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SELECTION—TAILS, TOYS, CAOUTCHOUC.
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A SLIGHT REVOKE.
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state of the national defences , we shall require to lay out £ 11 , 860 , 000 in the course of the next four years , in addition to the sums required to meet the ordinary expences of Governm ent . It therefore becomes a matter of the utmost importance to inquire , whether there are any means within our reach , which will enable us to diminish the national expenditure and lighten the heavy burden of taxation . The interest of the public debt absorbs about two-fifths of the annual revenue ; the expenses of the army and navy swallow up other two-fifths ; and the remaining- fifth is expended in maintaining the civil government of the country . The first of these sources of expenditure we cannot , of course , reduce : nor can we , in the present threatening- state of the political horizon of Europe , safely attempt to diminish the second ; while the sums expended in maintaining the civil service of the Home Government cannot be said to be extravagant , or to admit of any material reduction . But there is one direction in which it appears to us that some change and some retrenchment might safely and easily be effected , and that is , in the expenditure connected with the maintenance and protection of our colonies , and we should like to see the attention of our legislators turned in this direction during- the ensuing session of Parliament . The prosperous state of most of our colonies and dependencies ought , ere long , to make them independent of . all support from the mother countrv , or , at least , able and willing to pay for that support which they actually receive ; and it is surely worth while inquiring , whether a considerable reduction might not be effected in the grants now made for the salaries of their governors and magistrates , and also in the large sums now voted for their defence , in conformity with the recommendation of the committee on the military defences of the colonies . Our colonies comprise an area of about six millions of square miles , and , exclusive of India , cost us upwards of £ 4 , 000 , 000 per annum . They now enjoy a very large measure of self-government , are lightly taxed , and , except in the case of British India and Canada , are unencumbered by the pressure of a national debt . Our North American colonies , which are in the most prosperous condition , and which , in 1859 , took ¦ £ 3 , ( 500 , 000 of British and Irish manufactures , annually entail on the national exchequer an expenditure of £ 500 , 000 for fortifications , barracks , regular troops , and naval charges , for governors and ecclesiastical affairs , besides a portion of the expense of the packet service and a portion of the expense of the fleet on the North American station . Our West Indian colonies are also very costly ; draining the British . Exchequer of upwards of £ 600 , 000 per annum to pay their governors and justices , their ecclesiastical establishments , their troops and fortifications . Our vast possessions in Australia , with an annual income of £ 6 , 000 , 000 , and an expenditure of £ 5 , 000 , 000 , yet cost t he mother country half a million per annum while our African colonies entail upon us an outlay of no less than a million annually ; and Ceylon , Labuan , and Hong Kong , cost £ 450 , 000 . Lastly , we come to India , the richest and most important of our colonial possessions , with a trade , counting-exports and imports , amounting to £ 55 , 000 , 000 , and a revenue of £ 32 , 000 , 000 . Unfortunately the expenditure greatly exceeds the revenue , and has been rapidly increasing . The outlay for military purposes has increased from £ 11 , 000 , 000 in 1855 , to £ 19 , 500 , 000 in 1859 ; and the home charges , during the same period , have risen from £ 2 , 500 , 000 to £ 6 , 000 , 000 . But it must be remembered that thirtytwo millions of taxes in a population of 170 millions , is an unprecedented light taxation , scarcely amounting to 4 s . per head ; while the taxation in this country is £ 2 2 s . per head , and in Russia , the moat % hil y taxed country in Europe , 12 s . per head . It is clear , therefore , that , by a more thorough system of taxation , India might easily be made to defray her own expenses . The colonies of other European nations , although not enjoying- that degree of liberty and self-government which we have wisely accorded to ours , are yet often obliged to pay the whole expenses of their government and defence . To take but one prominent instance—that of Cuba , the brightest gem in the colonial diadem of Spain . There , although the native planters and merchants are deprived of all political power and influence , which , are the exclusive property of the bpanish governor and Spanish officials , they are yet obliged to defray the whole expense of the colonial establishment , both civil and military , and to remit , besides , the surplus revenue—generally amounting to upwards of a million annually—to the Spanish treasury . Surely , then , we are not making- an unreasonable suggestion when we propose that our own colonies , where the inhabitants enjoy the same privileges and the same freedom as ourselves , and whore they are w general well able to pay the expenses of their civil and military government—should be required , either to defray the whole of their expenses , or at least to pay the largest proportion of them , and thus relieve the revenue of the mother country of a heavy expenditure , which , it can but ill afford , and which it ouyht not in justico to be called upon to bear .
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nrVHERE are few tilings more unpleasant than to be obliged to JL retract or modify praise—but it must sometimes be done for Truth ' s sake . Tho Neapolitan correspondent of the Timo $ is , we believe , an Englishman , and can have no motive , that wo are aware of to detract from -the credit of his countrymen . Yet we had scarcely printed our remarks on tho beuefioial efl'ect on Italian fooling towards England , in oonsoquonoo of tho oo-opomtion of our countrymen , and oa tho bearings of tho oo-oporation , when wo read , in tho Neapolitan correspondence , to tho following * effort , viz . —that tho English residents regret , liUoly to result irom tho misconduct of tho English Volunteor Corps , or of many of its members ,
that such a corps was ever formed—that some of them are " loafing " or idling about the streets of Naples—that others have been guilty of certain excesses , which the writer declines , naming 1 that the corps is dwindling away , and will , probably , soon cease to exist , its better members enrolling themselves in the several regular Sardinian regiments . That a portion of our countrymen have done us , and will continue to do us honour , there can be little doubt , whilst wo most sincerely regret that any should have detracted by their misconduct from the general credit . Unfortunately , in the case of our countrymen , it is always most dangeroiis to risk anything- like praise of . a general description . If in firing a salvo in their honour , we in the slightest degree overload our piece , we are sure of a sharp recoil on our shoulder , if we are not fairly knocked over . The liberty which gives a free path to the wise or the brave ,-makes an arena , too , for Marplots , mountebanks , and vauriens . There is not a good article in our shops of which there is not some cheap and rubbishing imitation ; we cannot have a fine five-act piece , without some farce at the end of it . There is somebody or something to blot our fairest pages . Do we open trade with a new country , as Japan , and congratulate ourselves and oiir country upon it , the next news is that a set of English vagabonds are disgracing us in the eyes of our newly-acquired friends by infamous bullying- and extortion . The Volunteer movement goes on most honourably and respectably , excepting' only that little canine affair ( which , by-the-by , only Englishmen would have blundered into ) . The continent looks on the movement with respectful eyes , when some injudicious youngsters , whose best excuse may be that it is only in their Volunteer capacity that their parents will allow them pocket-money , or trust them in Paris , desire to trot their uniforms on the Boulevards . If we do not fail in principle , we take care to fail in taste , judgment , or discretion .
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I N what a flutter is an ordinary man ' s heart , when ho laneies that he is on the point of proving his title to a Peerage ! All kinds of things—old tombstones , for instance , as in the famous Tracy case , are brought in evidence . With " a strange kind of inverted ambition ; " others are in an ecstacy at the chance of finding , if they leave no stone or stratum unturnedby infinite pains , that they are descended from a inolluse , or from that primitive worm that has scrawled or crawled his autograph upon the " Cambrian . " To these the text , "lama worm , and no man , " probably appears to contain a greater mystery of truth than any other in the volume which some of us receive as inspired . We suppose that a good genealogist would value his personal skill more than his family pride , and admit , it needs -were , a { , ¦¦; . i ^ cr roll , in his lineage , rather than miss a link or make a blunder . It is some reward to find that if we belong to a family that has no dignity , we belong to one that has no responsibilities . If we are doomed " Downwards to olimb , and backwards to advance , " may wo go at last right through tho granite on a philosopher ' s back , as Dante did on the old serpent ' s , and passing the oentre come up at last to some antipodean heaven , and bo ablo to exclaim , . " E quindi UBcitnmo a rivoaer lo stollo . If any reader asks what this has to do with our main subjects , we reply , that avc make uso of the popular principle of " selection , " and that tho link of connection between what , wo have said and what wo aro going to say , is at least an strong as that botwoon a man and a Japan lizard , in its supremo development , or a monkey . Tho Rabbis were beforehand , in one rosneot , with Lord Monhodpo and tho devolopmontarians ; they said that Apoi was born with a tail ; also , wo boliovo , that ho was of a green colour , but that is less to our purpose When watching the young of other creatures amusing themselves unweunodly with their—natural play things— wo have sometimes been absorbed in rouootion upon tho harder lot of tho human juvenile whioh has boon less liberally endowed , and which depends so muoh on the generosity of others for its instruments of entertainment . Wo have boon oven tempted to think that a tail might havo boon arranged , oaloulatod to sorvo all tho purposes oi childhood , and dropping off , liko that of the tadpole , at tlio approach of adolo » oonoo , and so , in as small a dogroo as possible , compromising tho dignity or throwing doubt upon tho origin oi man . What a saving of oxponwo to unolos and aunts ! ol lnmm quarrels about possession ! of parontal inventions to preserve quiet and provide amusement ! what an osoapo for ever irom thoso " dona hostilott , " malioious presents from false and protended friends to tho infanta of norvous parents , such a « small trumpets and drums , and ponny fifes and whistles , uttorij destructive ot' family oomfort . ., But , oomparod with naturo ' windom , ours in moro tony «« Necessity is tho mother of invention , " and tho toy-nooeasit ) has put bread into the mouths oj : many poor little kng » sn , Dutoh , and Gorman * children ; what ih play to us , being victuals to them . Go to tho Lowthor-aroado ; what ohoapnosa ! wiiai ingonuity ! what splendour I Could tho oannibal huuHelr clean o anything more tempting and gaudy whorowith to bait his traps for tho suooulont but wandering and inoautious oliilaroii « 1 " hoHtile tribo ? What endless purchases for a shilling / An joy , then to tho toy-buyers , toy-brokors , and toy-breakers , ou wnpni tho two former depend ; may the playthings of tho junior portion
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942 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Nov . 17 , 1860
Selection—Tails, Toys, Caoutchouc.
SELECTION—TAILS , TOYS , CAOUTCHOUC .
A Slight Revoke.
A SLIGHT REVOKE .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1860, page 942, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2374/page/6/
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