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November 6, 1852.] THE LEADER. 1067
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FALLACIES OF MACAULAY. Mit. Mao a it lav...
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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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Hints To New M. P.'S. Prospects Of Tite ...
+ he commercial influence of the empire , is on Lord D erby ' s side ; and the career of the Duke f "Wellington should teach us that even weak overnments in the House of Commons can be faved by the compact support of the House of Lord John Russell , sneered at by Manchester , scouted by Hume , and generally despised , with aS strong a feeling as they can at present get up for any public man , by the democracy , —Ireland , north and south , dead against him on all
quest jonSj the Peers distrustful ol his habit of bidding for popularity , more particularly as he never wins , —and his own followers sulky under the impression , that he had no business to resign this year , and still more suspicious of his capacity , seeing that he , too , is going to Parliament without a policy , —what can Lord John Russell individually do in a quiet era against a party in power , led by the adroit and yet daring genius of Disraeli P Sir James Graham ? That right hon . baronet ' s pre-eminence is a very hazardous one ,
and his position hardly jprononce enough for a party to be formed upon . The death of Sir Bobert Peel promoted Sir James in public view ; but two years have passed , and he has done nothing beyond making the joke that Mr . Disraeli is a ° conjuror . Out of the House there is a vague belief that he is an able man , but there is also a vague impression that he is a dishonest one ; and in the House men know him as the first administrative genius of his age , but also as a man who has lived , and will always continue to
live , upon second-hand ideas . Neither lie nor Lord John , then , are in the circumstances to construct a progressist party out of the scattered elements of the existing "Free-trade" sections of the House ; and unless an individuality be found to lead into office representatives of each section—Manchester , philosophical Radical , Conservative Whig , and anti-Protestant Ireland—Lord Derby , assuming that he has a passable
Budget ready , may be safe for years . As gold comes in , earnestness will go out ; and if we have a war , the effect would be the same on the Tory Government of this day as on the Tory Government of other days—they would have their own way until the war was over , by a battle lost or won : in the one case to be sacrificed ; in the oilier + n nht . ; n '? i a sustaining popularity for another term .
Ihen , Lord Derby being strong by the frailty of Palmerston and Peelites , ' and the weakness of Lord John and Sir James , what can the liadicals do ? Why nothing , so long as Mr . Cobden declares he is not ambitious of office , notwithstanding he confesses it sometimes gives great opportunities for good ; and so long as Mr . Bright argues only in the abstract the capacity of the middle class to be as fit governors aa the aristocracy . Why should not Mr . Cobden aim at ollice as part of tho business of his public life ;
and why whould there not be a middle class Ministry ? If , is Uot to be done under the present electoral syntem . Therefore the first business of Manchester ( and if " practical" Mr . Cobd < m had net to at this business in 1847 he would not have had io < "ill meetings to " settle this question" ) Niiould ho to arrango Radicalism into a Parliamentary Itefonn party , —the business of that party boing to keep that question before the country day by day by means of all the forms and tactics of Parliament . Such a party nhould » x upon itH terms , and wait till Whigs and GratoH
"ann could come up to them ; and when a iM'lorm . Hill wan earned , it should be by tho Re'oniujra , and not by either section of the aristocracy . Perhaps thin wounds Quixotic . Jhit until . Von mea n this , Mr . Bright , should you not sup-1 >>" chn thoHo eulogies upon tho middle class , which ¦ l ( ' utterl y at variance with your practical course " » Joavin ^ | , l , o middle class to follow humbly at ; "Htocr ac / a heels P—perpetually being kicked , jj "' l »« rpotujill y snarling , but faithful always as i () H (> Avoll . | , , iiH ; d cur . s who may bo seen conr'l Y dodging < m either side of thoir master ' s K . but novor daring to riAh boldly ahead .
¦ . | . w « Hhall s « o no ' such Radical party ; and !{ , !¦ !'' ™ | l 'tf nor Tories will volunteer hucIi a jyi ° - ' * ' ^ ai would give- uh a middle cIjihh iiiiH try : urui Wo shall sec no such measure T " * <<> rced for thorn ; first , because a " party " j )( .. " ' ' formed to force it ; and secondly , / or ""'"! ' ¦' ° h too well ofl' to bo oatfor WouH "" ^ rov <> lul . ions at home , however it j , .. l " . » ivoly support the man or men work-* * or jt £ a t j l 0 direytion of roa j j-oform in
the House of Commons . And there being no such Radical party , the prospeots of the session are tolerably clear . Mr . Disraeli will not talk Toryism ; but he will not act liberalism , except in so far as it is incumbent on him to have a comprehensive budget . With the questions which will arise when finance is disposed of , he will play consummately , balancing quids by quos ; as , in his Irish policy , in putting Mr . Napier up to propose a Tenant Right Bill , and at the same time insisting on Mr . "Whiteside asking for a Bill to prohihit the interference of priests at elections ; Lord Eglinton managing the rest by pushing the Dublin Exhibition , and taking Sir Francis Head ' s hints about the usefulness of the police in
keeping a peasantry in subjection ; and the actual prosperity of the country doing , pro tern , all that bills and intrigues would fail in . What may be done in an Irish policy is practical also in the government of England . Party may be set against party—question against question ; and those questions which press for some soit of solution , as suffrage reform , education , the condition of the Church , may with facility , in an era like this , be postponed to the limbo of " next session" —Lord Derby and his friends arranging , no doubt , for their ark in good time for the deluge threatened when the " next session , " with its many arrears , comes at last . The colonies can get on in the old way . Lord Malmesbury has been endured six months ; whv not for
years ? England has had nothing to say to foreign politics these ten years ; she is , therefore , reconciled to her political extinction in Europe . Nobody—as a party—is prepared to " speak out" on anything except in the announcement volunteered to us , with a great air of candour , by politicians of all sorts , that we can't go back to Protection . And supposing that Mr . Disraeli does make himself intelligible on the one point on which he can hardly be reserved—the amount and character of the taxes we will have to pay in 1853-4—he will very likely be permitted to
compensate himself by leaving every other point in the statesmanship of the day in deepest mystery . At least , as the Opposition depends upon him for their notions of finance , lie will wait on their views on every other subject ; and if no combination be formed to propose a general policy , and to develope it as a ministry , then it will l ) c quite within the means of those men now in office to accept or reject what they like ; and so to make the session resultless , except in getting rid of another year , which is a certain gain in an age when philosophical Radicals trust entirely to
time . But , as General Jackson would say , a session is a series of accidents . Mr . Disraeli may blunder ; and Loid John may make a hit . And as there arc more than a hundred of you , gentlemen , is it not possible that cue man may arise from among you all , capable of seeing his way for ten 3 ' cars ahead , of managing and uniting the perplexed liberal parties , and of ending for us , for a little while , this dismal period of indolent mediocrity and purse-proud fatuity , in which only a Derby Ministry eould govern , and a Manchester banquet be dull . Your obedient Sorvant , A STIiANUKK .
November 6, 1852.] The Leader. 1067
November 6 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1067
Fallacies Of Macaulay. Mit. Mao A It Lav...
FALLACIES OF MACAULAY . Mit . Mao a it lav made some statements at Edinburgh , which we cannot allow to pass without a protest . 1 . Ho described the scenes of 1848 as instantaneous " confusion and terror , " following on tho 24 th of February . We will not quarrel with this : it may have been confused and terrific to him . But ho should at least remember that " terror" arose from the doings of the conspirators who plotted in the name of orderin reality , for UieinsclveH . The mistake arises from the adoption of different points of view , and
is therefore natural enough . . Hut when Mr . Maeaulay stigmatises the whole of the popular insurgents of 1848 and 1840 as " a race of I L iiiih fiercer than those who marched under Attila , of Vandals more bent on destruction than those that followed ' ( Jensenc" —the produce of " vice and ignorance "—the barbariHin engendered by civilization , to destroy her ; and when lie theatrically exclaims- —stooping by the way to borrow an " idee Napoleonienno "—such was the dangerit |> a . HNe < l— " civilization wus saved "—we simply beg to remind him , with all deference , that I iik splendid rhetoric ia a splendid error , and that ho
does not state the facts . If we insist on no others—there are , at least , Mazzini and Kossuth and Kinkel living witnesses of noble struggles , not the product of " vice and ignorance , " not the leaders of barbarians , to contradict him ; beside the brave and noble who died by the bullet and the gibbet , in Italy and . Hungary . 2 . " I think that good times are coming for the" labouring classes in this country . I do not entertain that hope , because I think thatFourrierisrn , or St . Simonianism , or Socialism , or Communism , or any of the other isms , for which the plain English word is rdhbery , will prevail . " W ^ e beg to call Mr . Maeaulay's attention to the fact , that difference of belief in the developments of economic science does not constitute an advocate
of robbery . We differ from Mr . Maeaulay as to the merits of Whiggism , but we do not call his political creed a swindle , and himself a swindler by implication . Galileo was accursed as an impious heretic—but that did not make him one . Mr . Maeaulay might be libellously called a Thinker ; but it would not follow that he is one . 3 . But it is not only : n matters of fact that ho has sinned . His logic is not less at fault : — " We have seen by the clearest of all proofs , even when united with secret voting , that [ universal suffrage ] is no security against the establishment of arbitrary power . "
Here is an obvious allusion to France . Let the reader judge of the quality of the logic from a converse of the same sentence based on the experience of America—We have seen by the clearest of all proofs , that , when united with secret voting , universal suffrage is a security against the establishment of arbitrary power . Yet such is the staple of Whig commentary on continental revolutions , and Whig argument against the deepest economical science , and the widest extension of the suffrage !
Taxation Reduced To Unity And Simplicity...
TAXATION REDUCED TO UNITY AND SIMPLICITY" . * VII . SPECIAL APPLICATIONS OF OUR PRINCIPLES . To discuss the application of our principles to particular classes of cases , may not only atibrd solutions of some disputed questions in taxation , but limy aiitAopate some , possible objections imcl illustrate tlio practical bearing of ( Jur views . A few prominent kinds of cases will , however , supply stll needful subjects of examination ; these will lie the cases of The mortgagee and rout-charge owner ; The tradesman ' s creditor ; The fundholder ; The reversioner ; The owner of patent ,, copy , or manorial rights ; The merchant trading abroad . We start from the principle we have already enunciated , that every intangible right to . 1 matter of present use ; or enjoyment i . s a lien on some visible and tangible property , and i . s , pro iauto , 11 deduction from tlu : value of that property to its ostensible' owner . In all private transactions a public impost on tangible property would distribute itself amongst the virtual owners of that property , cither by explicit agreement or by the implicit process of adjustment of market values . Tho national authorities need take no can ; , and can take no advantageous care , of that which necessarily rights itself by force of the interests of the parties concerned .
The subsequent discussions chielly turn on theso points : — Is then ; a jtrcscut property to be protected ? If there is , how is it , taxed by this system ? If tho ta . v is to bo shared with others , under Ilia control of him , in what proportion is it to bo authoritatively divided ? The chief guiding considerations thus exhibited we proceed to an examination of the cases above-mentioned . 1 . 7 V / a Morh / atjw and Jtv . nl-clHiryt : Onuirr . —lit this case tho lien is on property distinctly designated ,
and the inducement to the loan is a fixed rate ol interest . In ease of a mortgage effected after the establishment of the new system of taxation , the ; parties would agree on tin ; proportion of tho tax to l > o paid by each ; or , what comes to the same thing , I lie mortgagor would consider what interest , he could all ' ord to pay if lie also agreed to pay the whole ; tax himself . The present Income Tax resorts to this very principle ; it was driven to do so by linding on trial , from J 7 ' . ) 8 to IHO ' . i , that on 110 other could it work the ta \ with nny approach to fair effect : tho incmnbrancer pays bis Income Tax through tho possessor . ? \ sc . u Lmdor , . Nos . 108 , III , lift , UM , LS . '> , I ' M ) .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1852, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06111852/page/15/
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