The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-04-25
The British Lucifer Match Democracy u
Motion.

Motion.
Mr.. loves parliamentary plan Of imposing
. tax on lucfer matches in England-borrowed,
as the Chancellor says, from the charges Of
the United States revenue schedule-has pro-
duced an excited popular agitation in opposi-
ton to the project. The Gladstone Cabinet
calculates that this new impost will bring in
special revenue of five hundred and fifty
thousand pounds sterling. The British
people dislike such means .gf raising
money exceedingly. Hence the budget
is condemned out Of doors and assailed
within the walls of Parliament almost
nightly. London is in ferment. English
men want free light. They disliked the
window taxes which were consequent on the
Continental wars; they detest the match
tax plan of the present day. Tu-
multuous assemblages were formed in
London yesterday seeking for its re-
peal. The masses blocked the street routes
leading to the Parliament House. The crowd
was noisy-it is said, turbulent-in its
demeanor. 1t was eventually dispersed by
the police. Birmingham acts against the tax
in the Parliament. Mr.. Dixon, member for
the great manufacturing centre, has given
notice of his intention to move resolution Of
the Commons for its repeal. The most
momentous political events have sprung from
the very slightest causes. British democracy
appears to be nurtured in flame and supported
by sulphur 1t demonstrates itself in the
primeval glimmer of English anti-tax re-
belion. Watt Tyler came from the fire.
side of blacksmith's forge to vindicate
decency against the immoralities of tax
gatherer. The heightened blacksmith was
animated by the flame of patriotism and
kept warm by his sense of morality. His
cause triumphed even by his early death
from imperial assassination. From the
days of John Hampden to those of Joseph
Hume Englishmen have been found to
demonstrate the Irregularities of British taxa
ton, its budget pressure on the very life
necessaries of the poor, the government
charges on fuel and all the accessories of
warmth, on tobacco, on the very light of
heaven. Charles the First experienced the
hate of the ''insolent pipe men," who pulled
the smoke of their tobacco in the face Of
the condemned monarch when on his way to
the place of execution. Dean Swift advised
the Irish to ''burn everything which came
from England except English COAL" and thus
to get rid of British taxation. The Irish
Volunteers Of 1882 lined the streets to the Par
lament House in Dublin with cannon, the
ctobo r fho ID in fbo hop lie of
the gunners, when they agitated for the
Declaration of Parliamentary Independence.
Feargus O'Conner had his ''torchlight" and
''matchlight' meetings, and to-day the
British populace is enjoying the Juror of an
anti-match tax movement. The aspirations Of
the lucifer democracy appear to have worked
against the royalties from the very beginning
of the world
Mr.. Chancellor Lowe claims that the match
tax presses equally on all classes Of
English society. 1t can scarcely be SO with
any item of government tariff so long as one
man enjoys an income Of fifty or one hundred
thousand pounds sterling year and the other
has not the wherewith to put tobacco in his
pipe or the price of match to light him to
the gate Of the poorhouse. Hudibras says
''the value of thing is just as much as it will
BRING" but modern political economy has
taught us that the value is fixed by the
amount Of cash which the purchaser has in his
pocket. A box Of taxed matches is vastly
dearer to London ''cabby" than it is to the
Prince of Wales or the Marquis of Lorn, al-
though the actual charge is the same in each
instance.