The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-15 00:00:00

(I')' 11.
K. 4 1111401 .."'.4.)(-I‘'.fliL

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1844,,

In the last number of the Edinburgh Review there is an ar.

title on a work by Mr. M'CuLLocit;called "A Treatise on
' the Principles and Practical Influence of Taxation and the
Funding System." This is a comprehensive title for a book
published in a country that surpasses all others in taxation
and in the amount of its public debt, and from the introduc-
tory remarks of the reviewer we anticipated much informa-
tion on these important subjects, and entertained hopes that
political economy at last had discovered some means by which
taxation might be lightened, and the enormous debt which
oppresses us might be diminished. The exordium would lead
to such an inference. The author is extolled to the skies by
the writer. " This work," he says, " embraces one of the
most extensive and pre-eminently the most prac-
tical department of the all-important science to
which it belongs; and it comes to us recommended
by the authorship of one of the most distinguished culti-
vators of that science." And further on—" It need hardly
be said that a writer at once so deeply versed in scientific
deductions, and so thoroughly conversant with statistical de-
tails, is peculiarly qualified to meet such a subject as taxa-
tion, in which conclusions drawn from abstract premises and
general principles continually demand the correction of prac-
tical knowledge." We had looked at the work and tried to
after derive sonic advantage from it, but in vain. This mishap we
attributed to our ignorance of political
we, olit‘i_ca, economy,thlerefor
and the
peculiar phrases which Mr. MCuLLocit uses in conveying
hhiigshprae in
sentimentsi a journal
to
the
eal o
public,
sand
celebrated for its ability and
especially for its numerous articles on the princi-
ples which regulate the economy of trade, corn
conversant
versed t
in
scientificl
merce, and manufactures, expected to find some light
thrown on the chaos of confusion, and to behold at a
g
made
b y
thoroughly oneu
so
deeply
h
statistical details." But miserable was our disappointment,
ance the h e discoveries
deductions
and so
for the reviewer seems as much bewildered as ourselves.

He, in fact, can make nothing of the work, and when he
begins to analyse its parts he only points out faults, or de-
fects, or contradictions. In the very first page we find that
the work contains no great amount of absolute novelty, and

that so much deep study and careful observation have sug-
gested but little in the way of practical amendment; and in
the second page the writer boldly speaks out, and as-
serts that " it would not be easy altogether to recon-
cile in Mr. DPCuLLocif the theorist with the statisti-
cian." He gives a good reason, too, for this
left-handed blow at "so able and experienced a writer."
M‘CuLLocir, in alluding to the condition of the working
classes, states that during the last twenty- or thirty years,
notwithstanding a considerab!e reduction of taxation, "their
condition has certainly not in any degree been improved, hut
has rather, we incline to think, been sensibly deteriorated."
To which his eulogist sarcastically replies :—" In some of Mr.
M‘CuLLocif's previous statistical inquiries he seems, if we
recollect rightly, to have proved that during a period in
which the population of England has doubled, its agricul-
tural produce, chiefly for the use of man, has quadrupled;
and this although, in tho interval, England has become an
importing instead of an exporting country; from which it
follows that an Englishman at this day eats twice as much as
his ancestor eighty years ago—a fact difficult to digest in
itself; more difficult still when we are informed that for thirty
years the condition of the great bulk of the people has been
falling off." This shows that political economists, as well as
liars, ought to have good memories. Throughout the whole
review of the work similar criticism prevails. We do not
find one principle laid down which bears the test of examina-
tion; and though the writer, to keep up the appearance
with which he commenced, throws in now and then a little
highly dissatisfied with a " soft sals.dur,",he is evidently
pro-
duction which comes forth with such high pretensions. We
are not surprised at this, for really it contains nothing new
except staggering dogmas, without any attempt at elucida-
tion or the slightest proof. It abounds with all the stock
phrases of political economists, and expresses a common
idea or the plainest proposition in such a complication
of high-sounding words and peculiar phraseology, that ordi-
nary readers cannot arrive at the lllcaning without trans-
lating the paragraph, and sometimes the whole chapter, into
plain English, and after sifting it are astonished to find' no-
population increas-
ing with appalling rapidity,"
nthaitnugrabluotrehnaeffc—essnaortyepvrienceonofe
lgarbaoinuro; wheat.„ Such phrases
the great majority," " the horo"
as these meet you at every turn—" incidence of taxes," " the
taxable incomes," " funds, mortgage3' capital, industry," and
stem," " net or
stchoepeirorfentifieedisayble lielotism of
fifty other terms of the same stamp, to which however we
should not object, if they were used in such a way as to pro-
duce any good effect, or afford the least consolation
for the enormous taxes under which the population, and
especially the working population, labours. But they all
come to nothing. Population is increasing at a fearful rate;
WATT and ARKWRIGIIT, and Others so celebrated for their
wondrous inventions and discoveries, are the great culprits;
even the poor Irish are blamed for coming over to this coun-
try, and reducing the comforts of the English population.
The command of the CREATOR " to increase and multiply "
is to be disobeyed, though the world is not yet half-peopled ;
the condition of the labouring classes is every day becoming