The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-01 00:00:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

WE publish in another column a semi-official
0 Protest " from the Financial Reform Associa-
tion against some strictures which have recently
appeared in the NORTHERN TIMES. The writer
of this rebuke accuses us of not having read the
Association's tracts, and he has kindly sent us
three of their valuable publications as a sample
of what they really have in view, and the means
by which they hope to attain their object—
Financial Reform. In obedience to our cor-
respondent's summons, we have read, for the
second time, the three pamphlets specially
selected for our edification ; but cannot, after
the most patient and diligent perusal. of their
pages, find a single sentence which would justify
the retraction of any one thing we have said. On
the contrary, the more we read of the Associa-
tion's writings the stronger our conviction grows
that "they have no principle to propound with
" regard to what ought to be the basis of
" taxation." In saying this, we go at once to
the foundation of that fiscal superstructure which
the professional Reformer is so anxious to remodel
and embellish with his modern taste and
touch. With the ground plan of the mighty
edifice they would take into their hands to
renovate they have no fault to find. They admire
the area it embraces, and the space left for the
development of lofty ambition, natural extrava-
gance, and lavish adoration of those who worship
at the shrine of the Budget.
They pulp quarrel with the division of labou
among the prebendiary of the Treasury and
Royal Household; the ritual or solemn ceremonies,
the chanting of the Exchequer, and responses of
the Parliamentary Choir. They are systemists and

not schismists. The dark genius and benighted
spirit that. preside over the college of fiscal
cardinals have escaped their Reform intelligence
and the penetration, of their high moral sanctity.
The Association are aware that population can-
not be made the basis of taxation. The pauper
returns forbid such an idea. They cannot throw
the whole burdens of the State on trade and com-
merce, openly. It would lead to the instant
prostration of the nation, and a sudden collapse
of the entire scheme of civilisation. They are at
present thrown on the money of commerce, and
available means of trade. This i 3 enough for
the present. They cannot heap 133,000,0001.
of imperial imposts, in addition to local taxes, on
the land. The British landowner and
Farmer would be reduced to beggary by
its injustice and cruelty. From what source,
then, would the Financial Reform Association
eupply revenue to satisfy their own moderate
demands as a government ? This important
question is incidentally answered at page 23 of
their Pamphlet, entitled, Governmental Improvi-
dence ; Its Causes, Results, and Only Effective
Cure. Here the Association say :—" Happy
" will that day be for the commercial and mane-
`` facturing prosperity of Great Britain, and for
" the well-being and morality of its people,
" which shall see the Custom-house and the
Excise-office wholly abolished, with all their
" paraphernalia, and a system of direct taxation
" equitable to all classes, because making all
" contribute equally in proportion to•their means
" and the stake they hold in the country, estab-
" fished in their place." In this short paragraph
we get a tolerably reliable insight into the prin-
ciple of taxation for which we may expect to
find the Financial Reform Association contend-
ing at the next general election.
But how can a plan be devised which shall be
equally equitable to a man in employment, the
labourer out of work, the inmates of workhouses,
those farming good and bad land, the men doing
a large and small trade, the large capitalist and
struggling shopkeeper, the government annui-
tant, and those whose money is invested in
fluctuating joint-stock concerns ? For such a
multitude of conflicting social conditions no uni-
form or perfectly equitable mode of raising
revenue can be laid down, and this impossibility
appears to be all the Association are labouring
at. They cannot, or will not, allow themselves
to see that it is a question of money, and that
the currency of a State is the only true basis on
which taxation can be thrown with safety to the
Crcewn, or with justice to the subject. The
Financial Reformers repudiate this well-tried
axiom, and, therefore, we repeat that, " they are
" as purely Whig and PEELITE as though they
had the Earl of DERBY for their President, and
" Lord PALMERSTON for their Deputy Chairman."
Both these noblemen would gladly, no doubt,
undertake to set the tax-collector right with the
money-paying public ; but then there is a great
party principle- involved in our monetary system
which, the Tory, Conservative, and Old-Landed
Party-leaders have long since compromised, and
by it the Whigs have gained a degree of immove-
able power which cannot be wrested from them
until the currency " compromise " is abandoned,
or it renders the horrors of civil war preferable
•to the payment of 100,000,0001. annually in a
foreign product—gold, which can only be
obtained, as the Financial Reformers know full
well, " by causing a fall generally in the prices
" of all the commodities" which this heavily_
pre-taxed land is capable of producing.
The Liverpool Financial Reformers are evi-
dently aware that " diminished and restricted
" employment " add vastly to the progressive of
taxation, and they must be equally well aware
that ,the operation of our money and banking
laws is constantly causing panics in trade, and
forcing on our large employers and the public,
all the worst evils of " restricted employment.''
They state boldly, in the pamphlet from which
we have already quoted, and at the same page, that
one of the losses the nation sustains from over•
taxation, is " in enhancement of prices consider-
" ably beyond the amount of taxes laid on com-
modities." This, they assert, must be added to
the cost of pro.duction. But they forget to tell
us that this very necessary_ " enhancement" can-
not be realised in the force of a stringent money
market, and that the usury laws were abolished
at Mr. GLADSTONE'S suggestion, in order to allow
the Bank screw to be applied up to 8 or 10 per
cent., so as to face a fall generally in prices,
to bring back the foreign metal—gold—which is
the basis of taxation, and our existence as an
Empire. Now, to talk of taxation, and leave
these facts wholly out of sight, does, we must
say, give a sinister air to all the Financial Re-
former's movements ; and the public 'can scarcely
expect any practical relief from his labours, so long
as he leaves the root of all the evils of which he
complains, untouched. We have no wish, how-
ever, to trouble the Association with our vitiliti-
gation, or follow the example of the gallants of
antiquity, and cudgel them into love with what
we think to be essential and right.