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Leader (1850-1860), 6th November 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 1069, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      ? hair infinite variety and intricacy of forms . A vorons app lication , however , of the very principle on 1 h the taxablenees of reversions is asserted , leads , as Allows , to the same result . Tf the protection of the State is for the benefit of the t reversioner , so is it also for that of each one of the ^ definite line of reversioners , designate and non-desig-111 who will succeed him . For the sake of argument , " , £ ie first reversioner be made the representative of aU who follow ,, and let him be charged accordingly by the present possessor , with the quota of each future

      owner t o the pre sent expense , whatever that quota may T , and let him pay it . When he comes into possessio n , he will have , for each year , exactly the same claim icainst his next successor ; exactly we say , for the elision of the first life from the indefinitely extended series does not practically affect the result . He thus receives in one year just what he had paid in another . Each successive owner comes into the same position , ind is thus p laced in the same situation as though he had paid the expenses for his own time , without the rio-ht of charging any portion of them to the next

      rev . It would make no difference if the next reversioner were entitled to the future fee simple : all the future non-designate reversioners would then actually be summed up in him to just the same effect as , for argument's sake we have supposed them to be represented by him . If in this view there he any remaining difficulty , it relates only to the commencement of the system , the present owner not having had the advantage of former exemption . But the disadvantage could not be serious , and it is doubt ful whether any measure could be framed to remedy it without incurring greater evils .

      We believe , however , after all , that the true view is that which considers the tax an ^ annual payment for the then present annual expense , no * party looking forward to the indirect and uncertain consequences concealed in the future . But whoever takes the other view must nevertheless come at last to the same practical conclusion . A reversion then appears to us to be no fit subject of taxation , and the State we conclude ought not to interfere to enforce a partition of the tax between the present owner and the next reversioner .

      The Owners of Patent RigJits , Copyright , or Manorial RigJds . — These are rights to acquire future income . Except as to legal disputes , they are not capable of protection from government . When their income is realized it is necessarily taxed , whether it be spent or saved . Foreign Commerce . —This costs us a large sum for its protection , while under the proposed system it would be entirely free from duties on the subjectmatters of its occupation . We cannot renounce it ; neither can we leave it unprotected . It would be altogether impracticable to apportion its advantages amongst ourselves , and so follow its advantages with taxes ; nor could we make any such attempt without letting iu principles which have led to the vast and manifold evils of indirect taxation .

      Nor do such devices seem to bo required . The existiiiico and wanderings of a British ship are always known ; and there is little doubt ius to her value wlierovor sho may be . The nature mid value of her cargo are always known , approximately at least , to her owikth , an well as attested by documents essential to tlio management of the business in which she is employed . We have said before , that although our present illusii'utive statements and deductions proceed on the supposition of all property being taxed by one uniform rate ,

      . VH Unit particular kinds of property may appear from 'xpuncnee to incur to the State different proportions of (> X |> cnse for its protection , and may , therefore , be din-• '"Vcred hereafter to be justly chargeable with different rales of taxation on the value . Of these clauses possibly Mapping and foreign eonnneree may form one , to be liai gcl with a rate somewhat higher than the average . lj «' t us . suppose it to be found reasonable hereafter that ™ iips and cargoes be charged two per cent , per annum llls lead of one ; per cent ., tho result would be Nomewhat ; is follows

      () "r export commerce may be taken at ( 50 millions I" ' ' annum , and the import must bn about of the name ^ ' " '• Taking tho average- length of voyages for this v '" illioiis , and remembering ( hat British ships are '' "' ployed in much commerce which never comes ( , o '" K'and , we can hardly estimate tho cargoes afloat at l ( ' * ( han r ><) millions Htorling . The vessels themselves iU » u » t l-o : J , r >()() , ()()() tons , which at HI . per ton would " » 'i value of 28 , 000 , 000 / . Tim total 78 , 00 O , 0 () OA at Avo I *" 1 cent , would yield l , Ci ( iO , O ()()/ . per annum , and " Ul" <<> mincice would at the . same time be freed of duties ^"' oun ting to li ii . . OOO / . We need employ no words "• 'Htiniate tho oiled , of huc . 1 i a change on the activity ; "xtent of our foreign commerce , or of tho internal "miistry wln ' elt must bo ooimequont , upon it

      These instances of the application of our principles will supply answers ^ to perhaps all the cases which in practice can be proposed . We need hardly repeat that any error in the actual figures employed does not invalidate the correctness of the principles . We purpose nenb to enter on an examination of M . Emile de Girardin ' s work , II Impot , and through it to exhibit the actual taxation of France .

      Untitled Article

      DESSEBT BANQUETS FOE PUBLIC MEETIKGS . Theeb is one thing which public agitators may learn from the Manchester school , and that is , the pleasant way of getting rid of the cumbersome part of a public dinner . Few men engaged in such affairs have not felt that , to close at a reasonable hour , the evening was too short for hearing all whom they would wish to hear ; and on the other hand , that the dinner with which , it commenced was a tedious incumbrance . Considered' as a feast—which is something worth , thinking of , in itself—the public dinner

      is generally a failure : the viands are seldom selected with such , exquisite tact aa to elevate the feast to the true standard of aesthetics ; the cookery , be it said with all respect for meritorious servants of the public down stairs , seldom 1 has a fair chance ; and it is very rarely that the price of the ticket is sufficient to cover the machinery of attendance necessary to make the whole go smoothly . The dinner is never quite what we expect , save in some extraordinary instances , possibly , of three guinea tickets ; and the politicians who can deal in three -guinea tickets are a limited class .

      But the money spent in the dinner might procure a much more agreeable occupation for the teeth of the listeners , if it were spent in a light dessert , pleasantly sustaining , rather than encumbering , the faculties under the operation of the speaker . The Manchester people introduced the practice , with the organized agitation for Freetrade . In process of time , the improvement will up doubt be carried still further ; but the idea is a good one , and it was well illustrated at the great Manchester banquet . Reporters , indeed , may regret the loss of a savoury perquisite ; but for the company at large , we believe , it is agreeable to be relieved of an untimely obstruction of fish , flesh , and waiters , and to carve as soon as possible at the speaking , which mixes as pleasantly with the wino as the walnuts do . Xondon is still behind Manchester in this reform .

      Untitled Article

      AED-EL-K . YDEE AND AKCHBEACON HALB . The Crescent has more than , once taught true religion to the Cross . Our Sabbatarian friends may take a lesson from the Moslem . "While the Earl of Shaftesbury , and that strange compound of Church dignitaries , Archdeacon Hale , with his eighty London clergymen , would fain forbid their poorer fellow-creatures to worship God in his marvellous works , because , cooped up all the weck ^ they will not , on . the one day of rest , inhale foul air , like proper

      " miserable sinners , " in orthodox , pews , Abd-el-Kader extorts the respect of the Catholic Archbishop , by the simple fervour of devotions offered up to the one God , not once or twice , but many times in the day , in the crowd , the palace , and the street . The prayer of the Arab springs from the heart ; the " divine service" of the Archdeacon and his clergy savours too much of" the Scribes and "Pharisees who sit in Moses' seat . "

      Untitled Article

      Characteristics of a IJohe . —Our boro is admitted on all hands to be a good-hearted man . lie may put fifty people out of temper , but he keeps his own . He preserves a sickly solid smile upon his face , when other faces are ruffled by the perfection he has attained in his art , and has an equable voice which never travels out of one key , or rises above one . pitch . His manner is a manner of tranquil interest . None of

      his opinions are startling . Among his deepest-rooted convictions , it may be mentioned that he considers the air of Kngland damp , and holds that our lively neighbours—he always calls the French our lively neighbours—have the advantage of us in that particular . Nevertheless , he i . s unable to forget , that John Hull ia . John Hull all the world over , and that Kngland , with all her faults , is England still . — Dick v . ns ' s Household , Words Saw yk . Toiiknv C ' omin' !—The laughter and applause which followed this tune , which the band played after drinking the health of Lord John Russell at , the late dinner , attracted the noble Lord ' s attention , and led him to inquire , into tho cause of Lord Kiimaird . His lordship gave him the words of tho popular uir and the ex-minister was not slow in making the application to an expected return to Downing-sfrcet . I li > lordship was said to have been highly amused with tho npposik'iic . Ks of the musical figure , and considered if , quite ii harmonious cull back to oHice . — -Perth Courier . M ANCiiKKTKit . Fimok LntKAitv—The number of persons who visited this institution on each dny during the week ending Saturday , October 2 , was as follows : — Monday , 225 ! $ ; Tuesday , 2 J . T 1 O ; Wednesday , 2 : t 84 ; Thursday , a : « 4 ; Friday . " I 1 M 57 ; Saturday , 2400 : total , i : U ; : t 8 . Tho number of books taken from tho ( shelves in the reference library on each day was—Monday , ' . iZli ; Tuesday , MO ; We < Iii < s ; Tbur . sdny , 2 <) I ; Friday , 28 : $ ; Saturday , Ml : total 1847 . The number of volumes issued from the lending library was—Monday , 251 ; Tuesday , 2 ( 50 ; Wednesday , 2 fS (» ; Thursday , HJW ; Friday , 20 ( 5 ; ' Saturday , 441 : total , 17 i > 7- —Manchester Guardian ,

      Untitled Article

      THE ACCUSER . A TOTJSft lady who advanced some of the most telling charges against Miss Sellon , and the Sisters of Mercy at Plymouth , has been brought to a police-court for robbery . It will bo natural for tho friends of Miss Sellon and the enemies of Ultra-Protestants to make much of this catastrophe , which appears in itself to destroy tho evidence against them . To us the incident has a deeper moral , which all parties might well consider . It is much to bo doubted whether Diana Campbell is capable of tho turpitude implied in her actions . She furtively took cortnin things from a lady with whom she was living ; and her apology , that she took them to provide for two young ladies who were to bo placed in a Convent , or for florae other equally benevolent purpo . se , may bo rejected as worthless . I 3 ut the readiness with which sho ban appropriated properly not her own , the facility with which she made herself tho subject of a police investigation , and ( hen the alarm that fiho showed at ( ho inevitable resull , when she was committed to prison— "Ob ! don't send me to prison , for I am an officer ' s daughter and a ( Jonoml ' s grand-daughter" --suggest tho idea that hors is one of those easily moved unreasoning minds which are . at tho mercy of any temptation for tho moment . There is cruelly in dealing harsh with her , as there is in dealing with all weakness ; but if , is to bo observed that this police investigation lias not altered her character , nor can it , luivo disclosed itsosHeiilinl features us they ought to have been discerned previously , by any discovery . The young lady must always have bad an unstable , uncertain , irrational mind ; not quite capable of distinguishing between right , nnd wrong , and ready to do either in a Hinall way upon compulsion . To suborn evidence like hers against people , impreKsed , however erroneously , by a grave senso of duty niul tho desire , to fulfil an earnest mission , is afar worse oHcuco against , right , than any which Diana Campbell could have committed . N cither ( JaMiolie nor I ' lofestimt Nliould consent to found much upon tho actions or asseverations of a poor girl who cannot , keep out , of a poliee-oflice , and who reals h « r hojto of judicial salvation on her military birth .

      Untitled Article

      THTI e , l , Of ! IC A I . A I'RANCAfSK . Wiikn Mr . Uabliugo was before- 1 . 1 to Select Commiltoo on his calculating machine , according to tradition , a noble savant naked him wUotJior , if «¦ question wore put

      incorrectly , the faithful and intelligent instrument would , nevertheless , return a correct answer ? Such is Mr . Babbage ' s reputation for candour , that , although he was the inventor of the machine , ho is reputed to have replied modestly in the negative ! The electric telegraph is not more infallible than the calculating machine . Tho gentlemen who wcro on Cornbill the other day , proclaiming the French Empire and other important truths , exchanged information with their confreres in Paris about the time of day . At ten minutes past two the telegrapher in Cornbill asked the telegraph in Paris , "What is it o ' clock ? " " Ten minutes past two , " was the reply—the difference of longitude notwithstanding ! The interchange of question and reply , however , clearly shows that either in Xondon or Paris these imperial telegraphers don't know what ' s o ' clock .

      Untitled Article

      NorEMBS * 6 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1060

      Untitled Article

      NOTICES TO COREESPONDENTS . The continuation of " Letters of a Vagabond" is unavoidably omitted in our present number by extreme pressure of political and other matter on our space . The series of letters will bo pompieted in twenty numbers . Several communications , in type . Mr . Dry ' s letter is much too long . Reduced to half its length we would endeavour to insert it . We are obliged to a high-minded subscriber for a note on the subject of a passage in our last Paris Letter , and we can assure him that we are very far from sharing the moral prejudice the

      sentence alluded to would seem to him to convey . In . speaking however of the hereditary pretensions of an imperial crown solely founded on a certain putative descent , it was doubtless the object of the writer of the Paris Letter to expose the hollowness of the claim , aniktho delusion of Honajiurtist Franco . No moral prejudice can h ; ive dictated a sentence in a purel y political letter , and our frank and generous subscriber only does tho Leader justice in supposing that it would repudiate any such vulgar notion . AVe heartily echo the doctrine that " No man can be degraded save by his own act . " We were only showing that it is bv that test , and that alone , that Louis Napoleon ought to be judged .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1852, page 1069, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1959/page/17/