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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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the tax , " which happens to be such as it is intended in the case of one man , is wrong and oppressive in the case of nineteen or ninety-nine other men . It is a bungle from first to last . It has become a conflict of evasion on one side , and assumption on the other . But that is far from being the worst . In the desire to get at' the truth * according to the Budget , the officers of the Income-tax go prying about into the private affairs of people , play the eavesdropper , pick up tittletattle , and make up a story better or worse . The Income-tax tribunal has become an
in-British nation , whose counsel alienates its property , makes compromises , and then sends it in the bill of costs . If the middle class had stood by the great body of the people , and had rendered the representation more truly national , the great tax-paying multitude , the middle class , would not have been thus at the mercy of the administration . The Income-tax we pay is tie fine for our political sins ; we cannot relieve ourselves from the
fine without exposing our political disorganization ; we cannot hope to get rid of the Income-tax until we call out the people itself . The two things go completely together . If there is to be really a great public movement , let us have it ; and then we shall have Income-tax , not reduced , but repealed , and also something like that complement of the Beform Bill which was promised to the people in . the Birmingham . Bull-ring , but of which they have been defrauded ever since .
quisition , its officers an army of domestic spies ; and tb . e English people , who might throw off this most odious oppression , are learning to content themselves with sneaking evasions . The ultimate moral results are far worse than the hardships of the tax . The impost is wrong financially , since it is impossible to ascertain , with any degree of accuracy or elasticity , the true nature and amount of individual income . It is
absolutely impossible to assess the impost on the principle of a rating . If you want to tax "a man according to his enjoyment of means , tax his expenditure , tax the commodities on which he lays out his money . All the evils resulting from taxation on consumption arise solely when the taxes are imposed heavily upon one article and lightly upon another , so as to force the purchaser in his choice , aa&Hbo interfere with the natural xnos&ments of the market . If . the whole
amount of taxes to be levied be fairly imposed upon articles of consumption and use ,, with a practical equality all round , in proportion to the market value , a man will as readily lay out his money in one direction as in . another ; there will be no interference with the movement of the market ; and we shall have the exact corelative of an incometax—taxation upon expenditure . to
But thia would cau ^ e some trouble the Chancellor of the Exchequer . It would need a practical knowledge of trade and its commodities . It would require some ingenuity . . And since we only take our Chancellors out of the high walks of literature , or out of families whose parents have retired from trade , or out of that still more exalted class who are hereditary legislators , and thus
literally heaven-born , we cannot expect to hare , as Finance Minister , a business man who understands trade and sympathizes with the people . The Income-tax was a useful instrument for effecting a temporary purpose . " Whatever pedantry may preach about the virtue of direct taxation , it becomes essentially vicious as soon as it becomes lasting ; and no people who managed its own affairs , would tolerate such a burden . The continuance of the
Income-tax is the one sufficing proof that the English people does not manage its own affairs . No , our affairs are managed for us , not even by Parliament ; for the puppet character of the House of Commons is now an established fact . Members and constituencies are taken in and done for by those who have made the business of election a trade . The effect is , to place the management of the country , its government at home and abroad , its whole wealth and patronage , in the hands of a very few men indeed . Two dinner parties , one for the Ministerial side and one for the
Opposition side , would give us the whole number of « statesmen' who , between them , arrange our affairs for us , —who dictate to us what we shall do in Parliament or in Europe , and tell us what to pay . Poor Mrs . Swtn-Trtx , Whose counsel , the ofiher day , surrendered an estfcte for her , assuming that she X ™? ° 1 ™> . \ ^ own min d , and telling her that the best had been done for her ,- ~ that poor lady was the exact counterpart of the
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FRANCE IN PERSIA . A very absurd paragraph has been permitted to appear in the columns of Le JBays , asserting a claim on the part of France to the island of Karrak , the Icarus of classical geographers . According to our * inspired ' contemporary , who has evidently studied to some purpose the fable of the dog in the manger , this islet was ceded tp the French consul at Bussorah , hi 1769 , "b y Kemm Kuan , " probably the wisest of the sovereigns who have reigned over Persia in modern times . " The cession
ffit t , Some ma S mtude and imp ortance lne time has perhaps arrived when the S <» J » and the Cossack shall decide by armsffi future destinies of Central Asia . All- that England demands is the unbiassed independ ence of Persia . She seeks neither political nor moral control , but the establishment of a . strong neutral government between the Aras and the Indus . Such , however , is uOfc the design of the Muscovite . The weakness of her neighbours is the opportunity of Russia . By stirring up foreign wars ant ?
internal commotions she has reduced to a mere shadow the once powerful kingdom of Nadir Shah . A little more compression a little more deglutition , and the coils of the Northern constrictor would lie along the frontiers of British India . To avert such a contingency is ^ the ultimate object of the present expe dition to the Persian Grulf >
of Karrak would , perhaps , not generally be accepted as an illustration , or proof , of that monarch ' s wisdom , were it not at -the same time borne in mind that at that period the conjacent islands of Karrak and Kishm were in the possession , of the Arabs , and not , even nominally , a dependence of the Persian crown . " Were it otherwise , it is strange that no objection to the occ upation of that post by British troops was made in 1838 . The silence preserved on that occasion is certainly
not attributable to any partiality for perjide Albion entertained by the Ministers of Louis Philippe . Besides , there must surely be some political statute of limitation . It does not appear that the [ French flag ever floated over any of the rocky islands in the Persian Gtilf , and at the commencement of the present century Tutteh Ali Shah expressly prohibited " any of the great men of the French nation" from obtaining " a place of residence , or dwelling , in any of the islands or shores of the kingdom of Persia . " A few years later , Mirza Heza , ambassador from the Court of Teheran to Napoleon , was
instructed to offer the co-operation of a Persian army for the invasion of Khorassan , but warned not to concede any pied a terre to this new ally : " If the French require a station or port in the province of Fars for their passage to Hindoos tan , do not consent . " buch an injunction would have been quite superfluous had either of the contracting parties looked upon Karrak as an appanage of France . But in aiming at being official , the Pays never attains higher than being officious . It is only a waste of time to con-Btruct a battery against its unreal mirage of battlements .
The appointment of Sir Jamus Outjram , " tho Bayard of the East , " as lie was called by the late Sir Charles Napier , clearly indicates the intention of Government to act with decision- In the ordinary course of events , the command of the expedition would have devolved on Brigadier Stalker , an estimable mediocrity , quite capable of permanently occupying a barren island . But from tho hurried departure of General Outkam , before even his health was thoroughly restored , it is evident that events are antici-
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THE WORKING OF THE COUNTY POLICE AC / JL . The County Police Act , passed last year , ia now beiug brought into operation , the magistracy of the various counties being resolved to all appearance , to give the most complete effect to the intentions of the Legislature . It will be remembered that the appointment of chief constables rests with these gentlemen
who have no doubt abundant means of testing the qualifications of the candidatea—generallyunattached military men , for whom the act provides , not only an adequate salary , but a highly honourable position . It would have been a serious mistake to have created , in the post of chief constable of the county police , an oiB 5 . ce which a gentleman would have been unable to fill .
The law , apparently , allows great latitude to the magistrates charged with the task of carrying out its provisions . It is rather an enabling than a compulsory act , so that its success depends entirely upon the methods adopted by the local administrators of the several counties . Indeed , the provinces hare been hitherto insecure , less on account of particular deficiencies in the law , than on account of the imperfect and irregular system adopted to protect life and property , by placing one district with another under the reasonable
surveillance of the police . We have met with a printed statement on this subject , from the pen of Captain Acnjsso " , which is confirmative of some views we put forward when the Government bill was under discussion in Parliament . Captain Achesok lays the utmost stress upon the adoption , not only of a proper management and supervision with regard to each county force , but also upon the establishment of a complete system of communication between the Metropolitan , Borough , and County Police .
The first duty of a chief constable , then , according to this view , would l ) o to have tho county in which lie is stationed mapped out , and to familiarize himself with every part of it . He should distribute the men uuder his command into detachments and guards , ana patrols should be organized to keep the country under inspection day and night . Visits should be made to these patrols at
uncertain periods , and the result of such supervision , together with all other matters relating to them , sbould be reported to headquarters weekly as well as monthly , " with nominal and numerical return s , &c . Forms similar to those used in the army , such as pay , forage , and contingent accounts , would simplify the receipt and discharge of all monetary accounts connected with the maintenance of tho constabulary .
In the able memorandum from which we borrow these views , it is proposed to extend the scope of tho constable ' s activity , so that the county police , besides being employed to
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1140 THE IiliAPEB ,. [ Ho . 349 , Sattjbdat
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 29, 1856, page 1140, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2169/page/12/
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