Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-09-23 00:00:00

T

IT is something to find out that the Financial
Reform Association have assumed a false position
in the first. instance. We can then understand

why they often Carry tolerably sound reasoning
to dangerous issues ; and, by the ordinary law of
sophisms, are deceived, by the correctness of the

propess, into absurd .conclusions. If we put rich
and poor on different sides, and impute to them
wholly dissimilar interests, and independent aims

we may easily strike the balance between them

It is then only necessary to concentrate every

effort in order to work a compensation for the ine-

qualities of fortnno, and to throw every advantage,

into the weaker scale.

But if the bowidaries•be-

tween the two classes refuse so abrupt a definition;

if their interests are associated, and run the one

into the other, in a thousand close and inextrica-
ble ways ; then we must see that the social scheme
needs a more delicate handling than this, and
cannot be wholly measured, or distributed, or

harmonised, by the rule of a narrow-minded

When the Financial Reformer tells us that the
Revenue of the country is divisable: into two
branches, in one of which the lower classes of this
country are in no way interested, otherwise than

that they are compelled to contribute to it

it = is fair to ask for what item of expen-
diture the national taxation is employed,
which is not national in its necessities and.

in its results ?

A very great prOliortion we

-know goes to pay the interest upon that national
debt which, was incurred in putting a stop to the

ravages of a great and unscrupulous conqueror, of
which we were about to be the next victims. Mr.
BRIGHT, indeed, tells us that this was a war of the
artistocracy. Mit the national feeling of the time,
the universal traditions of Englishmen, are a suf-
ficient answer to the foolish calumny. Was it no
concern of the working-classes that this country

should not be trodden under the iron hoof of NAPO-
LEON ? Would its trade and manufactures, and all
the resources which feed, and support, and remu.:
nerate industry, have not suffered almost to extinc-
tion, in a struggle for life or death at our own
doors ? When we had succeeded in repelling the
bold invader ; and, in setting ourselves to repair
the multiplied evils which an almost universal
suspension of comm9ice and cultivation had en-
tailed; will these vain and captions sophisters
venture to say, that we should not at this day
have been far behind our present stage of pro-
-that wealth would have been as abundant'

gress—

and therefore happiness as widely diffused; that,
in short, the social machine would have worked as
freely and easily as now ? No one can be more con-
cerned in the-preservation of our colonies and our
ships than the working classes of the country ; and
therefore it will scarcely be thought a hazardous
remark, that they are not wholly uninterested

in the provision of a navy and an army to pro-
tect them.

But though the position, that the protection of
property and life are two distinct and independent
objects of taxation, in one of which only the
poorer classes of the people are at all concerned,
is manifestly untenable, yet we may be told that
the direct possession of property may suggest the
most equitable adjustment of the public burdens.
Here there is certainly the prospect of something
Practicable. The line of argument which assumes
that tea is taxed for the " protection " of tea,
coffee for the " protection" of coffee, and so on, is
briefly answered and exposed by the very obvious
consideration, that the defence of the nation, that

SEPTEMBER 23, 1851

the maintenance and progress of the various means'
of social happiness and employment, that in fact.
-the efficient government and wise directiOn of evei
branch of the bodypolitic,- is supported by the
general revenue of the country. Let us all, without
petty divisions of imperial interests, admit this'
truth, plain enough to be .called a maxim, and. we,
can then address ourselves with something of
good-will and sYmpathy to the -questions,—WhaP

is the best way to raise this revenue P What fs
the most equitable proportion in which the classes
of the community can be called upon to con-

tribute ?

That there are inequalities in the present
system, we repeat, is undeniable. That it is de-
sirable to modify as much as possible a system,

which perhaps is open to the charge of turning"
into a reason for larger demands, the very cir--

cumstances which make the tax-payer the more.
unable to meet them, may be admitted. But to,
shoe• the difficulty in obtaining this object, for-

tunately our new instructors are themselves
sufficient. No mode of taxation-can be so exposed
to this charge of pressing unduly upon those who
are least able to meet its increased demand as a

capitation tax.. Yet this is the substitute for pre'
sent modes of taxation, so far as the poor are
concerned, which the Financial Reform Associa-

tion suggest! We shall not offer to canvass its

expedience. We merely remind its suggester,

that it is open to the very objection upon which in

some measure they base their arguments against
indirect taxation. The man with a large family, who
is less able to pay a single tax than another with

none at all, is called upon to pay the same tag
five or ten times multiplied. The man too with-
out a fixed income, living from hand to mouth,
spending his pence as he makes them, is unable

to control his expenditure, or even, as is some-
times the least irksome alternative offered to
penury, for a time suspend his ordinary desires,

in order to proportionalise his earnings

escape as much as possible the burden of taxation,

Let our agitators, then, at least learn to escape
the snare of extreme theories and abrupt conclu-
sions. It is quite possible, if they will look at

the subject as men of common sense and not as

transcendentalists, they may effect much practical
good. But if they begin by applying the short
and decisive tests of their logic to the round-
about expedients of public policy, they may end-
by destroying everything and constructing 11°'