The Express.
London, England, 1848-11-16 00:00:00

OBJECTIONABLE TAXES.

The following remarks have been vabli• aged try the
Liverpool Financial Reformer', in eontinuatio A 0( theiapir
quoted in the Express of Friday last:
Synths AND MOLASSES.—Amount of is t, 4,081,8181
This tax has recently been the subject of sr , at scji &maim
that it may be puma by with a very brie I notice. The es.
variation consider it to be, in any way or roputidutt. aatomunfit subject of taxatioa, em being In the ,prseen of
so-
ciety, to all classes, en itheolutelj nee, SO•17 article of food.
The tax at present epee it Is equ to s Ameteu.t. eutty 20,,.
WINS —Amount of duty 1,892,24 thir.Qttkae
the association quote the following hpaw, pup 570,
" The extent to which the people Nis Amoy An um,s
tossed to the use of wine cannot be' -_hand ummuinumut
with their genus' power to obtain et. ofooositmos of
The consumption wes in former' .midi ;mum, la
portion to the population than it but been insts,,. Is
1700 the avenge annual comae vim of seeh ffid.ddaal to
England and Wales amounted' aavrysmeallfinetionbelow
an notarial gallon, while at P esesentit seareely exceeds mo-
iety* of that quantity. That • can be bet the canoe as
Mated for this
,ohowff•—e_, wow Aye &Wee. Tsarina, where
wins may be badw wows teary part d the kingdom et a
low price, and where, map' emit ice" card ' levied la the
towns, the produce of the nearly duty mu, the
average annual mammy ties is equal to rather moree than
nineteen Olio= by e ash individual or mon than
seventy times the co onemptioa of the United Him-
omhigh duties bas been to can dimpor.
t.Onti.s• effect of our
s car
kinds
of
cantle"
which
an
come.
queerly within the r ash of only the easy clams; to the
working man wins is altogether denied. There Ise great
deal of ezeellest w i e mode in Provence and Languedoc,
better adapted is th a Wises generally than the finest
nines of Media, ea d sold be mid with a good meal
to the haporte6 6 x km thee 6d. per battle, independent
of duty."
I sTatess.—A• a• mat of Me, 1,138,6711.—This been.test
on a meet Ope rt sat yew material, especially kw
ing and home b' dieing pewees' ; is the cue sew
the oat aOs • lwallage a all • "SOO a the flu=
ally ; and in th ether, wlYka4 to see Miyake isemegardsag
with fookr ars. be trade. In both lathers .ft Waft is-
jusimudy *.ll employment of the lower sheath sad indi-
reedy as er ell so deectly their socialsonditieth
!L=oran Lit aawess.—Ameunt of duty, 1,0116,1661.—Tha5e
lionaes Seep me, eider en Waren tax, an addition so thee
berths& on the traders compelled to take them•seet, emit
being patio darks theireppliestio are
Nor, eau tl icy be defended. as when =;atiss=
being ether ellyneethery to the protection of ethasurvenue,
the "yam of eumemand permits having been nearly in a"
yam
Tree duty on auction. bas bean entirely re-
pea•
led, and pet the license of eactithene has beat raised
honed& to 10/. ear annum. The impost as
the traders
subject to it ef an additional income tax mounting in all to
1,08C,1661.
Mane.—Amount of -duty, 06601361.—The duty au hard
'cepa lid. per lb., enhancing its cost to the public by nearly
2d. per lb. Without this impost good soap could beretailed
Mr dd. per lb. The duty on soft soap is Id. per lh. The
objections stated to a sax as affecting *simmers/ore of
malt apply us forcibly, if not more so, to this article. .It ties
the manufacturer down to certain rules and processes, pre•
venting the possibility of his availing binaelf of recent 'Mon-
ti& end chemical dthethries, and hae ooasequently, re-
tarded all improvements in its manufacture. Ile tax has
oho given rise to much contraband trade, which has se In-
jured the upright and honest manufacturer sot* drive nosy
from the occupation which will, ne doubt, amount, in some
measure, if not altogether, to the feat mentioned
by Porter, vie " The progressive .decrethe in the number
of licensed maim, until they_ ere ow little mon than ens
half as many as is 1801:" How this must interfere with a
most den aba employment to numbers of our potent unem-
ployed population the association need not point out, beteg
so alt. evident. Porter sap, at pege.6Bo " Dtaiag all the
time that an made duty was levied upon condi/m.4s may be
said that them wit no ilaprarement in ent* ; and it
is probable that bad the dap not been the regale-
thesonformd by the IMMO 016010 would have continued
es prevent any seek improvements. Mo sooner, however,
were the mansfactaren relieved from the netraints thus ins-
plied, then their ingenuity ms eat to week, and each year
that ham since elapsed, bit oedema can or mete inventions
err sembinations, whereby the essential geed qualities of
sandise have been increased, and their oast, e/atively to
their vela in me. diminished." The nasal value of clean-
/Sees, to which soap is an indispensable regnisite, hue pawed
into a proverb, and a tax upon it baxisan, therefore, injuri-
ous to the health and morals of all ammo, especially a the
lebearleg portion, besides a great impedimeat te the sani-
tary advanceaseet of the people which object has lately re-
, caved so much of the attentioU and encouragement of the
legislature. With these enactments and recoeumadations,
a tax on soap I. at &met variance.
PAPE& —Amount of duty, 792,8141.—This In 11ns teat
Imposed in 1711, by the act 10 Rase, e. 19, nail "the
seessity of raising large sums et mosey to enezion
ere
we" ;g ;" aud, as observed by Porter, " sma k •
strong case of neceleity to justify SO so
which tended SO directly to impede** pogrom d know-
ledge among the people." The Wariest alma 4100
duties on boob may further be men by saran ft lie
work, at pages 678 and 687. Indeed, tint win* of the
chapter of which the latter referees" lame rowit7 be
profitably perused by all who are dodoes of the
evil effects which high duties entail ea the offal rendition of
the emaineeliatuglimeeerally. This tax is also, like that on meg
mad mat, to aa important brush of ham
maseiestare, preventing improvements ia coallty, and
esmeasy ef preduties, m well se in materially lessening the
lieldet:n4 mdtable employment to cur at present unoccupied
or
Corria.-P2=Lof duty, 756,8381. Maly of the oboe '
vitiate made ea tea will apply to this also, which beteg an
article of food, might, ender ro coosideratsoes, to be taxed.
The good metal abets of former redactions of duty on coffee
are fxeibly illietrated by Mr. Porter.
Coax.—Amount of duty, 723,860/. At present still
taxed; its althea entire repeal is, however, provided for,
and with it rhombi go, also, all duties on food.
Balcu.—Ameetat of duty, 638,4221.—A tax on shelter,
especially en that of the poor, as also on native iadeetry d
the rudest and meet unskilled sort.
Coathurn Arm RklSlNS.—Amount of tax, 470,1681.—
Articles of bed, and therefore ought not to be taxed.
Hon.—Amount of duty, 286,2861. —A tax on the bees,
rage of the peers* and hardest noelalmettos of the cow
the
refore ought to be re ed. It is, however,
ain the sem ef the malt duty, Injurious ase to the menet;
and oceue=goetain Lath, sad, in consequence, to agri-
cultural
Bth rs.—Ameant of tax, 236,3771 Being maltase-
tared silks, this is more a tax on luxury end wealth, and
while needful, lees objectionable than any other In this tariff
Poernothe Dirrins.—Amonut of tax, 179,8321.—Under
the altered cithwastenees brought about by railways, and as
interfering ouch with amend branches of industry, as well
as with the aomforts and convenience of ail classes, a most
impolitic and objectioaaith Moth.
Serena.—Amount of duty, 138,643L—8ang an article of
food, Is unit fee taxation. Besides, it seem a mockery to
auto breed and continue hen butter. The present duty is
10s. per cwt. sad 6 per cent.
CANDIAS MID TALLOW.—Assoant of tea, 89,8681.—This
: =s, it is presumed, chiefly. if not entirely, to the lam
and as such, ban on • raw material of manufacture,
ought to be abolished. The same objections will apply to
this as to the duty ea seep.
Canaan.—Amount of tax, 88,2091.—An articled feed,
and therefore oast for taxation. TO same mockery SAO
here as in the tax on butter. The present duty is fa. per
ewt. and 6 pa cot.
And these see the sources," say the Moneta reform's,
" whence one sineentriste are not ashamed to draw their us-
earned pensions. The results of the labour, toil, and
of the working man, It may be at the expense ef
ctredLiersif some dear to him, are *Goforth to the lezedese
end the idle."

PRESTON HOUSE OF CORRECTION.
The twenty-filth annual report at the Rev. John
Clay, obviate to the Pesetas Heed of Carreetica, h now
adore as. The auther„freilsossieg the lassoslare serlr
add, sPelifileso ("71 Ear the ier die
undid is thesis wads :—" I as aot lasted of the
sawed leegth ito OA this awl is eelseed j but I

dioo,A'sit that haying now for a quarter of a centuy been
permitted to present annually a similar docuoseut, the time
was not ill:suited to eater more largely into the chief points
Involved in the question of prison discipline." A five-and-
' twenty years' retrospect of an essiduons and intelligent ,
miring iaatructor, who has, during that period, mingled
with, instructed, and watched the inmates of a House f.. 4
Correction, and annually recorded his experiences, is a d•.,co.
ment that commands attention.
Mr. Clay's report contains :—Ate abstract of namittals
to the Preston Hones of Correction durirg the year ended
30th June Inet; remarks on " Worth Lanca-
shire ;" remarks on "pria= discipline;" and remarks on
" causes of crime." To the report it added en appendix,
containing tabular Mnfiretiose of the working of our penal
system, and selected narrati,4as of offenders by themselves.
As a ta
eeimen of the 'Aes, we may advert to No. 22,
which is" 08•0068,0 0b caw the degree of ignorance in tali-
soon on the most ord'..7 subjeco,
as compared to their
direct or indirect ace =inane, with demoralisas g literature."
The total number
or cases analysed in this table, is 1,383; of
which 338 w ,erfjoedons, and 1,045 sus.enr. cases. Of the
338 gullfo 3f, .4 at 'Moos 156 males and 63 females, were
sinners
164 males and 46 females were
jlin: 08,, r.efr.A.Zwantethe gwthointhse; reigning sovereign ; 157 males
sad.o Musics were ignorant of the words " virtue," "vice,"
atr.„• S malee and 16 females were unable to count a
hundred ; 148 males and 32 females had read, or heard
rod, books about Dick Turpin and Jack Sheppard.
Of the 1,045 partio summarily convicted, BM males and 147
f. males were =able to name the months a, 489 males and
129 female" were ignorant of the name of the reigning sove-
reign; 479 males and 132 female' were ignorant of the
words " rinse' " " vice," do. • 105 male" a red 31 females
were unable tocount a hundred; and 392 males and 68
females had read, or heard read. books about Dick Turpin
and Joh Sheppard. This mulish is rather vague ; but as
far as it goes at indicates that ignorance is more dangerous
tkatilmowledge, even though knowledge open wider the
gatele acquaintance with turpitude.
The autobiagraphies of the culprits are curious, but like all
documents of the kind wo have seen their statements aro too
meets mingled up with echoes of the lemons lest heard from
the teachers to whom they are addressed. Some facts are
Mated, and numerous moral reflections added, as much in
the manner of the rhea addressed as possible—an adroit
method of indirect lastary, in which criminals are eminently
ailfuL
The remarks on the slum of crime are mainly a were de-
tailed exposition efthe table we have desedued above. Ig-
norance appears to he the field, and drankensees most Ire-
smently the seed, we and from which crime is reared.
Under the heed of prison discipline Mr. Clay vindicates
the applioatios of the separate system to prisoners commit-
ted for trial as 10011 as to convicts. We admit the force of
his arguments. Classification is not any even in the use of
convicts. A prisoner is tried sad convicted for one act ; but
one Set is net a sufficient key to his habits and charac-
ter. la the case of prisoners committed for trial et=
this key is wanting. To coolfine the mature in
=Medals and the beginser together, is to risk the entire
deproatise of the latter. The separate system is a despe-
rate effort to cut the Clore= knot of clamifieation. It may
be as aoceseary in the case of untried seemed as of convicted
crimissals. But then, with regard to the latter ease, it is an
infliction which we hem has been earned by 01411105. In
the forum we may be inflating its severity on to innocent
geom. There is, WAM, 01111.11101102 of obviating, or at least
IIIIIII•bie119, this dinlceity--amelerating in ell ems the day
ef MIL In a nada aaggee,, with a scanty popliatios, the insti-
latamolidmerant 'Mos was weal magh, but our
mood misty rude seipsome criminal judges in every
mode= No plasm ought to be left metrieda day longer
than is neermary to areango the evidence MI collect the
'Mum ha and against bier. In justiee Mr. Clay we
mast take epsomite/Mr eke romenaibliny .ffi this surges-
tioa—he does mot make it.
ay far the mit impseeszat part of the-repot is that wiateh
contains the daddies of crime in North Laseastaire, and the
remarks on crialmaiity in that district. Tis=ndicationscon-
mined in this sondem ode decrease both in oho quantity an.:
quality id mimein thatadistrict are nandhic end cheering.
lteepeatimg Om dearer' in quantity Mr. Clef observes:
The otemittals of the last) Al are 68 above
the avoimeref the do preceding years ; -but that lest year
has been in of mmal, perhaps et seldom equalled, dis-
tress ; andkar et the previous yeses were periods is which,
them was a wilheinat, mad sometimes' an bundwat , demand,
for labovr -awl *Mel work. lit Moak be observed,
that the =ONO of the last year's oonsmAtals exists only
the sum**, emictions. Its Minors serious eases brought
to the swiss, there-A a redwation of 63 on those of the pre-
ceding me, and of-19 as sewer= to the averse of the
five preceding years. There'll therefore, no reason to ap-
prehend any tendency to greater oriasimality in this parte
the candy. On the contrary we Mall I trust, me cause to
be satisfied, from an examination Last the committals used
offences,. that, as regards oar own resident population in the
Hundreds of Amoandernessoßlaskirars, and Leyland, the
ereditobla reduction of offenew whisk eosimenced in. 1144 Set ,
has confined, with no insporiant• variation, amidst all the
poverty, compulsory idanees, and mat agitation, which
have • so eufortanatgly end= aztemively characterised She
last twelve months; and =doh an generally thought so in-
evitably conducive to crime."
The merunittah of natives of °lreland, daring the year
which. ended 30th June • last, were extremely muneramo.
With reference to this fact Mr. Clay observes:
"It is worth while to note the increase In the committal ef
mativo of Irelanderithin the last three years:
1348 1847 1848

Sessions Nees ..... llO 40 11
dummy owdettons • OS 96 196
The Irish committed to theameiona, it will be observed, have
not augmented in the name proportion a. those -committed
summarily. The latter class chiefly condos of persons who
have recently come ever to this country ; and whew, whether
from previous habit', or, as it :rather appears to me, from
newly and easily acquired .practice, are plausible end
incerrigiblwendicantr. When these wretched people, how-
ever, settle in a taws, their children contribute lowly so the
homeless class of young offenders. Madlthey (the children)
remained in Ireland, probably in &rural district, and forming
pact of a population more or lees mattered, ignorance, indo-
lence, and begging might have conetitntedthe worst features
of their chases/gr. But in a townnuh habits soon grew into
more deplorable than. .In the most wretched and filthy locali•
ties parents sollehildren herd together until an Irish colony is
established. The hayseed girls are sent out, "ideate ically, to
beg ; but the temptatiose of a tows, the thronged sheets,
the places of kw eomeupent, the open doors of yards and
dwellings men thavert the little beggar into an adroit and
bold thief. O. imams cot of many which have come fin-
der my. obeavailes4, Ming the pest year, will serve to illur
trete this stets of things. Aix eris, whom ages varied from
11 to 18 years were annmithd together as " rogues and
+vagabonds." 'Their thienosvinsistsel in entering en unoccu-
pied house, and plthedng nimbler was capable of removal.
Most of them had beendriven out by their parent* to beg ;
and, according to their awn mthement, were beaten or other-
wise ill-use 4, unless they .said home a certain sum in the
evening. They had been le the dangerous habit of lighting
flays In the sniseeemsded house. They had farmed an ae.
Zgia=wattliesuslempleyei in adram shop, who sup.
with 'idea sprits, and with which
same et thmethlie get thank. " Worse remains be- I
hind." The mesa holl been trained by the oldest to
a kind of 4 ertake, at their early age, natural
prapseeity be alleged in excuse. All these girls
were the eldlathel Irish parents; the latter were settled in
Prethee. er teamples throme& the onighbouring district, and
living kr rancy. g :nay add here, that of
Illjnyealleithsenlithamositted from the borough of Wigan,
11 were the dillimmot Irish parents."
What Mr. Clay says of the extent and character of crime
saws the manufacturing population of North Lancashire,
is important, as tending to disabuse people of the erroneous
estimate respecting the comparative morality of agricultural
and manufacturing districts, which Is so prevalent :
An Impression obtains among residenti in the southern
and agricultural enmities, that this manufacturing district,
with its uncultivated race of inhabitants, must swarm with
young offenders; end, se regards females, it is else imagined
that, among the many thousands employed in our factories,
crime finds more numerous aspiats than it does in parts of
the country where factoriesare unknown. I have, on former
occasions, endeavoured to remove them false notions, paid. I
calmly with roped to females emOoyed in factories ' • and I
ea now enabled, by the aid of the • Twelfth Report of the
Inspector of Prisons for the Home District; to show that, in
comparison with other eenntise, wither juvenile nor female
erhoinality is chazueteriede of North Lancashire. Among
other tables of great vales and interest, Captain Williams
gives a sides which comprises !stuns of the feth.le, and also
of the jnomile, criminals (the latter of 16 years old and
under) for the year 1846, a year which may be considered
as presenting, throughout. England an equality of condi-
nos in respect to em t, ac. From this source, and
from the populatios tables, I have drawn up the following
list of counties, in which, the population being less—in
the great 'majority of instances, much less—than that of North
Lancashire—the juvenile criminality is not only relatively
the population), bat absolutely greeter.—LThe tables
we omit : the results are waviest her oar present purpose.)
It thus opposes that juvenile criminality presents a much
more mitigated upset in North Lancashire than in any of
the other counties of the above tables ' • and I may odd, that
in only two of all the English counties is the criminality of
the young lees apparent, is., Durham, in which young
delinquents are as 1 to 23,163 of the population ; and West-
moreland, in which they are in the proportion of 1 to 18,817.
The feet' which come out regardimg female criminality are
a'most as creditable. The tables show that while only five
counties comprised in them exhibit a more favourable pro.
portion .f female offenders, seventeen counties exhibit a lees
favourable proportion. A highly satisfactory proof of the
decrease in graver offences is perceptible bathe comparatively
small number of convicts sentenced to transportation during
the last veer, a amal'er number, in feet, than has been shown
since 1836. In the year of dielthes, 1842-3, the male offenders
sentenced to transportation were, respectively, 72, end 77
in the year of greater distress just ended, only 24 were so
'solenoid. As regards young offenders sentenced to treas.
paetstion, there is especial cause of congratulation. In 1842
and 1843 they emanated to 3.5 and 33 ; in the last year only
to 6." _ _ _

—Nor is this oomparative freedom from crime the only
point on which the manufacturing diorite of North Lan-
*whim contrasts fawatrably with the greater 'nmber of awl.
cultural calked& W. know not to weigh of oar agricultural
multi./ to tun for nob *maples of benevolent are for the
moral, intellectual end sc wiemical interests of the working
slams so see recorded la OP 41 of Mr. Clara report, ea
having bow sot by Proton lealkowtori.

SCOTLAIND.

Apnrsua!az.Nov. 14.

in Tin*, HICEMITIBT&oCointThiAI2•I Justioisrwure; 7
Grant, 11.18414...di " morning
widen ant, h sad l imiltat Wag].
Joao,
win
ows ins euniinded, the Lea