For week ending, Feb. 16, 1833. even supposing this event had taken place, which was Mr. PARE read a letter which he had received from Mr. R. D. Owen, on the preceeding Friday. containing a statement of the reasons for removing the Exchange from Grays Inn Road, and the full expectations of the Governor and Directors that the removal would in a very short time be proved to have been highly beneficial. Mr. P. also read some extracts from the .. Crisis," of Saturday last, by which it appeared that in spite of the false rumours which had been alluded to, by the preceeding speakers, the business at Gray's Inn Road, had been going on much as usual; which was apparent from the following paragraph "Even Saturday (the 12th Inst.) when the report currently circulated that the Exchange would close, not again to be re-opened, the amount of deposits was six thousand nine hundred aud fifteen hours, while the exchanges were but five thousand eight hundred and fifty; so that we continued actually to do business at the rate of more than fifty thousand pounds a year; and the excess of our deposits over our exchanges, or in other words the increase of our stock was upwards of a thousand hours." WEEKLY REPORTS Of the Blackfriars Branch Exchange. 30 4 2 Capital not yetrepaid 2 By rent and use Capital remaining unpaid Decrease of stock..... of fixtures Petty Cash 11,834 Hours. 14,247 2.413 Hours. ** If the tradesmen, shopkeepers, and others, who are willing to receive for their labour or their goods, Labour Notes, or half cash and half notes. charging the same prices as for cash, will furnish me with their names and residences, I will incorporate them with a printed list, for the convenience of depositors and holders of notes. J. EAMONSON. EDITORIAL. LONDON, FEBRUARY 23, 1833. OF BRITISH TAXES ; THESE AND OF THE INDIRECT TAXES. THE subject of taxation, to which we have already alluded, is one which is seldom tried by first principles People feel this tax or that tax onerous, and begin to exclaim against it. They cannot endure the sight of The report of the business done during the last two the tax-gatherer, and they liken him to the locust, or weeks is as follows: the horse-leach, or some other equally respectable animal. They become uneasy and restless under the d. burden, and wish to heaven they could get rid of it. But, as a general rule, this is all that is said or done on the subject. of fixtures, 8 9 6 Profit & loss Capital remaining unpaid 9 5 9 £30 17 0 £20 2 6 £19 16 9 13,568 Hours. 13,118 450 Hours. Even those political reformers, who accustom themselves to contemplate great and radical changes, frequently fail in seizing upon the true moot points of this question. I do not regard the whole question of imposts as involving consequences so immense as some of these reformers seem to do. Glad as I should be, to see the load of taxation removed, which now weighs on British industry, I should by no means expect from its removal, a cure for all, or nearly all, the evils and miseries that surround us. Competition, inequality, luxury, intemperance, intolerance, cruelty-the evils, in a word, which false laws permit, or false education generates— these would remain, were all taxes removed tomorrow, to darken the prospects and embitter the lot of the millions. But if government imposts do not produce, it must be confessed that they aggravate the evil; and aggravate it, just in proportion to the relative weight with which they bear on the more needy portion of the population. In how unjust a proportion this weight frequently presses on those least capable of supporting it, the mass of the people either know not, or habitually overlook. Were not this so, duties on the necessaries of life would not be tolerated to-day. What should we say of an income tax so levied, that in proportion as a man's income was small, should the per centage he paid to government be large? a tax, for example, according to the regulations of which, a man with one hundred a year, should pay five per cent. of that hundred, while a man with ten thousand a year should pay one per cent. only of that ten thousand. It is certain that such a tax as this would not be tolerated; the people would not pay it; the government would not propose it; for it is utterly at variance with the spirit of the age. * That is to say, such a tax, so expressed, would not be tolerated. Similar taxes, covered up from the vulgar eye under an indirect form, are tolerated-are paid every day, by almost every inhabitant of Great Britain. And it is to this fact particularly, that I desire to call attention. I allude to all the taxes on what may be called ne cessaries of life. All these taxes bear upon the taxpayer, (as a general rule) in the inverse ratio of that tax-payer's income. come. So of the taxes on sugar, on coffee, on bread, on malt liquors, on soap, on candles, on leather, on timber, and on every article, in short, of common daily consumption. The imposts on all such articles, act, in point of fact, in the same way, as would an income tax, the per centage of which should diminish, as the amount of income to be taxed increased. Much complaint has been made lately, regarding the assesed taxes, and large meetings have been held expressly to protest against them. Without a wish or intention to defend any portion of a rotten system, let me invite our readers' attention to the relative amount as well as to the relative injustice of these assessed taxes and the indirect taxes to which I have alluded. First, as to amount. The window tax, the most obnoxious of all, amounts to little more than one million, and the total assessed taxes, to about two millions and a half. Now, the indirect tax on sugar alone, amounts to four millions and a half; on tea, to more than three millions; on malt, to more than three millions, on beer to more than three millions, on timber to a millon and a half, on soap to more than a million, on coals to nearly a million, and so on: the yearly total of these indirect taxes on various articles of consumption being upwards of thirty millions. Next, as to the principle on which the amounts are respectively levied. There is no window tax on a house having less than eight windows; eight windows are charged about 2s. each, nine windows, nearly 2s. 6d. each; ten windows nearly 3s. each; and so the amount per window goes on slowly increasing, in proportion to the size of the house. A comparatively* fair and just ratio; more so at least, than that on which indirect taxes on necessaries are levied. The rest of the assessed taxes are chiefly on male servants, carriages, riding horses, armorial bearings, and game licences; all not only legitimate, but peculiarly proper objects for taxation; as placing the burden chiefly, if not altogether, on those who can best afford to pay. Thus, take as an example, the tax on tea; for tea, though brought hither from another hemisphere, has become in point of fact, a common necessary of life, to nine tenths of our population. Take this tax, and observe how it presses. The expender of £10,000 a year, pays of course, more for the necessaries of life, Thus it appears, that the tax on one single necesthan the expender of £100 a year; but he does not sary-an article of almost universal consumptionpay for them as large a proportion of his income, nor namely sugar, is nearly double the whole amount of the any thing like it. He does not use for instance, a hun-assessed taxes; that the taxes on three other necessadred times as much tea in his family as the other; heries, all in daily use among the labouring classes, are, uses, perhaps, ten times as much; or, at the very most, say twenty times as much. He pays then, only ten times, or at most, twenty times as much tea duty as the other. That is, when the poor man pays five per cent. of his income in tea duty, the rich man pays one half per cent., or one per cent only of his larger in * Witness the principle on which the present ministry have just proposed church reform for Ireland. In reducing ecclesiastical livings, no per centage is taken off incomes of two hundred pounds and under; five per cent. off livings between two hundred and five hundred pounds; seven per cent. on those between five hundred and eight hundred pounds; ten per cent. on those between eight hundred and twelve hundred pounds; and fifteen per cent. ou those above twelve hundred pounds. This in the true principle of taxation: "To whom much is given, of him shall much be required.” each one of them, larger in amount, than the whole of the assessed taxes; that the tax on soap alone is as heavy as the window duty, and that on coals, very nearly so; that the total amount of indirect taxes is about fifteen times as large as that of the assessed taxes, while the principle upon which the latter are levied is more just than that which regulates the former. If these things are so, it is worse than useless to propose to begin reform in taxation by doing away one of the least onerous and least unfairly levied and most straight forward of our taxes. It is worse than useless, because the benefit experienced would be comparatively trifling, and because the same exertions necessary to obtain that benefit would be far better employed in obtaining the remission of others more vexatious, or in exposing the whole system of taxation, which is rotten throughout. R. D. O. THE CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM. (Continued from our last.) These, then, the evidences of our senses informs us, are the effects of the overwhelming influence of circumstances by which human nature is controlled and rendered whatever they make it. Thus are men trained to believe the popular notions, however erroneous, of the district in which they are born and live. They are taught that these notions are alone true, and that those taught contrary to them, in other districts, are false, detestable impositions and so truly absurd, that it is most extraordinary, and to the teachers quite unaccountable, how any rational creature could believe in them. These impressions are uniformly made on the minds of the inhabitants of all the various districts in the world, and, in consequence, those of each district are made to believe, that all their fellow-men, who are born alive in all the other districts in which mysteries differing from their own are taught, are poor, weak, irrational creatures, who deserve only their pity, contempt, or hatred; and thus the foundation is laid for the worst feelings and passions which can be implanted in If human nature has not been hitherto completely under the control of the circumstances in which it happens to be placed, why have the inhabitants of China, for so many centuries, been the disciples of Fo and Confucius? Why have the inhabitants of Hindoostan been Hindoos? Of Christendom, Christians? Of the districts governed by Mussulmen, disciples of Mahomet? and the greater part of the remainder of the world Pagans, worshippers of animals or imaginary monsters or still mere savages?" man. Upon this setting forth, the Lecturer thus concludes: "The old system, from the earliest periods of which records exist, has been formed upon the supposition that man was created with the power to form his will, to belive, or disbelieve, to love, be indifferent, or hate, at his own pleasure, and to form his own character. The old system of society, therefore, is as erroneous in principle, as it has ever proved itself to be injurious in practice." We have said that Robert Owen's Doctrines on Human Responsibility are by no means shared in common with his fellow co-operators; and to prove this, we have only to advert to the fact of their having been ably examined, with a view to their refutation, by William Carpenter, the author of the Political Letters, himself a co-operator, and a man of no mean ability. William Carpenter, after remarking on the folly of talking of impiety to such a man as Robert Owen, of Lanark, proceeds to grapple with him in the very thick of his arguments, by declaring that he maintains, " in opposition to Mr. Owen, that a necessary agent is account able for his actions." He then asserts that the doctrine of circumstances is but another phase of the doctrine of necessity, a doctrine which has been held by several thinking christians, who have, nevertheless, failed to conclude that man was therefore an irresponsible agent. The following is William Carpenter,s argument in opposition to that of Robert Owen: "By the very frame and texture of our bodies and minds, we are subject to be actuated by pleasure and pain, joy and grief, hope and fear; and by the order and constitution of the objects and elements by which we are surrounded and penetrated, some one or other of these sensations and emotions is continually operating upon us. Nothing is more certain than that the experience of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, of happiness or misery, is, in a great measure, dependent upon the course of human action; one course being productive of satisfaction and happiness, and another course inflicting or entailing dissatisfaction and misery, immediate or remote. We are, indeed, liable to be both benefited and injured by a variety of accidents and occurrences. from animate and inanimate objects and substances, from which no degree of prudence can protect us. We may be struck by lightning, or crushed by the fall of a house, or destroyed by an assassin. "The tendency of actions to produce immediate or remote satisfaction is ascertained by experience. Until the experiment has been made, we cannot know what will be the immediate effect of an action. He who never touched any other than a common eel, will be no less surprised than pained when he touches a torpedo. A child on eating a fruit which, though palatable, is unwholesome, does not anticipate the sickness which ensues from the gratification of his appetite. And we are all of us but too liable to do things that are apparently right and proper, but which, in their remote consequences, are productive of evil.-This being undeniable, how, we would ask, is it possible for us to ascertain those rules of life which insure well being, without availing ourselves of the experience acquired by others? The doctrine of necessity cannot exempt those who hold it from suffering grief and pain, the fruits of their errors and vices. The certain result of misconduct can, in many cases, be foreseen by persons of mature age and accurate observation. What is there in the laws of human nature, according to Mr. Owen's definition of those laws, which should render it improper in a parent, tutor, or governor, to warn a child against committing an act to which the child is strongly inclined, but which will assuredly lead to disastrous consequences? Or if, notwithstanding such warning, the child should follow his own inclination, where would be the absurdity of using such language as this-"Well, if you are determined to disregard my warnings, and to disobey my injunctions, you will repent having done so when you come to feel the pain and misery which you are sure to incur; you are responsible in your own person to God, for the violation of his laws?" The latter part of this sentence, if trans lated into Mr. Owen's language, would run thus,If we violate the laws of nature, we shall find that she is able to convince us of our folly," or something to that effect; provided always that the name of God be suppressed, and the word punishment exchanged for some other term, or paraphrastical phrase. But what, in the name of common sense, is gained by such a disguise? Do words alter the nature of things? Does a wolf lose his ferocity when he is called lupus? coinmonly called the years of discretion. We, however, are inclined to believe, that the benevolent feelings and intentions which are conspicuous in his character, are derived from the teaching of some good Christian, probably a female, who first told him pleasant stories out of the Bible, and thus induced him to read it ;-in short, that he was trained pretty much after the fashion in which the generality of persons of the class from which he sprang were trained, when he was a child. Presuming that this was the case, how happens it that, in spite of this training, he has been able to emancipate himself from the erroneous notions which were instilled into his infant mind? But if he has thus shaken off early prejudices, why may not others have done the same? If the period of training is limited to the time we are under the tutelage of parents, guardians, and tutors, there are probably few intellectual persons who have not seen cause to correct some of the notions with which-they started in life. Without pretending to be one whit the better or wiser than the generality of our friends, and acquaintance, we can truly say, that many of our present opinions are very different from those which we formerly held; whether or not they be more correct, it is not for us to determine." "Now, we maintain against Mr. Owen and all his sect (for, thank God, it is as yet but a sect, and we would fain hope, a very small sect), that the conduct above described is precisely that which has been adopted by the sacred writers. The threatenings of the Bible are neither more nor less than warnings or predictions of the inevitable consequences of vicious actions. And that which justly and reasonably warrants the use of the words responsible and accountable. when speaking of the conduct of agents, whether regarded as necessary or free, or partly necessary and partly free, is that the individual, in his own proper person, is the sufferer. All the powers of earth cannot reverse this law of-to please Mr. Owen we will call it-nature. Such being the case, what warrant, in reason and common sense, can Mr. Owen adduce, to justify his condemnation of the language of Scripture SOCIAL FESTIVAL.-Next Monday week, the month. when it declares, that it shall (or will) be well with the ly Social Festival will be held at White Conduit righteous, and ill with the wicked; that what a man sow-House, Pentonville. Tickets, &c., as heretofore. eth, that he will also reap; and that our sins are sure to find us out? To any man whose understanding is not enveloped in the fog generated by the wretched sophistry of Mr. Owen's ratiocination, the case above stated will be as clear as an Italian sky at noon-day. "We will only add a word as to the importance attached in the New Testament to a belief in Christ, which implies a recognition of his authority, as the means of salvation from sin and misery. Belief is founded upon testimony; knowledge is the fruit of experience. Let it be supposed that a person well acquainted with a country, and knowing that some roads are bad and dangerous, and others pleasant and safe, were, from the purest motive of benevolence, to station himself at a place where two roads met, and, as travellers came up, to caution them against taking the bad and dangerous road, and to urge them to pursue the safe;-what can be more evident than that the comfort, or even the lives of the travellers, would depend upon their believing or disbelieving the testimony of their benevolent adviser? To those who, disregarding his counsel, should take the bad road, might he not truly say, 'you will rue your unbelief, when your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and you find yourself sinking in a bog?' "A favorite phrase of Mr. Owen is, that we have been trained to believe' so and so. From this style of address one might be led to conclude that Mr. Owen himself has not been trained; but that having been left from infancy to roam about the fields and highways, he picked up the quantum of knowledge which he possessed, up to the time of his arriving at what are LECTURES NEXT WEEK, At Blackfriars and in Burton Street. - Society. Wednesday evening, at 8, Robert Owen, on the improvement of Society. Chemical Affinities, at the Burton street Chapel, ADVERTISEMENTS. EAMONSON, No. 15, Chichester place, Gray's Inn-road, has remaining on hand, several works worthy of The Political Jew, by Hugh Doherty, Mr. Owen's Arrangements, AS ALSO, I 2 2 1 1 A great variety of all the rational and liberal works in daily request, at the lowest possible prices. The first volume of the Crisis may now be had complete, with title page and index, either in numbers or boards, (plain or ornamented) at a very moderate charge. Place, Gray's Inn Road. OR THE CHANGE FROM ERROR & MISERY, TO TRUTH & HAPPINESS. Design of a Community of 2,000 Persons, founded upon a principle, commended by Plato, Lord Bacon, Sir T. More, & R. Owen. IT IS OF ALL TRUTHS THE MOST IMPORTANT, THAT THE CHARACTER OF MAN IS FORMED FOR-NOT BY HIMSELF. VOL. II. No. 8.] SATURDAY MARCH 2, 1833.-EDITED BY ROBERT OWEN AND ROBERT DALE OWEN. NOTICE. J. E. very much regrets that some of the Crisis should have been charged 2d. last week. The booksellers and publishers are entirely free from blame, the mistake originated with the person who conveyed them to the publishers, not informing them, (as directed to do), that although they were marked 2d., the price was to be as usual, in consequence of an unforeseen occurrence preventing the Index being ready in time. J. E. sincerely hopes, this explanation will satisfy every body, and will take especial care, that the like mistake does not occur again, but will by every possible means increase the sale of this publication, not so much for profit, but to spread as widely as possible, the opinions and principles of Mr. Owen. All those persons who paid 2d. last week, will be supplied with the Index and Crisis, this week, from their bookseller, for 1d. All communications will be received and immediately forwarded to the Editor. WEEKLY PROCEEDINGS. SUNDAY EVENING, Feb. 24, 1833. Mr. OWEN lectured. He stated that he had, the day before, attended a meeting held at the City of London Tavern for the purpose of putting an end to what was justly called, Infant Slavery." He had been amused by observing how cautiously the various speakers abstained from every allusion to the real origin of that measure. Nor was it of consequence in whom it originated. And he adverted to it now only as an instance of the unwillingness of the religious world to suffer it to be known that any thing good can come except from within their own pale. There was, on that occasion, an excellent opportunity of setting them right, but he refrained from doing so, because he felt unwilling to say a word, that might disturb the complacency of the meeting. [Price 2d. The facts were, that in the year 1815, after having collected much information on the subject, he (Mr. O.) obtained several private meetings of benevolent individuals; after these it was decided to request Sir Robert Peel to father the bill, which he consented to do. A Committee was then appointed to hear evidence on the subject. This committee-would they believe it? sat for three sessions before they seemed satisfied that reform was necessary. (Hear, hear.) At last, in 1820, the bill was read a third time and passed; but how passed? In its original form, it proposed to restrict the youngest age for infant employment to ten years, and the hours of labor per day to ten hours; and this in all spinning manufactories, cotton, woollen &c. In its passage the bill was shamefully mutilated; the age of ten being changed to nine, and the hours increased from ten to twelve per day. (Shame, shame.) And not only so; the bill was restricted to cotton manufactories only. Just previously to its passing, he [Mr. O] had addressed a public letter to the then prime minister, which he would read to them. [Mr. O. here read it] It adverted to the various motives that had prompted opposition to the bill-more especially to the mercenary views which suffered not human happiness to weigh an atom in the scale against commercial profit. "Truly may it be said " added Mr. O." that money is the god of this world. While other objects of adoration are named with veneration, gold is worshipped in practice. (Great Applause) The paper also alluded to the fact, that such an act of justice would not even lessen the profits of the rich. Mr. O. remarked, that the amount of wealth checked |