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    Jan. 21, 1860.1 The Leader dn<x Satutday...

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    ' , 4 Visit to tho Philippine Islands. B...

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    There are great differences, however, in...

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    The Edinburgh Bevtew.—Taxation.* The Pre...

    the State . At tlie present moment , too , our people are put to an enormous expense of time and money to provide by rifle and volunteer corps for the national defence ; while in Prance no such expense is ever incurred , and m the United States" the ' -expense of the militia ^ a ^ ply sufficient f 6 r the defence of the country—is included in the budget of the several States . We affirm , therefore ,, that the statements in the Review , comparing present witlrpast taxation , are inexact , one-sided , and incomplete , by placing all the increase of the national debt between 1803 and now on the wrong- side of ; the account , and by omitting all notice of the effects of existing- fiscal laws in enhancing the nominal amount both of personal and real estate ; and they are also inexact , one-sided , and incomplete , by not including the total cost of educational and ecclesiastical services , and the cost ' of voluntary defence in Our expenditure , as they are included ( or not incurred ) in the expenditure of those two other countries . In fact , the elaborate comparisons , when closely examined , are found to be worth nothingnot even detailed criticism .

    , We object , however , to all such comparisons , as leading the public mind away from the real object to be investigated . The nation wants to ' know exactly what is the worth to it of its own ever-Jastino-ly-bepraised Government , not what is the worth of the despotism of France and the multiplied Governments of America to the French and the Americans . Paradoxical as it appears ,. it is , in one sense , unfortunate for us to be in a better political condition than surrounding people . It is equally unfortunate that our unwearied struggles to obtain prosperity are singularly successful . Nature rewards them most bounteously . But this increased prosperity , as compared to the poverty from which these exertions have enabled our people to escape , arid this superior political condition which we have achieved in spite of the exertions of our

    so-called rulers , are for ever held up to us as reasons why we should bear unnecessary exactions and mischievous restrictions . In every other part of society service rendered is the criterion of payment 3 for the service of the Government the criterion of payment is the wealth of its employers . There was some ground for this as long as the Government was merely the instrument of a class to extort for its benefit the labour of serfs ; but this ground sank away as the Government became the servant of the whole people . Its services now to us are not to be measured by our wealth , or by the wretchedness of any other people , but by their worth . Jf our taxation : can be defended , it must be by what our . Government does

    for W vow ; hot" by . what it did in the time of the-Plantagenets of Sir It . Wa ' lpple or Mr . Pitt ; rior by what is done by the . Governments of France arid the United States . We . lire deficient , as the Reviewer adinitsj in the ' elementsof comparison , and , it is only instituted by him and others to keep in life present calamities . Are all our people not to have roast beef in abundance because the French live on bread , chestnuts , and grapes ? Are they not to enjoy all the advantages of civilization because the Yankees -have yet to conquer the -un-tenanted wilderness ? Such comparisons are bureaucratic juggles to hide from the people the actual cost of our Government and its actual worth .

    The true criterion is far Jess the amount of taxation than the condition of the multitude . In the midst of enormous wealth , the produce of their labour , they remain poor and degraded . Inherited and diffused knowledge , the source of the ' national power , is incorporated in the muscles and the brains of the working multitude . It may be written in treatises ; it lives in the people . They , therefore , are fairly entitled to a full share of all the advantages of success . But ' the Reviewer tells us that nine-tenths of the houses of Great Britain are valued at less than £ 20 a year . The bulk of

    the people , then , are still forced to . -dwell in hovels or places little better than pigstyes . We all know what accommodation a house valued at £ 20 a year affords in our towns for a family ; and we shall not adduce another fact to show how and why the condition of the multitude is , a scandal to the taxing Government . They are still lodged like serfs , exposed to filth and disease , and live , as wo are reminded almost every week by the Registrar-general , only twothirds of their time . Their condition , while they produce all our wealth , is a conclusive proof that , to them , the Government costs aii immense deal more than it is worth . 1

    The Reviewer obviously dwells in a Govern merit building , and Isnows direct taxation only as a small reduction in the amount of hia salary . He labours most assiduously to frighten the people against substituting direct taxation for indirect taxation , by harping on the visits of the tax-gatherer . To us , alas ! ho already comes for the Government taxes twice a year , and for the parish rates 1 ' qur times ft year . We are then obliged to pay , whether wo lil ^ o it or not . Hundreds of the poorer classes are summoned every quarter for not paying rates , Already , therefore , the bulk of the community suffer all the possible evils of direct taxation , against which the Reviewer seeks to warn us , and in addition all the possible evils of indirect taxation . The nation is now visited by both those plague * , mid those who seek to got rid of indirect taxation would , greatly to the relief of industry , and the progress of prosperity , relieve us of one . ••'

    Jan. 21, 1860.1 The Leader Dn<X Satutday...

    Jan . 21 , 1860 . 1 The Leader dn < x Satutday Analyst . 67

    ' , 4 Visit To Tho Philippine Islands. B...

    ' , 4 Visit to tho Philippine Islands . By Sir John Bowrlng-, LL . D ., P . R . S . Smith , Hldor , nnd Oo . JMy BUvry in India ., in tho Toar 1858 . 9 . By William Howard Ruapell , LL , I > . 2 voIb . Routlodgtf , Wurno , nm \ Routl ^ dgo .

    There Are Great Differences, However, In...

    There are great differences , however , in travellers : —some see only with their eyes , others with their understanding . Not seldom , we meet with prejudiced observers and political partisans , with whom all is derired from prejudg ment , but whose position or powers of writing command attention . The volumes before us are written by distinguished men , but on that account require all the more care in perusal , and , in particular , great caution as to ' " ' foregone conclusions . " Of these , there are many in the work which first claims our attention . The Philippine Islands , unfortunately , have been made the arena for the exhibition of the bitterest odium theologicum . The early

    governors of Manilla were troubled with Chinese pirates . In 1603 , we read of the arrival of three Mandarins , sent by the Emperor , who had been informed that the Island of Cavite was of gold ; but , after examining the island for themselves , they left . The governor of the period placed more connlence in the Japanese , who counselled him against the plots of the Chinese . The latter were ultimately worsted : only one hundred , out of twenty-four thousand , escaping . Thirty-two years afterwards , some Japanese Christians Hed from took lace between the

    persecution : about the same time , a quarrel p archbishop and the Jesuits , the latter being supported by the governor . Struggles between the natives and the Spaniards were also frequent . Earthquakes , in 1645 , did much damage ; as many as 3000 persons having , it is said , lost their lives . The power ot the Inquisition , also , reached these islands , and laid hands on ajm > - fane governor , by name Salcedo , a Belgian ; the agents of the Holy Office having entered the palace , found the governor asleep , put irons upon him , and carried him a prisoner to the Augustine Convent . historians of the Philiine Islands the monkswho e

    The sole pp are , judgment is , of course , partial ; and particularly in relation to one governor , named Hurtadb , whom they accuse of endeavouring to starve the convents , and of interfering-with the election of ecclesiastics . He had to banish the archbishop , who was conveyed by force in his pontifical robes to the vessel appointed for his transport , for which act the Dominicans launched their excommunications and censures at the governor . The quarrel continued , until the kmg ^ Spain sent out a commission to inquire into the .-troubles , tor the Pope had taken up the cause of the more violent clergy . An instructive lesson , doubtless , might be gathered from a tfne . narrative of these Contentions , but such does not exist . 1 ne turbulent churchman is ever _ a source of abundant evil . In the eighteenth century we fin . l the Philippines in daii ^ or from the Mahommedan , Towards the end of the century ( l *(> 2 j the ¦

    islands fell into the power of the British . ¦ " . . '; - -m .,. ~ The author derives from the state of the population in the i inhppirie Islands an argument against the Malthusiari theory . i' »^ ArchipeWo presented to him unnumbered sea-surrounded regions , of which few had been trodden by European foot , still fewer thoroughly explored , and scarcely any that are now inhabited by any civilized of foreign race , yet covered with beautiful anl sp > ntaneous vegetable riches above , and bearing below countless treasures of mineral wealth . Their powers of production appearei tohim to be boundless . Moreover , they had the varieties of climate which to

    mountains , valleys , and plains afford—rains to water , suns r . pen , rivers to conduct , harbours for shipment—every recommendation to attract adventure and to reward industry ; with a population of only five or six millions , when ten times that number might Ins supplied to satiety , and enabled to provide for millions upon null ions more out of the superfluities of their means . Sir John Bownng professes to recognise a law of progress in the course of ProviUonee . lhe latter , in his opinion , never faiils , while the race of man proceeds in ever augmenting numbers to provide ample means for their maintenance and happiness . Neither laud nor soa , he adds , is exhausted or in process of exhaustion . ¦ ¦ „ ,. This work on the Philippine Archipelago is more of a compilation than one of observation . It consists of twenty-six chapters onoh ot which treats a particular topic , and , . for the most part collects the lower tnan

    requisite information ; and it is illustrated with no seventeen engnivings , whicl » are cleverly designed and well executocl . The most curious part of the book is an account which foir J . Bowring- gives of a , barbarous raco living iu the remotest niimntanious regions of Mindanao : who are said to wear no garments , to build no houses , to dress no food , but to wander in the forest , whose wild fruits they gather by day , and sleep among the brunch ?!) . " , the trees by night . They have no form of government , no chief , no religious rites or usages . Sir John sivw one of the race , who was brought for sale , as any wild animal might have been , to the governor of Zumboanga who retained tho lad , apparently of about author observed hun while wincing

    oi ~ ht or nine years of age . Our at ° Iloilo , with other'native servants , at tuble , and ho see . noil the most sprightly ami intelligent of the whole—bright-oycel , and watching eagerly every sign and mandate of his-master . f * " «' very darLcolonred , almost black , his hair disposed to be woolly : he had neither the high cheeks nor tho thick lips of the African nojtf-o , but rcHomblod many speriinens of the Madagascar people . Our traveller was informed that the whole tribe are ot very small stature ; and that they avoid all interoour . so with other races , collect nothing , barter nothing , and , in fiict , want nothing " . ? Continuing this subject , which on many accounts , is cxoiui . lmff . y intoroHtintr , Sir John Wring tells us that he had oiio * okhwiuii , to examine . 'to the prison of Kandy one of the real " wild n . un « , l the WooVb" of that Island , who had boon conviotod of " murder ; ; but t Ho moral sonso wa ^ so latont that the jud « oouid not rewird hmi « » responsive be ^ iff . Hut , h « « dd « that little roawnblj 1 00 »* " »'™ between Filipins and tho Cingalese in ^ l ^^ l ^^ Sili and thence infers that -there are more varieties of tho human lamwy

    VOLUMES , OF TRA . VKLS . * THE intolJJgont traveller la a benefactor to whom we cannot bo too grateful . ' He is tho pioneer of process , and by his disqovoiMos clears the way for tho hiqrehant , the statesman , and the adventurer .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 21, 1860, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21011860/page/15/