The Express.
London, England, 1848-04-26 00:00:00

resolute to persist. These are no times for flattery;
and therefore we tell the community of which these
gentlemen are members, that this is a movement
which has rather been wished than expected else-
where. The influential merchants of Liverpool are
looked upon as politicians more liberal in sentiment,
more judicious in opinion, than energetic or coura-
geous in charact.?r. They are always found on the
right side as soon as it becomes fashionable. They were
glad to raise their -voices against the truckling of Bri-
tish ministers to the Holy Alliance, and to pour their
contempt and indignation upon unwise restrictions on
commee as soon as they had CANNING and Hus-
lassosrc to keep them in countenance ; and they
laughed the corn-law to scorn as soon as PEEL de-
clared against it ; bat they did not (as a body)
throw their weight decisively into BROUGHAM'S scale
when battling against the Orders in Council, nor were
the allies they sent to the Anti-Corn Law League
at its first formation by any means so important in
point of number as of personal worth and ability.
In no invidious spirit do we revert to these remi-
niscences. Our object is to remind the merchant
princes of the eecund commercial city of the land
that they have never yet exerted themselves for
the common cause, with that full power which
their wealth, their intelligence, and, from our
hearts we believe, their patriotic sentiments, ren-
der them capable of doing. They owe an arreer of
political services to the country and to their own re-
putation. And the task which Mr. ROBERTSON
GLADSTONE and his colleagues in the Financial Re-
fin in Association have taken in hand is precisely that
which Liverpool more than any community in the
empire is qualified to undertake. That Birmingham
should take the lead in the reform movement of 1830
was natural : the number of small masters in the dis-
trict, azd the independence of a factory organisation
which characterises the staple trade, favours the
growth of personal independence there. That Man-
chester should take the lead in the anti-
corn law movement was equally natural: in no
other place were the evil effects of the bread-tax in all
their ramilicatione so extensively or so acutely felt.
Liverpool, from the magnitude and complexity of its
mercantile relations, and from its entire dependence
un commerce ,is, of all places in the empire, the most
fitted to attain a comprehensive practical experience
of the evil influences of our existing financial system ;
and Liverpool is therefore the natural focus of finan-
cial discontent—the natural starting point of an agita-
tion for financial reform.
We have heard apprehensions expressed that the
energy and influence of Liverpool may be neutralised
by the co-existence of two independent, and it may be
rival, associations aiming at the same end. We
confess that we do not participate in these
apprehensions. Before the Financial Reform Associ-
ation was contemplated, an association called the Na-
tional Confederation had been established for the
purpose of obtaining a reform of local and national
taxation. The latter consists principally of the
trading or shotrkeeping class ; the termer exclu-
sively of merchants. We do not believe that any
pseudo-aristocratic disinclination to co-operate with
their fellow-citizens in humbler circumstances has
been the cause why the promoters of the Financial
Reform Association have sought to form it.
We feel convinced that their reason was
the felt necessity of employing each class
to struggle against that abuse of which it had the
most lively perception. The exorbitant local rates in
Liverpool (as high at present, we believe, as 35. 4d. in
the pound, and likely to rise still higher) are the
grievance moot telt by trading classes, and en-
grossing most of their attention. The mercantile
elutes, on the contrary, are most alive to the
dangers with which our system of general taxation
threatens national commerce and national credit.
Had both classes merged into one association there
would have been a risk of either party thinking
that its more cherished object was languidly urged by
the other. Starting from different points, the assail-
ants of local and national taxation are sure to converge
to a common centre of attack. Each party will
find its own task sufficiently onerous, and at the out-
set at least will find its advantage in independent

action.
But even on the assumption that we are mistake
as to the motives which have prompted the founders
of the second association—granting, for the sake of
argument, that they have deferred to some miserable,
mis-proud, paltry feeling of unwillingness to follow
where shopkeepers have taken the lead—we have
more confidence in the sturdy John Bull feeling of
the trading class in Liverpool than to imagine that
this will give them seams or lasting annoyance. In
these silly feelings they know that Mr. GLADSTONe and
the other founders of the association do not participate;
and, conscious of their own worth, they w.ll aid these
gentlemen to humour an unhealthy vanity —sup-
posing it to exist—at which both parties smile. They
are too much in earnest—too intent upon obtaining
relief from misgovernment—to heed the whimsies of
men who may " immure themselves in the bastille of
their own (imaginary) rank."
We have said that the Financial Reform Associa-
tion, by devoting itself to the reform of national
or general taxation, and the National Confedera-
tion, by devoting itself to the reform of local
taxation, though starting from different points, must
necessarily meet at the goal. This is true in a
variety of respects, and might be illustrated Ma variety
of ways. One example may suffice at present. One
main object of the Financial Reform Association is to
get the heaviest burden of the taxes transferred to
the shoulders best able to bear them ; and one prin-
cipal mean of accomplishing this is the substitution of
a direct tax on realised property for such in-
direct taxes (of customs or excise) as fetter
industry and commerce. Again, one main ob-
ject of the National Confederation is the re-
duction of local rates, an object to which
every measure that economises collection must
necessarily contribute. An economical machinery
for collecting the direct taxation imposed by parlia-
ment for general purposes, is also au object with the
former body. Now, nobody who has experienced'
the blessings of periodical calls from collectors of
income-tax, collectors of assessed taxes, collectors of
parish rates, coil, ctors of poor-rates, &c., &c , but
must have had the reflection forced upon him how
much the expense and worry of collection would
be diminished if Mere could be but one collector
for all the direct imposts, local or general,
levied in any district. It would be a great relief if
all England could be parcelled out into municipal
districts; if the direct taxes imposed by parliament
could be consolidated and simp:ified, and entrusted to
the collection of one officer in each district ; and if
the local rates imposed by elected municipal authori-
ties in each disti ict could be similarly consolidated and
simplified, and left to be collected by the same officer.
Let the Financial Reform Association agitate (and
move the constituencies throughout the country
to agitate) for an extension and simplifica-
tion of our direct imposts, and the division
of the kingdom ii to collectomtes ; let the
National Confederation on its part agitate (and move
all parishes, boroughs, and liberties throughout the
country to agitate) for the division of the kingdom
into districts of manageable size and population, each
with its elected and responsible magistracy for manag-
ing its police, paupers, &c., and imposing the necessary
rates. It would soon become apparent that the col-
lectorato and the municipality might with advantage
be made co-terminous, and that it would be a great
economy and convenience to have but one collector
for all direct general imposts and local rates.