THE BUDGET.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—If one may assume that all taxation ought properly to come out of income, why does not some bold Chancellor of the Exchequer sweep away our old-fashioned system and raise all the revenue he requires by Income-tax ? Every wage- earner should, of course, contribute, and the task of collecting the tax might largely be laid on employers, who would deduct it from the wages paid. With such a system each man would know exactly what he contributed to the revenue, and (if the tax were properly graduated) that he contributed no more than his fair share. I need hardly mention how much such a system, by abolishing Customs-houses, would operate in favour of maintaining Free-trade. Mr. Spender seems to think such a system would be revolutionary ; but surely it would be fair. The present Budget, by taxing one particular class over and over again, seems unfair as well as revolutionary.—I am, Sir,
R. A. AUSTEN LEIGH.
5 New Street Square, B.C.
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