The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-09-06 00:00:00

were accommodated.

Tad this been don

Lt an earlier

period, much unnecessary annoyance would have been
avoided, and such altercations between passengers and the
subordinate railway officials would have been obviated.
One effect of which was a great hubbub on the platform,
y for the exercise of their industry, which
T

an opportunit.

had my pocket-picked-during the dispute
Surely such discreditable scenes are

concomitants of railway travellin

ment ox

indispensabh
id if not, the manage.
I am

ht at once to set about seekin

a, remedy

Sir, yourobedient servant,
Liverpool, 2nd September, 1853

A SUFFERER

NOTES

NOTICES,

IND OPINIONS.

A' JOHANNES BUSTICUS

V. RECEIPT' STAMPS.—It has long been a maxim with a
large portion of the trading community, that " it is no sin
to cheat the government,"—hence smuggling—the pur-
chasing of smuggled goods—the evasion of taxes, and a
disuse of stamps, have all been looked on as matter of
domestic economy, rather than as breaches of moral
obligation to the state. Now, if it were considered that a
certain amount of revenue has to be made up every year
to meet the exigencies of the nation, every individual who
evades paying what is legally required of him must shift
the burden on to the shoulders of another, and does in
effect precisely the same thing as putting his hand into
the pocket of his neighbour. If the matter were viewed in
this light, one cannot suppose there would be so much
evasion of rates and taxes as there unquestionably is. The
reduction and equalisation of the receipt stamp will, I
should hope, cause the revenue derivable from this portion
of our financial system to be more generally paid than it
has hitherto been. At present, scarce one in a hundred
ever thinks of giving or taking a stamped receipt ; and one
reason for its disuse may have been the diversity of
stamps ' • another, the necessity of having it on a separate
piece of paper from the invoice ; and a third, the incon-
venience of having to be always provided with a variety
of blank stamps, some of which may lay on hand until
they become unfit for use. These difficulties are now,
however, all done away by the new act ; and for the sake
of public morality as well as the public revenue, it is
earnestly to be hoped, that every merchant and trader,
every shopkeeper and dealer, will make it a matter of
conscience to give a stamped receipt on all occasions, when
so required by the law. _

VI. CHEAP GAB.—lf the reduction of the price is too
great a sacrifice for the gas company to make without
further deliberation and further delay, can they not give
us cheaper meters ? Surely, the present rent is enormous,
and must pay for the article a dozen times before it is
worn out. Yet we cannot purchase, but are compelled
to rent, and to rent of the company too. Let this be
looked into.

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS has arrived safely in Paris, and is
now exhibited to the public in the Jardin des Plantes.
He is exceedingly rotund and fat ; his skin of a light
rose-coloured tinge, paler under the belly, and he is en-
tirely without hair. On the back are inumerous black
spots slightly prominent, from which, especially on coming
out of the water, a viscous reddish fluid may be seento
distil. He is very gentle and familiar, answers readily to
the name of Coco, and runs towards the first person who
calls him. Thirty goats which supply kiln
arrived with him in Paris. He does not, however,
exclusively on milk, but eats melons and some other vege-
table productions, with milk

DAY,

UMBER 6, 1853.