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INSPECTION OF CHELSEA PENSIONERS. Much t...
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TAXATION REDUCED TO UNITY AND SIMPLICITY...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Path Of The Two Wrecks. Were The Two...
w almost impossible" of Mi . Thomas , cannot be get in oppositibn to the positive assertions of practised seamen . " Nd amount of conjecture , made at a distancej can upset an affirmation made by a credible person on the spot . There is every reason to believe the ships were seen . But if so , why Was the fact not entered in- ' the . log' of the Renovation ? and why did not Captain Coward send out a boat to Search the ships ? The former is an unexplained fact ; the latter is answered bv another duestion ^ -Is it Unusual that men
should prefer their own safety to embarking in an ice-field on a questionable and dangerous enterprise P Captain Coward does not explain the absence of a record from the leaves of the lo ^; but Captain Coward and Mr . Lynch both explain why a boat was not sent . The Renovation was an old ship , the captain was sick , he feared his boat might be lost , and of course the boat's crew with her , and , above all , he heartily desired to arrive safely in port . So far that is explained . Leaving the ships on the iceberg , floating off
Cape Race , in April , 185 . 1 , let us turn to another Btory of " two ships , " A vessel , named the Doctor l & ieip , left Gal way on the 3 rd of April , 1851 , and reached New York on the 4 th of May following . The ship was behind her time , and the master , to account for the delay , said that he had met with a good deal of ice on the banks , where he had seen " two vessels , abandoned and water-logged . " Now , it
has yet to be ascertained whether these two ships were seen before or after the 20 th of April , 1351 . If before , they could not have been the ships seen by the crew of the Renovation ; if after , is there not every probability that they were the same two ships , especially as Mr . Gaspard Le Marchant asserts that there were no sealing or whaling vessels from St . John ' s lost in the spring of 1851 .
Assuming , then , that we liave the two ships clear of the ice , abandoned and water-logged , off the Newfoundland Bank , let us see if we can discover traces of them further southward . Of course , if the ships seen by the Doctor Kneiphad been some time " high and dry" on an iceberg , they wo uld not sink at once , but gradually ; and especially if they were the ships of the Arctic Expedition , their timbers would be pretty dry , and the interior appear comparatively new and bright . Now , it is very strange that in April ,
1851 , as the Benjamin JSlkin , a homeward-bound ship , coming from Australia , was passing the Western Islands , floating pieces of wreck were observed by the crew and passengers . The captain at the time remarked that they must have been some time in the water ; and a passenger pointed out , what was certainly very remarkable , that the cabin fittings looked quite bright and new P These piece of wreck were
drifting from the Newfoundland Bank . Is it not , at least , possible that the ships seen by the Renovation , the Doctor JCneip , and the pieces of wreck observed by the Benjamin JElkin , were identical P And if we have succeeded in tracking the path of the two wrecks across the ocean , does not tlio very peculiarity of their last appearance make it probable that they were the ships of Sir JohnFranklinP Stranger things have proved true .
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Inspection Of Chelsea Pensioners. Much T...
INSPECTION OF CHELSEA PENSIONERS . Much talk has there been of late about the onrolled Chelsea Pensioners . Parliamentary orators , who believe these islands are sufficiently defended by our " standing army" and our navy , and who trust in the good faith of Louis Bonaparte , have largely counted on the pensioners as defenders of their native soil . When the smallnoBS of the numbers of our homo forces has boon put forward by tho advocates of a national militia , the retort came glibly enough — " Why , haven't you tho pensioners P " " When tho utterly unorganized and undisciplined state of tho mass of tho people was pointed out , tho objectors to a militia , on the scoro of oxpenBO , cried out , " Why don't you increase tho standing army P" Now , it is something now to find in . the ranks of English Radicals this insano rolianoo on a hired eoldiory , who may becomo hired janisariofl ; But we sot that aside , remarking , that it was not with a standing army that Washington won American Indopondonoo , orPumourioss drove back the bent marshals of old Europe over the frontiers of Ifranae . Wo loavo tho groat question botwoon a standing army and a militia on ono side , and turn to tho noxt substitute , tho ponsionoiU
Who are this pensioners ? They are a body * of men who have served their country for a limited time , who have given the best days of their lives to assert its power , and maintain its honour . Many of them have shedliheir blood in the fields of Spain and Belgium , and India , and wear on their breasts medals and stars as marks of honour . They have done the duty demanded of them , and they are paid a Small sum per diem byway of acknowledgment and recompence . They are a rough , but a soldierly looking set of fellows , and , on the whole / much the worse for wear .
Now , we ask the owners of property , are these the men upon whom they would like to rely for active service in ease of an invasion P Last Wednesday they ' 1 were reviewed in Hyde Park by the Duke of Gainbridge . Feeling some curiosity on the subject , we walked into the Park to " assist" at the spectacle , and we saw just the set of men above described . They marched , wheeled , formed into squares , fired , deployed into line , and went through all the exercises usual ¦ on such occasions . W-e ^ have no wish to find fault with them ; they did their best , and , taking their age and infirmities" into account , they did
well . But they were not for one moment to be compared with a large body of Guards who , in their smart white fatig ue dresses , were exercising in the hollow ground nearest to Kensington Gardens . It was quite clear , even to the eye of a civilian , that the pensioners would be knocked up with , two days hard service in the open field . When they came on to the ground and piled arms , two-thirds of them were , in five minutes , smoking short pipes . Many brought their wives and daughters with them , and before the whole formed into line , the wooded table land of the Park presented the ordinary phenomena of a
pie-nic party . ¦ '* Such are the facts of Wednesday's display . And the conclusions we draw from them are , that we have no right to expect great Tservices from tEese men who have served their time , and whose present pay is but a small equivalent for toil and wounds undergone ; and that they are unfit for field service , and valuable only as a reserve , or as defenders of fortified places . ' They would , be easily defeated by a less disciplined body of men , who possessed youthful spirits , ordinary British pluck , and elastic limbs . And our moral is , that if discipline , once acquired , is so potent through life as to enable a body of wornout men to present an appearance so formidable ,
what might not be accomplished if the whole virile strength of the nation were regularly disciplined from youth to manhood , and rendered capable of acting with steadiness , rapidity , and unity P No man was ever the worse for having his limbs perfectly under command ; and no kind of exercise is so efficient for that purpose as military drill . Combine it with education , even the present ordinary education of the people , and you add tenfold strength to the nation , not only for active warfare—which we abhor as much as any man—but for the common purposes and everyday wants of life . Depend upon it , discipline of : the body , as well as discipline . of the mind , is essential to make a great people *
Taxation Reduced To Unity And Simplicity...
TAXATION REDUCED TO UNITY AND SIMPLICITY . III . No system of taxation can bo framed so as to avoid entirely tho co . st of collection ; tho question botween different systems is , on this point , ono only of comparison . Unlike , howevor , whut takes place in respect of all otlior expenses , tho cost of collection is not lioro sufl ' orcd to romuin a simple question : tho incidental olfcct of a tax is always included in tho discussion . But why should this ho done in reaped ; to taxation—that is , payment for protection- —when it is not done in respect to rent , insuranco against firo , tho purchase of clothes , Borvico , instruction , or anything else P Thcro sconia to ho nothing in tho service , or in tho necessary conditions or mode of its remuneration , which should draw a difficulty into ono that is not found to exist in tho othor .
Tho ideal of perfection , in this view , sooms to ho that tho total amount drawn from tho people , should just equal tho nott cost of tho working of tho government , ' with tho more expense of collection superaddod . But it is universally agreed , that this eflbct is not attained by any systom of indirect taxation ; for bottidoa fclio eopt of collection , thoro is also tho cfl ' ocfc of a tax on tho construction , manufachiro , commorco , consumption , or uho of tjie article taxed ; and a system of indirect taxation is chargeable , not only with ita own
cost of collection , but with the cost to the people f the disadvantages or deprivations which are ita Jnor remote but not less certain effects . e On the other hand , a tax On propert y , Considered iitiipty [ asproperty , has no such ulterior consequences It occasions no preference or prejudice in respect of any object ; it leaves choice of design or pursuits ahsolutely free j it is neither more nor less than a cost in ] cident to the very natirfe of property : it gives more than it takes away .
Perhaps it is only of late that we have approached to a just estimate of the disastrous effects of taxation which are attributable to indirectness alone . # Or generations we heaped imposts on every variety of objects , until , indeed , to accomplish the difficult invention of a new tax , was to earn the gratitude of the minister of the day . We have at length , however , to some extent , removed these burdens ; and the new elasticity discovers the unsuspected injury of past repression Taxation had been made a science entirely through its indirectness : it had equally been made a curse .
We find on every hand examples to confirm our views . The Crystal Palace suggests and almost answers the question , Whether the conception of such a structure may not long since have anticipated the possibility of execution . How many thousands of letters remained unwritten under a heavy tax on postage ? How many starving mouths have been fed by the re * peal of the tax on bread ? ¦ *
We cite the taxes on food ; for , although in official systems of thought , we may classify imposts as those of revenue , and those of protection , there is , in reality no difference of e ffect between them . The tax will work according to its nature , call it what we may ; and perhaps the remoter grievances of indirect taxation are nowhere more clearly exposed than in the history of our happily condemned corn laws .
These remoter effects are due not so much to taxation , as to indirectness of taxation . An equable tax on all property wouid interfere but little with the use of any particular kind of property ; the burden borne equally by all , would be light on each . But taxes with special weight on particular articles . prevent , to a great extent , the enjoyment of those articles , without giving additional facilities ^ in any sensible degree , to the use of the many articles exempted . If an insurance were regulated by the number of candlesticks in a house , the candlesticks would soon disappear , without any addition of importance to the rest of the furniture . The bare cost of collection is , then , not the only
datum required for answering the question , —how much does any particular system of taxation take from the people , beyond the sum required for the nett expenses of the Government ? For the consequences of an indirect tax may take from the people , without giving it to the Government , more than a large cost of Collection , nay , more even than the tax itself . Mere cost of collection is one out of the many considerations which affect the question ; but it is only ono . collec
Contrariwise , in the direct system , the cost of - tion is tho sole consideration . No special consequences result to it from concentration of the burdens -ofv ® State on particular articles . A tax as simple as it is complete , applies without escape or exemption to everything alike ; and tho cost of protection to property differs in no respect , as to its effects , from tho cost oi its insurance , its removal , or its repair . It has , indeed , been said , that a tax on property would , in a succession of years , amount to confiscation-Hero is , however , an error . If tho tax bo greater tljim tho annual realized result of the property , no doubtit tax would , in time , absorb that property : but it rt » less , tho property will suffer no positive decrease iio »
taxation . , n 0 In tho caao of any particular property , it can » w consideration with tho rest of the community , wwj ' in tho common cost of protection , whether tu © m » result of the property to its owner bo or bo not grt than tho tax . , , ± X ( V , Whether , in tho case of any country , tlw "™"' ^ tion requisite for a certain average degroo ot mU rJ ' or ho not greater than the annual nett realize" vi niomoiw
must depend on considerations of grout . certain other points of view , but on which wou now enter . Lot it suffice to say , that , y ^^ Jt is ho perilowly situated , that the coat of uovou f ltfl protection is greater tlinn tho nmmal a < lvtmtnfc < J uho , either tho property will bo abandoned , or ^ and less costly security must and will pawy * ' of tho owner on tho aid of tho State . In the laiioi ^ tho Government i » relieved of responsibly } ¦ „„ fond themselves inoro , and call on the tow
may ho soon in many countries . . tffl , uny In sketching a system of direct taxij tioiV * ^ first observe , thnttho roniarkablo simplicity 01 ' ^ tio , i arrangements which commonly attends « w i of u wound principle , fo strikingly brought out
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 5, 1852, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05061852/page/14/
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