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    Untitled Article

    luxury The Heights of Lancashire and Cheshire are already dotted with the country houses of the new nobility . The would-be prince-traders are patronizing their Raphaels and Titians , and in a characteristic manner . New forms of picture dealing are-invented for the occasion ^ A dealer now enters the studio of an artist , looks around binv aud makes an offer ; in a round sum , for all that it contains : every scfap is swept off ! It is icture dealer sells

    a speculative purchase : the p again , to the rapidly furnishing manufacturer noble . Authentic Annibales and genuine Giorgiones are not needed for this market ; but tie dealer can offer an undoubted M'G-elp , or a celebrated Asphaltumj R . A ., and by the law of supply and demand , M'Gelps have quite taken the shine out of -Raphaels . Every season has its patterns ! Thus the mansion of the new aristocracy finds its Parnassus . suitethe is the house is

    It is all en — man new , new , the furniture is new , the heraldry is new , the ideas are new , the pictures are new . No traditions- ^ -you can ' t have a new tradition . No high spirit— - " £ s . d . " does not admit of high spirit . No public feeling—class looks to itself , and has no care for the people ; rather the reverse : probably a really popular or natural extension of the suffrage has no more inveterate obstructors than some of the employing class . But with these negations * how can such a class

    stand ? Fearless it may be , and is ; for that which has faith in negation can have nought to fear ; but what power can it have ? what influence beyond the hated dole of stinted wages ? What root in the soil can that class have which specially claims to make the surface of the planet , without regard to the living creatures on it , a matter of safe , of " iTree-tradeP" JN " orie ; there is no immortality in such a class . Neither aristocratic , nor democratic , neither claiming nor rendering affection , it can have no hold on the country . Like the dust of a departing winter , it does but

    cover the ~ ground for a time , and await a wind to blow it away , or a flood to sweep it off in un « distinguisnable mud . But there is a redemption in all things . The newly possessed class cannot become an aristocracy without acquiring so me of the habits of such an order ; and this may save a portion of it from being swept away . Art , however little mellowed , must insinuate ideas of grace apart

    from mechanical profit ; leisure must give freer play to the faculties ; ease must give that generosity , at least , which lies in superiority to petty anxieties and parsimonies ; opportunity , ambition j ambition , spirit ; spirit , deeds—or a wife , daughter of the Norman ; and , having taken " surname and arms , " the grandson of Cotton Print will blaze upon the world in gold and gules . But then who will know the difference—who will detect the drop of new blood amid the sea of " blue blood " in which it is merged P

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    THE TRUTH THAT THERE IS IN RE-ACTION . It is sheer empiricism to say that the re-action which is gaining ground in ^ Europe is the effect of the revolution of 1848 in its rebound . It might as well be said that the highwayman who makes you stand and deliver is the re-aetion on tho pistols in your carriage . The present reaction , as it is called , is but the continuation of tlio policy which prevailed before 1848 . Let us iipt misun derstand it . It is a doliberato and combined attempt to suppress , not only acts , but thoug hts , by force of arms . In France , the agents of Louis Napoleon arran ge the pooplo ' s thoughts for them . Tho

    teaching at the Universities is altered , omitting lustory and philosophy wholly , because they sugp afci" doubt . " Emilo do Girardin is « warned , " » y decree , that he must not historically contemplate tho possibility of an attempt against constituted , authority : the 2 nd of December could provo such a possibility , practically ; but a writer 1 1 o Cttlculat ° it , theoretically . Tho agents or llie Uovornment oven arrange the amusomonts <> i tho peoplo—and sottlp tllo-si ^ os of their play-01118 ' . tho order of them . But there is nothing ¦ ! rn , a 11 thfe—it- is tho Austrian systom . J . no system has only received a now loaso at Jio « , d quarters . Tho stability of its tonm ' o ia provod by tho little shook which it has sustained Wu-ouffh tho death of Schwarzenberg . On the firat subversion of absolute authority by right divine , suioion proposed to make concessions : thoXiboiai 8 yould not accept the profforod concessions : ouuuon was driven out of Iris wite , and

    Sohwarzenberg restored the old policy- —absolute author rity and no surrender . " The unity of the Empire , " that Mezentian unity which kills all whom it unites , was his battle-cry . He reorganized the armies , used the sword vigorously , promptly , and unscrupulously ; and the shattered power of Austria was again erect . -His colleague , Bach , an apostate liberal , survives him * his pupil , Francis Joseph , has served an apprenticeship to the same art . " The King is dead , —4 ong live the King ! " Maehiavelli is a classic—long live Machiavellian ^ Mettem ^ is superannuated ^—long live Mettemichism , * Schwarzenberg is defunct—long live Schwarzenbergism . It is in the ascendant , from Cape Spartivento to the White Sea .

    The philosophy of the age which caused the Austrian dictators so much trouble , has given them the opportunity of defeating it . Men , said Philosophy , must think for themselves ; and Austria had no logic to refute a claim so fatal to Absolutism . Nations , said Philosophy , are greater than families , and their desires must be respected ; a claim from which Emperors and Popes ran away to Gaeta or to Innspruch . But Reason , said Philosophy , is greater than brute force ; the pen can write down the sword any day ; and true patriotism shall rest on a peaceful logic . The highwayman rejoiced when the traveller resolved to ioin issue on logical grounds .

    On those grounds he gave in , content to rest his conclusions on the pistol . Thus it has come about that both , sides are dead beaten : Absolutism has not a leg to stand upon—in the field of Philosophy ; butin the field of Absolutism Philosophy is equally off its legs—shot from under it . Syllogisticaily , the victory is to Philosophy ; pistologically it is to Absolutism . The canons are invincible- ^ inthe library ; so are the cannonsin the streets . Thought is free—it cannot be controlled ; but it cannoi preach . Philosophers have forgotten that the preacher must have a body , and that the body is subject to physical laws .

    In some countries thought does attain the maximum of freedom—the whole amount which can be possessed by virtue of the will of the number . In Switzerland , no Emperor arranges studies for the people . In the United States , no President dictates the omission of newspaper articles , arranges the playbills , or teaches the young idea to train its branches on the walls of his conservatory . But then in America and in Switzerland , although the reason is sharpened by exercise , so is the eye and hand , and the right arm is prepared to defend the freedom of the

    person , without which freedom of thought can have no effective concrete existence in society . In other words , vigour of action and freedom of thought are on the same side . Allied , reason and force are supremo ; separated , Reason may retain an abstract superiority , but the governance of the body is handed to Unreason ; and it wields its privilege mercilessly , as we see now in France , in Austria—in Europe generally . Unreason is triumphant , because Reason has come to tho wise conclusion that the lever of worldly power should be left to the servants of Unreason ; and then

    Reason , wise in its generation , breaks forth into hysterical complaints at tho cruelties of Despotism ; or takes refuge in a supine resignation , thanking God . that it is not criminal , but only enslaved . On such pretoxta , it lies under tho feet of Absolutism , and thinks itself superior ; not perceiving that Absolutism at least knows how to attain and keep political power . Wo are driven , in fact , to this conclusion—that Philosophy , wiso and philanthropic , is content to leave' the world to the mercy of Austrianism . and all its debasing cruelties . Austrianism docs not treat its clients so , but takes tho necessary means to secure success for thorn and for itself : and it does succeed .

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    TAXATION REDUCED TO UNITY AND SIMPLICITY . I . '¦ How comes it that taxation is ovorywhoro uasocitifecd with a ropugnanco which attachoa to no other kind of expense ? Tlio man who would disdain to chout his butcher or his bakor of a single penny , buyn smuggled kogs without tho slightest twingo of conscience , nay , with secret exultation ; and ovasioiifl of tho rovonuo in any Hafo form arc freely indulged in by thousands who nro trusted and honoured by their neighbours for their probity . Our modem system of taxation—if system it may bo called— -is hiistorically descended from tho rapino of

    marauders , caterans , and feudal chiefs . The lineage is unbroken—it is only the features that are changed . The stoppage of a defile against an Asiatic caravan , or threats of an onslaught in the desert , to be averted in either case only by purchased permission to pass ^ -the annual or biennial expeditions of governments in the East to collect tribute—the capricious exactions by local and often private . ' . authority on commerce in

    transiiu , at a thousand places in India —the piunder of voyagers by the barons of the Rhine—the blackmail of the Highlander—the violent sharing in the gains of trade to be found in the practice , past or present , of most countries of Europe and the East- ^ -the fines oh successions , and numberless other claims enforced by our feudal Kings * and , rank after rank , by all below them—these and the like , all the world over , are the historic sources of our existing modes of taxation .

    In not a few countries these imposts still exist in their primitive state . It is worth remarking , that India , native and British , shows and has shown them * like Cantek / s chickens , in every stage of development , from the incipient condition of blackmail and passagemoney to the mature tax soberly levied , until very lately , by the British Government , which is known to have originated within a very few generations in the extortions of periodical raids . In other countries , and particularly in our own , the original character of tribute has well nigh disappeared . Ages have elaborated from this chaos of exactions a machine of singular infelicity for

    supplying the expenses of government— the term ^ government" itself being correspondingly understood in a far different sense from that it formerly bore However inept may be Our present modes of taxation , it must be allowed that our conceptions of its purposes are vastly improved . The old phase of the matter was that of a levy by force of whatever the lord paramount or intermediate chose to take , and its appropriation first to the lord's pleasure , and next , if it so happened , to public purposes . In many countries this character

    of taxation has been somewhat modified ; with us it » has wholly disappeared . But even-here the past has left its traces , and among those branches of our system of taxation which stiUV bear clear marks of origin , are the customs , derived from the old exactions on travellers ; the licenses on trades , exactly conforming to undisguised extortions of the same kind in other countries ; ~~ and the post-office , which , though of modern birth , rests on a supposed right of the Government to monopolize any branch of industry , if so it please .

    We derive , then , from the old times , our system of indirect taxation ; but , as occurs on every other subject , we have theories by which to defend , as excellent in itself , the chance result of successive changes and accidental combinations . We are taxed indirectly through our having gradually changed a state of violence into a state of law , and we thereupon raise most ingenious reasons to satisfy ourselves that indirect taxation is the best possible thing of the kind , although not one in a thousand of us would arrive by any process at such a system if he sat down to devise a plan for apportioning the expenses of the state amongst its members .

    One of the faults of our present plan of taxation is the absence of obvious relation between the impost and the service done for it . We want money to pay tho officers of the Government , tho judges , the magistracy , tho police , the soldiers , &c , and we take the strange course of telling every washerwoman in the three kingdoms , that she shall not drink her cup of coffee until she has paid us as much as we think it politic toflx as the price of our . permission . Hetty , blind to tho quid pro quo , it may be , considers tho impost a grievance . Nor is she wholly wrong ; for probably our transit duty on her coffee extorts from her more than her

    fair shore of tho common expense ; and , moreover , of the extra , penny sho pays on hor coffee it is likely not much more than a halfpenny goes to her contribution , to tho service of tho State , tho other halfpenny is collection , and waste , from the incompatible embarrassments and losses consequent on the formalities needful for collection . If a tradesman were compelled by a strong neighbour to pay blackmail on every pair of boots lie kept in his house , while at the same time a duo supply of bcof reached his table every day from some unknown Hourcu , ho would hoou come to taking the beef as a gift of nature , like the air , for which ho would thank

    nobody ( just oh we take safety ) peace , and protection to property under regular government ) , , and would resist or evade the apparent robbery regulated by tho number of his boots . -True , it might bo that tho boottux really paid for tho beef ; but tho want of all apparent connexion would certainly have spoiled hia contentment with tho tax : and , moreover , the funds for supplying beef would bo put into unnatural jeopardy by tho false relation ; for tho number of his boots would bo reduced to tho mnnllcst which would keep him shod , whatover hie consumption of tho viands tho tax should pny for . Baro foot , indeed , might bo tho compulsory

    Untitled Article

    Ap ^ ie ; : 1 ?>? 185 ^ . ] ::: ; .. - ' ;/ . THE LEAD BE 371

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 17, 1852, page 371, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1931/page/15/