latter is subjected to it in full extent? Is it that
industry in towns in Ireland is so great, and manufacturing skill so
transcendant, that it is entitled to be liberated from direct taxation
in consideration of the vast amount of its indirect custom-house duties,
in comparison of which those of London, yielding L12,000,000; of
Liverpool, yielding L4,500,000 a-year; or Glasgow and the Clyde
harbours, yielding L1,200,000; and Leith, yielding L589,000, are as
nothing? Or is it that this extraordinary exemption is the reward of
tumult, disaffection, and treason; of turbulent demagogues and factious
priests, and an indolent people; of active and incessant combination for
the purposes of evil, and total inability to combine for the purposes of
good? And is it the first fruits of the regeneration of government by
the Reform Bill, that it can raise a revenue only from the loyal and
pacific and industrious part of the empire, and must proclaim relief
from all taxation as the reward of tumult, disorder, murder, monster
meetings, and treason? We leave it to the advocates of the present
system of government, or those who established it, to answer these
questions. We did neither the one nor the other, but have constantly
opposed both; and Great Britain, in the system of direct taxation we
have now exposed, is reaping the fruits of the changes she has thought
proper to introduce.

Lastly, there is another peculiarity of the income tax which requires
revision, and that is this;--at present it descends only to L150 a-year
income; and every one practically acquainted with these matters, knows
that this, with the trading classes at least, whose gains can be
concealed, amounts to a practical exemption, generally speaking, of all
under at least L200 a-year. Nothing can be plainer than that, as matters
stand at least, this exemption of all below such line is invidious,
unjust, and, if persisted in, will lead to ruinous consequences. No
reason can be assigned for it which will bear examination; for it is to
be supposed the practical necessity of conciliating the ten pounders,
the great majority of whom escape the tax altogether in this way, will
not, in public at least, be assigned as a reason, how cogent soever it
may be felt and candidly acknowledged in private. Why should a man,
whose income, perhaps derived from land or funded property below L150,
pay nothing, while a hard working clerk, attorney, or country surgeon,
who makes L155, an