Evening journal., 1913-05-10
GOSSIP OF THE COURTS
BY FLANEUR UR.

The record suggestions for the
budget received by any British Chan
cellor of the Exchequer certainly was
during the stress of the Napoleonic
war hundred years ago In 1911
there was not an article of dress,
boots, shoes. leather breechcs, etc
not an article in the households,
Keys, bells, &c, which had not been
commended to him as objects of tax
alton. The futility Of all this was
illustrated by his abandonment of the
taxes on hats, gloves, and mittens, in
consequence of their miserable fall
ure. Nevertheless, the government
was soon driven to almost equally fu-
tile taxes on such things as SOAP,
candles, and glass. It was the ia
NOUS wag, Sidney Smith, who indulg-
ed In a characteristic outburst against
taxation in one Of his contributions
to the Edinburgh Review AT bed
or board" he wrote, "couchant or
levant, we must pay-the schOolboy
whips his taxed top; the beardless
youth managed his taxed horse with
taxed bride on a taxed road, and
the dying Englishman, pouring his
medicine, which had paid z per cent.
duty, into a spoon that has paid 10
per cent, filings himself back on his
chintz bed, which has paid % per
! cent, and expires in the arms of an
apothecary nurse who has paid a Ii
cense of a hundred pounds for the
privilege of putting him to death.
His whole property is then immedi-
ately taxed from to 10 per cent.
Besides the probate, large fees are
demanded for burying him in the
chancel; his virtues are handed down
to posterity on taxed marble and
he is then gathered to his fathers
to be taxed no mOre.'"
The happy lot of Mr.. Lloyd-G George,
who, it is estimated. will have bud
get surplus of a quarter of a million,
forms striking contrast to that Of
Mr.. Austin Chamberlain, who, in 1904
had to provide for deficit of 100000
pounds in the British balance sheet.
Some startling suggestions we're made
to the member for East Worcester
shire on that occasion by those who
considered themselves capable of
teaching the Chancellor of the Ex-
cheQuer his business. Among other
things upon which it was said that
duties should be imposed were such
necessities as boots. baths. lamps.
hats. umbrellas, perambulators. and
theatre tickets. Extraordinary though
these suggestions were. however,
they were not more so than some
budget schemes which actually have
been carried out in the past in order
to raise the British revenue
In 1865 tax of two shillings had
to be paid by the parents of every
baby born in England, except by peo-
pie in receipt of aims. This tax fell
very heavily upon the masses, to
whom a shilling meant much more
than it does today. The nobility and
the gentry, too, found the tax irk-
some, for it increased according to
rank
No small amount of fun has been
made of the bill introduced by mem
Der of the New Jersey State Legis-
lature some time ago imposing a
graduated tax on men with boards. But
it is by no means an original proposal
Queen Elizabeth put a tax of three
farthings on every beard of fort
nights growth, while Peter the Great
insisted that all Russian noble who
wore boards should pay 100 rubles foi
the privilege.
1t has been said often that the sell
fish individual who declines to lead
another mans daughter to the altar
and provide for her for the rest of his
life shoulL be mulcted a certain
amount each year. II is an old idea,
for at one time the man who reached
the age of twenty-five in England was
liable to a tax Of one shilling per
annum until he married Widowers
without children were obliged to pay
the scme amount until hey married
again, while the gentry and nobility
paid tax in proportion to THEN
rank
AS Chancellor Of the Exchequer
Pitt rendered himself very unpopular
! by the extraordinary n. rs to which
he resorted i'm order to improve the
state of the British finances He II
was who first introduced the income
tax in 1898, and he. also levied one
upon horses, which caused farmers tC
use COW for the purpose of riding
to and from market. Even more dis.
satisfaction was caused by Pitts in.
crease in the window tax, first i'm.
posed in the year that the tax OF
babies was enforced This window