sive manner, that the ingenuity of man could devise. The people are not approached directlyneither do the laws seem to take this sum from the labouring classes: but it is one of the plainest principles of true political economy that the burdens of every nation fall upon the working classes; that wherever the tax is laid, it will in the end come out of the toil and sweat of the labouring

man.

It will be no difficult matter to show, that the protective policy of England, has long been carried to an extent oppressive to the people and injurious to the government; that the manufacturing and commercial interests of the nation have already suffered from it most severely; and that unless many of the restrictions placed upon commerce be speedily removed, the day is already past from which England will hereafter date the decline of her commercial strength.

In our inquiries it will not be so much a question of politics as of humanity. So long as English warehouses are filled with manufactured goods, and the markets of the world are already glutted with them, it would matter little that half the manufactures of Great Britain were for the time broken down by the present commercial embarrassment of the nation, if this prostration was not so severely felt by the great multitude who are dependent upon their labour for daily bread. But when the suspension of a factory, involves the hunger and destitution of the operatives who

are turned away, we think less of the capitalist who leaves his business to collect his bills, and then goes to his country-seat, or up to London, to luxuriate upon his already ample fortune, until the times become better than we do of the gloomy crowds of operatives he has left behind him to starve.

The question often arises in this country, why it is that in a nation of such abounding resources and opulence, millions should suffer for the necessaries of life. Unless the world were so slow to learn wisdom, it would be too late in the day to attempt to prove what must be self-evident to every man who will think for himself, that either folly or injustice must characterize the government of a nation possessed of England's wealth and power, when such vast numbers of her people, strong, able-bodied, willing to labour, are suffering the pains of hunger. I do not pretend to say that it is possible for any government to prevent the recurrence of seasons of commercial and agricultural embarrassment; these crises will occur under the wisest administration; for they often depend upon causes beyond the reach of legislation. But I do say, that in a nation where so large a portion of the labouring class perpetually suffer for want of the necessaries of life, a great wrong must exist somewhere; and that the entire economy of the British government has a direct and positive tendency to impoverish the working man, and reduce him and his family at last to starvation. Even such acknowledgments are sometimes forced from the aristocracy themselves. Says the Quarterly Review, (No. 29,) "In the road that the English labourer must travel, the poor-house is the last stage on the way to the grave." And in glancing at the alarming aspect which every where meets the eye of an observing Englishman, the same Review says, all this "is chiefly owing to a radical defect in the constitution of the British government."

A brief review of the principal items of the crushing system of taxation to which the British people have long been subjected, will make it cease to be a matter of astonishment that such appalling misery prevails over the British islands.

THE BRITISH TARIFF.- "From a very distant period, customs duties have been charged on most articles imported into, or exported from England; and though inconsiderable at first, they increased with the increase of civilization and commerce, till they long ago formed one of the most copious sources of the public revenue, and now have attained to an extraordinary magnitude." (M'Culloch.) In 1596, the revenue derived from customs duties was only £50,000. In 1792, only £4,409,000; while in 1839 it had swelled to £22,962,610. The schedule of the last Customs Act (3 & 4 William IV. c. 30,) contained 1150 articles subject to duty; and of this number seventeen alone produced £21,700,630, in 1839; while the remaining number, 1133, produced only £1,261,980, or scarcely enough to cover the expense of collecting the duties. The following list of these seventeen articles, and the revenue they afford the government, with other statistics here given, I derive from Sir Henry Parnell's "Financial Reform," fourth edition, London, and from the "Report of the Committee appointed by the House of Commons, to inquire into the Customs, &c. -Folio, 1840."

月

1 Sugar and Molasses

£4,827,018

2 Tea

3,658,800

3 Tobacco

3,495,686

4 Rum, Brandy, &c.

2,615,443

5 Wine

1,849,709

6 Timber

1,603,194

7

Corn

1,098,779

8

Coffee

779,114

I shall not attach any importance in this estimate to duties chargeable on articles of luxury, or those that are pernicious. From motives of hu

manity, I do not object to any duty, however high, upon wines, distilled spirits, silks, and similar articles, for the comfort and morals of the poor receive no advantage from them. But when human laws infringe upon the happiness of large classes of men, and by increasing the price of the necessaries of life, inflict suffering on the poor, I cannot be silent. All such legislation is unjust.

We must not only consider the effect upon the labouring classes, of the duties levied for the purpose of REVENUE upon articles of prime necessity, but the effect of duties levied solely for PROTECTION; for sustaining monopoly, and augmenting the incomes of the favored classes, at the expense of the rest of the community. Unless we extend our calculation beyond the amount collected by customs, we shall have a very inadequate idea of the real burden imposed on the people. For example; the duties collected on the CORN imported in 1839, were only a little more than $5,000,000; but as it will hereafter be shown, (see First Book,) this was not one twentieth part of the bread-tax that very year-for before one pound went into the revenue from the duty on corn, its price in England had risen to double that on the Continent.

Of the seventeen duties mentioned, yielding nearly all the revenue, only tea, tobacco, wine, cotton wool, currants, and raisins, were imported for revenue alone: the remainder were levied, not to protect domestic industry, but domestic and colonial capi