A far sounder view 'of our fiscal system is supplied
bilitr. Harold• Cox, secretary' of the Cobden 'Club, in his letter to Thursday's' Times. He points out that the four main principle's whielt haVe hitherto Marked its development are (I) No taxation On food or raw Materials in order that our manufactures may be placed at the 'best advantage; (2) no manipulation of Custom's-duties in the direction of Protection; (3) few rather than many indirect taxes in order to produce the minimum interference with trade ; (4) the levying of a large part of the revenue by direct taxation. Mr. Harold Cox goes On to point out what magnificent fiscal results have been obtained in the past by obeying these principles. We entirely agree, and therefore, though we recognise the need for increased taxation, we ask that as little modification as possible shall be made in the essential Character of our system. Let new taxes be imposed from necessity, but not out of mere fiscal wantonness or from a vague and restless notion that it is better for the cistern of national wealth to leak away on all sides and in a hundred different places than to be tapped in one or two definite and orderly large jets.
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