe . Regulations abroad

    only would not be sufficient to this end ; it is effectually accomplished by our own fiscal regulations . They nourish the enmities which exist between foreigners and us . For the sake of a revenue not equal to one-fourth of this unnecessarily increased expenditure , it never can bo worth while to impede tho manufacture of paper and the use of books and journals . The sum voted l ' oi' education , which goes chiefly to increasq the power and patronage of the ministers of the Church , is more than the paper duties . It cannot now bo denied that industry sustains life : . and if it be . a gross crime to take life , it must bea crime maims lile

    almost us'gross to impede industry . Tt lessens or . For tho sake of a revenue to spend on objects of more than doubtful ¦ utility ,-no enlightened Government , and no reasonable man cnu justify even the smallest restriction on honest industry' / iso grimaces at . parsimony , no ridicule about cheeseparings , no club gossip , no coterie wit , however sparkling , can now inspire our suffering Chancellor of the Exchequer , with confidence that lie is doing his duty , as a man and a patriot , by maintaining taxes for the extraordinary increase in expenditure for civil services , which Mr . "Wise has exposed , and which the : House of Commons has , we hope , resolved to stop .

    Pojitugal. We Nrp Probably Reminding Nin...

    POJITUGAL . WE nrp probably reminding nine out of every ten readers ol nn event they have quite forgotten , if , linked , they over noticed it , when wo mention that tho session of lh « Portiigiwflu Legislature was opened tho other day by a " grwioiia " speech from tho young . King . Who ,, now , but a holder of Portuguese ) stock , yet dialing at tho injustice to whiult ho him boon compelled to submit—a speculative contractor , anxious for iv nulwuy

    concroasion—br . p orhnps ^ iport-winovotniy . wlioMjtcuriosityJiowttvor . uooH not go beyond the quality of the your ' s vintage—cures about tliu good or ill fortuno , tho lionio or foreign policy of a nation wine h once , " if'it did not exactly gi . vo Itiws to tho world , dunned and , to some extent , enfbreod tlominion over tho greater \ n \ vt ot-ilf Tho old , power is gone , and the old prido with it ; tho glory ol disoovoiv , hiuI tho assumption of osduaiyu H ^ IiIh l > ns (»« l upon u , have vaiiisliod . The deslinicH of JOuropo are srtthicl willioul . urn participation of Tortugvi ) , although nwpuet for old pivmumw

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 11, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11021860/page/7/