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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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could not be said they had , for the word had not escaped the lips of any speaker on his side . Turning to the subject before them , he showed , by a collection of quotations from speeches delivered in former years , the false statements upon which the House had been induced to grant , and the country to tolerate , the tax : — .. , . " Great authorities elsewhere had lent their aid to mislead the community on the subject . For example , he found one Mr . Cobden , in a speech elsewhere , in 1845 , before the repeal of the corn laws , thus expounding to a large and popular audience—' The
income tax is a funpus growing from the tree of monopoly '—{ great laughter )—the very income tax lhat the same gentleman in the House now told them was the foundation of the new commercial system , the only guarantee , and so forth , — ' a fungus growing from the tree of monopoly—that one great monopoly , the corn law , alone renders this tax necessary ' —{ cheers and laughter );—and then the honourable gentleman , commencing that high prophetic vein in which he had since so often indulged , went on— ' With free trade there will be no income tax . '" { Renewed cheers from the Opposition benches . )
The Chancellor of the Exchequer had said in 1845 that attempts had been made to answer the general argument against the income tax . It was not clear to Mr . Disraeli that his friends would vote against a motion for modifying the mode of assessing professional incomes ; the present mode could not be long maintained . Direct taxation he contended led to confiscation . He felt it to be his duty to support the amendment of the honourable member for Montrose .
Loid John Russell opposed the motion . If Mr . Hume wished the tax to be permanent , he was immediately supported by those who wished it to be done away with altogether . { Laughter . ) If he was anxious to establish direct in the place of indirect taxation , he was immediately supported by those who were in favour of indirect taxation , who would carry it to a far greater extent than was the case at present , and who would abolish direct taxes with a view to increasing indirect taxation : —
' The words of the honourable gentleman ( Alderman Thompson ) who rose so immediately , as the fugleman of his party , to support the amendment , were ' foreign produce , ' meaning , as the House perfectly understood , that foreign produce which was usually known by the name of corn . { Laughter and cheers . ) The honourable member for . Buckinghamshire , however , could not bear the eagerness with which his honourable friend ( Alderman Thompson ) rushed forward in favour of the amendment . They never had a question brought forward in that House with regard to local taxation , or the malt tax , or any mutter affecting the landed interest or the general taxation of the country , but some of the
honourable gentleman s ( Mr . Disraeli ' s ) supporters got up , and , with the manliness which belonged to their character as a party , made the avowal , ' After all , our real object is the restoration of protection . ' Then the honourable gentleman ( Mr . Disraeli ) always had to rise after them—{ great laughter ) , — and to say , ' Don ' t take them at their word—{ laughter );—whatever you may have heard , I did not hear it . ' { Renewedlaughter . ) Indeed the honourable gentleman always happened to be in such a situation that he did not hear a word of protection — { a launh ) , —though most honourable gentlemen on both
sides might have heard the necessity of a restoration of protective duties frequently reiterated . { Laughter . ) He thought the honourable gentleman would at length get tired if his friends would always march forward when he wished them to keep back—( a laugh )—if they would persist in constantly getting out of the line ., siid if they would he always firing off their muskets when lie wished them to reserve their fire . { Laughter . ) lie thought the honourable gentleman would at lust say , one of these days , ' Upon my word , you arc too bad ; I will not march through Coventry with you any more . '" ( Loud laughter . ) Iiord John thought the question really was between income tax or protection , but he should be willing to rest the decision as proposed in the amendment . Mr . MuNiz a ; id Mr . JIohuucjc supported , and Mr . ( jtKACJi opposed , the amendment . The House then divided , when the numbers were—For the amendment 211 Against , it 2 ' M Majority against . Ministers .... 11 Various questions were put to Ministers last , ni . ^ ht . We learn from them that , the ride will he removed to . Kensington-gardens ; tli . it Lord John Russell does not think that , ( lie Synod proposed to he held l > y the Bishop of Mxcter is a . real synod , or that . it . is illegal , and he thinks the mime chosen vuy unfortunate ; and thai passport r < are not . requited from foreigners on landing in Km ^ Ihihi . On the motion of Mr . Trelawney a select , committee was nominated to hit , on church rates ; and on the motion of Mr . Ileadlain also a select committee on the law of mortmain . It is reported that a Government inspector will he sent to investigate the ciiiikc of the railway uceideiit reported elsewhere . Viou , the murderer of M . DctifontuincH , wan tried at the Court , of Assizes in J ' ariN on Tuesday . Viou wan . t servant , who , seduced by the reputed wealth of ) iin master , broke his head , packed the body in a trunk , and sent it , oil by train into the country , lie was condemned to death . When the foreman of the jury read the ver diet the tears Hireunicd down his cheeks , but Viou stood quile unaffected .
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MAY DAY . Europe has been keeping May Day in Hyde Park , and Victoria was Queen of the May . Wonderment itself was scarcely prepared for the strain put upon it that day—to see the endless lines of carriages , all converging upon the one point , — the endless streams of people , of all conditions . You could not have supposed that any city could supply such unbroken strings of luxurious vehicles , such unbroken streams of living creatures . The building was filled , surrounded ; the crowd around it was surrounded by a crowd to look at the crowd ; doors and windows , by the way , were crowded to see the crowds go by ; until the streets without , still the channel for the passing streams , looked exhausted of their own proper life . The excitement grew greater at the contemplation of itself , and thoughts which had been the slumbering occupants of the breast , rose to unexpected tumult in sympathy with the tumult around .
All converging to one point ; yet what a boundless variety of motives that day animated the world pouring into Hyde Park , or looking on around !—the author of the scene , a unit in the crowd himself had made , realizing a vision beyond his fancy ; his colleagues in getting up the project , royal , titled , illustrious in art or science , now enjoying a deserved triumph of success surpassing hope ; the exhibitors , whose inventions , labours , arts , moneys ,
exertions , of head and liand , of heart and limb , had piled up that wondrous treasury of merchandize ; the architect , w-ho had devised the Crystal Palace , named on this day from China to Peru ; the wealthy of the metropolis and its visitors , carriage-riding holders of " season tickets , " come to view the sight ; the statesmen , watching- for the public peace ; the crowd , in every variety of condition , from the luxurious lounger to the halffamished workman stirred with dark invidious
thoughts , from the scientific philosopher to the speculative pickpocket ; the busy banded police ; the military , watchful in the hidden distance ; the publican , chuckling to see such torrents of " custom" wandering near his bait ; the coachman tribe , busy in a moving labyrinth of perplexities ; the politician , scanning the elements of the assembly ; the court , peacocking itself , as an Italian would say , in its required splendours ; the Queen , coming to crown the ceremony , her brow heavy with the cares of empire , her heart light with the exultation of the day ; the musicians , waiting to pour the triumphant stream of harmony which shall bring that chaos to one ; the arch priest , waiting to . speak for all to the Sustainer of All , by whoso blessed permission they had met together .
Wliat ; a chaos of first motives—how subdued to one idea ! The scene was typical of the world ' s condition—a vast assemblage of powers , as yet unmeasured in their capacity , but half reduced to order ; armed force still watching to supply the defect in the organization of society ; society but half iscrved by its own toil—some rolling in luxury , some weary and aloot , dusty , hungry , envying , and dangerous ; yet in that , crystal edifice was great work ( lone , and all that crowd wuh ruled , perforce , by one dominant idea—a reverent pride in the achievement , of humanity .
Oulinary " Politics" are overwhelmed for the day . Protection lias been attempting its displays tins week- forgotten in the holiday of the Exposition . Yet Protection is half right " Live and let live" is the first rule ; and all those powers assembled at the bidding of Industrial Art are as yet but half able to benefit mankind , —for want , of organi / . ation . " And you will not accomplish organization , " says Free Trade , " by barring the exchange ; of industry " : most true ; Free Trade has removed the bar to 1 , 1 k ; concert of natiotiK ; but to throw down the barrier is nol . to organize those whom it severed ; uud the i > oaitive hall' Free
Trade ' s doctrine , " Each for himself / will not organize a People even within its own bounds . " The selfish principle" does not hold : on that day there was not one trader , brought to the place by self-interest , who did not lose the sense of self in the overpowering sense of the whole ; pride for self , in a nobler exultation for what the whole has done . The spirit of Concert is the stronger feeling , and it is beginning to make its power known by name as well as felt , obeyed in council as well as ia
blind instinct . It is becoming fast known as the master principle of material society . Many in that multitude—numbers who , but a few years back , never thought of it as the vital principle of societyknew that it was the one thing wanting to reduce that chaos to order , to make those half-developed powers fruitful , to bring the too scattered action of society to one , even as the sounding harmony of that day brought the pulses of all hearts to beat in concord , and as the invocation of the one Father united all spirits in loving obedience .
May Day comes to us again—not to " Merry Old England , " as our forefathers knew it , stout in labour and sport , heedless of the uninvented science of " political ceconomy "; but now careworn , multitudinous , perplexed about many a social " question , " calling each other " surplus population" or " tyrant aristocrats "; yet at last beginning to make a festival of industry , taking counsel together , turning back from sectism and scepticism to a common faith ; and beginning to pick out of half doctrines the great truth , that concert among men is the completion of Labour , the human part in the harmony of God ' s universe .
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PROGRESS OF POOR LAW REFORM . Perhaps the most marvellous , certainly the most cheering , social phenomenon of our day , is the fact that as the labour question is marching on towards its peremptory demand for solution , a new crop of opinion , precisely of the right sort , is sprouting up in every part of the country . If we feel a difficulty in handling the subject , it is from an oppressive sense of this spontaneous growth , its abundance and good quality , and of the necessity for gathering it together . You can scarcely push your inquiries into any part of England , without encountering proofs of this sort . Bedford is not the most advanced of county towns—it will not be suspected of ultra-liberalism , of communistic tendencies , or of any other innovating propensity : and yet it supplies a striking specimen of practical Poor Law Reform . It lias been the practice in that place to instruct the young children cast upon the union in various occupations ; the consequence is , that instead of remaining paupers for life , a burden to the ratepayers in expense , and a burden to themselves through that semi-existence which is the lot of the hereditary pauper , the union children have passed into active employment
as fast as they could be trained . There have been the usual dogmatic warnings against " overstocking the labour market , " and so forth ; but concurrently with this training of the pauper children into industrious workers , there has been a striking diminution of the gross number of paupers chargeable to the union . Experiment , in fact , has so well succeeded on this point , that dogmatic ceconomy has considerably lost in authority ; and we believe that Bedford would be quite oj } pn to conviction on the subject of reproductive employment , if the mass of opinion on that point , which has spontaneously grown up in so many parts of the country , were collected into one .
Let us take another example from a totally different county , Cheshire . The following suggestions have been sent to us b y a clergyman of great experience in such matters , as the mere rough draft of a plan for improving the Poor Law udininiHtration . That they would be in themselves a great reform upon the present system we need not Hay ; but for the present purpose their chief value lies in showing the extent to which opinion has been developed and matured among practical men : —•
" 1 . Tluit whereat ) the working cIuhsch of thin country , liable in cuhch of deBtit ution to chargcahility under poorlaw administration , are employed , either directly or indirectly , for the convenience and luxury of all pcrnonn , of whatever rank , profcHHion , or biisineHH , enjoying the citizenship of ( itrent Britain , it in expedient thut one general mid uniform Htandiird of taxation be . adopted , ( Hhirihuting the public burdeiiH equally and fairly over all kinds of properly .
" 2 . That , in accordance with the foregoing premineH , it in aliso expedient that the pecuniary aid already granted by the ( Jo \ eminent for certain items of union-cxpenditurr , Hhould he extended to the payment of the Halarieu and expended of all office ™ employed in reference to pau-
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold .
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ir SATURDAY , MAY 3 , 1851 .
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414 &f ) £ 3 L rafter . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), May 3, 1851, page 414, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1881/page/10/
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