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    THE AUSTRIA-N TAX-GATBCEREE

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    sympathy- and charity ; some say it rolls along , exalting and abounding , exactly as it rolled in Pagan eras , and that certain classes of people never loved the poor the more for having heard them called " the blessed . " There ha"ve been vicissitudes , however , in the sentiments of the modern human race , and it may -be true -that our own generation is , as social critics say , particularly fond of money . "We have no theory concerning this matter ; but it seems to its that we hear a little offcener

    than of yore language which convinces us that there are very few respectable persons in England . In fact , respectability is too dear . It means iinansions and men-servants . Half the genteel criminals in our penitentiaries and iconvict settlements have been sent there

    for tryiug to keep up their respectability by a process which society does not recognize . The criminal calendar of next year "will supply more cases ( the fruit is falling -while we -write ) , and men will stand in the dock who were looking very respectable when John Dean Pa . ul was sent to make . chairs

    at Milbank . If you desire to act upon principles of this kind , you must retain a legal adviser , in which , case you may be a Member of Parliament . But the fashion has its more innocent forms . A family is , or seems , opulent , having received in . the course of trade much of the money that is expended by gentlemen in search of respectr ability-r--furniture , pictures , prints , jewel

    lery , or the materials of respectable dinners . It is necessary , therefore , that the family itself should become respectable . It is by no means ostentatious , despises no humble friends , is deeply imbued with devotioUj aud holding peculiar Protestant views as to ecclesiastical matters , fasts and feasts in season . Tlu * ee fair-faced and

    -welleducated girls interest themselves in . the Christmas decoration of the parish cliurch , and go to midnight servicesWith the most enraptured sincerity . But they must be attired in white , like saints in glory ; they must have lily-of-the-valley wreaths in winter ; they must form beautiful tableaux as they move up the aisles , and stand by the flowery altar . Their fasts must be strictly observed . But , when it is allowable to eat , the table must hear its weight of gold and silver , its

    lustrous salvors , its wines that would have pleased the Lord of Monte Christo , and the lily-crowned ladies must bo served by footmen in embroidered liveries , and not one of them must marry under a thousand a year . It would be uncharitable to call this a display of worldly pride . The people are conscientious enough . They only do these things because they tliink them right and proper . It is very unfair to impute motives . Why should you be called ostentatious when you arc only trying to be respectable ?

    Meanwhile , there are some poor persons who c < mnot } and some who *<;? 7 Z , live in the same "way . Those who cannot are black-balled ; those who will embezzle , and are sometimes transported . We know how difficult it is to obtain definitions . The Frenchman who foiled to defi . no a crab was no singular example of incapacity in this respect . Our morality is so contused just how , that the law fails to tell us what is fraud ; and societyj unable to define what is respectn-~ "Hy > gets up an expensive farce , and says ,

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    in that quarter . In his Exeter Hall sermon on Truth : its Counterfeits , and Tests , " Sir William Page "Wood tells us that the grand test of truth is its conformity with the Scriptures . Precisely Hhe doctrine of Home and of Archbishop OfIiLen , who denounced the Newtonian . system of the planets , because it is inconsistent with the Old Testament . Lord Ravjbnswobth goes further ; he tells us that to question the authority of the same volume is an offence at English law , and he

    suggests proceedings at law as a means of carrying on the controversy against freethinking . He does this with the kindest motives , with the ' deepest commiseration ' for erring men , and so forth , after the fashion of the old inquisitors , who sat witnessing the twisting and writhing of shrieking men upon the rack , and assured the tortured wretches that their bodies were subjected to that severe surgical treatment for the benefit of their souls . Lord Ra-Tenswobth would convince

    men of the truth of writings "which they questioned by fining them five pounds , or subjecting ¦ them to a course of treadmill , forgetting the fact that oppression always encourages rebellion . We venture to say that the Leader has done much to open the road for religious teachers of every £ ind , by disarming the E . avj 3 Nswob . xhs , permitting reason , to have its fullest scope , and thus enabling reason to convince itself that it cannot settle everything . The rack always left reason—safe in its own estimation , "untested by the difficulties of freedom- —a clear . stage ; . ¦ ¦ - . ; •¦/ - ¦ ¦ ¦ - / -.: ¦ ' ¦ : . - . . . ' . ] ' - :

    B . A . VENSWORTU ON REVELATION . The grand missionary of tho day on moral grounds is Lord Hwjens-nvouth , who has deigned to bo clmirraaii of a Mechanics' lu stitution in Blaydon , and has beeomo tho patron of a special working-man ' s association to counteract tho progross of tho Secularists

    " Exactly so ! " exclaims Lord Ratebtswoeih ; " wherefore I forbid you , to reason on Scriptural subjects . " 3 But here I £ a-v vensworth assumes that liis interpretation of divine law is better than the rival interpretation . He sets his "unreason above reason ; and telling us that reason cannot settle everything , he makes the policeman the final arbiter on the point of controversy .

    The Austria-N Tax-Gatbceree

    farmer who plants corn in the same field for ten successive years , or the greedy simpleton who kills the goose for the golden egg , scarcely supplies a parallel to this policy of blind and abandoned avarice . The entire income of the province of Brescia , derived from all sources , amounts , in round numbers , to 12 , 000 , 000 Austrian livres . Jibe taxes amount to the same . That is to " say , the territory of Brescia ^ produces enough to pay the tax-gatherer , and no more . The

    consequence is that , as man cannot live upon tax-gatherers' receipts alone , the taxes are not paid , and the inhabitants are deep in arrears . Every month large masses of debt are accumulated ; every month numerous plots of land go out of ' cultivation ; every month ruined families forsake their old pursuits of trade and agriculture ; every month the numbers increase of the destitute and -the unemployed . The province contains a population of

    three hundred and thirty-four thousand individuals . Of these , upwards of fifty thousand persons , of an age to obtain then ? own livelihood , are without any industrial occupation whatever . Nothing has been done by the Austrian Government , which allows no Italian subject to do-anything for himself , to developl the natural resources of the soil , or the activity that in old times fermented around the Brescian borders . Instead oi this , without mines , and without railroads

    heavily taxed , and poorly encouraged , fettered by monopolies and restrictions , the manufacturers discontinue their occupations , and every now and then an iron , gun , paper , leather , wool , or thread factory is closed . The Municipal Councils are forced to contract loans which they have no prospect of repaying . In the course of the present year almost the entire Indian corn cropland part of the wheat crop , has been destroyed by a tremendous hail-storm—and the vines have been

    blighted . The Austrian tax-gatherer , it may be said , has nothing to do with this calamity ; but he has dried up the channels of public economy and private benevolence , so that such a disaster , which would be injurious to any population , is ruinous to the population of Brescia .

    The silk manufacture has dwindled to onesixth of its former proportions . The landowners are dismissing their labourers , selling their live stock , leaving their farm-houses and agricultural implements to decay . The public lands are sold to pay the public debt ; loans are raised by the Municipal Councils to pay the current taxes ; the capital of the province is threatened with annihilation .

    This is the picture of Austrian government in Italy which the Provincial College of Brescia has ventured to lay before the Austrian officials themselves . Of course , no Lombard press has circulated it among the Lombard people ; indeed , the statement has appeared nowhere but in our columns ; but is it not a testimony to the value of paternal

    THE AUSTRIAN TAX-GATKEREE . The delegatioii of Brescia is one of the most important of the Austrian possessions in Lombardy . JSTot to speak of its historical memorials—of the Broletto , the palace of ancient liberty , the cathedral that Tintoretto adorned , the churches arid colleges of middle-age renown—ithasfor several centuries enjoved a high reputation for its iron-works , its manufactories of fire-arms , cutlery , silk , woollen and linen goods , leather , and paper . In the Gazetteers its invariable ' affix' is the

    word ' nourishing ; ' but who shall learn from a Gazetteer one point of historical , political , or social importance ? Ever since the inglorious acquisition of the province by Austria , it has gradually decayed , industrially and commercially , and the secret of its decline has been — excessive taxation . The policy that ruins Egypt ruins Lombardy . Tho policy that ' forces the Arab to affect

    beggary , and to hide tho profit of a harvest iu an earthem pot , persuades the poor Lombard to abandon Ins shuttle or plough , and to forsake that industry , the entire fruit of which goes to the tax-gatherer of an alien Government . Styria and Carniola have been devastated by this paternal authority , and Cavalier Poroelli told our readers last week how tho work of civil devastation proceeds in Brescia . The facts are- worth

    ropenting . When tho Provincial Colleges wero sum ' s moncd in Lomburdy there was much talk of Austrian wisdom ; but tho Austriuns , sinco that event , have governed as if they were not responsible , even to tho creditors of tho State , for their financial , extravagance . Tho tradesman , who robs his customers , the

    government , and to the reality oi those reforms which Austria pretended in 1850 were about to be introduced ? The sinceresfc and the least excitable ot politicians—the politicians of the Morning Star—would not deny that the Brescian people have a right to deliver themselves from such oppression when they can .

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    Kovembeb 15 , 1856 . ] THE IiEADEB . 1095 ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ M ^^ j ^^^^^^ M ^^^^ M ^^^^ M ^ a ^ M ^^ MMMPM ^ M ^ BWM ^ M ^ WMiMi ^^ EM ^ P ^^ MMMMB ^ MMMWMM ^^ WWM ^ l ^^ B ^^ MiMii ^ BBWMBBBBiMMM ^^^ M ^^ B ^ BMMBBBIiMMBB ^ I ^ MWI ^ MMWMP ^ MWMW ^^ iMWB ™ - ^^^—^^^

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    A Right of Way Dispute . —Considerable dissension exists at present in the neighbourhood of Wal-wortli , owing to tho stoppage of an ancient riglit of -way from that neighbourhood to Kennington Park . One of tho landowners thought proper to build a wall across tho road , which , goes across Bomo of his private property . Tho wall -was thrown down in tho night , and a wooden barrier subsequently shared the same fate . Tho police have had to mount guard on the spot . A mooting of the inhabitants lias boon held , and tho law will bo rosortcd to for a decision .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 15, 1856, page 1095, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2167/page/15/