efforts have been limited to the task of reviling the cause which they abandoned at the bidding of their chief. Sir James Graham has gone further. He now stands in enviable proximity with Colonel Peyronnet Thompson, who regards foreign occupation as an evil of less magnitude than a return to Protective principles, as the defamer of the British army, whose swords, he insinuates, would be unsheathed against the people, ahould that people, in the exercise of their undoubted privilege, return to Parliament a majority of representatives who think differently from Cobden and his crew. We hardly know which most to admire the monstrous arrogance, or the unblushing effrontery of the man. Did he really suppose that threats, coming from such a quarter, would deter any one in the exercise of his free individual opinions? Was he weak enough to think that his inuendoes could turn the scale of public judgment; or that the electoral body throughout the kingdoms would shrink from performing that which they esteemed to be their duty, because, forsooth, it pleased the Border Baronet to prophesy that no change could even be attempted without outbreak, violence and bloodshed? He has heard his answer in the shout of indignation which has rung, from one end of England to the other, in reply to his mischievous menace; and we have little doubt that, by this time, he is convinced-if shame can penetrate into his bosom-that the most fatal act which a statesman can commit, with regard to his own position, is to proclaim that brute force has more might and majesty than the law within the limits of the British territory. Before concluding, we must say a few words upon the position of her Majesty's present Ministers; and we should confine our remarks simply to a topic connected with their commercial and financial policy, leaving out of view the graver question of security to the Protestant faith, which is now occupying the attention of Parliament, and elevating the character of the Irish nation, through the conduct of its chosen representatives. Ministers have been at last compelled, by the vote of a hostile majo rity, to limit the renewal of the Income and Property Tax to the period of a single year. We regard this as one of the most important events of the Session; since it unequivocally shows that the nation is writhing under the pressure of this unequal impost, and has the power, when it wills, to cast it off for ever. We do not, however, suppose that the Whigs have any such notion. They are treating the impost as a shipbuilder might treat a vessel which had been afloat for nine years, careening and coppering it afresh, preparatory to a new launch. Now, when we remember that Lord John Russell has given distinct notice of his intention to propose a new Reform Bill during the next Session of Parliament, the existence of the Income Tax, under any shape whatever, becomes a matter of most serious importance. What necessity there exists for an extension of the suffrage has not yet been explained to us, neither are we aware of the principles upon which that act of extension is to be framed. It may not be intended as a last desperate effort to maintain a bad commercial system it may possibly be a wise and temperate measure suited to the requirements of the time; but as to this we can offer no opinion; for the bill itself, if not also the principles upon which it is to be constructed, is yet in embryo. But we cannot help expressing thus early our decided conviction that the maintenance of the Income Tax is incompatible with any large extension of the franchise, if the rights of property within this country are to be preserved. At present, an income of £150 is chargeable with income-tax. If it is intended by any new electoral scheme to give a preponderance of votes to those who are not so directly charged, then we say that the promoters of such a measure are establishing a principle which, when carried out, must inevitably lead to confiscation. We all remember that, in 1848, Sir Charles Wood, with his usual intense stolidity, proposed to augment the rate from sevenpence to one shilling in the pound--a proof of what may again be attempted upon any occasion of emergency. Let us suppose a new Reform Bill carried, which shall have the effect of lodging the political power in the hands of those who are exempt from direct taxation. An agitation rises for the removal of customs-duties upon articles of general consumption, such as tea, coffee, sugar, and tobacco; and the Minister of the day, unable to stem the torrent, is forced to yield. In such a case as this, which may very readily be imagined, and which indeed is sure to occur, how could the revenue be raised? Sir Charles Wood has already shown us how-by augmenting the direct tax upon rated industry to an amount equal to the defalcation. There is no reason whatever why sevenpence, or even a shilling per pound, should be the limited rate. No tax can be more popular than a direct one, to which the majority of the people do not contribute; and much of that powerful support which the Whigs have hitherto received from the Irish members in their financial policy, may be traced to the fact that Ireland has all along been exempted from the operation of this obnoxious impost. Mr. Henry Grattan lately declared, that Ministers might as well attempt to levy Income Tax in Siberia as in Ireland. If so, let us by all means get rid of it in Great Britain also. These considerations are well worthy of attention at the present time. The questions of taxation and of representation are closely bound together, and it is in vain to attempt separating the one from the other. The frequent shifts of Sir Robert Peel, and the principles of expediency which, in 1842, he thought fit to apply to taxation, have altogether unsettled the minds of many, and equal justice is no longer regarded as the grand element in the distribution of national burdens. No greater evil than this can befal a country so eminently commercial as our own. To tamper with the public faith is to introduce the wedge of anarchy; and yet, how is it possible to deny that almost every one of Peel's fiscal and monetary measures have had a tendency in that direction by disturbing the distribution of taxation, altering the value of produce, and rendering the burden of monetary payments more oppressive than it was before? We do not believe that Lord John Russell will have the opportunity of proposing his new scheme in the character of Prime Minister of this country. Events are rapidly tending to their consummation; the Whig Cabinet exists by sufferance only, and in a few weeks it may be broken up. It has served its purpose of conducting the Free-Trade experiment to a point, when the miserable fallacy and deception of the whole system has become apparent to the nation; no one interest having been left unscathed by its noxious influence. If the manufacturers have rightly profited by the lesson, they must by this time be convinced that they cannot separate themselves from the interests of the great mass of the British people; that their boasted independence and monopoly of the markets of the world is a vain and illusory dream; and that the real prosperity of the nation can only be attained by fostering the labour and protecting the industry of the subjects of the British Crown. INDEX TO VOL. LXIX. Eneid, the, and the Iliad, 55. AGRICULTURAL INTEREST, THE, AND THE Agricultural labourers, reduced wages of Agriculture, the literature of, 588-its Altai mountains, gold mines of the, 11. American chapel at Rome, the, 251- Antiquarian treasures, difficulties of secur- ARCHEOLOGY OF SCOTLAND, WILSON'S, Architecture, mediæval, character of, 305. ARTS IN PORTUGAL, the, 338. Augustine order of Monks, the, 307, 316. Austria, army of, 206. Aztecs of America, the, 390. Bailey, rev. Dr., trial of, for forgery, 463. Ball, the, a Hungarian sketch, 89. Bank of England, influence of Californian Banks, Mr., on the Stirling peerage case, Barlow, Mr., election of, for South Not- Bartolomeo, St. Peter Martyr by, 318. Bastiat, M., the leader of the Free- Bedford, Mr., letters from Southey to, Mr., the Campana of Tom Cringle, 558. history, ib.-female writers of, 43. Blain, Mr., on the emigration trade, 127. Boniface VIII., charge of sorcery against, Bonner, bishop, 131. Book of the Church, Southey's, 402. Bowles, admiral, on the navy, 210-Miss, marriage of Southey to, 404. Bread, prices of, in London and Paris, 129. Bryant's Poems, review of, 522. Budget, remarks on the, 494. Building of the Ship, Longfellow's, 517. Bunyan, Southey's Life of, 403. Calcutta, freights from, 714.. Callot, sketch of, 720 et seq. Canada, character of the trade of, 128- Caracci, Annibal, anecdote of, 321. on the emigrant trade to America, 127. Cash payments, effects of the resumption Catherine de Medicis, charge of sorcery Catholic emancipation, prognostics of Caxton, Pisistratus, My Novel by, Part V. Celibacy of the clergy, when adopted by Ceylon, proceedings in Parliament re- Changeling, the, by Lowell, 529. Charles I. opposed to trials for witchcraft, Charles II., execution for witchcraft under, Children, employment of, in factories, 268. Cid, the Spanish romance of the, 56. Claudia, a Hungarian tale, 90. Cotton trade, state of the, 114, 383, 703 Cuba, sketches in, 555. CURRAN AND HIS COTEMPORARIES, 222. Currency, influences of extended, 2- Damjanics, the Serb general, 92. DANGERs of the COUNTRY, the, No. I. our Dante, his picture of St. Francis and St. Dantzic, cost of freights from, 504. Debt, effects of increased supply of gold Delta, the Message of Seth by, 107. Clergy, celibacy of the, when adopted by Democracies, warlike tendencies of, 203 Popery, 247. Cloth trade, state of the, 709. Coffee trade, state of the, 701, 702. Condon, reply of Dr Wordsworth to, 576. Conjurors, executions &c. of, for witch- Constance, the council of, denunciations Conticci, Andrea, the painter, 340. -they unprovided against war, 200. Doctor, Southey's, remarks on, 388. Dominican order of monks, the, 317— Du Fay and Co., circulars of, on the cotton Duigenan, Dr., anecdote of, 227. Dundee, state of the linen trade of, 114, Corn-milling in France, 711-effects of Dunshunner, A. R. Esq., letter to, 564. free trade on, 754, et seq. Cotton, commission to India in search of, Durer, Albert, influence of, on the Por- Education, recent efforts for, 259. Enguerrand de Marigny, execution of, 452. Essex, the countess of, charge of witch- Essex, the agricultural labourers in, 505. EXTERNAL DANGERS, our, 196. Farmers, position of the, 505, et seq. Franciscan order of monks, the, 317. 491. FREE TRADE, EXPERIENCES OF, 748. Free-traders, arguments of the, on the George of St. Thomas, a Hungarian tale, 94 Glasgow, pauperism in, 264-on the state Glasgow cotton-spinners, trial of the, 733. Government, undue activities of, 113. Gran Vasco, the Portuguese painter, 339, Grattan, sketch of, 229. Great Britain, influence of contraction of Greek question, the, 205. H. G. K., the Flowers' Revenge, by, 489. HARMONY OF INTERESTS, &c., review of, 112. HARRY BOLTON'S CURACY, 180. Hendren, Dr., and Miss Talbot's case, 582. Historians, the ancient, peculiarities of, 40. graphy, 40-difficulties of writing 234. Holland, abandonment of gold as a HOUSSAYE'S SKETCHES AND ESSAYS, 716. |