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Leader (1850-1860), 11th December 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 1187, Untitled Article

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      • the mode of levying our revenues as may contribute more to the satisfaction and welfare of the community ; whether such alterations can be effected in our system of taxation as may remove from various classes not an yi ^ founded sense of injury and injustice ; and , above all whether we may not take this opportunity of establishing our financial system ON" peinciples more adap ted to . the requirements of the times , and especially to the industry of a country pre-eminent for its capacity for labour . " Here , as elsewhere , is ample admission

      for the evils of our present system of taxation ; here , too , is proposed , in words , a noble object , viz ., the establishment of just principles of taxation . But no new « principle" whatever is introduced into our taxation by this Budget , which differs from its predecessors only in its adjustment of details ; and however that adjustment may have been adapted to the immediate purposes of the Chancellor of the Exchequer , we have yet to seek principles of taxation ; in respect of them Mr . Disraeli has taught us nothing .

      The author of the budget says , " If you decree that the community are to receive low prices , your policy ou ° "ht to be one which will put an end as soon as possible to hig h taxes . " And then he proceeds , not to a reduction of the total amount of the taxes , which is what his argument indispensably requires , but only to a redistribution of them . He can only meet the requisition of the standard he has himself set up by a reduction of expenditure , not in any degree by a variation in the details of taxation .

      But if by the word " community , he meant only a part of the community , ex . gr . the agricultural , then his argument and his plan may be understood . " Low prices" and " high taxes" refer to that part of the community ; and the plan is , under cover of an argument for reducing taxes , really to transfer taxes from the part of the people to which the words "high taxes" and " low prices" apply , to the rest of the community .

      But further : "high taxes" and "low prices" are hero put into one of those false relations which pervade political and social discussions , especially when prosecuted for party purposes . Taxes have no more to do with prices than has food , or rent , or any other kind of expense : the amount of tax depends on one set of circumstances ; the range and elevation of prices depend on another . A community which , while turbulent and rich , is also resolved to be kept in order inter - nally by the Government , and effectually defended also

      at its frontiers , must pay high taxes ; but it may easily afford to pay them . A poor and lawless community may pay low taxes , and hardly be able to pay them at all . The prices each may obtain for its exchangeable articles will be just the same for the same goods in the same market , whether they come from one of those bodies or the other . This broad illustration applies to the case then under Mr . Disraeli's exposition ; but intent on making a point in his speech , he forgot his logic .

      But if low prices are necessarily and of themselves to rule low taxes , what are we to say to our manufacturing interests ? The fall of price in wheat since the peace is small iiv comparison with that in calicoes , woollen cloth , hosiery , lace , iron , ships , and almost every production of industry . Must wo lower the whole taxation of the United Kingdom because prices have gone down ?—and without inquiry into , or allowance for , the causes and circumstances of the decline ? Our taxes depend on the necessity of our expenditure , and not on prices ; and perhaps we have spent too many words on this glaring false relation .

      Mr . Disraeli says , that in 1840 he urged large chunges of taxation for the relief of certain kinds ot propert y , on the ground of its special burdens ; he says now that the burdens having been diminished , and the ratio which this property bears to other property being changed , Ik ? alters his views , and declines to propose any alteration in its favour . Hut what must be the system which admits of such an argument ? What il Mr . Disraeli had been successful in 1841 ) . and the

      changes he proposed had been made then ? dearly , b y his own argument , all parties would have been in a iiilsc and unjust position now . And so must it be with every syntein of taxation which is founded on , and every f'naneier who acts with exclusive reference to , the more <; ircunistuncos of the pausing time : the circumstances will change , and leave all Hellenics broken , and nil the "chenuHrt Htrandcd . We need to rep lace these shifting deviees by hoiho permanent principle , unelmineable , and universall y accepted from its equity alone .

      This very properly , by Mr . Disraeli ' s admission , has h" »» greatly relieved ; but it in agricultural property which has been relieved by tho repeal of taxes passed 'or the Hpecial profit of agriculture , whioh laws acted through fiHciil machinery . That is , the fisciil change Produced an effect exactly opposite to that expected from , it ; und ho hub it happened also in evory caso of

      the removal of so called protection . Now , if changes of this kind produce effects so unexpected by many of those most interested in them , how can we so trace the effects of indirect taxation as to rely on them for a fair or even a bearable distribution of the public expenses ? As to any approximation to an apportionment of the public cost to each person according to his rightful quota , it seems , from such a fact , to be altogether beyond the capability , the pretension , or even the wish , of any plan of indirect taxation .

      No doubt , the ex-protectionists allege that the improvement of agricultural as well as other property is due , not to the removal of the corn-laws , but to emigration and the gold discoveries . It is , however , so easy to show that these are insufficient to the effect , that we need not , for any such covering device of a retreating party , disturb our foregoing argument . Mr . Disraeli first proposes " to lay the foundation of a system which shall enlist in its favour the sympathies of all classes , " and then he transforms half the malttax , supposed to be a burden on the farmers , into an increased and extended house-tax , known to be a burden to the townspeople . He has thus raised an opposition which threatens the existence of his Ministry .

      This change is not made on any allegation that the farmers have hitherto paid more , or the townspeople less , than their share of the common expense ; still less is it attempted to be shown that the proposed change , if just in kind , is of such an amount as to establish a true balance for the future . The reason given for it is founded on the interests , not on the rights or obligations of the parties ; and quarrels founded only on interests have no principle by which they can be terminated . Moreover , a system which is so void of principle as to admit of being changed in this direction

      to-day , will admit also of being changed in some other direction to-morrow : it leaves the country always liable to a strife of classes : every man feels it may any day change by some of its caprices the value of his property : and the continual upsetting of Ministries , of their policy , and of all decent practical persistence in some general principles of government , is a disastrous and almost certain consequence of a policy of taxation which has no standard principle , and no better guidance than the guess , the pressure , or the party strength of the day .

      Mr . Disraeli abolishes part of the light dues as Tinjust ; the injustice consists in their being a payment above that requisite for the service rendered , resulting from the improvident grants of former sovereigns and parliaments . But , according to established doctrines , the length of time during which these dues have boon paid should have cured the original de f ect o f right . All interests have adjusted themselves to the circumstances : the shipowner , when be embarked his capital , knew of these burdensome claims , just as he knew of the natural risks of the sea ; therefore , on the principles of some , no injustice is now done by tlie . se imposts . Nevertheless , Mr . Disraeli abolishes them , and we think him perfectly right . Our comment is , that

      all real injustice , obvious to common apprehension , eventually works itself out , in spite of the artistic defences of theorists . Originally an injury , it leads to discontent ; it lives a life of ill consequences , not the less constant or inveterate from being concealed ; and it ends often in violence , — at best in condemnation and failure . A negro knows when he marries that lie may any day be . separated for ever from his wife ; not tho less for his knowing the risk he runs does all humanity revolt against the wrong . ISo with ( axes on false principles ; time and the alleged adjustment of interests do not take from them the consequences of their original injustice . If the rest of our system be unjust , it will follow the . se abandoned light duos .

      The measure rightly M't up by tho Chancellor of the Exchequer for the amount of the light dues , is that of tho cost of the sen-vice rendered . Me says : "Tho shipping interest will then have to pay for the lighthouses which benefit them -which guide their ships and save their lives ; and I am sure they will no more complain of a tax levied for such objects , and upon such principles , than any other class of the community will complain of the peculiar taxes to which they are subject , but for which they gain in return peculiar advantages . " Hut are there no other parties paying

      much moro tliun they receive in return in the form of advantage ? What of flio tax on public vehicles , really a tax on walking ? Does it take ten shillings a-week to pay for the due performance of tho duties of tho Government in respect of a London street cab ? And might not some of our 1 'Yee-trudo M . l' . s , as well as tho Chancellor of the Kxehequer , find some injustice to he redressed , as well as some impolicy to bo remedied , by applying the principle of the foregoing extract , to this neglected instance ? Practice in the use of the principlo would noon lead to the detection of many

      more cases which , as truly , though not as glaringly , need its application . Give us , however , this principle , and we want nothing more for the foundation of a just and permanent system of taxation . If payment only according to the " advantages" " received in return" be right in the case of lighthouses , it is just as right in that of government . Let us learn what are the " advantages " " received in return" for our general as well as for any gpecial taxation , and let the tax on each person be in proportion to his " advantages , " ( in proportion to his direct " advantages , " as the ship-owner is to pay for the direct advantage of the lighthouse , ) and we shall then need for the establishment of our taxation on

      such a system only that constructive and administrative ability of which it would be a shame to suspect our lack . This is not the only instance in which natural principles force themselves through the surface of Mr . Disraeli ' s speech and Budget . Nor is he singular in this respect . While taxation is everywhere what M . E . de Girardin says it is in France , " the confusion of taxes , " and while , in the words of the Times , our present systems leave us " no alternative but to confiscate what and where we can , " every writer , in laying

      the foundation of his theory , and every statesman , when he has had to defend some one tax , has resorted to natural principles . Mr . Pitt said to the fundholder , " If you expect from the State the protection which is common to us all , you ought also to make the sacrifice which we are called upon to make . " The error begins when the statesman , bewildered by the strife of factious and traditional interests , fails to retain his grasp

      of original principles . He then produces a Budget which , like the present , affords not a principle , nor even a settlement , but the materials for new strifes of party , the objects of new discord of classes , the occasions of new embarrassments of p ractical statesmanship , and an absorbing interest , in temporary and everchanging questions , which perpetuates an habitual neglect of all the hig her functions and nobler end' s of ffoverninent .

      The lon « - and suggestive speech of the Chancellor of lit the Exchequer requires further comment , and the Budget itself must be examined in more detail .

      Untitled Article

      TAXATION REDUCED TO UNITY AND SIMPLICIT Y . Supplemental . TAXATION AT FLORENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES . M . de Girakdin quotes tlic example of Florence in tho fourteenth century , for a successful instance of direct taxation . The facts seem to l > e these . The political power of that city was in the bands of the upper classes , consisting of the noble families and the men of commercial wealth , when , in 1378 , a revolution unexpectedly transferred that power to the lower tradesmen arid artificers ; below whom , however , was still a numerous class , not comprehended in any scheme of government yet in operation . Among the complaints of the lower classes which led to discontent and revolution , one seems to have been the uncertainty of justice , and another the unfairness of the existing system of taxation . These ; two grievances almost always appear in the discontents of states where power is exclusively in the hands of particular classes , whatever may * be the actual form of the government From this time , various changes , chiefly of a factious character , took place in the government , the classes formerly excluded from it retaining , however , a much larger share of influence than they bad before , in 14-27 , under pressure of the taxes required for a long and unpopular war , the fiscal system of the state underwent revision , and a property tax was established , founded on actual schedule and estimate- of each person ' s property .

      It appears that before this fiscal revolution , tho taxes were assessed on individuals at least , with uncertainty , and often according to personal or party feelings : it seems , too , that the lmidcu was made to fall chiefly on the less wealth y classes . The new tax , pressing propovl . ioiHi / t'h / on all , was odious to the richer merchants and the nobles , who endeavoured , both by nrtifieo and objection , firs ) , to prevent its adoption , and afterwards ' to deprive it of effect . HcsideH the bate they bore it from its depriving them of aristocratic

      distinction , they objected to it , flint hh they gave their time to the republic , it was unjust to tax their property also ; and they alleged that it was iinpructicuhlo to fax men according to possessions which must ever bfi fluctuating in ' lie amount . To this the less wealth y classes answered , that others would he quite read y to fake their place in managing tho affairs of tho republic , and that the assessment could always oo made just , if it wore renewed with duo frequency nn < 7 . care : they , moreover , charged their opponent wit ' . t disliking tho tux because it prevented thorn irom going ' a > war to

      Untitled Article

      December 11 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . H 87

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1852, page 1187, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1964/page/15/