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    lieatf of ordinary taxation . If it is not truly Ibonoab , it would Ibe exactly proportionate , and ' then the wealth of the country would-. be paying ; wheieas everybody knows that the arrangement is such , as to let off the wealth lightly , rand to press heavily . upon . the-middleclass and the needy . T . he inequality with wiich it falls , the peremptory manner an which it is exacted , constitute in fact , not a tax as taxes are ordinarily understood , but a forced levy , a compulsory contribution . It anay

    be justified for definite purposes , but cannot be maintained as a permanent institution . Jfhe larger the suin-required , the ; greater the justification for an extraordinary measure of the kind ; but the machinery becomes the more odious in proportion as the sum realized hy it is small . Sir G-eo < rge ! s continuation Budget is of . a kind . which , begs permission to pass < by its ' moderation , ' its practical' character , and its large obvious sacrifice of nine millions .

    It may pass on these grounds , but it'is not really a Budget- —it is an evasion ; it is a begging to be let off a real account this year . The ; 6 iiA . K 03 jiii < oa o . e the : Exchequer relies upon " the prosperity of the country ;'' but the ( prosperity is not inconsistent with a great amount . of suffering amongst the -work-^ ing-classes , and very great difficulties amongst the humbler of the lftiddle-class , to say nothing of difficulties among richer people . Although the exports have increased , although

    the amount of business done exceeds any of previous years , the money-market is ' tight . ' Jn other worda , an immense proportion of our wealth goes to increase the aggregate amount of goods , and the enormous fortunes of those who deal largelt /* in goods ; But the same process is continually tightening the margin . for men of smaller incomes , and extracting larger exertions from the labouring classes . Income , therefore , is one of the worst commodities to tax among the most

    nurn erous classes . Sugar , the luxury of the million , is growing scantier and dearer , and it ought to have been spared . Tea , which " cheers but not inebriates , " and which is threatened by the China war , should likewise have been spared . A . Bound economy exercised in the military and naval expenditure , and in aome few other departments of the

    State , would have enabled the ChakgelIjOR oe the Exohequek , not to reduce the Income-tax to 7 d . or even 5 d ., but to cut it out . altogether ; and the simple reason why we have not that performance of duty from the G-overnnxent is , that the Government does not represent the people—not the millions of Englishmen , hut only the electors , the one man in seven who is better off than the other ^ i-x .

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    POLITICAL SOUNDINGS . We have remarked with pleasure that the Administrative Keform . Association has reformed itself , by extending its plans . At first , it professed to liave no political object , and it fell , naturally and inevitably , iuto a state of premature collapse . As originally constituted it was a failure . Mr . Hoebuck

    was then solicited to rehabilitate the forlorn Society . He undertook the task ; and his earlier programme seemed to promise no larger results than had been obtained by the congress of citizens , pure and simple . To collect information , and to influence the Government through the House of Commons and the constituencies , was the limit of his enterprise , as announced last year . " We then said that such an organization would not command the confidence of the Liberal

    party ; nor did it . Mr . Eoebuck has made that discovery , in conjunction , it would appear , w r ith the three Honorary Secretaries of the Association , for he and they are now working with vigour and zeal in the direction of Parliamentary Eeform . They recogniso the leading fact—that the House of Commons has its genesis in a system even more corrupt than that tvhich distributes appointments to the Parliamentary supporters and family connexions of the Cabinet . The

    association now includes among its objects an effectual lleform Bill . We see no reason , therefore , why it should not be developed into a political L eague , and take up an historical position . Remembering every word we have said , with reference to its original constitution , w e cannot hesitate , under existing circumstances , to promise it the cordial sympathy of many earnest Liberals , who have long refused to identify themselves , in any way , with its

    operations . We may count the Administrative ) [ Reform Association , then , among the props of the Liberal Platform . Another prop is the Ballot Society —© no of the most successful organizations in existence . It exercises a rciu influence over many constituencies . " With its aid the Ballot has been inado a questions the day—a certainty of the future . Xho subject is better understood than formerly , and this on account of tho well-directed

    vigour of tho Ballot Society . Even moro important , howo \ cr , than theeo cadres ol . the

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    aries are liberally paid . But what shall we think of Louis Napoleon , who so long proclaimed his peculiar 'institution as ithe result'of an irresistible national impulse , now discoursing on the difficulty of inducing 'Prance to accept those institutions- ^ -based on " the will and interests of the people , " yet obnoxious . and not easily reconciled to them Is this illogical declaration a sign of returning conscience , or of departing reason , or does it simply imply that Louis Naioije osr , in

    power , utters what he pleases , an a country where no one may criticiseor . contradict him ? Returning conscience is out of the question , for the entire speech is made up of oracular so-phistriea . 'It contains a boast of the " free debate" permitted in Trance . "Whom is this intended to deceive ? Not the French people , surely ; because they know that the voice of public opinion has sunk into & whisper , that the journals in Paris are oppressed by unexampled severities , that all discussion on

    pire is to be kept up at an annual cost , beyond its former averag-e , equivalent tothatiof a Russian war—a Sebastopol siege and a Baltic campaign—exclusive of extraordinary loans . But , then , the army and the civil service are to receive higlier pay , for Napole on must not stint -the guards and the agents of hispower . Besides , he has vast public works in hand to satisfy the workmen whom he has erowded . into Paris ; but what will his masonry yield as a return for taxes wrung from the provincial population" ? And what will he the expense of imprisoning the rivers , and the revolution "within boundaries marked Ixv

    JNapoleo / it , of reconciling the country to . the institution voted five years ago by acclamation ? Speculation , the Emperor says , ruins many an individual , but credit is an inexhaustible source of wealth , and while he extends the operations of credit , he will check the excesses of speculation ; he will have schemes -without schemers . The schemes and the schemers appear , nevertheless , to decline in an equal ratio ;—the Bourse is comparatively deserted ; exhaustion has followed excess ; manufacturing industry stagnates ; the markets of the Empire are uuiversally dull . Louis Napoleon ' s picture of the Empire is a deception which does not deceive .

    the subject of the approaching elections is absolutely prohibited , that , in fact , free debate is extinct . Nor can foreigners be deluded by so transparent a mockery of the truth . This , however , is not the most characteristic point in the Imperial oration . Louis Napoleon " , with a piety emulating that of the Roman Emperor who pretended to be on speaking terms with the Capitoline Jove , announces that his prayers have been heard , that peace has been signed , that the

    INTeufchatel question has lost its warlike aspect , that Greece is to be evacuated by the Allied troops , that Naples is still contumacious , and that his own policy is to act everywhere on behalf of humanity and civilization . It was , indeed , " an idea ¦ wholly philanthropic" which had prompted him to deport political offenders to Cayenne . We now understand the "word philanthropy in its Imperial sense . Louis Na ^ ojj ^ oss " acts

    everywhere on behalf of humanity "—as , for example , among the fens and blistered rocks of Gruiana . He pats M . Thiebs on the back of his History , but does he not compliment M . Xouis Blanc more impressively by practically admitting that the Exile had fortunately directed his attention to the circumstance that Cayenne is not a healthy spot , congenial to the philanthropy of the ' Empire ?

    The economy of the Empire seems to repose on a similar basis . It is the economy of John Law . Credit , the Emperor says , is an inexhaustible source of wealth ; hitherto , in Prance , however , it has produced distress , not opulence ; the swollen fortunes of a few gamblers represent the riches that have been created ; the wide-spread misery of the industrial classes represents an equivalent result of poverty . At all events , the public are in need of relief—and relief , surely , is easy ,

    THE UMPEROll ' S PICTURE OP THE EMPIRE . Louis . ^ apoi ^ o : !* , iu bis speech to tlie senators and deputies of the Empire , hazarded a curicrua admission . He said they " had a difficult task to perform—that of reconciling the country to new institutions . " We have so long been required to believe that the new institutions were the free choice of Frauco , that ifc is difficult to comprehend an avowal that Irance is not even reconciled to them .

    A . wide distinction is to bo observed between acquiescing in tho existence of a dc facto Government and establishing it by acclamation ; so that tho Emperor ' s confession is of no little importance . France , then , did not preior-tho Empire ; it is " the difficult task " ot the senators and deputies to " reconcile " tor to it . Sympathizing with men upon Whom so onerous a duty is imposed , wo may . express our gratification derived from the tact that these heavily-worked

    functionwhen a state of war has been exchanged for a state of peace . But what are the elements of the Emperor's Budget ? He will , next January , suppress the war tithe on registration dues ; but he must , in its stead , impose a new duty on all negotiable share property . That is to say , he will reduce the public taxation by twenty-threo millions , and increase it—so the official organs calculate—by a hundred millions , the administration , in tho third year of peace , costing upwards of seventy millions

    more thnn in the last year of war . Setting aside these figures , however , wo may congratulate ourselves that we have not a strong Government . "While England , with representative institutions on their trial , is reducing her tnxes by nineteen millions of gold twenty-shilling pieooa , Prance , enjoying the uuifcy of absolutism , is cutting oil' a tax of twenty-throe millions of silver tenponny pieces —adding , at the same time , another tax . of at least doublo the amount . So that tho Em-

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    * S 2 TMM IiBABlR . " [ No . 36 : 1 , SATP $ up&y ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 21, 1857, page 182, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2181/page/14/