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I remember once coming into Matlock, on the top of the “Peveril of
the Peak,” when the coachman who drove our four spanking thoroughbreds
contrived, in something less than five minutes, to excite his whole team
to the very top of their temper, lifting the wheelers almost off the
ground with his heavy lash, and, thrashing his leaders till they smoked
with passion, he brought them up to the inn door trembling with rage,
and snorting with anger. What the devil is all this for, thought I. He
guessed at once what was passing in my mind, and, with a knowing touch
of his elbow, whispered:--
“There's a new coachman a-going to try 'em, and I 'll leave him a
precious legacy.”
This is precisely what the Whigs did in their surrender of power to
the Tories. They, indeed, left them a precious legacy:--without an ally
abroad, with discontent and starvation at home, distant and expensive
wars, depressed trade, and bankrupt speculation, form some portion of
the valuable heritage they bequeathed to their heirs in power. The most
sanguine saw matter of difficulty, and the greater number of men were
tempted to despair at the prospects of the Conservative party; for,
however happily all other questions may have terminated, they still see,
in the corn-law, a point whose subtle difficulty would seem inaccessible
to legislation. Ah! could the two great parties, that divide the state,
only lay their heads together for a short time, and carry out that
beautiful principle that Scribe announces in one of his vaudevilles:--
“Que le blé te vend cher, et le pain bon marché.”
And why, after all, should not the collective wisdom of England be able
to equal in ingenuity the conceptions of a farce-writer? Meanwhile, it
is plain that political dissensions, and the rivalries of party, will
prevent that mutual good understanding which might prove so beneficial
to all. Reconciliations are but flimsy things at best; and whether the
attempt be made to conciliate two rival churches, two opposite factions,
or two separate interests of any kind whatever, it is usually a
failure. It, therefore, becomes the duty of every good subject, and, _à
fortiori_, of every good Conservative, to bestir himself at the present
moment, and see what can be done to retrieve the sinking fortune of the
state. Taxation, like flogging in the army, never comes on the right
part of the back. Sometimes too high, sometimes too low. There is no
knowing where to lay it on. Besides that, we have by this time got such
a general raw all over us, there isn't a square inch of sound flesh that
presents itself for a new infliction. Since the first French Revolution,
the ingenuity of man has been tortured on the subject of finance; and
had Dionysius lived in our days, instead of offering a bounty for the
discovery of a new pleasure, he would have proposed a reward to the man
who devised a new tax.
Without entering at any length into this subject, the consideration of
which would lead me into all the details of our every-day habits, I
pass on at once to the question which has induced this inquiry, while I
proclaim to the world loudly, fearlessly, and resolutely, “Eureka!”--I
've found it. Yes, my fellow-countrymen, I have found a remedy to supply
the deficient income of the nation, not only without imposing a new
tax, or inflicting a new burden upon the suffering community, but also
without injuring vested rights, or thwarting the activity of commercial
enterprise. I neither mulct cotton or corn; I meddle not with parson or
publican, nor do I make any portion of the state, by its own privations,
support the well-being of the rest. On the contrary, the only individual
concerned in my plan, will not be alone benefited in a pecuniary point
of view, but the best feelings of the heart will be cultivated and
strengthened, and the love of home, so characteristically English,
fostered in their bosoms. I could almost grow eloquent upon the benefits
of my discovery; but I fear, that were I to give way to this impulse,
I should become so fascinated with myself, I could scarcely turn to
the less seductive path of simple explanation. Therefore, ere it be too
late, let me open my mind and unfold my system:
“What great effects from little causes spring.”
Any one who ever heard of Sir Isaac Newton and his apple will
acknowledge this, and something of the same kind led me to the very
remarkable fact I am about to speak of.
One of the Bonaparte family--as well as I remember, Jerome--was one
night playing whist at the same table with Talleyrand, and having
dropped a crown piece upon the floor, he interrupted the game, and
deranged the whole party to search for his money. Not a little provoked
by a meanness which he saw excited the ridicule of many persons about,
Talleyrand deliberately folded up a bank-note which lay before him, and,
lighting it at the candle, begged, with much courtesy, that he might be
permitted to assist in the search. This story, which is authentic, would
seem an admirable parody on a portion of our criminal law. A poor man
robs the community, or some member of it (for that comes to the same
thing) to the amount of one penny. He is arrested by a policeman, whose
salary is perhaps half-a-crown a-day, and conveyed to a police-office,
that cost at least five hundred pounds to build it. Here are found three
or four more officials; all salaried--all fed, and clothed by the State.
In due course of time he is brought up before a magistrate, also well
paid, by whom the affair is investigated, and by him he is afterwards
transmitted to the sessions, where a new army of stipendiaries all
await him. But his journey is not ended. Convicted of his offence, he
is sentenced to seven years' transportation to one of the most remote
quarters of the globe. To convey him thither the government have
provided a ship and a crew, a supercargo and a surgeon; and, to sum up
in one word, before he has commenced the expiation of his crime, that
penny has cost the country something about three hundred pounds. Is
not this, I ask you, very like Talleyrand and the Prince?--the only
difference being, that we perform in sober earnest, what he merely
exhibited in sarcasm.
Now, my plan is, and I prefer to develop it in a single word, instead of
weakening its force by circumlocution.
In lieu of letting a poor man be reduced to his theft of one penny--give
him two pence. _He_ will be a gainer by double the amount--not to speak
of the inappreciable value of his honesty--and _you_ the richer by
71,998 pence, under your present system expended upon policemen,
magistrates, judges, gaolers, turnkeys, and transports. Examine for a
moment the benefits of this system. Look at the incalculable advantages
it presents--the enormous revenue, the pecuniary profit, and the
patriotism, all preserved to the State, not to mention the additional
pleasure of disseminating happiness while you transport men's hearts,
not their bodies.
Here is a plan based upon the soundest philanthropy, the most rigid
economy, and the strictest common sense. Instead of training up a race
of men in some distant quarter of the globe, who may yet turn your
bitterest enemies, you will preserve to the country so many true-born
Britons, bound to you by a debt of gratitude. Upon what ground--on
what pretext--can you oppose the system? Do you openly confess that
you prefer vice to poverty, and punishment to prevention? Or is it
your pleasure to manufacture roguery for exportation, as the French do
politeness, and the Irish linen?