believe in the doctrines of their church; and who entertain the chimerical notion that England, the very champion of protestantism and liberty, may be induced once more to bow her neck beneath the despotism of Rome*. Hence they lavish their money in raising these edifices. The late circumstances of this country also have given a false importance to the catholics. But this is only a transient state; and, as with their usual imprudence, they have revealed their hopes and projects too soon, the suspicions of the protestants have been aroused, and there is as little chance of England becoming catholic as of its embracing the law of Islam. The national debt of England amounts at present to the enormous sum of nearly eight hundred millions, the annual interest of which is about thirty millions, paid to about 280,000 share-holders. The sum raised annually for payment of this interest and for carrying on the government, is about fifty millions. These sums appear enormous and seem to menace national ruin, and ministers who grasp at popularity always seek to acquire it by a reduction of taxation. Yet the effect never proves adequate to the expectation. The reason is, that people proceed on a false analogy. The less an individual spends the richer he is, and hence it is inferred that the same will be the case with the community. But there is this essential difference, that what the individual spends is lost to him, while taxation is only one mode of distributing a portion of the annual income of a state among its members. The persons who in reality pay the taxes are the capitalists; and the question is, would it be better for what is thus annually taken from them to remain and accumulate in their hands, or to be distributed as it is by the government * "The catholic principle of church authority," says Dr. Wiseman in his Lectures (p. 16), "demands the submission of the mind and understanding implicitly to its teaching;"-" the absolute unconditional submission," as he afterwards expresses it (p. 17). CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 527 among a vast number of all classes of the community? The latter will, we think, prove to be the more beneficial, and hence it is that the pressure of taxation is so little felt, and that, were the whole system abolished, people to their surprise would find that all their expectations had been fallacious. A limit, which however it is almost impossible to fix, there must be to taxation, for otherwise landlords and other capitalists might be nothing more than mere receivers for those who subsisted on the taxes; but to that limit neither this nor any other country has as yet approached. The wicked project of the abolition of the national debt would spread ruin through the country, and probably reduce millions to beggary*. It may also be doubted if the reduction effected in various branches of the public service has ever compensated for the positive misery inflicted by the operation. Taxation in fine is no evil in itself, and if no more persons be employed in the public service than are really required, and if their salaries and wages be strictly proportioned to the value of their abilities and labour, the nation will have no reason to complain of the amount of its taxes, however high it may ascend. Unfortunately there has seldom or never been a government in this or any other country that has taken this principle as its guide. In wealth, in industry, in power, in moral and religious feeling, in the enjoyment of true liberty, it may, we think, be asserted without partiality, that England stands at present pre-eminent among the nations. How long that hap *Nothing can be more erroneous than the supposition that none but great capitalists would suffer by the abolition of the national debt. Of the 280,000 share-holders, 87,000 derive an annual income from it not exceeding 107.; 44,000, one not exceeding 207.; 98,000, not more than 100%.; while only 15 receive 80007.; and 60, 10,000l. and upwards. Landed property is in a similar state; the number of landed proprietors in England and Wales is 200,000; and as the total rental is estimated at 30,000,000l., their average income is only 1507. a year. py condition may continue it is not for man to say; but the British constitution is not immortal, and democracy, the enemy by which it is eventually to be overthrown, is already making its advances. Yet the natural good sense of the English people, the proof given by America that democracy is despotism, the influence of well-directed education, the writings of men of talent and virtue, and other causes, may, under Heaven, long avail to keep off the evil. Happy the writer of the foregoing pages, should his work be found worthy to take a place among those judged to be efficacious in infusing a love and veneration for the institutions transmitted to us by our Saxon and Norman forefathers, and improved by each succeeding generation! |