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THE EDINBURGH REVTEW.—TAXATION.*
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; A PLEA rOR BEITISH COLU]\IBIA.
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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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successful conquest of the hardest process in the art , one not to be acquired without years of labour , and a most delicate power of manipulation ; the ' Fothebgiix process with the dry plate , in which the position can be taken at any time , thus obviating' the annoying encumbrance of a tent . . ' "' - ¦ ¦ ' ¦¦ •• -. '"' Mr . Jotjbeet ' s permanent process , with the help of which he proposes * o illustrate books ( even scientific ones ) , should not be left wnnoticed . The best specimen , perhaps , is one without a number , but hung on the end of the third screen , on the right of the secretary ' s chair . Mr . Smith has not been so successful in his " View of Knaresborough . " The impression this gloomy picture gives is that of evening 1 , and late evening-: yet the shadows are .. strong , and not inore than half the length of the posts that cast them . It is hard upon the sun to . employ him to put himself out so completely .
Messrs . Bisson Fierce , in " The Sources of the Aveyroii" ( 143 ); " Mont Blanc" ( 299 ); ' Les Serais ' ( 300 ); and " Les Grandes Jorasses , " ( 301 ) are as good as ever ; and are , indeed , real benefactors in bringing under the eyes of people who will never even see Alp ' ne scenery , very truthful representations of its beauty and grandeur . A large photograph of Niagara arrived after the exhibition opened . Everything but the rushing swirls of water just above the fall was admirably represented—foam , spray * clouds , distance , rocks . But the water was like macearoni , and Niagara unfortunately consists largely ' of water .. There are several examples , as ( 140 ) , if we remember rightly , of the error of photographing a view beyond water . The reflections in the foregiound water are so black and deep as to overpower everytliirg else , and to give an unpleasant topsy-turvy feeling to the whole composition .
The result produced on our own mind by the wholeexhibition , isafter adn : itting the wonderful manual and chemical skill displayed— - that painting , whether of landscape , portrait , or figure , stands in no danger from the gloomy accuracy of the photograph , which bears the same relation to it as the skeleton to the living being ; but that in accurate copying of prints and drawings , as we have noticed , or of the minuter inanimate objects , as the mediaeval locks , key's , and spoons ( No . 9 ) , or the piece of music on the end of the second screen , it is unrivalledI in delicacy , and is almost reduced to perfection by the nb ! e artists who now practise it . . ' . ¦
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DR . JOHNSON has reirrrked in the " Rambler , " with , we think , somewhat less than his usual acuteness , that " no word is naturally or intrinsically meaner than another ; our opinion therefore of words , as of other things , arbitrarily and capriciously established , depends wholly upon accident and custom . " The associations which malce a word mean and disagreeable , or the reverse , may indeed be both accidental and partial ; but the Doctor appears to put entirely out of the question the melody of words—according to our opinion , no unimportant part of them . Melody and association' are both concerned , however , in the few remarks that follow .
We conquer , we clear , we colonize ; we subdue wild men , and subjugate wilder nature—and to make acquisitions is certainly a far more important' matter than to name them , In thi § latterjioirit the A ' nglo-Saxcn settler vulgarizes most energetically . We might excuse convicts , and : those who firs £ push forward discovery and settlement , but unfortunately there seems often tp be an aftergrowth of vulgarity in the chpice pf names [ "for things and places which is not so pardonable . Now at the best the sounds of the English language 1 , glorious as it is , are far from being the most melodious in the worl < f . Trnnalate the names of a fevyofihe French and Italian streets , for instance , into English , and see JRtie de la Croix Ronge , Stmda dell a Croce JRossa , certainly gain no grandeur by being
here worth noting : "As to such names as Jerry ' s Plains , Patrick ' s Plains , or Paddy ' s River , it seems a cruelty to inflict them on a new country . " . . , , , . We think so indeed . . They are nearly as bad as the worst native terinsr—WogiWog and Bong-Bong— -and riot nearly so desirable as the best—Taralga , Hawarra , and Marulau . May British Columbia escape the fate of Australia , and may its localities be Christianly christened 1 Where a country is subject to a survey , it might be as well for those who take the survey , to make at least an effort to save from the kind of desecration we have been describing its more interesting localities . Certainly , if we have saved by these few words of ours some grand ravine from the sobriquet of "Bobby ' s Grtilly "some snow-crowned and cloud-capped height from the denomination of the " Buffer's Bump ; " this little labour of love to nature and admonition to man will not have been altogether in vain .
translated into " Red Cross Street , " and were we to try the next hiili-dozcM that might occur to us the result would be the same . Or tal ; o , uguin , a levy of the names of well-known artists , and English then ); what , does the reader think of IPoussin , Bourdon ; and Mouuheron , transmuted into Messrs ' . Chicken , Prone , and Gnat : Or the great nianters of the Ferrares , e Seliopl '¦ : '¦' ¦ Gar , ofal <> nnd' Mazzoljno metamorphosed into Messrs . JPjnJr and Nosegay P ' , So far perhaps we cannot help ourselves ; wp mu « t take our language , ns fur ns regards its sounds , as we Hnd it . But to show the Anglo-Saxon tendency to vulgarise intensely , wi | fully to prefer the unpleasant to the pleasant association , wo havb but to look to our Transatlantic khfsuion . Riqo may not be ' a word of very pleasniit sound , but why vulgarise it , into the , roundabout slangy rattle of u swamp ^ m « *\ - * l iJ ¦ # 4 4 M 1 «\ »« & . k m «*^ ¦ ¦ * nt * A MX ** in *>* * % <«^ * % * w m fe # « '*¦ r * 4 % wi ¦*** ha # * L * i ^ 4 a Ah i ^ J * h * th < v * 4 * « w « s ^ wr * *\ seed ? ' * ' Corn is better in sound ifc is tho 6 rd 61 Scripture—the
' ' " j w old EngUVli wprd , hollowed by a thousand poetical iis . sociations What wanton coarsened tp lenend up nil descriptions of it into the utilihuiun " bvoad , stuff ! " In spme pavt ^ of America , owjng to nu ingenious preference for' the diggusUng" , all . t )« e stpres of tho ontpmologiat ccjno under the all-inolufcivo genus of " bugaj" nnd that ohgiuit c ' i'euturo the fire-fly is , ptir cnip 7 tasis , the * 'lightning-bug . " We uclniit tLo general superiority of tho men of Boston in matters oftawtt ' , and a amot of wutor six Knilotjlojig is certainly not to bo compared to Huron mud Onturjo ; but why do they still pers / at in calling Asuawuuipset lul < e a _ po ; w ? , h \ pvefcrence to tine move dignilfiod term to v \ hit h it niiglit iairly Jay claim P Every you up nation seems clealitu'il to hove aomo of the murks which characterize the youthful liuu . tm iudividuul , but it ia tune for America , to ciaat ofl ' tliis slough < Xf i » IUHg \ i A riCiAiiudk of Ifavgarth ' s , in Jxis * ' Bush Life in Austrftlia , " is
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rnHE present number of the " Edinbiirs-h Beview" has two poli--1- tical articles , one on the progress of Law Reform , the other on British Taxation . The latter refers to a " subject of great interest and universal concern , " and we shall best consult the advantage of our readers by Concentrating attention on it . An elaborate article on the Mortality in Trades and Professions , an interesting commentary on Jiawlinson ' Herodotus , a descriptive account of the Coal Fields of North America and Great Britain , an abridgment of Mr . Oliphant ' s narrative of Lord JElgiii ' s Mission to China and Jajpan , an exposure in detail of many errors in Alison s History of Murojpe , an instructive paper on the Acclimatisation of Animals , and a ^/ p leasant notice of Madame . JRecamier , which includes a description of the manners of the Parisians under Napoleon , make up the number and are worthy of perusal . It has no light article ; it is solid throughout , and will be read more for instruction , than
amusement . . The article oil taxation is meant to smash all discontent with and all opposition to the present system . The Reviewer shows that taxation per head has been steadily diminishing ever since the termination of the great war j that taxation m proportion to wealth is only half what it was at that period ; that our , fiscal burdens are lighter tliaii those of the French ; that ; even as compared with ' America , ' we are not discreditably" taxed ; that it is quite an error to describe bur present system as expensive ^ - —it is much more economical than that of either France or America , and does "hot mess with unfair severity
on the working classes . AM these pqihts are worked out with much minuteness , considerable care , great array of facts and figures , and the whole is stated with a studied appeariintce of candour . If all the facts and all the figures of the whole problem were really collected , to refute the author ' s conclusions might be difficult , but he warns us that they are only approximations , and he does not affirm their unassailable accuracy . We beg to call his attention to one palpable error which runs through the bulk of the article , and vitiates alike his comparisons betwqen the present and the past , and between England and other countries .
AH his statements turn on the amount of property m this country now and formerly and in other countries , and he gets at the amount of personal property by the sum annually paid for the legacy and probate duties . Now funded property is , like other personal property , subjected to these duties j—consequently funded property is included in the Reviewer ' s estimate of personal property . Funded property , however , is nothing more than a right to receive ^ 28 , 700 , 000 per annum of the public tuxes . A sum to that amount is annually taken from the , tax payers * and handed over to the tax receivers . The personal property has no other existence . To the individuals who receive the dividends .. they are undoubtedly personal property , but now to , reckon amongst the assets Of the ] STation , £ 800 , 000 , 000 of debt is an gross a blunder as ever was conamitted by a self ^ deceiving bankrupt . ... ' .
Moreover , real property is estimated by tho annual income it yields . Now the tax on corn , and tho taxes on butter , cheese , fruit , etc ., keep up the price of tho produce of pur own soil equal to the rate of duty . This enhances pro tanio the rent of land ; and so the nominal value of real property is also increased by' taxation . We are b y no moans sure that a similar effect is not the result , of excise and other duties , which compel the consumer to hand over a part of his property to enrich the distiller , tho paper-iT « uker , the maltster , tho barley grower , and tho landowner , — ' -un additional sum which ought to be itw ' nsferrod from the creditor lo the debtor side of the account in considerijig the burdens of . t ]» e people . Much of the personal property which the Reviewer represents as bearing *
taxation is taxation itself , . In making a comparison between the revenue and expenditure of England . and other countries , the services of the ( Htibrent Governwents ' nnwt , be conwdered , " Now , the Fvouch budget , and the budgets of the sevoi'al states of the Union , provide for the ecclesiastical establishments so far as they are jstnto endowments , nnd for all the establishments for education ; while our church establishment is paid fov by what is culled church property , which is in reality a tax on the people , ' enforced by the State fcnroug-h t ^ ie instruniontnHty of the noil ; and the exponso of education ifi defrayed by the people , apart from their contributions to the § tnto . In ' the year ju » t expired S , 6 G 4 , 617 dollnrs appears jn thq budget of the Stute of New York ns the : charge for education , being one-filth part of the total State expenditure . For this , schools were provided for all the youths of
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6 Q The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ Jan . 21 , 1860 .
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* Tito MOinbwyh Jtwiew . Nq . OPX 2 KV , Londoa j Longman & Co-Bdlftburgh ; A . & 0 . Black .
The Edinburgh Revtew.—Taxation.*
THE EDINBURGH REVTEW . —TAXATION . *
; A Plea Ror Beitish Colu]\Ibia.
A PLEA FOR BRITISH COLUAIBIA .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 21, 1860, page 66, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2330/page/14/
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