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POUT U GAL.
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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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to bear oil the conduct of individuals , Numerous as the ill-doing part is , it ever exists only in a small proportion to the welldoing part . The consequence , therefore , of this extensive and rapid communication is- to increase very much the power of the well-doing , well-intentioned public ; and we now hearalmost 4 aily of some profligate thief or scoundrel murderer arrested in his flight to the -Antipodes . The . telegraph is so much swifter than even the rail that no criminal can now reasonably hope to escape detection and punishment . The hope of reaping enjoyment from criminality is at an end . By means of rapid communication , too , the highest political authorities are rendered additionally subservient to public opinion , and , without speaking hyperbolicallyi we can affirm that by the same electrical power the well-intentioned public can catch a murderer , stop a war , and every where promote peace and freedom .
Within eighteen years we have become thoroughly convinced that freedom of industry is essential to social welfare . This is moral knowledge , as important as physical knowledge . It is an additional and most useful guide to conduct , inducing governments and individuals to abstain from much mutual meddling . In consequence of the progress in . moral knowledge , Her Majesty was able to inform the Parliament that both pauperism and crime were decreasing . Those who have closely examined the criminal records are well aware that this pleasant decrease is in no degree due to the exertions of the Government , In spite of an ¦ improved and extended police , in spite of new and more severe tests of pauperism , in spite of all the punishments which could be invented , it is notoriousi and certain that both criminality and paup erism increased continually and incessantly till 1842 , when our chief commercial and fiscal reforms were begun . It is
equally notorious and certain that , with slight vacillations the consequence of dear food and war , they have continually decreased since 1842 . They increased so long as the old system of restrictions was maintained , and decreased when it was lessened . Having regard to . the increase of population , crime and pauperism have decreased very remarkably since food , by the repeal of , bad laws , became cheap and employment abundant . By the progress of knowledge , the people have improved , and there has been less occasion ibr the services of Government as the cost of them has increased . .
The abolition of corn and navigation laws and of numerous restrictions was an abatement of . executive functions . Fewer Custom-house officers than before were required ; Government had less to do , and should have cost less . Moreover , its functions , ns in carrying , letters , are performed at a less cost in proportion as the population is condensed . As men live together they are more under the control of one another , and require a smaller amount of extraneous coercive power to . preserve order . An increase of people , an increase of knowledge and advance in civilization , make the task of government lighter , and should make it less costly . Hence the great progress which society has made in civilization since 1840 , renders the contrast between the service
of Government to the people and their mutual services more striking . While they increase continually in efficiency and cheapness its service becomes less efficient , and dearer—a burden for ever increasing . Should the proportionate increase between its cost and the amount of population go . oil as in the interval 184 Q-- -58 , the discrepancy between the two in the end will make the Government unbearable . Already a demand to lessen its expenditure is heard throughout the land . In obedience to it , and in opposition to All the dependants and hangers on of Ministers , both Whigs and Tories , Mr . Wise carried his motion by a hundred and twenty-one to ninety-three . The House of
Commons , then , has declared it to be desirable to appoint a Committee to control the Government expenditure . This is almost unprecedented . ¦ It really takes from the Executive Government the power of determining in civil matters what it shall do , and how it shall be paid for what it does ! Such a motion would not have been carried , had not the representatives of the people been convinced thnt the time has arrived when the increase of the cost of government must be stayed , or even very ' considerably lessoned . Its increasing demands havo exhausted -tho patience of the taxpayers , and a majority of twenty-uight of their representatives lias practically informed every ' ministry that it must earnestly begin finanoial refoi'm . .
Mr , Wise , referring to estimates which wo regard as somewhat fallacious bases for comparison , stated that in 1889 the osthnatos ibr civil services amounted to JB 2 , G 51 , OOO , and in 1859 to J ? 7 , SS 0 , 000 , which gives an increase thrco times as great as we ljavo stated . He gave the following Illustrations of the manner in which the items had increased : — ¦ . . Esl'JMATES . 1830 . 1859 . Public buildings , parks , « &c . . . £ 197 , 000 £ 793 , 000 Salaries and expenses , Public \ » Oii nnn U 1 » Departments . . . . $ ' ™ , 000 1 , 413 , 000
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WE are probably reminding nino out Of every ton renders ol on event they havo quite forgotten , if , iudeotl , they ever noticed it , when we montion that the session of the . Portuguese Legislature was opened the other day by a " gracious " speech from the young King . Who , now , but a holder ol' Portuguese stock , yet ' <; haling- at the injustice to whiuh lie has booii . fjonipuUod to submit—ft speculative contractor , mixious for a railway conccshowt doeH
sion—or , pei'hups , a port-wine votary , whoso curiosity , ^ er . not go beyond the quality ' of tho year ' s vintago—cares about tho good or ill foi-tuno , the homo or foreign policy of a liulioii which onco , if it did not exactly givo laws to tho world , olumiuil ami , to some oxtimt , enforced ( Jonu ' nion over tho gvuat « i \ purl , ol ltr The old poWis gono , and the old prido with il ; ( In ; tflory oi discovorv , and the naaumpliou of exclusive rights bused irpou ji , have vanished . Tho destinies of Kuropn are HOlllcd wil li »» ¦ t J " participation of Portugal ' , although rcapuat Jor old pivcvatuw
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Estimates . 1839 . 1859 . Law and Justice .... . . 666 , 000 2 , 544 , 000 Education , Science , and Art . . 175 , 000 1 , 328 , 000 ' ¦ Colonial and Consular . . ,. . 339 , 000 428 , 000 . Superannuation and allowance ' s .. 200 , 000 242 , 000 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . 217 , 000 985 , 000 To this extraordinary list we will add a few items to show what nooks and crannies the great stream fills . From the . finance accounts of tlie years 18-46 and 1858 we copy the following : — Sums Voted .
1846 . 1858 . Home Department ... . . . £ 16 , 600 £ 24 , 799 Foreie-n . 1 .... . . . . 63 , 000 76 . Colonial . .... . : . ... 19 , 000 29 , 134 Board of Trade 37 , 255 67 , 847 Poor Law Board . .... . . 120 , 700 216 , 060 Factory Inspectors . . • • • 15 , 324 22 , 010 We admit that more work may be done by the officials of the Home-office , the Foreign-office , the Board of Trade , &c , in 1858 than in 1846 ; but the increased work is supererogatory . What
more useful business can the Home or Foreign Departments have to do in 1858 than in 1846 ? We know that the functions of the Board of Trade have been increased by the control given to it of the mercantile marine , of railways , &c , but its partial control of these great interests tends to divide responsibility and multiply calamities both by rails and ships . A country in which industry is really free woidd find a BoAitD of Trade not merely unnecessary but a nuisance . But since the Legislature was compelled , by ' the growth of public opinion , to set trade partially free , it has been wheedled by the Board into nearly doubling its functions and its expense . ' . ¦;' .
We refer to these items with earnestness , because we take a more serious yiew of this subject of taxation than most of our contemporaries . We are aware that most of the Governments Of Europe have been embarrassed ; or . even conviilscd , by financial difficulties ; and . what has been ruiiious to them , cannot be safety for her Majesty ' s Government . In fact , amidst numerous demands for the repeal of Custom-house and Excise duties ^ amidst urgent remonstrances against increasing income and other direct taxes ; its position is at present one of great financial difficulty . It is no light matter , that , for the sake of a revenue not equal to half the unnecessary increase in the expense of our civil
government since 1839 , at the lowest estimate , we shut ourselves out from much tvade with the South of Europe . Regulations abroad only would not be sufficient to this end ; it is effectually accomplished by our ownfiscal regulations . They nourish the enmities which exist between foreigi ^ ers and us . For the sake of a revenue not equal to one-fourth of this unnecessarily'increased expenditure , it never can be worth while to impede the manufacture of paper and the use of books and journals . The sum voted for education , which goes chiefly to increase the power and patronage of the ministers of the Church , is more than tlie paper sustains
duties . It cannot now bo denied that industry life ; and if it be a gross crime to take life , it must he a crime almost as grogs to impede industry . It lessens or maims life . For the sake of a revenue to spend on objects of more than doubtful utility , no enlightened Government , and no reasonable man can justify oven the smallest restriction on honest industry . > o grimaces at parsimony , no ridicule about cheeseparings , no club gossip , no coterie wit , however sparkling , can now inspire our suffering Chancellor of the Exchequer with confidence that lie is doing his duty , as a man and a patriot , by maintaining taxes for the extraordinary increase in expenditure for civil services , Avhich Mr . . Wise has . exposed , and whicl ^ the House of Commons has , we hope , resolved to stop .
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Eeb . 11 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 131
Pout U Gal.
PORTUGAL .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 11, 1860, page 131, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2333/page/7/
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