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November 27, 1852.] THE LEADER. 1139 ___
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ON TILE CULTIVATION OF FLAX. No. IX.—Con...
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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...
It does not appear from M . E . de Girardin , what is the rate of this tax per acre ; but it seems to vary as the land is classed . 2 Reg istration and Stamps . ISenregistrement et 7 timbre . Here are two taxes ; one on successions is traced , as to its nature , to the times of the Roman em-) erors ' ; the other is founded on the registration of transactions affecting landed property , which was commenced under Francis I . The National Assembly , in 1790 pressed by financial necessities , converted that register into a means of taxation . Every transaction mvs when registered , according to a tariff , of which some of the items are as follows : — Per cent .
On transmission of property by titre onereux . 6-05 Additional for every year of a lease .... 0 20 On loans and debts secured on the property . 1 * 10 On transmission by titre gratuit 2-00 & c , & c . To notice ' only one effect of this tariff : whoever buys land with a view to selling it again , must give for it 13 per cent , less than its value , to cover the tax on the two transactions . The situation of real property in France , taken in the gross , seems to be as follows : —
The debts registered as secured on real property are , in number , 5 , 100 , 000 ; their amount is 452 , 000 , 000 / ., to which is to be added 50 , 000 , 000 ^ . of eventual debts , making the whole burden of mortgage 502 , 000 , 000 ^ The sales of real property amount to 55 , 280 , 000 Z . per annum , and every year the loans or debts newly registered reach to 20 , 272 , 000 ^ . The interest on the registered incumbrances was , in 1840 , 23 , 449 , 360 ^ ., and is probably now much more , while the income from the property , perhaps taken as rent without proceeds of labour , was then officially estimated at 63 , 223 , 880 ^ . The taxes paid by this property are stated by M . E . de Girardin to amount to 16 , 360 , 000 ^ . of direct and 14 , 000 , 000 ^ . of indirect contributions . The annual coast of documents connected with titles to land and incumbrances affecting it is said to be
4 , 000 , 000 fc Of the 5 , 100 , 000 registered debts , 250 , 000 are for 121 . and under , the obligation remaining commonly not longer than two years . This cost of registration and discharge of a debt of 12 Z ., is about 12 . 4 a . So that if the debt be paid in one year nearly 10 per cent , if in two years 5 per cent , is added to the interest by this tax . These figures afford the following startling computation : — Interest on debts on real property , pro- bably by this time £ 24 , 000 , 000 Taxes paid by real property 30 , 360 , 000 Cost of deeds and oflicial acts , per annum . 4 , 000 , 000 Total of the burthens on real property . 58 , 300 , 000 Income derived from real property . . 03 , 223 , 880 Balance of revenue remaining in the hands of tho ostensible owners ; equal to one thirteenth of the wholo . . - . £ 4 , 863 , 880 It thus appears that the apparent are not the efleetivc proprietors of tho soil of France ; the ostensible owners are , on the average , in no position better than that of occupiers by sufleranee of creditors ; and if this be their average position , it is clear that many amongst them must be in that desperate condition which welcomes any change . Whether this condition bus arisen from injudicious and severe taxation , from other errors of government , or from causes which no government < "m control , the French people have been so taught to look to government for every thing , that they will expect from it jilone jiny effectual deliverance from this exasperating bondage of debt ; and we may conclude that tho " era of revolutions Ls not closed , " unless the present or the next succeeding government of France should be able to outrun , with magic . speed , the impatience which awaits tlmt deliverance . Meanwhile a Population so circumstanced is evidently in that state of chronic excitability which may either be depressed to ob ject wibmi . ssion and gloomy weakness , or exulted lo h desperation under which it may precipitate itself reckless ly on any object pointed out to it . by its leaders * or tho time . IS Umpire , e'est la pai . r , however desirsi' !<» , niiiy possibly not prove practicable in presence of ll » " question , foncicre . We ought to add that the system of registration as earned into ejfe . ct in France , " is such according to tho svo wul of lawyers , that in buying one is never . sun ? of l ) ll "' K ii proprietor , in paying one is never sure of being n '«! « d of the d ,, bt , and iu lending one in never sure of 1 mi >« K paid af * ain . " «* Tim taxes on persons- and mooeabl . es . Jmpol ' i'e-rnonnnt . at mobUier . —The personal tax is the value of '''»>" t'e tliiyn work , as determined by the council-general ° ' the department . All persons gaining <> r able to gain " •< 'ir own livelihood art ) liable to \ l , wmie classes ex-( opted . The tux on nioveablen , or nil her furniture , ^ oina | , o bo j- eally regulated by the rcnl . of the house or
apartments a person occupies , and is in common cases about one per cent , of that rent . These two taxes are collected together . Tho latest statement is of the date of 1835 , when 6 , 009 , 420 persons paid them , of whom 4 , 707 , 069 were rated at four shillings and under . But in many places such difficulty is found , in the present state of France , in realizing even rates of half- that amount , that large cities have obtained permission to add the gross sum due from it for these taxes to its
octroi , and so to free the inhabitants singly from them . 4 . TJie tax on doors and windows . Zmpot des portes etfenotres . This tax , imitated from England , is imposed at the rate of about 3 ^ d . for each opening . We only stay to remark that " almost half the habitations existing in France have one door , without a window , or only one door and one window . " " Such habitations , " M . de Girardin very justly adds , " are not houses , they are huts . "
5 . Tax on drinkables . Impot sur les boissons . —jSTo less than sixteen different charges , including that on the soil , apply to wine , or may be made to apply to it , in its progress to a consumer , within the boundaries of a city : the consequence is , such an augmentation of the price of the lower qualities as seriously to interfere with the consumption , and with the comforts of the working population . Wine , which has cost in the department of the Yonne , no more than &\ d . per gallon , is raised , by successive imposts alone , without either cost of carriage or profits on the sums advanced for imposts , to 3 s . 2 d . per gallon , before it reaches the artizan of Paris .
It is not necessary to retrace here , in detail , the well-known consequences of excessive imposts . The following facts will suffice . The cost of collection of the tax on wines is now twenty—under Napoleon it reached nearly to thirty per cent . This impost has ever been amongst the most unpopular and vexatious of taxes ; accordingly , every successive French Government , while struggling into power , has abolished it , or promised its abolition ; but every
one has left it as bad or worse than before . The Constituent Assembly , in 1790 , condemned it ; the Comte D'Artois , in 1814 , promised to abrogate it ; Bonaparte , in 1815 , took up the same popular device , but did not fulfil his word , and afterwards attributed his fall to the fact , that the consequent discontent of the wine countries of the South compelled him to turn his military efforts to the North , where he met his fate . The IJestoration re-established these taxes , under a new name . The Constituent Assembly abolished them , in May , 1849 , but re-established them before the end of the
year . To similar purpose we might pursue the changes of system . Up to 1790 wine was taxed in the hands of the grower , whose stock seems to have been subject to a kind of excise , under check of an inventory . Then the tax was abolished ; afterwards it was set up again , but to restore the inventory was found impossible ; so the pressure of the tax was removed to the dealers ; but then , much wine going to consumption without going to dealers , a tux was laid on it in transit ; then this was
found difficult , and was repeatedly varied ; then a tax of one-twentieth of the price was laid on it at every sale , but this soon became intolerable ; the hist and the existing device is a , tax on its circulation , regulated according to the local price of wine , that is highest at the greatest distance ; from the place of growth . The present taxes on the wine itself seem to amount to nearly one shilling per gallon , besides licenses , and the various expenses of a , system which so crosses , at every step , the courses of industry . The wine districts seem to be the poorest and most
embarrassed in the country ; the consumption of wine in Paris , proportionately to the population , diminishes ; and smuggling , that sure companion of heavy , indirect taxation , llourisbes , tho only profitable result of the wine duties of Krance . M . M . d « Girardin estimates that , since . 1815 , the injury to (' 'reach interests from these duties cannot be taken at lews than eighty-eight millions sterling or more than two invasions cost the country .
The duties on- goods entering towns and cities Joy consumption . . IS Octroi . This was originally I-octroi de bienfaisatwe-- the grant of benevolence a contribution for charitable purposes , apparently intended to operate as a kind of poor-rate . Its depravation to an instrument , of most injiulirioiu ; local taxation ( for real charity has long left it ) is ' u memorable comment on the
mistake of putting charity on the false footing of involuntary contribution . I'Yoin this local tax , most unequal in different cities , anil most extravagant in its cost of mnniigemenl , ( he government takes a ( enth , under title of dec ! me- de guerre , and that after no many years of pence . Thin tenth Keen is lo have originated in tho practice of towns through which soldiers passed finding them bread f <» " their soup ; this , converted into a biiuliii !/ - uriiige and then into a tax , exactly resembles
in its history many imposts in India , some of winch are in their origin and progress both curious and instructive . A government ( there being no control above it ) , will always , when it can , convert a benevolence into a custom , and a custom into a tax . From having been intended as a benevolence , the octroi ( the very meaning of its name popularly forgotten ) has been made to impoverish the poor , by raising the cost of their needful food . Its oppressions have been bitterly complained of ; its bureaux have been burnt . But the financial confusion of Franco lias ever encouraged it to raise its head higher than before . M . E . dc Girardin says , " The suppression of the octroi is the first stone , the fall of which will bo followed by the collapse of the entire financial system of France . Happy day . "
Of the tax on trades ( pale 7 ite $ ) , the tax on salt , and the customs , we say nothing more than that they bear in France their usual fruits . Protectionist theories still cover a respectable though unsound advocacy of a most injurious system of customs' duties ; but it is difficult to imagine by what fallacy beyond a discreditable allegation of necessity , the internal taxes we have just mentioned can still be defended . The lessons most strongly impressed on us by this brief review of the fiscal condition of France , are the vastness of the evils of indirect taxation , and the hopelessness of any effectual reform until some principle shall be adopted , simple , dear , and just enough to obtain universal sanction , and to bring every detail ^ into practical conformity with it . Personal revolutions ,
and even constitutional changes , can do nothing for the permanent peace of France , so long as the greater part of her population have reason to deem the law an exactor , governed by no intelligible principle , and restrained by no regard for the maxims of morality and prudence which control through conscience the business of private life . The true objects of all government are of infinitely higher moment than the mere incidental cost of accomplishing them ; and to ruise from the people , by just partition , the funds required by that incidental cost , ought surely to be one of the least complicated , of public affairs ; but in most countries , and more than any , perhaps , in France , it seems to be that for which , above all things , the Government exists , —its greatest , most difficult , and most odious task , one of the chief evils the exhausted people have to bear . The views and plans . of M . E . de , Girardin , in reference to taxation , will be discussed in our next .
November 27, 1852.] The Leader. 1139 ___
November 27 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1139 ___
On Tile Cultivation Of Flax. No. Ix.—Con...
ON TILE CULTIVATION OF FLAX . No . IX . —Conclusion . * Mr . Donxan's executrix , taking advantage of the law by which inventors are allowed a delay of nix months for the publication of specifications , still withholds the particulars of the "dry process , " and we cannot , therefore , conclude our present series with a full development of the plan . We are , however , well persuaded that ere lony we shall have to revert to this peculiar
mode of extracting the ilax-fibre , as recent experiments have completely proved our position , that in throwing aside the woody portion of the plant , the growers wa \ i sacrificing very valuable constituents for the formation of flesh . Indeed , the question has now assumed such a form , that , whether the process of the late Mr . Donlan be or be not adopted , we are . satisfied that the " dry process" must ultimately triumph . -We are not jiL liberty at , tliis moment to enter fully into the details of mi analysis recently made , but our renders may rely upon the following general result .
Taking good meadow hay as a standard by which to judge of the qualifications of the flax-plant , divested only of its fibre by si dry process of extraction , we find that flax-seed excels bay in flesh-making properties by about seventy-five percent ., and in fat Inj iic . tirlgseventeen limes its value , while it is but little , interior to hay iu qualities contributing to the sustenance of animal lieat . The husks or capsules of the linseed are still richer in llrsh-mnking properties , ami exceed linseed as : i combustible , but contain no fat whatever . The pith or wood of the flax-plant contains about three times as much Iteslt as is contained in an equal weii / ht . of hag .
it bin a fraction as niucli combustible , but no fat . A discovery no less important is , that Ihix , iu reality , robs tho soil of considerably less salts than either hay or wheaten straw , thus entirely upsetting ( lie doctrine of its exhaustive nature . The conclusions to be derived from the various , analyses are , ( hat whilst flax-seed , husks , and pith are less al ) lo to support animal warmth than hay ,, tho fattening property oMhclir . st and the IIesh-making of the second and third , are very much . superior . Now , its , when combustibles prove deficient in animal food , the fat first and the flesh lastly falls a sacrifice , it will follow that , a combination of linseed , liu . sk :., and pith , since ; they Milliee to fulfil all the , con-• Hen . Laidir , W .. h . IH » , LI ' . ! , 113 , 111-, \\» , PJ 4 , I-JC . !'" . »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 27, 1852, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27111852/page/15/
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