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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 France . We have not space for this subject , but everybody knows that the great Trench 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 of things widely different from that under which they originally subsisted ; they were corrupted and enhanced by 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 exjiectations of those who , from long habitude deemed the existing- regime only a necessary state of things , was hardly more terrible than befitted 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 more 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 stud 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 over fell into their old course , . so that in attempting reform it would be necessary to avoid the established system entirely ; that tluj taxes from which many were exempted , wei ' o exacted from others with such . severity , that after the gdbd . s 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 , preferred to live poorly at their ease , rather than encounter the risks of ( his 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 . . lie says further , that the aides and the provincial customs so raised the price of commodities as t . o prevent consumption , to occasion the rootling up of vineyards and orehsirds , to encourage enormous frauds , and give occasion 1 o perpetual oppressions .
This vigorous protest against , the crying evils of I hat day was suppressed , l > y royal ordinance , in l 7 () 7 , its though to hide a wrong were to avert Km consequences . Reform slep t ; for eighty-six years longer , and then became vengeance . Tlii . s Marshal of I'Yanee , not less able in civil than in military matters , was not , however , the only witness . Hoisguilliberl , before ; his time , l'Vnelon his contemporary , . 1 . . 1 . Rousseau in ( he middle of the century , and . Jefferson , writing to Washington , towards its close , attest , with equal strength , I he misery consequent on this most vicious fixation . In 177 !) , M . lidrosne calculated that i . o realize thirty millions for ( lie Slale , by means of ait / e . s ; Mint
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 , 0002 . sterling . ' In 1785 , decker estimated the national revenues as they reached t 7 ie Treasury , at 585 , say 600 millions of francs , or 23 , 400 , 000 ? ., including corvces 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 ivere available io 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 mig ht 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 deducted 6 , 640 , 000 Edgie { KSndrale 2 , 060 , 000 Eoyal domains 1 , 640 , 000 Posts 412 , 000 Lotteries 460 , 000 Duties on consumption 420 , 000 Contributions of the clergy ~ . . 440 , 000 Corve ' es for tho maintenance of roads 800 , 000 Oetroi of cities 1 , 080 , 000 Fines and seizures 300 , 000 Casual revenues and duties on trades and apprenticeships 22 S , 000 Marc 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 Koyal family 1 , 212 , 000 Cost of Collection . . . 2 , 320 , 000 Construction antl repair of roads 800 , 0 ( X ) Hospitals 1 , 010 , 000 Public functionaries 536 , 000 Police « A , <>< H ) Donations li ) 2 , 000 Salaries of I lie employe ' s of tho Treasury .... i )<» , 000 ( Jondarmt'rio 160 , 000 Schools of painting , & (¦ 128 , 000 External relations 34 O , 000 Administration of jimtico , 1 ) 6 , ( KX ) Divert ) cxjx'iiHCM 8 H 1 , ()( K ) . L' 2 li , 4 O 0 , 0 ( K ) In some parts this taxation was indirect , us we commonly understand that term ; in others it was direct , but had no certain basis of assessment , while those who were assessed had no effectual means of defence ; or even complaint . It was administered in every purl ; 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 tho worst , of all forms . The revolution swept away by the breath of its first indignation the most monstrous of the ancient abuses , and some tilings besides , which in general estimation were associated with them . Gradually the costly propensities of this as of every new reforming government , brought , about the necessity for re-establishing many of ( be Conner taxes ; mid in Ibis department of public policy , which bus every whore lacked ( lie guidance of clear and consistent , origiiuil principles , it , is no wonder thai , t | ie Imnissed financiers of the first revolution resorted rather to empirical devices suggested by former experience if only they seemed likely to relievo the necessities of I . lie day , than I . o investigations and arrangements through which time and care mig ht , lay the foundations of n true and permanent sysfeni . The prcHcnl . taxation of Knince is accordingly founded , sin to its subject , mutters , chiefly on ( lie practice of former times , and , item l > y item , it looks much like n more adaptation of the old system to present , circumstances . The gain of the revolution , as to fiscal matters , was not , in ( Ik ; establishing of true principles , but in the abol ' mliing of exiisperat ing inequalities and moiiBlroiiH abuses . Tina indued wnw a great gain ; and u
far heavier national expenditure is consequentl y now borne with diminished danger and discontent } but 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 adopts 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 Prance 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 themthat is , about 11 and 18 per cent , respectivel y . Fifty . four millions of taxes in En gland 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 tho 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 Revolution 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 Girardin as follows : — On capital £ 10 , 800 , 000 — revenue 16 , 360 , 000 — consumption and production . . . 18 , 500 , 000 Not classed 0 , 200 , 000 £ 55 , 000 , 000 To this he adds 4 , 800 , OOOL for the annual value of taxation in kind , raised from the poorest classes in Franco by the conscription . Again : the distribution by its kinds of incidence is aH follows : — Direct taxes £ 1 ( i , 3 ( iO , () OO Indirect ditto 31 , 200 , 000 Domains J , 76 O , ( X ) O Various , say 2 , 520 , 000 Produce of Uie sinking fund .... 3 , 1 (> 0 , £ f > 5 , 0 ( X ) , We return now to the first of these tables , and in remarking on its several itema , we draw our i : > cts ehielly from the work before us . The . tax on real properly . Iwp 6 t fancier . ^ \ '" - National Assembly , in l 7 iK ) , actuated by the princip le of Quesnay and f urimfr , that land in the sole source of wealth , wished to lay on it the chief burden ol uiu tuxes . The imp fd fonder was accordingly instituted , " »< was intended to raise three-fifths of the whole revenue A few years later , a schedule of lands ( eadaslrr ) was commenced , the operations connected with which liavo been continued ever since , and had cost , up io J ' live and a-half millions sterling . The schedule , however , is yd ; incomplete , and great purl . <> f the lid "'" is lost . ' . So much for bureaucratic / . enl and niiii" < tf !" lllClll .. •/; . This tax seems intended to be , like I he old ' «' , reelle , one of repartition ; thai , is , a mini fixed for ^ whole is professed to be proportionately divide ^ departments and districts . Hut , such is the > ( | im < 1 ™ of French centralization , that , no true reparf ll . ioii M ' ^^ ever to he attained , and departments have to •"""" j 1 () ditional payments , or receive retuniH of "VJ I " 1 / 1 " ^ , , ' ., according to some mystery or jugglery , which in i' < ^ explained ; the remedy of nil this is wii < l t <> llW " ^ hopeless completion of the schedule Neither " » ^ t . iixing process of JNJew York , nor in the poor-lin . ^ segment of Kiif > Iiin < l , is there any such difliculty ; ^ ^ only to be found , in an equul degree , in houic 1 > India .
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* Wo had prepared ; i concise view of Mm progress ol taxation in I'Yiuice from ifm origin in ( he Itilh century , with hriefconipnnilivo notices of ( lie Hiihject in reference to Spnii »* and Kiitflund : Ihe limits of ii newspaper , however , compel us to forego its insertion , and we have Io bug our roiulern to accept tho uiuniinuy of rcuuHu wo Jiuvo uub-Hlitutcd i ' or it .
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1138 THE LEADtllt . [ SATttkbit ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 27, 1852, page 1138, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1962/page/14/
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