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Xlgg THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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oDpra Cmtmtt.
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[IN THIS nEPABTSTENT, AS ALL OPINIONS, H...
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There is no Inurned man but will confess...
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INCOME TAX. A TLEA l<X)Ji THE LABOUEKR. ...
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THE MORALITY OF WOMAN'S RIGHTS. (To the ...
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KAHUATH OH8KRVAN0H IN H(JOTLANI). (To th...
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NOT10KM TO CORUKHI'ONDION'l h. Our Oorro...
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Transcript
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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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Taxation Reduced To Unity And Simplicity...
the injury of the interests of the republic , without subiectini ? the mselves , as before time , to a due proportion of the expense . It is , at any rate , clear that if so simple and just a law excited those violent contentions , the previous state of the taxation must have been extremely tad ; a conclusion confirmed by the ecstasy of contemporary chroniclers , who declared the new law not merely justice , but holiness .
The richer classes , however , contrived , by means of their influence with the magistrates , gradually to debase the assessment to their own profit , by screening great part of their own property from the impost . The law was therefore re-established in its original force in 1458 , and the success of the commonalty on that occasion was again considered a triumph . Ten commissioners were at that time charged with the assessment , probably in supercession of the magistrates , who had mismanaged or corrupted it . In 1471 the law , on whatever occasion , was again enforced .
This tax was one of the measures which most distinguished the successful and popular policy of the earlier Medici , in opposition to that of the oligarchical rulers of Florence ; and the decline into which it fell with the consequent necessity of renewal , was probably much connected with the party strifes and changes of the time in which that distinguished family were principal actors . But the fundamental cause of the instability of so just a tax , was evidently the condition of law and morals at the time . In a state where violence was commonly resorted to , whether for private revenge or for the accomplishment of public changes , it is quite clear that calm equity had no chance of success , although it might happen to be expressed in the terms of a law .
Xlgg The Leader. [Saturday,
Xlgg THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Odpra Cmtmtt.
oDpra Cmtmtt .
Pc01607
[In This Nepabtstent, As All Opinions, H...
[ IN THIS nEPABTSTENT , AS ALL OPINIONS , HOWEVER EXTREME ABIC ALIOWW ) AN EXI'HKMSION , THIS 3 JDITOB NKCEBSAEILY UOLDH IIIMtJELl ' ' ltliHl'ONNIBliB l'OU MONK , ]
There Is No Inurned Man But Will Confess...
There is no Inurned man but will confess he hn . l / h much profiled by reading controversies , 1 us senses awakened , and rns jud ;; rneni , sharpened . I f , then , ll be [ H'ofitable for him io read , why . should it , not , nt least , be tolerable for Jus adversary to write . —Mii / ton .
Income Tax. A Tlea L<X)Ji The Labouekr. ...
INCOME TAX . A TLEA l < X ) Ji THE LABOUEKR . ( To the Editor of the Loader . ) ftjR , I believe the object of the valuable series of papers which have appeared in the Leader on Taxation , in to show the truth of the principle that it is only realized property which should be taxed directly for purposes of government . 1 have long held this view myself , and urged it in several places ; and us my grounds for doing ho are somewhat different from yours , perhaps you will allow me to state tlioni , and to challenge contradiction to them by any of your readers . 1 wonder that the quoters of Dr . Adam Smith have never stumbled on such passages Jih these : — " Taxes upon the produce of land art ) in reality taxes ujKMi the rent , and though they may be originally advanced by the fanner aue finally paid by the landlord . " ( II . 5 , Chap . 2 . ) " The revenue or profit arising from stock divides itHolf into two parts—that which jmyH tho interest and lxiloiltfK to tho owner of the stock , and that surplus part which in over and above what , is necessary for paying tho interest . T . Jio latter part of tho profit in cvidontly a mibjcet not taxable directly . " ( U . T > , Chap , ii , PurtJS . ) And in his article on taxing wogos and labour , which includes all profeanional income , he miyn that such taxen are absurd and destructive , and Hint tho labourer will in no eano pay them . The reHulli of all his remarks on those subjectH Icada to 1 , 110 conulunion that it is not unfair to lay all direct luxation on realized property ; that it la not , tw Mr .
Disraeli said , confiscation to tax one income more than another ; that it is not politic in Government to interfere between a person and the servants he pays , and stop a part of the wages j that it is a false principle to believe such interference necessary ; that this tax , if it have any effect , is only to punish most that capitalist who pays most in wages , and that it must therefore check enterprise . In fact , Government is the immediate superior of realized property , but it is not so of the income I receive from my master , perhaps as his clerk , steward , chaplain , or physician .
Let Government tax my master in the first place on his means and property—he can and will afterwards regulate my salary according to his power , or in some cases his choice . Let it tax me on my means ; that is to say , on my property , or the estimated good-will of my business , judged externally ; but it has no business with my actual salary or profits . It might , indeed , without injustice to any one , disregard so mere a trifle as the estimated good-will of any business ; but if it should put $ tax on this , it might be done without such interference as is practised at present with so much damage to morality .
Sir Robert Peel was , perhaps , justified in imposing such a law as a temporary measure , and , indeed , he was forced to do it ; but as a permanency it is perfectly indefensible . Your obedient servant , An Arithmetician .
The Morality Of Woman's Rights. (To The ...
THE MORALITY OF WOMAN'S RIGHTS . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Q m > —in the belief that there are many women watching the signs of the times , and waiting , like myself , for guidance out of the narrow and miserable life of the present into something nobler , I feel justified in asking space for a few remarks , suggested by the admirable letter of Mr . Nicholls in last week's Leader . All he says is too emphatically true to need repetition ; my object is , therefore , simply to point out where I believe the chief difficulty in the way of its reception is to be looked for , and to ask counsel as to the beat method of dealing with it .
The main difficulty , I conceive , to rest with women themselves , and to arise from their looking at the question from a false point of view . So long as they continue , either through ignorance or perversity , to treat as a matter of taste that which is really a question of principle , so long as they take their stand on grace instead of worthfulness , and p lume themselves on forbearing to demand as a right that influence , the faithful exercise of which God has laid upon them as a duty , —so long must all efforts to raise their position be unavailing , because unseconded by their own exertions .
Tlii . s brings us to the subject of female education , in which reform is sadly needed . If women are to be * whut God intended them , their nature must have fhir play , and instead of the careful toning down to inanity which characterizes so much of modern education , there must ho as en refill a toning up to earnestness and vigour . Teach women by all means that they are to be elegant and graceful , but show them that this is to be accomplished at a loss cost than the sacrifice of all that is deepest and holiest in their nature . See- if careful training will not stand in place of lopping , — if we cannot have the elegance of tho bryony instead of tht ! primness of the clipjuul hedge .
In our attempts to raise tho social condition of women , then , we want , beforo all , a better system of education ; but is there nothing wo can do that will I ) o more immediately cilicac . ious-- —no Heed to bo kowji , the fruit of which we muy oursclvcH hope to gather V To this queHtion the hitter of Mr . Nicholls appears to mo to b ( i an answer ; ami heartily thanking him for calling upon women as lie has done , to work out for themselves a better position , T beg to inquire whether there is any means of working for thin great cause , and inducing others to work for it , in which more can lie . done by concert than by single-handed exertion . If no , how in this concert to bo arrived at P Youi-h very faithfully , i , , ' ( i Novomlior HO . I . I-.. l > .
Kahuath Oh8krvan0h In H(Jotlani). (To Th...
KAHUATH OH 8 KRVAN 0 H IN H ( JOTLANI ) . ( To the Editor of the Lmdor . ) ttrit , —Will you permit me to o / I ' or a few roinnrka in your paper , in which hoih sides of a question obtain consideration , on your correspondent A . ' a letter , on " . Sitbbath Obwiviiiiee in Scotland . " JI < ' has toldttoine homo truth * , but be haw not told all tho truth .
The greatest errors prevail , out of Scotland , as to the manner in which the Sabbath is spent in Scotland Jt is generally believed that the vast majorit y of the people consign it to gloom and moroseness . Now what » re the . facts ? The facts are these . About one-tenth of the population , consisting of Irish Roman Catholics pay almost no regard to it at all . Another large Bee ' tion , Protestant in name , disregard it also , and many of the moral virtues besides . A third , consisting of intelligent reading men , many of them liberal and benevolent , devote it to" reading , amusement , and the Uke . A fourth spend it entirely in the exercises of
religion . This fourth class , I venture to say , without fear of contradiction , and without any disparagem ent to the third class , which is small in numbers , is the cream of the country . You will find them sober , industrious moral , and intelligent , I know Scotland well , and I am prepared to take any stranger through any town in Scotland , and show him the serious worshipper on Sabbath the true-hearted man during the week . I say nothing of bigots and hypocrites—they are to be found of all creeds , and are just as little the representatives of one as of another .
Mr . A . draws a dark picture of a Sabbath day in a Scotch Christian family . Does he not know that the gystem he so justly condemns has no necessary connexion with either the Bible or the Shorter Catechism ? It is a portion of that stern and unintelligent mode of education which was at one time universal ; which wielded the birch so unmercifully in the public school , and compelled youths to study Latin and Greek , in grammars written in the Latin language . The evil yet exists , but is not to be found among the really intelligent pious of Scotland .
But Mr . A . will have us believe that the morose observance of the Sabbath is intimately connected with the immorality so vividly described by Dr . Buchanan of Glasgow . Why , three-fourths of those who have sunk to the degradation described by him are immigrants from Ireland , who are innocent of all acquaintance with Protestant clergy , or Bibles , or Shorter Catechisms , or Sabbath Observance . Is it fair , I ask , to charge the guilt of such men on anything peculiarly Scottish ? If you will just sweep away all the Irish Catholics who have come into Scotland during the last fifty years , and their children with them , you would see that Scotland , even yet , would present a spectacle at the least as moral as any country in Europe .
But then the drunkenness of Scotland : how superior ungodly France is to godly Scotland . Sir , I grant the superiority in this one particular . I abominate the drinking usages which prevail in Scotland , and think it no extenuation that Norway and Sweden , where the Sabbath is not observed , are quite as bad . But who are these drunkards ? A considerable proportion , these immigrants I spoke of ; a still larger proportion those who never enter a church door , and who may spend their whole Sunday in the fields , if they choose ; and only a fraction those who are members of Christum
churches . But I admit the inferiority of Scotland to France in point of sobriety . Is , therefore , Scotland inferior in morality as a whole P Will any man who knows both countries assert that France , which has submitted without a struggle to the yoke of a petty profligate tyrant , which never ventured one remonstrance when U government trodo oilt the spark of liberty at Koine , where the clergy offer up blasphemous adulation to a first principles
pinchbeck Emperor , and where the very of good and evil are still in debate—that tins is n country . superior in moral principle to Scotland ? Drunkenness is a monster evil : let every good man hit up >»» voice against it ; but there are other virtues Ihmh «« sobriety , not less estimable . What shall we say ol 11 « virtue of Parisian women , and the good faith <>^ iM-enc » - men P Th there enough of good principle , in J ' runc'O ¦ send out one hundred and fifty thousand unpaid l . ibourcrH , every Sunday , to teach our young and W " ' population what they believe to be God ' s truth i' < man who prefers French morality , iih a whole , ¦ Scottish , must , have very different ideas ol ntf " ' »
wrong from those which I entertain . Ah to the cure of Scotch drunkenness , I very " > " <• ' fear thai those will not be reclaimed in . tn it by « lni « ' K on tho green , and cheap theatres , who haw v « kIi « - « I i - if , in spite of the terrible warning of that volu . ne w we call the Hil . Ie , where , it declares , tliul no d"inluu shall inherit the kingdom of heaven . Your obedient servant ,
Not10km To Corukhi'ondion'l H. Our Oorro...
NOT 10 KM TO CORUKHI'ONDION'l h . Our Oorro »|»«> " « i « n » - » »"' «««""» . " " ' . !\^ y \^ " ^ t HiutiiiK . howovor , thiil it would not , b « ™ -o |»« m « l . the JPoBtnuKjter-Uouoml , London .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1852, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11121852/page/16/
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