A Hundred Years Ago
"Tao SPECTATOR," FEBRUARY 2ND, 1833.
THE DIFFICULTY or IMPOSING NEW TAXES.
To discover new taxes, which shall be theoretically proper, is not very difficult. The difficulty lies in their practical imposition. . . It may be suggested—tax Luxuries : but this in practice is not so easily done. There is a difficulty in defining what are really luxuries. One man may place carpets in the category ; another, superfine cloth ; another, certain articles of furniture, or furniture made of certain woods. If the definition were satisfactorily settled, the mode of levy would be vexatious and expensive. If the manufacture itself were subjected to a duty, it would extend that most mischievous class of taxes the Excise, which it is the object of every one to abolish. If the use of the articles were directly taxed, it would be more inquisitorial than any impost to which the country was ever subjected. The effects of such taxes would, moreover, be very mischievous, by the check they would give to trade and to the employment of labour. Unless multiplied ad infinitum, they would yield but little; as we may see by the duties on Servants, Sze— . If we look for all the qualities essential in a new tax,—a litre revenue, a tolerably simple mode of levy, cheapness in the collection, a non- interference with industry, and a disposition in the people to submit to it,—there is but one impost (in addition to the extension of the Probate and Legacy duties to Real Property) which suggests itself; and that is a Property-Tax.
• • • •
Two men were brought before the Magistrates at Queen Square on Tuesday, by some of the policemen, who had detected them in the act of personating Twopenny Postmen, and delivering fictitious letters for the sake of the postage. It was stated that these fellows belong to a gang who have latterly been practising this fraud to a
great extent.
Previous page
