The Express.
London, England, 1852-10-13 00:00:00

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LONDOS, TrEDYB&I)I4 OCTOBER 13.

AMONG the various schemes ascribed to the DERBY
cabinet is ono about the franchise. Lord JOHN
RIVSALLL before he left office made a bidding for
popular favour in the shape of an extended
marine ,• and Mr. Iftsaaent, not to be out-
done, meditates, it is said, a rival proposition. If
we are to credit the eta/peers of the right hon. gen-
tleman, his bidding is einiuently characteristic, nod
strikingly illustrative of the difference between the
principles of the Whig leader, and those of the party
represented by his antagonist.
the intended design is, it is said, no other than
that of conferring .the franchise upon every man
who pays the Income Tax; but—by way of being
exceedingly liberal--every man whose wages or
earnings amount to twenty shillings a week is to be
made liable to the burthen which at present none
contribute towards but those whose incomes amount
to 1:111. a year. In other words, the design is to,
sell the concession of electoral rights to the class of
persons who may be found not to dwell in houses
worth an annual rent of ten pounds, but whose salary
for their labour as clerks or artisans may res:h the
sum of one pound a week. The boded interest are
to be compensated fur the lees el the bread tax by
means of what is pompously pealead as the sp.
preaching "general general revision of taxationr and es pat
of such revision we are told that the skilled labourer
and the hard-drudging accountant—the atreggling
retail dealer and the humble schoolmaster—me to be
invited to contribute thirty shillings a year es the
price of the elective franchise. The lords and squires
are so reduced in circumstances that they can no
longer afford themselves Bordeaux or Johannisberg
in the same abundance they used to do; but they
expect that a ministry whom they have put into
power to redress thCir wrongs, will keep their
word either by restoring the old charge on the bread
of industry, or else by imposing some new tax on
its general means of subsistence. It is a matter
of perfect indifference to the lords of the soil in
what shape they are benefited at the people's ex-
pense. They already begin to talk quite cheerfully
about abandoning " the very name of Protection."
Aye, aye; the very name; but have they a notion
of giving up the substance of the thing? Protection
never was anything but a fine phrase for plunder.
It never was anything but an idle way of living at
honest ptoplea expense. Let those who so lived
upon us be suffered once to set up a claim for what
Is called "compensation," and the whole question of
the corn law is revived in another,—and in truth a
more shameless and scandalous—form ; for a tax os
foreign wheat might be ingeniously though eoplela-
tically defended on ground' of a political and agri-
cultural nature ; but compensation to be paid out of
a nry-)!cation of taxes, is a point-blank scheme of
spoil—or a plan for making the rich richer, and
making the poor poorer. Nay, what is still were%
for making the rich richer at the poor man's expense.
Nte are not about to recur to the oft-debated quer
tion whether abstractedly considered, an income tax
ought not to reach all incomes however small.
Opinions differ on the point very materially ; we
have our,, and have frequently expressed it. But
all men of unprejudiced understanding will agree
that to frame a general system of direct taxation for
the good of the nation at large, in lieu or in allevia-
tion of a system of indirect imposts, is we thing;
while to set about a financial juggle for the avowed
purpose of giving pecuniary advantage to a par-
ticular clams of the community. is quite another thing.
If it be right, and if public opinion shall
favour so great a change in our fiscal habits as the
extension of direct taxation to all claws and ocen-
pations would imply, let the subject be gravely and
dim • nately discussed, and such a differential
of assessment on fleeting income and permanent
property be established as our wise neighbours in
Holland and our self-governing children in America
have long found to work well. But let no paltering
or prevarication be tolerated on the part of our pre-
sent partisan rulers if they shall attempt to extend
the already unjust, because undiscriminating, system
of direct taxation, to the laborious and deserving
many, who live upon resources varying from
twenty to sixty shillings • week. To say to such
men, whose means of existence literally depends upon
the continued ability from week to week to perform
their toilsome avocations,—"you shall pay to the
state as much in proportion out of all you earn as
his Grace of NORTEVJUIZMIAND, or my Lord Loss.

Dot s,"—weald ant waly be a public mime, bat a
consummate political blander. As it is, the injustice
done to professional and esmnaersial men has raised
up hosts of enemies to the continuance of a tax that
might and ought to be popular; but let • serious
hint be ones given of lowering the standard of ex-
smipties, so as to include thermals of discontented
tax-payers where now there are only Mae, and it re-
quires'but little foresight to predict what the fate of
the whole impost would speedily be.
The attempt to gild the Masten pill by conferring
electoral privileges its the condition of contribution,
is still more farcical and absurd. If there are no
great musber of persons having Mama between
604. and 130/. a year who do not poem the boa-
Woe, that is an excellent rases ter the ado grit: .
some extension such as that oulrossdby Mr.
motion, or that proposed by Lord Joint Run=
last session, which latter would ooshoosdly oodkuo.
cline nineteen oat of every twenty individuals saris
may be so circumstanced. Their want of the Agin
of voting is a wrong to be remedied, a Oman all
be redressed; not a whim to be gratified whoa dmi
chow to pay for it, or a privilege for term*
exercise they an fairly. be called upon ft
give so much money in exchange. And if,
upon the other hand, there are comparatively few
Who would thus become liable to the payment of
income tax who do not already possess the optional
right to vote at elections for members of parliament,
then the extension of suffrage would be an empty
pretence, a hollow and delusive affectation of
Either way the scheme eavours strongly of
the same spirit of arrant charlatanism in which
everything that has hitherto proceeded from the
DERRY cabinet appears to have been conceived. Mr.
WALPOLE'S memorable plan of enfranchising the
militia was the flat " dodge" of this particular de-
scription we shall be more amazed than amazed if
the next should be the CHANCELLOR of the RICHE-
QUER'S now rumoured project for an income tax
suffrage.

Tint great maxim of modern despotism is every
thing for, but nothing by the people. From
FREDERICK the GREtT down to NAPOLEON the
Lrrrt.a, this will be found a ruling maxim with
autocrats. Popularity is to be acquired by making
presents to the nation on a large scale; but the nation
is to have no choice in the nature of the gift. What-
ever may be thought of this princiele with regard
to itajustice or its expediency, there is no doubt that
it has produced some large effects. It cannot be
denied that despotic princes, both great and little,
after eropt3ing the pockets of their subjects
in • very workmanlito manner, have scat-
tered the plunder about very royally, and
with as much apparent satisfaction, as if they
had honestly earned every farthing they were spend-
ing. Every person who has travelled over the
Continent must have seen numerous traces of this
practice in the erection of public buildings,—the for-
mation of public galleries,—the laying oat of public
grounds,—Ruff the institution of public libraries. A
foreigner may. travel through England without hav-
ing his attention very much attracted to any such
proofs of government generosity. He will find that
no words can expriss the magnitude of what has
been done by the people, but that very few will tell
the talc of what has been done for them. Of course his
admiration will be excited by this fact ; he will feel, as
he contemplates the wonderful industrial progress of
the country, the perfection of its streets and roads,
the thousand appliances to ensure comfort, in which
England is so far beyond the rest of the world that
a race of giants must have been at work to achieve
these marvels. Nevertheless, he will not fail to be