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1138 TH E LEADER. [Saturday,
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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 Ilkdu'tt!) To Li'mty An!) Si.Mi...
that of legislative authority in the most advanced countries of the middle ages , is full of interest and instruction ; its most melancholy chapter is that of the taxation and constitutional efforts of Trance . We have not space for this subject , hut everybody knows that the great French revolution of 1789 , the first of so many convulsions , was precipitated , if not caused , by the intolerable accumulation of financial difficulties . Taxation in France * was , in fact , only a part of the ancient feudal revenues or exactions , diverted at first to national purposes , and then modified as time and exigencies advanced ; all the rest of those exactions
remained to the nobility under a state afthings widely different from that under which they originally subsisted ; they were corrupted and enhanced hy time , and embittered by the arrogance with which they were enjoyed . The national taxation pressed only on a part of the people ; for the nobility , wide-spread in the course of generations , still retained that ancient immunity from it which was originally derived from their contributing to it in the obsolete form of military service . Those who were oppressed with this partial national taxation were still liable to vexatious payments due to the lord , as well as personal services , which interrupted all settled plans of labour , and blasted all the aspirations of hope . To this wretched state
of things was imparted the additional malignity of the farming system . If burdensome beyond reasonable endurance before , it was now intolerable , except through that process of degradation by which human minds are gradually fitted to any depth of depression , but from which eventually they burst up in the wildness of insensate fury . The whole mass of taxation and exaction became complicated , technical , and unreasonable enough to give cover to the most inveterate and wide-spread corruption , and the crisis to which it led , however it may have exceeded the expectations of those who , from long habitude deemed the existing regime only a necessary state of things , was hardly more terrible than bfifitted its causes .
Early in the 18 th century Vauban , exposing this system , said that one-tenth of the people were reduced to beggary , and did actually beg ; that of the other nine-tenths , five were so reduced as not to be able to give alms ; four in ore were in embarrassed circumstances ; and the remaining one-tenth , which comprised men of the law , the church , and the sword , the nobility of all classes , the principal merchants , and the most wealthy townsmen , did not contain 100 , 000 families . He further said that , little or great , he did not believe there were 10 , 000 families entirely at their ease . He complained that the lower orders , whom he deemed the strength of the state , were neglected and despised , while , however , the remedy would have been easy and certain if it had been but faithfully employed .
He further averred that the ways of corruption had become so worn into ruts that matters ever fell into their old course , so that in attempting reform it would bo necessary to avoid the established system entirely ; that the taxes from which many were exempted , were exacted from others with such severity , that after the goods in a house were all sold , the doors were unhinged and the floors taken up to supply the deficiency , by being sold at a fifth or sixth of their value ; that on others the taxes fell with vast inequality ; that many
who could have bettered their circumstances , by skill or diligence , prof erred to live poorly sit their case , rather than ci \ £ ountor the risks of this arbitrary and ruinous taxation ; and that a man dared not keep even a cow or two or a few sheep to enrich his land , for fear of the imposts which this visible comfort might bring on him . Ho says further , that the aides and the provincial customs so raised 11 ic price of commodities as to prevent consumption , to occasion the rooting nj ) of vineyards and orchitrda , to encourage enormous frauds , and give nccsision to perpetual oppressions .
This vigorous protest against the crying evils of that day was suppressed , by royal ordinance , in l 7 O 7 , athough to hide ii wrong were to avert its consequences . Reform slept for eighty-nix years longer , and then became vengeance . Thin Marshal of France , not less able in civil than in military matters , was not , however , the only witness . lJoisguilliberl , before his time , Fcnclon his conlemporury , . 1 . « I . Rousseau in the middle of the century , and Jefferson , writing to Washington , towards its elo . se , attest , with equal strength , ( lie misery consequent on this most , vicious taxation . In 177 !) , INI . Ijetrosne calculated that to realize thirty millions for the State , by means of antes , that * Wo had prepared a concise view of t ho progress of Luxation in 1 'Vance from its origin in the 1 'Jllh century , with brief comparative notions of the subject in reference to S [> aiu and ICiiglund : ( he- limits of a newspaper , however , compel us l . o forego its insertion , and we have to hog our readers to uccejtt l . ho Hunimury of roBulltt wojiuvo oubutituted for it .
is , chiefly by taxes on drinkables , the actual cost to the people was sixty millions , and the damage to the development of national wealth eighty millions : making a total cost of 140 millions to the people to gain 30 millions for the State ; a most instructive result of indirect taxation . In 1784 ; MM . Lavoisier and De Tolosan , separately estimated the united incomes of the people of France at 3681 millions of francs , or 147 , 240 , 000 ^ . sterling . In 1785 , Necker estimated the national revenues as they reached the Treasury , at 585 , say 600 millions of francs , or 23 , 400 , 000 / ., including corvees to the amount of twenty millions , but not the dues to the clergy , of about eighty millions . The expenditure , as may be seen below , was about 610 millions of francs , or somewhat above twenty-four millions sterling . The taxes , then , according to these figures , as far as they were available to the State , were only one-sixth of the ^ national income , the same proportion which now probably exists in England . The misery of France , and the revolution which followed on it , were due , then , not to the amount of the actual expenditure of the Government , ( however that might be susceptible of reform , ) but to the false distribution of the taxes and their most extravagant and corrupt management . If Letrosne ' s estimate , given above , be admitted , the taxes , one-sixth of the national income as received by the Government , were much more than one-half as paid by the people ; and , from the inequality of their distribution , they must in many cases have ruined those from whom they were actually exacted . Necker gives the following as the resources and expenditure of the royal Government before 1789 . We convert the sums here , as in the rest of this paper , at the rate of twenty-five francs to the pound sterling . Income . LaTaille £ 3 , 640 , 000 Twentieths , 1 st , 2 nd , and 3 rd 3 , 060 , 000 Capitation 1 , 660 , 000 General farm expenses deduoted 6 , 640 , 000 Regie gendrale 2 , 060 , 000 Royal domains 1 , 640 , 000 Posts 412 , 000 Lotteries 460 , 000 Duties on consumption 420 , 000 Contributions of the clergy 440 , 000 Corvees for the maintenance of roads 800 , 000 Octroi of cities 1 , 080 , 000 Fines and seizures 300 , 000 Casual revenues and duties on trades and apprenticeships 228 , 000 At arc d'or , duties on offices 68 , 000 Divers duties 492 , 000 £ 23 , 400 , 000 Expenditure . Interest of the public debt £ 8 , 280 , 000 Floating Debt 1 , 080 , 000 Pensions 1 , 120 , 000 Army 4 , 224 , 000 Navy and colonies 1 , 808 , 000 Royal family 1 , 212 , 000 Coat of Collection 2 , 320 , 000 Construction and repair of roads 800 , 000 Hospitals 1 , 040 , 000 Public functionaries 530 , 000 Police 84 , 000 Donations 192 , 000 Salaries of tho employds of the Treasury .... 90 , 000 Gendarmerie 160 , 000 Schools of painting , & c 128 , 000 External relations 340 , ( HK ) Administration of justice 9 < i , 000 Divers crnonsea 884 , 000 £ 2-1 , 400 , 000 In some parts this taxation was indirect , as we commonly understand that term ; in others it was direct , but had no certain basis of assessment , while those who were assessed had no etfectual means of defence or even complaint . It was administered in every part by an agency interested in aggravating its pressure on the people and in diminishing its produce to the State ; so that the whole ; became essentially an indirect . system of the worst of till forms . The revolution . swept siway by the breath of its first indignation the most monstrous of tlie nneient abuses , and sonio things besides , which in general estimation were associated with them . Gradually tin ; costly propensities of this as of every new reforming government , brought about the necessity for re-establishing many of the former taxes ; and in this department of public policy , which has everywhere lacked the * guidance ! of olenr and consistent original principles , it , is no wonder that , the hnrussed financiers of the fust revolution n > - sorfed rather to empirical devices suggested by former experience if only they Heeincd likely to relievo the necessities of the day , than to investigations mid arrangements through which timo mid care might , lay the foundations of a true and permanent Hystcm . The present taxation of France is accordingly founded , as to its subject , mutters , ebielly on the practice of former times , and , item hy item , it , looks much like a mere adaptation of the old system to present , circumstances . The gain of the revolution , jih to 1 ' ihciiI matters , was not , in the establishing of trim principles , but in the abolishing of exasperating inequalities and monstrous abuses . This indeed whh n great gain ; and a
far heavier national expenditure is consequentl y now borne with diminished danger and discontent ; bat much exists even now which if not reformed can hardl y eventuate in less than new and repeated revolutions . The first complaint of M- Emile de Girardin , is that the present French practice ( system we cannot call it ) is " the confusion of taxes . " No one principle pervades it . It adopts incongruously all principles ; perhaps more truly it neglects all ; where it idopts a principle it never uses it aright . It is rather a congeries of heterogeneous devices ; it would hardly be unjust to call them tricks . The present expenditure of France may be taken at about 60 millions sterling , and its taxation at somewhat less ; for now , as before 1789 , there is a deficit every year . The 55 millions of taxes cost six millions , or with all charges about 10 millions to collect them that is , about 11 and 18 per cent , respectively . Fifty . four millions of taxes in England cost in collection about four millions , or 7 % per cent . Again , —the expenditure of the government in 1789 seems to have been about 24 ^ millions sterling , and the total income of the people about 150 millions ; the government expenditure being one-sixth of the income . The government expenditure is now 60 millions and the national income is estimated at 200 millions ; the government , therefore , if this be true , now spends onethird of the income . But it is right ^ to add that this estimate of the income is not universally accepted , while , however , no reasonable supposition would render the government expenditure nearly so small a proportion of the income now as it was before the Kevolution of 1789 . The gain of France by her many changes has not been in the comparative economy of her government , but , as to finance , in the more equal distribution and more direct management of the taxes . The chief items of the present taxation are as follows : — Tax on real property £ 10 , 440 , 000 — on registrations , with , the stamps . 10 , 840 , 000 ¦— on persons and moveables .... 2 , 480 , 000 — on doors and windows 1 , 480 , 000 — on drinkables 4 , 040 , 000 — on patents ( licences ) 1 , 880 , 000 — on salt 1 , 000 , 000 Customs'duties 5 , 360 , 000 One-tenth of the octroi 156 , 000 Various , about 17 , 324 , 000 * £ 55 , 000 , 000 The distribution of its incidences as to classes of subject matters , is given by M . E . de Girardiu as follows : — On capital £ 10 , 800 , 000 — revenue 16 , 360 , 000 — consumption and production . . . 18 , 560 , 000 Not classed 9 , 200 , 000 £ 55 , 000 , 000 To this lie adds 4 , 800 , 000 ? . for the annual value of taxation in kind , raised from the poorest classes iu France by the conscription . Again : the distribution by its kinds of incidence is as follows : — Direct taxes £ 10 , 360 , Indirect ditto 31 , 200 , < XK Domains l , 7 fi 0 , 0 < X Various , nay WJJ Produce of the sinking fund .... . M <> ° , jCfir > , ( XX ) , O ( X > We return now to the first of these tables « u « l » " > remarking on its several itcnia , wo draw our fa < - <« chiefly from the work beforo us . The taw . on real , property . Im )) 6 t fancier . "'<> National Assembly , in 171 K ) , actuated by the princip le of Quesnny and Turgot , that land is the solo nource _ ol wealth , wished to lay on it the chief burden of tin ! taxes . The impot fancier was accordingly instituted , u » was intended to raise three-fifths of the whole revenue A few yvarn later , a schedule of lands ( cadastre ) wan commenced , the operations connected with which luivji been continued ever since , and had cost , up to i « > live and n-half millions sterling . The schedule , however , is yet , incomplete , and great part , of Mm I "'" " is lost ,. " , So much for bureaucratic zeal and maiui ^ ¦ incut . . •;/ ,, This tax seems intended to be , liko the oh urn recite , ono of repartition ; that is , a sum Hxcij lor ^ whole is professed to be proportionately " , . departments and districts . Hut such is the blun < le < h of I'Yench centralization , that , no true reparation m . ever to be attained , and departments have to """^^ ditional payments , or receive returns of over l ' ' /" ^ ^ ,, ' . according to some mystery or jugglery , winch w ¦ explained ; the remedy of all this is wild <<> »«'*« ' j | i () hopeless completion of the , schedule . NrltlM " . Hri . taxing process of New York , nor in the poor-m ^ ^ sessinont of England , is there any such dimcuir . y , ( . only to be found , in an equal degree , in «"" 1 * " India .
1138 Th E Leader. [Saturday,
1138 TH E LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 27, 1852, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27111852/page/14/
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