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    Gladstone calls tiie optioned expenditure ; mid , deducting the debt the other expenditure increased , in the fii-st ^ neiitioned eleven years , 8 | per cent ., and in the last-mentioned six years 5 8 per cent . The latter period embraces the Russian War , to which the increase in the local expenditure from £ 13 , 224 , 000 in 1842-3 to ^ 17 , , 000 in 1859-60 , or no less than 32 7 per cent ., can by iio ineans be charged . To compare this rapid increase of expeauliture with the increase of the national wealth Mr . Gladstone takes Schedules A , B , and D of the income tax . He does not include , like the Edinburgh Reviewer , the salaries of Government officers and the dividends of the National Debt m his estimate of . our wealth . He states the net amount of income under these ^ Sehedules in 1842-3 at £ 154 , 000 , 000 , in 1853 at £ 17-2 , 060 , 000 , and 1859-60 at £ 200 , 000 , 000 , The increase ot Avealih between 1842 and , 1853 was 12 per cent ., and between 1853 and 1859-00 , 101 per cent ; The total increase of the wealth of the country measured by these schedules , between , 184 , 2 and 1859-60 was not quite 30 per cent , or did not equal the increase in the local expenditure . In the same period the optional expenditure increased upwards of 70 per cent ., or more •¦ than twice as fast as our wealth . Mr . Gladstone ' s fig-ares then do not justify the increased expendittu-e , but they do justify the impatience of the tax-payers under their present burden . They are an all-sufficient reason why the tax-payers should not be content with Mr . Gladstone ' s proposition to clianoe the place merely on which the-. burden of taxation rests . . ¦ ¦ ¦¦ - . , - , . ¦ ¦' ¦ . . ' One portion of this increase of expenditure deserves special attention . The return No . 510 , of Session 1858 , 6 {" lk ( rsiiMS . voted for each year for civil services ,, front IS 16 to 1858 i nclusive , " states separately the . salaries and expenses of the public departments in each year . In 1816 the total ;\ mount of salaries , etc ., was £ 204 , 722 ; iulS-i 2 , £ 730 , 321 ; and ivi : 1 S 57 , the latest year' given , £ 1 , 516 , 041 . in the last sixteen years : of the record , therefore , the official gentlemen who dispose of the public lnoney augumented their own salaries and th , ^ salaries of their dependents 102 . - "' per cent ., or 32 per cent , more than the increase , of the optional expenditure in eighteen years . Between 1816 and 1857 tlje increase in the amount of salaries was fully fivefold , whiie the increase of the population was iiot more than-73 per eent ., and the increase in wealth not more than JLoO per cent . The salaried servants of the state have got more than the lion ' s share of the increased produce of industry * In the interval . between 1842 and » 1 . , the increase of wealth , by Mr . Gladstone ' s test , was : 30 per cent ., and-the increase of population in the same interval was 18 per cent . The increase of wealth , therefore , amongst the classes who pay . income tax under Schedules A , B , and D , vas 12 per cent :, or two-thirds more than the increase of population . Schedule A represents the income , derived from real property , chiefly rent ; and whether we adopt the erroneous theory . of Hicakdo , and say that the increase of rent is due to an increasing difficulty of obtnining-. subsistence , or the tnie theory of Bastiat , and ascribe it to the ingenuity and skill . which more and more as society advances avail themselves of the gratuitous services of nature ; it is , iii either case , equally true that merely owning the land doos nothing towards helping the increase vliich owning the land gives the right to appropriate , The actual increase in the property assessed under Schedule A nlono , between 1843 and 1858 , as stated in the third Report of the Inland Revenue Board , was no less than 34 per cent ., or nearly double the increase of population . It is very plain , therefore , that the increase of wealth , on which Mr . Gladstone defends the increase of expenditure , is much *' greater amongst -tilt ) mere owners of property than amongst tho working multitude . Tt isnojustificatipn accordingly of nn -increasing expenditure which falls almost entirely on the latter . It might justify i » u increase in the tox oil real property to a considerable extent , out not on eatinghouses , the removal of , goqds in warehouses , on dock warrants , and retaining the taxes on tea and sugar , tho bulk of which arc paid by the working multitude . Mr . Gladstone sentimentally monns over the increasing expenditure ., yet defends it and profusoly provides for it . He has told us sorrowfully that the poor are growing poorer and the rich yiohoy ; and his Budget , in opposition to his own theory , levies £ 70 , 6 ( 54 , 000 chiefly on the working multitude to enrich still more the wealthy and taxeating ; Glasses . Slightly understood , the hioreoso in wonltli of the idle classes , in . a . greater degree than tho increase of population is nothing for a statesman to be proud of . The wants of individuals , being excited by tho enjoyments and possessions of the idle and the opulent few , increase " still faster tlian the national wealth . Howovcr artificial these wants may be , when' they cannot bo gratified , the Government will find this incronse of wealth very difl'eront from an increase in revenue . We < lis ? flnin the ohnra . otQi- of party writers ,

    but when the partisans of the astute , eloquent , and mystifying Mr . Gladstone reproach Mi % Disraeli with a prospective and imaginary delinquency inMeferring to a popular impatience of taxation , they must be reminded that Mr . Gladstone , has actually demeaned himself to ask the advice and help of the Mincing-lane brokers , instead of dictating what they are to pay , and has degraded the Government by proposing a crude measure wlndi the mercantile classes will not accept , tie already feels that the new wealth he boasts of is not easily taxed . Our great objection to Mr . Gladstone ' s Budget is the exorbitancy of the expenditure . Admitting the necessity to provide for the national defence , why do the ministers prosecute at the same time , at a great cost , the unworthy war which our vain and fo olish diplomatists entered into with the Government of China about a ridiculous point of etiquette ? Why , when the national existence is , as they allege , at stake , do they keep up large military establishments in the colonies ? And why do . they go on increasing their own establishments and salaries , and never personally make the smallest patriotic sacrifice for the sake of economy ? Within our experience there have heen serious agitations for the reduction of par-ticular taxes , to which the ministers of the day have succumbed ; hut the present dissatisfaction with taxation generally , especially amongst the active , influential classes which sufter most from the income-tax , was never surpassed within our recollection . Hitherto the taxation has been borne , though impatiently , because the community has been , in consequence of the gold discoveries , and the liberation of industry from old fetters , very prosperous . But prosperity has begotten habits of proportionate expenditure , and any great reverse , or even any great check to it , will endanger the whole revenue , and the very existence of the taxing power . Is it even decent in any Chancellor of the Exchequer to run such i > vast risk , in order to maintain the unnecessary expenditure , which Mr . Gladstone essays in vain to excuse rather than justify-. ? Before he set about making such great alterations in the system , he was bound to take care that not a . farthing was expended for any less necessary service than the national defence . Resolving , however , to provide for a profuse and wanton expenditure , -aiid finding in existence several direct and indirect ; taxes ; —numerous customs , excise , and stamp duties , many local rates , all of which- require separate costly collectors and establishments , he proposes several new taxes , without getting rid of any one of these complicated contrivances . He abolishes sonm excise and custom ,-house duties , but leaves the establishments hi ajLt their greatness . Nay , while he is reducing the revenue from customs , lie pxigments , by new regulations , the duties of customhouse officers . '"¦" While'trade , as the brokers of Mincing-lane tell him , is unanimous in requiring simplicity in business , and deprecating a multiplication of charges , he burdens every imported and exported article , and every article moved in bond , " with a registration , fee utterly contemptible in the amount it will yield to the revenue , but enormous in the vexations it will impose on trade . We want one or two simple taxes * like a , house tax , great in proportion to the dwelling ; or a well-devised tax on all property , such , as is levied in the State of New York , leavingevery kind ' of industry entirely free j instead of giving the nation something of this kind , or making an approximation towards it , Mr ; Gladstone retains every old species of taxation , and introduces several new sorts , to raise a very paltry sum . In modem fiscal proceedings , enlightened by political science , We know no instance of any proposition , to raise new taxes so completely paltry as the new taxes proposed by Mr . Gladstone . He takes a custom-house officer ' s , not a statemnu's v iew of the bonding system , and speaks . accordingly in his letter . to the Mincing 4 ane Wokers of the " important ,, services rendered to trade by oustom 4 iouse establishments . " According to 'him , therefore , to restrain trade is to benefit it . Unfortunately , too many traders , knowing nothing of social and political principles , however accurately they are acquainted with their own interests , finding in the present warehousing system advantages , as compared to the indiscriminate rapacity of custom houses , of which they have a traditionary knowledge , confirm Mr . Gladstone in his error , anid even ask that the dealers in bonded goods should be licensed , &o , The public , however , having seen the tonuoiby with which hop-growers cling to the old dutios on hops , the zeal 'with which bankers pray for a continuance of restrictions on banking , and the delight which publicans have in a monopoly , must by this time be convinced that the public interests never are consulted by the supnrate trades to which Chancellors of tup ISxchequer readily defer . 'That some dealers therefore ore favourable to tho new proposition of Mr . Gladstone ought not to satisfy tho public that they are just and proper . By onlightcfied public writers the registration shilling on the import of a quarter of corn , and tlie penny duty on receipts , whioh relieved the payees of largo sums and subjected to payment a great multitude of 8 uinjllrn . ua

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    ¦ ¦ ¦ 1 , 78 , Tlie Leader mid Saturday Analyst . r |_ Feb ; 25 , 186 ( K

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1860, page 178, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2335/page/6/