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resources available for those wants , but he shows the most total incapacity for comprehending either the deplorable necessity or the glorious opportunity . He shows the wish to look as if he were doing something for each class or interest . The man even had the face to pretend that his commuted window-tax was a boon to the agricultural interest The Queen ' s speech has recorded the distress of the agriculturist , and what does openhandetl , or rather openmouthed , Sir Charles do for them ? He gives up the £ 30 , 000 which they now pay on
seeds , and he bestows on them the jack-o ' -lantern dodge about the window-tax . So much for the agriculturists . Oh , yes , there is also part of the pauper lunatics— part ! Sir Charles does everything by halves , or rather by fractions , with an excuse for the rest . He gives up part of the duty on sawn and hewn timber—a boon to the building interest . To the coffee-seWer he gives up part of the duty on foreign coffee . We say to the co&ee-seller , because the rich consumer already has the best coffee , and to him the duty is no great burden : the poor housewife , who cannot invest money in kitchen furniture , will still buy the ground coffee ,
composed of corn , beans , and other less delicate substances ; but the coffee-seller who wishes foreign rather than colonial coffee for his compound , will pocket the difference of duty . To the public at large Sir Charles gives part of the window-taxpart ; for although he professes to repeal it , he takes an ill-contrived house-tax instead , equal to two-thirds of the abandoned tax . Given the draft of the ship and the height of the mainmast to find the captain ' s name—that is the principle by which the new house-tax is to be assessed . The shifting of the tax from windows to houses is a clear gain , in the sanitary way ; but it has no merit in a financial sense .
What does the Chancellor of the Exchequer do for the labouring classes of field or town ? Nothing . What he does only makes us all the more conscious of what he does not . He professes to be continuing the income-tax in order to continue the process of tariff reform began by Sir Robert Peel he does continue that tax , imposed by a stronger man than himself—for the present puny Ministry would not have dared to ask it , much less
succeeded—but his continuation of tariff reform is a burlesque . He cannot even improve the incometax , which he is rendering permanent . He pecks at the national debt in the name of reducing it , giving one million towards the debt of eight hundred millions ! He complains that £ 27 , 000 , 000 has been added to the permanent debt since 1830—in profound peace ; and now he is very proud because he gives one million towards the old debt . Yes , £ 27 , 000 , 000 added by the Reformed Parliament .
If the country were in a sound state , financially or oeconomically , there would be no complaint against a Ministry simply continuing to govern the country without change—as Lord John ' s Ministry really is doing ; but Sir Charles meddles in every direction just enough to mark his confession that everything wants improving , without having the heart or the energy to do more than make his
mark . Not a class will thank him . The trade of the country is hindered by ill-contrived duties still deforming the tariff , such as the Excise duties ; but not a step is made to prepare for their removal . The middle class still groans under an income tax , execrable because it is so contrived as to bear especially hard on the trader and professional man , and intolerable as a permanent tax ; but not tin effort is vouchsafed to render the harshness easier to the
galled back ! Sir Charles only jokes about it . The landed interests still struggle with diflicultien , and Sir Charles gives them the seed duty , or jokes about the window-tax . The working classes still pay large imposts , on tea , on soap , on the materials for their beer ; and not a word about them . Labour gains nothing from the new budget ; Land gains nothing ; Capital gains nothing that will extend employment into fields now shut against it .
liut ask all these , classes if they are content that nothing should be thnui in this year of " prosperity , * ' towards preparing for worse days ? Ask the farmers if they are content to go on as they are ? Ask the working classes , the unrepresented classes . Ask the middle-chiHs payer of the income-tax . It is a bad budget , and if any class were fairly represented , the whole Commons would be nothing but one consolidated Opposition against the wretched Department clerks who art ! sitting in the scats of Ministers , playing ul work , of ( iovernnu'iit .
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THE PROGRESS OF LIFE ASSURANCE . Wiierk are we to look for a solution of the fact , that life assurance is a luxury held out to all but enjoyed only by a ew ? St . Philip Neri is said to have instructed the Roman youth first to provide against the inevitable , and then to think of the possibilities and contingencies of life . Many people in our day reverse this course of conduct in their treatment of Assurance . Death is inevitable . It is the fate of all living . Fire in a possibility . It is the misfortune of a lew . Yet , he that neglects to insure his house and goods , is regarded as a fool or
a madman : while , out of the whole population of Great liritmii and her Colonies , the insured lives are under 250 , 000 . If not to protect oneself from the pecuniary disadvantages of an accident which may happen , would be sufficient to gain for a , man the credit of extreme foolishness or lunacy , how many fools and madmen must there he in Great Britain who , having the opportunity of shielding their property and dependents from an accident which must happen , yet neglect to avail themselves of the proffered advantnge ? The prccariousm-HS of the tenant of existence
must be felt by the most thoughtless and inconsiderate . We see numbers falling on every side : a few in advanced years , but the majority in the prime of life . Arguments in favour of an early provision for those who may survive us are but too many and too close round us . How often does the newspaper paragraph concluding with the intelligence , that the victim of sudden death has " left a wife and children totally unprovided for , " bring before our minds the desolated hearth rendered tenfold more desolate by the immediate prospect of physical poverty and distress . Reflect on the change ,
sudden and unexpected , perhaps from affluence to want—from luxury to dependence on eleemosynary aid . How frequently do we see in the advertisements of the morning journals appeals to the charity of the public from persons reduced to such a state of destitution as to have exhausted the charity of their immediate connections ; or appealing to the generosity of the benevolent stranger rather than submit to the taunts of the soulless and cold-blooded relation , who seeks by petty and irritating annoyance to lessen or avoid the demands of the helpless and the destitute . In the same columns observe the
address of the daughter of luxury , whose prospects have been suddenly reversed by the death of a father . His profession gave him a proud place among his fellow-men , but , heedless of future provision , with his sudden death came the cessation of the springs of his wealth and the humiliation of his Eosterity . And many a time the anticipating eiress of wealth and honour has to bring the charming accomplishments which have been the admiration of friends , like a huckster into the market , to be bid and bargained for by vulgar insolence and bloated tyranny .
Nor need we look amongst strangers for examples of the misery bequeathed by the improvident . Every one has instances within his own knowledge of the distress of poverty and destitution , of the sudden and almost unbearable reverses caused by the death of a husband and a parent . Is there a man who , contemplating these scenes , would not seek to protect his survivors from despair and humiliation ? Is there a husband or a father who would dare to die , could such a future be spread out before him ?
And yet , out of the 250 , 000 lives insured , a very small proportion are with a view to " reversionary " or posthumous benefit . Life Assurance is adopted by the majority , as a security for debt or loan , or for some purpose the advantages from which accrue to the assured during his lifetime . The honourable exceptions of persons insuring for their survivors are comparatively f ew . The paucity of persons assured , and the selfish objects of the assurers , plainly prove that Life Assurance should offer advantages to the assured while living , as well as to his representatives after his death—that it should secure him from destitution as well as his family .
It is this view which has led to the establishment of the Trafalgar Life Assurance Association , which is the latest aspirant for public favour . It would be impossible within the limits of an article to refer to the modifications and novel applications of assurances proposed b y this company . Some of the advantages offered , may be observed by the proposed apportionment of the profits at each division : — I . To the assured , in three different ways , viz . : —• Either by an addition to their policies , by a reduction of their premiums , or by a bonus in ready money , 60 per cent . II . To assurers and shareholder ^ for the formation of a relief fund in the hour of distress 10 per cent . III . To the establishment of an educational fee or endowment fund , for the children of isuch assured and shareholders whose circumstances may at any time
justify their claims 10 per cent . IV . To the creation of a fund for purchasing up the shares of the company at the market price of the day , so that the entire intermit * and assets may ultimately revert anil belong to the association , which shall then become a mutual life assurance company . . 10 per cent . V . To the shareholder ^ 0 percent . Independently of these advantages , the Trafalgar proposes to meet almost every contingency to which tance
human nature is liable . AHHuranees , for ins , are granted against paralysis , blindness , insanity , accidents , and any other affliction , bodily or mental , in the event of the aHsured becoming totally and absolutel y disabled ami incapacitated , lho advantages arising from divisions II . and III . <; an " not by any calamity be alienated . The interest oj assurances and shareholders in their policies and shares may be claimed and tuktm by others ; but no reverse ! of fortune can remove their interest in the annuity and educational funds . liven when
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176 CD * yLt&ntt . [ Saturday ,
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THE MAYNE RADETZKY CONSPIRACY . " It is a very fine thing to be father-in-law to a very magnificent three-tailed Bashaw "—it is a finer thing to be Chief of the Police , and have unlimited command of lanterns with bull ' s eyes , and " followers" of cookmaids with truncheons ! But every position has its responsibilities . Every eminence has a height of possible fall . Every post has its terrors . Witness Colonel Mayne . He is a bland , a courteous , but withal a terrible person . The safety of the metropolis reposes on his broad manly bosom ; to protect it he must keep his eye open—his eye , as you know , is a bull ' s eye , and " can ' t abide " anything red ! We trust the allusion is as apparent as it is delicate .
Colonel Mayne conceives that , by some process or another , the fate of the metropolis—not to mention the fate of nations—is bound up with the Leader . Flattering—very ! He discovers that some gigantic conspiracy , deeply affecting England , is concocted at our office . He determines to watch us—andbut you will scarcely credit it—actually watches us in so clumsy a manner that we find it out ! He forgets that like true and proper conspirators we too have our Police , and know all his movements . Does he suppose , for example , that we are unacquainted with what he said in Hyde-park to that mysterious Irishman with the redundant whiskers . Imagine the consternation of a Chief of Police at such counter discovery ! The reader must not
think we are only joking , as some thought last week : we are alluding to facts—facts stern as A 153 . Yes , the Police is detected by the very people under surveillance . However , we will not describe the dismay of our blue-coated friends at the exposure of their gaucherie—we draw a veil over the painful spectacle . Only one word of warning . When the Epami-. nondas of private life who sits in our councils heard that Scotland-yard was watching Crane-court , he replied with that brevity , grandeur , and Plutarchian energy which characterize him . " Tell Colonel Mayne to tremble , for if the Police has its eye upon the Leader , the Leader has its eye upon the Police !"
But not only is Colonel Mayne watching us and our doings ; Austria also keeps its eye upon us . Austria has a Mayne—and he is named Radetzky ! With the same alacrity in blundering as that which betrayed Scotland-yard to us , Radetzky has actually discovered , from " well authenticated information , " that Naples and Sicily are fixed upon for the first insurrections of the " party in London , of which Mazzini is the head "—that thence they will spread over the whole Italian peninsula . When the southern portion of Italy is in open insurrection an appeal to arms will be made in Lombardy . To counteract this the Government ; has resolved to increase
its army in Italy , and the regiments that were called to garrison Bohemia are to return to their former quarters . Poor Radetzky ! that is all you know about it ! Such is the effect of panic : the Austrian Embassy buys the Leader in London , and straightway , in random haste , Austria pours its troops into Italy ! And even if that were the right move , what cordon militaire can exclude that which already commands Turin and Florence , Naples and Rome ? Austria , like Colonel Mayne , is watching us : be it so . We do not shrink from the contest : we , too , are watching Austria .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 22, 1851, page 176, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1871/page/12/
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