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turning to any one out of a hundred other means . SSunately this argument is not worth so much in India The effect of English improvement is to create numerous new employments without creating new castes , and , we may add , in so far breaking up the old ones . The railway , the steamboat , the steamengine , the- electric telegraph , the . printing-press , bookbinding , lithography , wood : engraving , photography , and numerous new pursuits have created many new employments ;¦ ¦ and these fields of occupation will be extended . It is by such means caste is to be weakened , and not by persecution ; and the caste of writers must share in the lot of the others . , - . . . .. . --
Every printing-press set up by the Governments of India in the collectorates and districts is a powerful engine of civilisation , in comparison with which a hundred copyists are of no account . Copyists , as gradually reduced , must seek private employment for their art , which is now in greater request , and their children must look out for some other caste .
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TAXES 0 $ TRADE . So much is still said of the treaty witli China , the only interesting occurrence for commerce we have of late had to record , that it seems likely to divert the attention of mercantile men from affairs at home . Should this be the case , it will be justly regretted , for more advantages may be obtained for trade by getting rid of noxious regulations , than by treaties with , foreigners . In fact , some of the most zealous deolaimers in favour of the treaty
have already found out that it is a mere concession of abstract rights which , we must gradually work out , or they will be worth nothing . Treaties can neither force nor make trade , though , they can stop or pervert it ; and the good to be obtained by this treaty must be purchased by the same exertions on the part of traders as they must have made had it never existed . The . _ national will , however , which cannot force a foreign trade , may relieve home trade front burdens . Mercantile men have now lea rned from experience , if ever they were ignorant of them , the inestimable advantages
of freedom , and they owe it to themselves—they owe it to the principle by which they haver prospered—they owe it to other nations , incited to follow our example , to carry out that principle and get every possible tax and restriction removed from our own trade . Although there are yet a considerable number of customs ttuties imposed , as we showed on the 18 th ult ., on the principle of protection , the chief of them are imposed merely to rai 3 e a revenue , arid the first point therefore to be satisfied about is the practicability of
diminishing the national expenditure . But every person outside the range of the Treasury is thoroughly convinced that the public money is wasted to an enormous extent on unnecessary or worthless labour by jobbery and corruption . Every farthing of this [ money is obtained by taxation , and every tax carries with it restrictions on industry . The excise on paper and spirits—it is impossible to re-state the fact too often—prevents the manufacture of these necessary articles from being carried on in the best manner . The customs duties impose on the necessary import and export of commodities
great heaps of official restrictions , in order to collect the revenue , to which the passport nuisance abroad , so justly complained of , is a trifling evil . A man , in fact , is much easier passed inwards or outward * than a . bale ; of goods , ; and customs duties are more oaevona zestrainJba on the industry by which , we all live than are passports on locomotion , which ]» the privilege and enjoyment of the few . J ? or the mere performance of the obnoxious labours of the ? Oustom-house the eratn of 1 , 351 , 150 A was paid m 18 S 6 , and taxes to that amount were , levied on the people to pay it . At the same time the men who preside over the performance of these noxious
services are inflated with , official arrogance , and Messrs . Fremantle , Spring Rice , Goulburn , Saurin , Berkeley , and G * eg , the Cuatonaa Cavamiaaioners , boast of extraordinary merit , and seem to expect the admiration of mankind for lessening ever so little the restrictions they decree and the public money they expend . Besides requiring a host of boastful and very often insulting officials to carry them into effect , customs and exoise duties give rise to evasions and smuggling , to deceit , l y ing , penury , and fraud . They are great sources' of vice ana crime . " . Ladies and 1 ftd ^ mMd 8 , '' tiuoCommissdoner » of Customs tell us , " have a tremulous and vulgar joy in cheating
the revenue and evading the vigilance of the officers charged with collecting it . " Besides the attempts at smuggling of tobacco and spirits , of which the public are informed by prosecutions at the policeoffices , a " . considerable number of parties of rank and station had their baggage confiscated for smuggling by the customs authorities in 1 S 57 . " When every kind of indirect taxation causes such an accumulation of evils , we can only feel honestly indignant that a single farthing is ever levied for any but the most indispensable services ; and when we know that money so levied is under many hypocritical pretexts scandalously misapplied , we feel dishonoured xi __ . j j : u . ~ ~;~; i »>^ , i r * F flir » r « . flfi » prs
and degraded by ' being made the victims of such a S J ^ JIM- ^ mere ly freedom of trade , self-respect requires from us that we should as speedily as possible put an end to public extravagance of every kind , in order to get rid of the sufferings , vices , and crimes perpetrated by taxation to support it . There is one branch of this expenditure , by no means necessary to the performance of the duties of the State , worthy of especial notice . A navy and army and courts of law we must have ; but on them , when the money to support them can only be obtained by a great sacrifice of social welfare , the smallest possible sum should be expended . The
contrary is , unfortunately , the tact , and the necessity to have them is made the pretext for a vast quantity of wanton extravagance . The other branch of expenditure alluded to is voluntary ; it is , a work of supererogation on the part of Government , a kind of generosity exercised very often as is pretended in favour of the deeply-injured taxpayers . It takes the shape of grants for galleries , education museums , hospitals , scientific experiments . &c , as if Government had some funds of its
own not derived from taxation , and as if payments of every kind werewiot required by duty , and some eould be withheld at pleasure . To such a doctrine we cannot assent . Government is an instrument treated by society for the performance of great and solemn duties , and those who are for ever appealing to it for favour delude it into the paths of injustice . The expenditure of Government , like that of other spendthrifts on taste , is proportionably more than the neoeasarj expenditure-on the family , and is permanently increasing . for civil
In 1841 the miscellaneous charges services amounted to 3 , 601 , S 4 l / ., and in 1855 , after which this item of expenditure in the Statistical Abstract was jndden amongst civil charges of all kinds , was 6 , 7 ^ 1 , 126 / . In 1857 , as we learn from other sources , it was 7 , 227 , 719 / . 3 ? or the present year the charge is still greater , and the bulk of the vast increase arises from the Government having imitated the Governments of the Continent—urged thereto by successive schemers—in meddling with everything , including education , art , and science . They hold themselves in no degree responsible to their subjects for their expenditure .
They regard the public money a 3 their private property , to be used as they please ; and if they abstract a portion of it from keeping up their courts and armies , and apply it to art and science , in the eyes of their subjects or slaves they appear to be acting a very meritorious part . We acknowledge the principle of public money being the property of the people held by the Government on trust , and only to be levied and only to be expended for the advantage of the tax-payers . Our Gpvernmcnt , therefore , has no right to spend a sixpence on any kind of whim , and it has done a grievous wrong to the tax-payers by doubling in a few years the charges for the miscellaneous civil services .
Without entering into details , we assert that the grants for the pretended improvement of the people , or for commissioners to take care of them , have not sprang spontaneously from our Saxon institutions , bnfc are poor and spiritless exotics , none of which thrive here , imported from the imperialism and the bureaucracy which prevail abroad . The Chad wicks , representatives of centralisation for paupers and i police j the Lingcns , representatives of the same i nrinoiDle for education ; the Coles , who represent
lit for art and science ; the Trevelyana , who ropre-! sent it in tho public offlops ; with a vast brood of inspector * and commissioners , who oat up tho bxrtk of the sum appropriated for civil services and carry into effect new regulations , all of which are restrictions , are the genuine offspring of constraining and oooroive , despotism , lo borrow isuch contrivances from system * of govornmont which we all justly and heartily condemn , is to bo at onoe absurd and contemptible , This branch of expenditure , therefore , whioh is so rapidly increasing , the mercantile olasses may , with groat proprioty , resist , and .
y a supererogatory expense , not required by the duties imposed on the government of a free people . Last year there was levied by the Customs on : —» ¦ ' ¦ ¦ £ Butter and cheese ,- . . -. 159 , 000 Coffoe - 457 , 000 Corn 473 , 000 Currants and raisins 291 , 000 Wine l , 9 «« , 00 l ) Timber of all kinds 575 , 500 Small articles , taken collectively 7-l . "> , 000 Making a total of ...... 4 , GG 9 , 500 It is therefore by no means too much to say , taking into consideration the expense of levying these duties , and the greater productiveness of other duties which would be sure to ensue from abolishing these , that the addition made to the expenditure for civil services-withiu . the last twenty years has compelled us to submit , to all tlds-otherwise unnecessary taxation . It is not loo . much to say that by reducing the expenditure on lnisc-llaneous civil services to its amount in IS 10 , all the duties levied by the customs on small articles , and the duties
levied on provisions—coffee ., corn , currants , a . id raisins , wine and timber , the necessaries oi' our social existence—might ajl nt once be got ; rid of , reducing by three-fourths the labours of the Customhouse officers , and dispensing with the noxious services of four out ofthesixGustomsCo-nnnissioners . This is not a question , as beggars for Government favours and Government expenditure represent it , of mere pounds , shillings , ami pence , and a sordid ovc of pelf on the part of t he MN .-pa . vers , but ouc of political principle , morality , duty , and conscience . That the arts shall flourish and science he
continually enlarged is much to be desired , and seems to be , ' independent of all Government patronage , ihe natural consequence of the growth of society . JLJut that this effect is to be brought , about by ' levying the taxes enumerated to the stoppage of trade , the proportionate diminution of wealth , , and the degradation of society , is not to be believed , ami would be ' scarcely . worth purchasing at Mich an-enormous cost . All the seryiecs of Government arc dear if they involve a diminution of social welfare . At least this ill-considered , if not wanton , expenditure and
extravagance ou its part wipes out the line of its-duty ; it ceases to be the strict guardian of the public money , which becomes the ordinary prey of innumerable pretenders . It has a fatal effect on the morals of the whole people , including the mercantile classes , and is the chief source of that disregard of duty we all lfave continually to deplore . If the Government had acted conscientiously and honestly in disbursing the public money , and in levying none bul- si lictly necessary taxes for the performance of its o \ vn narrow duties , we should never have hcardot the Liverpool Borough Bank and the Great Western
Bank . Unnecessary taxation and needless expenditure , a fatal example to the whole people , lie at the bottom of much pauperism and much crime . A great , portion , therefore , of the Government expenditure , and consequently of the present taxation , is not necessary ; and indirect luxation should be reduced . It is more pernicious than direct taxation , restricts liberty and industry , and . ^ ops tlic production of wealth , as well us misappropriates it . Tho trading classes , who arc it . * uniiiortmto victims , have tho best right to be heard on tho qybject , nnd it become . ? them , we think , m conjunction with financial Reformers , to got rid ot tho unnecessary customs duties we have adverted to .
The number of tho Financial Iicfuniuw lur 0 e < tobcr , whioh discusses this subject , say . s , ninongst other things , that sugar , which yields tin : liirfjcst . sum to the oufitoms , "has become om : ol lll ° necessaries of life . How to deal properly witu ic has always boon one of the most diulculfc queri ' ions for Chancellors of tho Exchequer . ' / ' // " dnd' « uov levied arc absurd and pni' ple . vuig in tho extreme . Any attempt at improving tho qualify of Iho sugw value ot
imported is checked by tho duly . If Un » the article be moreaseU only ' Oil , tho extra tliiiyw Is . 2 d . Till withiu a few years ( ho sujjur « wllj * wore annually graulocl and annually subject l ° IC ' vision . Quito as much from a desire to lorm a pel rtronont systom of Ananoo , and remove as lur nil »» possible tho oontrol of tho House of Commons , as to give security todenlcrs in sugar , these duties iwvo boon made pdrmauonf , and * tho pre * onl ; hvhIimii » , levying thorn is tho frutf . of tho lnlo » l . wisdom Parliament . They are understood to be m o main tho product of tho contriving brniu , ul ' . " . " lftto Secretary of Lho Treasury m conjunction \\ iu »
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require that it should be curtailed . It is entirel 1 A ^ THE LEAD ER . [ JS o . 446 , October 9 , 1858 . m . - ¦ - ¦ . . L f reauirG that it should be curtail ed . It is nnlir ^ Ur «
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 9, 1858, page 1074, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2263/page/26/
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