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    VOLUMES OF TKAVKLS.* t traveller is benefactor to whom

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    the State . At the present moment , too , our people are put to an enormous expense of tim-e and money to provide by rifle and volunteer corps for the national defence ; while in France no such expense is ever incurred , and in the United States all the expense of the militia—amply sufficient for 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 with past 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 cpst ' 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 nothing , not even detailed criticism . the

    We object , however , to all such comparisons , as leading public mind away from the real object to be investigated . Tlie nation wants to ' know exactly what is the worth to it of its own ever-Iflstingly-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 . Natdre ' . rewards ' . them '' most bounteously . But this increased prosperity , as compared to the poverty from which these exertions have enabled our people to escape , and 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 benr unnecessary exactions and mischievous restrictions . In every other part-of society service rendered is the criterion of payment ; 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 . If our taxation can be defended , it must be by what our Government does f or us now ; not by what it did . in the time of the ^ lantagene ts of Sir B . Walpole or Mr . Pittf nor by what is done by the Governments of France and the-United States . We are deficient , as the Reviewer

    admits , in the elements of comparison , and it is only instituted by him and others to keep in life present calamities ,- Are all our people riot to have roast beef in abundance because the French live on bread , chesthnts , and grapes ? Are they not to enjoy all the advantages of civilization because the Yankees have yet to conquer the nntenanted wilderness ? Siieh comparisons are bureaucratic juggles to hide from the people tlae actual cost of our Government ; and its actual worth . The true criterion is far less 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 . le

    It may be written in treatises ; it lives in the peop , iiicy , 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 sire valued at less than £ " ?<) 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 hot 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 we 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 an immense deal more than it is worth .

    The Reviewer obviously dwells in a Government building-, nnd knows direct taxation only as a small reduction in the amount of his salary . Ho labours moat assiduously to frighten the people againat substituting direct taxation for indirect taxation , by harping on the visits of the tax-gatherer . To us , alas ! he already comes for the Government taxes twice ft . year , nnd for the pariah rates four times n year . We are then obliged' to pay , whether wo like it or not . Hundreds of the poorer classes are summoned every quarter for not paying rates . Already , therefore , tho bulk , of the * ' community suffer all the possible ovils of direct taxation , against which the Reviewer seeks to warn us , and in addition nil tho possible evil * of indirect taxation . Tine nation ia now vi . silocl b y both those plague * , and those who seek to get rid of indirect taxation would , greatly to the relief of industry , and the progress of prosperity , relieve us of one .

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    , Jan .. 2 . 1 / ' 1800 V } . Tlie Ijeader x anaSaturday Analyst . 67

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    fpHE intelligent traveller is a benefactor to we cannot bo too * . graceful . ' , Ho is the pionoer pf progress ,, and by hut discoveries clears tho way for the merchant , the statesman , nnd the adventurer . * A Visit to tho Philippine Islatuio . By Sir John Bowring , bL . D ,, F . E . S . Smith , Elder , a » u Oo . ' . My Diary in India , in tho Tear 1858-9 . By William Howa * a Rusfiell , IiL . P . S vola . ftoutMgtfj Warno , and H out lodge . .

    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 derived from prejudgment , but whose position or powers of writing command atteiition . 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 . these , there are many in the woik winch first claims our attention . The Philippine Islands , unfortunately , have been made the arena for the exhibition of the / bitterest odium tlieologicum . 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 confidence 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 fled from persecution : about tbe same time , a quarrel took place between the 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 of the Inquisition , also , reached these islands , and laid hands on aprofane governor , by name Salcedo , a Belgian ; the agents oj t . ie Holy Office having entered the palace , found the governor asleep , putiro'is upon him , and carried him a prisoner to the Augustine Convent . ' . The sole historians of the Philippine Islands are the monks , who e judgment is , of , course , partial ; and particularly in relation to one governor , named Hurtado , 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 trtuvpirt , for which act the Dominicans launched their . excommunications and censures at the governor . The quarrel continued , until the king ¦ o ! Spain sent out a comniission to inquire into the tro'ibles , f > r the Pope had taken up the cause of the more violent clergy . An instructive lesson , doubtless , might be gathered from a true narrative of these contentions , but such does not exist , rue turbulent churchman is ever a source of abundant evil . . In the eighteenth century we find the Philippines in danger from the Mahommedan , ; Towards the end of the century ( l't > 2 ) the islands fell into the power of the J 3 ritishV \ . ,, ™ ' . ' The autlior derives from the state of . t . he population m the i ¦ inlrp .-¦ p i-ne Islands an argument against the Maithusian theory , lae Archipelago presented to him unnunibered ^ searsurrpunded . regions , of which few had been trodden by European foot , still fewer thoroughly explored , and scarcely any that are now inhabits by any civilized or foreign race , yet covered with beautiful an 1 sp mtaneous vegetable riches above , and bearing below countless treasures of mineral wealth . Their powers of production appeared to turn to be boundless .. Moreover * they had the varieties of climate . which mountains , valleys , and , plains afford—rains to water , suns to ripen , rivers to conduct , harbours for shipment—every recommendation t «> attract adventure and to reward industry ; with a p- » nul : it « on ot only five or six millions , when ten times that number might 1 > j * upi > lit « l to satiety , and enabled to provide for millions upm millions mure out of the superfluities of their means . Sir John Uowrm- professes to recognise a law of progress in the course of Pi-ovidem ; o . Hie latter , in his opinion , never fails , while the race of man piwweds . in ever augmenting numbers to provide ample means for their maiiitefnance and happiness . Neither land nor sea , he aids , 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 , ouc . i <> t which treats a particular topic , and for the most part coll-eta the requisite information ; and it is illustrated with no lower 1 him seventeen engravings , which are cleverly designed and well cKocittei . Tho most curious part of tho book is an account whuiU btr « l . Bowring gives of a barbarous race living in tho remotest innmitanious 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 wili fruits they gatlw by day , and sleep among the brandieso I the trees by night . They have no form of government , no elucf , no religious vites or usages . Sir John saw one of tho race , who was brought for sale , « s any wild animal might have . beon , t the governor of Z unl ) oaYiga who retained the hid , apparently ot uUout eight or nine years of age . Our author observed him while will ing at Iloilo , with other native servants , at table , and ho se «; nc' < l fciio most sprightly and intelligent of the whole—bright-eyed , and watching eagerly every sign and mandate of his master , lie was very dark-coloured , ulmoftt black , Ins hair dis . po . sed to be wo . ll y . l » o had neither tho high chocks nor tho thick lips of the African iwpwv but resembled many specimens of tho Madagascar people . Uur travollor was informed that tho whole tribe are of very »!" Mtitlwros and that they avoid all intercourse with other races , collect iiotlung-, barter nothing , and , in fact , waut nothing . ^ OontinuinfT thi » subject , which on many accounts , in esc > v \ mfx > y intcroflth ^ , Sir John Wring tell * us phat he had unco oc « . im .. u . a examine in , the prison of Knndy ono of t ? io roul " wild n > ou u to wooas" of that ishnd , who had bucn convicted of murder - but tha moral sOnso was 90 latent that tho judge could not rogard liuir-ftfl «•¦ reanonsib 0 boimr , 43 » t , he adds that little rcaembjuncw c-M-its befwoon Filipi ^ aad tho Oingnlcae in any oxtornal . f ^^ Sl and thenco infer » tliat there nre moro vanutios of ( ho human tuw ) f

    Volumes Of Tkavkls.* T Traveller Is Benefactor To Whom

    whom VOLUMES OF TKAVKLS . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 21, 1860, page 67, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2330/page/15/