The New York herald., 1862-03-17

PUBLIC TAXATION AND PRivArE ExPENDI-
TuRE.-For nearly year we have been vssrry-
ing on great war without individually con-
tribating by taxation anything towards the
cost. The national credit has thus far amply
sufficed to provide the necessary means; but on
the 1st of May next the new Tax bill is to
come into operation, and we shall then expe-
rience the novelty of being really taxed.
Schedules will be left at our houses or offices,
which we shall have to fill up with the particu-
lars regarding our incomes and real and per-
sonal property, together with the names and
salaries of our clerks if we have any, and as
much besides as may come within the scope of
the bill We shall have to pay three per cent
upon our annual income, less six hundred dol
lars. Our gold watch will act as perpetual
reminder that we pay tax of dollar a year
for the privilege of wearing it; our billiard
table, if we keep one, will add to its original
cost twenty dollars year; and we shall other
wise begin to feel that we have arrived at the
dignity of a national debt We shall not grum-
BILE at the change, however. Taxation will
never be so popular as ours. Every man will
pay with patriotic willingness the cost Of pre-
serving our national integrity against the great
conspiracy which we are now so rapidly and
decisively defeating. We anticipate that there
will be few or no attempts at evading the
provisions of the bill, and that the
effect of the latter upon individual
incomes will be hardly perceptible That it
may lead to the curtaiment of extravaganza in
living we think highly probable; but this is of
itself highly desirable. We have been too long
given to wasteful habits and whatever measure
is likely to check the evil and encourage mode
ration and thrift is to be commended A vul-
gar love of display has been, and is still, one
of our social weaknesses; and if the new Tax
bill leads us to improve our taste in that re-
spect, as we think it will, who can deny that it
will be productive of much national good. Re-
trenchment in superfuities will be the order of
the day, and it is to be hoped that our wives
and daughters will be the first to set and the last
to withhold the example. That the uses of tax
alton will not be confined to social life, but ex-
tend to every branch of the government ser
vice, we have little doubt; for, with alarge ma
will be taken by our influential citizens in the
political welfare of the country and we shall be
more careful than we have been hitherto as to
whom we elect to represent us. The salutary
effects of taxation are thus likely to be very
widely felt, and we may congratulate our
selves on the prospect before us.
The DEMORALIZED CONDITION OF THE REBEL.
CAPrAL.-The Richmond journals tell us enough
about the deplorable condition of that city to
show that it is hotbed of vice and a perpetual
scene of disorder. They remind us that before
the beginning Of the war it was the most quiet
| and orderly city of its size in America; that
its streets were as silent at night as those of q
| village; that not sound was to be heard save
the deep roar of the river as it rushed over the
falls But since then change has come over
the capital of the Old Dominion; and such a
change The old population has been OBJ
scured by the vast influx of people from all
| ends of the confederacy, and these have brought
with them such an amount of ruffianism, blood
shed and drunkenness as perhaps never before
| darkened any city in the world. Martial law
may have done something to improve this con-
dition of things; but Richmond affords us a
| good example Of the fruits of rebellion. The
same Generalization prevails, more or less,
wherever that Haunting lie the rebel flag, is
still 10 be seen, and moral pestilence and the
plague Of tyranny ovcrshadow the once sunny
South. The Southern people now begin to see
the suicidal folly of the rebellion; and well
may it be said by their leading journals that
the murmurings of discomfort are becoming
general, and that many are despairing of the
end, and % even ssnxxiHc;s tQ renew their allie
| glance to the government at Washington. The
days of the rebellion are fortunately numbered
and the people of the South have cause tc re-
joice at the prospect of being released from a
condition of anarchy and ruin.
| WOODEN MUsKErs--We have received, with
the following letter from our Cairo correspon-
| dent, rude imitation, in wood of musket,
the barrel painted green, and the stock being
dirty brown, with a green butt. 1t has no
lock, trigger, ramrod or nipple, and bears about
the same relation to an ordinary fowling piece
that q scarecrow does to human being
CAIRO, H., March s, 1862
SiR-Tho accompanying nondescript was captured by