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TAXES ON TRADE. So much is still said of...
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THE LEADER. [No. 446, October 9, 1858.
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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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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Notes On Indian Progress. Slight Additio...
turning to Any one out of a hundred other means . Fortunately this argument is not worth so much m India . The effect of English improvement is to create numerous new employments without Creating new castes , and , we may add , in so far breaking up the old ones . The railway , the steamboat , the steamengine , the electric telegraph ' , the printing-press , bookbinding , lithography , wood engraving , photography , and numerous new pursuits have created many new employments ; and these fields of occupation will be extended . It is by such means caste is to be weakened , and not by persecution ; and the caste of writers must share in the lot of the others .
Every printing-press set up by the Governments of India in the collectorates and districts is n powerful engine of civilisation , in comparison with which a hundred copyists are of no account . Copyists , as gradually reduced , must seek private employment for their art , which is now in greater request , and their children must ' look out for some other caste .
Taxes On Trade. So Much Is Still Said Of...
TAXES ON TRADE . So much is still said of the treaty with China , the only interesting occurrence for commerce we have of late had to record , that it seems likely to divert the attention of mercantile men from affairs at home . Should this be the case , it will be justly regretted , for more advantages may be obtained for trade by getting rid of noxious regulations , than by treaties with foreigners . In fact , some of the most zealous declaimers in favour of the treaty have already found out , that it is a mere concession of abstract rights which we must gradually work out ,
or they will be worth nothing . Treaties can neither force nor make trade , though they can stop or pervert it ; and the good to-be obtained by this treaty most be purchased by the same exertions on the part of traders as they must have made had" it never existed . The national will , however , which cannot force a foreign trade , may relieve home trade from burdens . Mercantile men have now learned frqgfcexperience , if ever they were , ignorant of them , tfie inestimable advantages of freedom , and they owe it to themselves—they owe it to the principle by which they have pro-_ _ . _ 3 it ~ . _~~ . . -14- 4 « yv j-v 4-V *«*» t »*» 4-i * "vr » a i yi / » t 4 * o / 3 t ~ r \ t luvtw \
SpCr 6 Cl " ~ "lllC j V / WC 111 l *\ J VJU-UAii . A ** ujLVJj . * jj ^ u uj follow our example , to carry out that principle and get every possible tax and restriction removed from our own trade . Although , there are yet a considerable number of customs auties imposed , as we showed on JA \ e 18 th ult ., on the principle of protection , the chief of them are imposed merely to raise a revenue , and the first point therefore to be satisfied about is the practicability of diminishing the national expenditure . But every person outside the range of the Treasury is thoroughly convinced that the public money is wasted
to an enormous extent on unnecessary or wprtluess labour by jobbery and corruption . Every farthing of this [ money is obtained by taxation , and every tax carries with it restrictions on industry . The excise on paper and spirits—it is impossible to re-state the fact too often—prevents the manufacture of these necessary articles from being carried on in the best manner . The customs duties impose on the necessary import and export of commodities great heaps of official restrictions ,, in order to collect the rerenue , to which the passport ^ nuisance abroad , so Justly complained of , is a trifling evil . A man , in . fact , is much easier passed inwards or
outwards . than . a bale of . goods } and customs duties are more onerous . restraint on the industry by which we all live than , are passports . an . locomotion , which jw the privilege and enjoyment of the few . 3 ? or the mere ' performance of the obnoxious labours of the Gafltoia-houae the sum of l , 3 ' 51 , " 15 ' 0 £ was paid in 1856 , and taxes to that amount were levied on the people to pay it . At the same time the men who preside over too performance of these noxious cervices are inflated with offioial arrogance , and Messrs , Pxemanuq . Spring Bice , Goulburn , Saurin ,
Berkeley , and Greg , the Customs Commissioners , boast of oxtraordinary merit , and seem to oxpeottlie admiration of mankind for lessening ever ho little tfie restrictions they decree and tlio public xnaney they expend . ' '' jSeeridefj requiring a hoBt of boastful and very Often insulting officials to carry them into effect , customs wad exoise duties give rise to evasions ana smuggUnj ? , to deceit , l y ing , perjury , and fraud , They are great " aources of vice and crime . " Ladies andiadies ^ wwda / Hho . Commissioncxs of Customs tell vtt . "have a tremulous and vulgar joy in oheatiug
the revenue and evading the vigilance of the officers charged with collecting it . " Besides the attempts at smuggling of tobaqco and spirits , of which the public are informed by prosecutions at the policeoffices , a " considerable number of parties of rank and station had their baggage confiscated for smuggling by the customs authorities in 1 S 57 . " When every kind of indirect taxation causes such an accumulation of evils , we can only feel honestly indignant that a single farthing is ever levied for any but the most indispensable services ; and when we know that money so levied is under many hypocritical pretexts scandalously misapplied , we feel dishonoured > :
and degraded by being made the victims of such a system . Not merely freedom of trade , self-respect requires from us that we should as speedily as possible put an end to public extravagance of every kind , in order to get rid of the sufferings , vices , and crimes perpetrated by taxation to support it . There is one branch of this expenditure , by no means necessary to the performance of the duties of the State , worthy of especial notice , A navy and army and courts of law we must have ; but on them , when the money to support them can only be obtained by a great sacrifice of social welfare , the smallest possible sum should be expended . The
contrary is , unfortunately , the fact , and the necessity to have them is made the pretext for a vast quantity of wanton extravagance . The other branch of expenditure alluded to is voluntary ; it is a work of supererogation on the part of Government , a kind of generosity exercised very often as is pretended in favour of the deeply-injured taxpayers . It takes the shape of grants for galleries , education museums , hospitals , scientific experiments , & c , as if Governntent had some funds of its
own not derived from taxation , and as if payments of every kind were not required by duty , and some could be withheld at pleasure . To such a doctrine we cannot assent . Government is an instrument created by society for the performance of great and solemn duties , and those who arc forever appealing to it for favour delude it into the paths of injustice . The expenditure of Government , like that of other Spendthrifts on taste , is proportionally more than the necessary expenditure on the family , and is permanently increasing . the miscellaneous for civil
In 1841 charges services amounted to 3 , 601 , 841 / ., and in 1855 , after which this item of expenditure in the Statistical Abstract was hidden amongst civil charges of all kinds , was 6 , 741 , 126 / . In 1857 , as we learn from other sources , it was 7 , 227 , 719 / . For the present year the charge is still greater , and the bulk of the vast increase arises from the Government having imitated the Governments of the Continent— urged thereto by successive schemers—in meddling with everything , including education , art , and science . They hold themselves in no degree responsible to their subjects for their expenditure They regard the public money as their private
pro-5 require that it should be curtailed . It is entirely a supererogatory expense , not required by the duties imposed on the government of a . free-peop le * ¦ Last year tliGre was levied by the Customs on : . ¦ ' ' ' ¦ •' . ' . ' ¦ .. " £ ¦ - " Butter and cheese — . 1 / 59 , 000 Coffee ' ... 457 j 000 Corn . 473 , 000 Currants and raUins 2 !) l , 0 ' 00 Wine 1 , 9 ( 50 , 0 . 0 . 0 Timber of all kinds 575 , 500 Small articles , taken collectively 7 i . i , 000 Making a total of 4 , G <> 9 , 500 It is therefore by no means too much to say , taking into consideration the expense of lowing these duties , ami t lie greater productiveness of other duties which would be sure to ensue from abolishing- these , that the addition made to the expenditure for civil services within the last twenty years lias compelled us to submit to all this otherwise unnecessary taxation . It is not too much to say that by reducing the expenditure on miscellaneous civil services to its amount in IS 10 , all the duties levied by the customs on small articles , and the duties levied on provisions—coffer , corn , currants , and raisins , wine and timber , the necessaries of our social existence—might nH at once be got viil of , reducing by three-fourths the labours of the Customi house officers , aud dispensing with tho noxious services of four out of the six Customs Commissioners . This , is not a question , as beggars for Government favours and -Government expenditure represent it , of mere pounds , shillings , and penccy and-a sordid , . love of pelf on tho part of the lax-pavers , but one I of political principle , morality , duty , and conscience . That the arts shall nourish and science be eou-! tinually enlarged is . much to be . desired , and seems ; to be , independent of ~ nll Government patronage , the ' natural consequence of the growth of society . Dut that tins effect is to be brought about by . Vyy-in-g-, the' taxes enumerated to the stoppage of trade , j the proportionate diminution of wealth , and tho . degradation of society , is not to be believed , and would be scarcely'Worth ' purchasing at such ah enormous cost . All the services of Government arc dear if they I involve a diminution of social welfare . At least , this ill-considered , if not wanton , expenditure aud ' extravagance on its part wipes out the line of its duty ; it ceases to be the strict guardian of the public money , ; which becomes the ordinary prey ot innumerable pretenders . It has a fatal effect on the morals of the whole people , including' the mercantile clashes , ' and is the chief source of that disregard of duty we all have continually to deplore . If the _ Government had acted conscientiousl y and honestly in disbursingthe public money , and in levying none but strictly necessary taxes' for the performance of its own ' narrow duties , we should never Jiavo liciartlul" ihc Liverpool Borough Bank and the Great \\ i-siim I Bank . Unnecessary taxation and needless cNjien-| ditnrc , a fatal example to the whole people , lie 1 at the bottom of much pauperism and much ( . 'rime . ! A great portion , therefore , of the Government expenditure , aud consequently of the present taxation , is not necessary ; aud indirect taxation shoiul be reduced . It is more pernicious than direct taxation , restricts liberty and industry , aud stops the production of wealth , as well as misappropriates it . Tho trading classes , who arc . iu immediate viotims , have t , ho best right to be heard on tho subject ; , and it becomes thorn , we think , in conjunction , with financial Kolbrmcrs , to get rid of u > o unnecessary customs duties we have adverted to . Tho number of tho Financial Bcfuniici' lor Octoftcr , which discusses this subject , says , amongst othor things , that sugar , which yields tho Inmost sum to tlio customs , " has become one ot 11 l , ° nocossnricB of life . How to deal properly \ vm » u has always boon one of tho most dUIloiilL qui'siions for Chancellors of tho JCxolicquer . T / m tltttn "to * looted are absurd and perplexing in tho cslreme . ^ Any attompt at improving tho quality of the hiijjiu ' imported is checked by tho duty . If tl >« v « luo or tho articlo bo increased only ' tid ., tho extra duly , u » Is . 2 d . Till within a fow years tlio » iu ? ar « luiic » wore annually gmntuil and annually . subject , to rcv 10 Lon . Quiic as nuioh from a ilosiro to Icu-m . » . ]»«• ' » ; mnno ' nt system of finance , and removes an far oil a * possible tho oonfrol of tho House of Common- * . «» to give security to dealers in sugar , Uicho m ° » Parliament . They aro undorblood to be »; , » ° main tho pvoduot of | . ho contriving bnim oi ' ' » lato Socrolary of tho Treasury iu conjunction \\ ii »
perty , to be used as they please ; and if they abstract a portion of it from keeping up their courts and armies , and apply it to art and science , in the eyos of their subjects or slaves they appear to be acting a very meritorious part . We acknowledge the principle of public money being the property of tho people held by the Government on trust , and only to be levied and only to bo expended for the advantage of the tax-payers . Our Government , therefore , has no right to spend a sixpence on any kind of whim , and it has done a grievous wrong to tho tax-payers by doubling in a , few years the charges for tho miscellaneous civil services .
Without entering into details , we assort that tho grants for the pretended improvement of the people , or for commissioners to take care of thorn , have not sprung spontaneously from our Saxon institutions , but are poor and spiritless exotica , none of which thrive here , imported from the imperialism and the bureaucracy which prevail abroad . The Chadwicks , reprosentativea of centralisation for paupers and police ; tho Lingons , representatives of tho samo principle for education ; tho Coles , who represent It for art and soionco ; the Trcvelyuna , who
roprctsent it jn tho publio oflioes ; with a vast brood of inspector * and commissioners , who eat up tho bulk qf tho sum appropriated for civil sorviceu iajid * . carry into effdet new regulations , all of which iare restrictions , aro tho genuine- offspring of iconstraining and coorojyo despotism . r lo borrow Isuoh contrivances from systemFof government which we all justly and heartily condemn , is to bo at once absurd and contemptible Tins branch of oxponditur , o , thereforQ , whiohis bo rapidly increasing , tho mercantile olasscs may , with great propriety , resist , and
The Leader. [No. 446, October 9, 1858.
THE LEADER . [ No . 446 , October 9 , 1858 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 9, 1858, page 26, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09101858/page/26/
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