Tlie Country Gentlemaiis Magazine 



175 



LEGISLATION AND THE HIGH PRICE OP ME A T. 



THE following interesting communication 

 on the above subject appears in last 

 week's number of the Jourjial of the Society 

 of Arts, from the pen of Mr T. Ijriggs : — An 

 agitation is now springing up in the centres of 

 industry, especially in Lancashire and Bir- 

 mingham, on the question of the price of 

 butchers' meat. This is what every one 

 must have expected who " looks an inch 

 before his nose " (to make use of a vulgar 

 term). Now, of all social problems this is 

 one — if not the one — of the most vital ; what 

 can a working man do in the vitiated air of 

 the seats of industry if he cannot get animal 

 food ? I know by painful experience that he 

 cannot do a fair day's work and enjoy life 

 unless he can have at least ^ lb. a day of 

 good beef or mutton. This, as a rule, must 

 be assumed in arguing the question ; of 

 course there are exceptions. In order to 

 solve this problem, it is highly necessary that 

 we should appreciate the true cause, not 

 only the direct and immediate visible cause, 

 but also all those collateral and indirect in- 

 fluences which lie at the root of the cause, 

 but which are seldom recognized even by the 

 greatest of our statesmen. My experience is 

 that when I lived in a rural district, and in 

 my daily labour could breathe the pure air, 

 unadulterated by the smoke and chemicals 

 out of tall chimneys, I could do a fair day's 

 work and enjoy life on a 14: lb. per day of 

 animal food (judiciously prepared); but when 

 I migrated to the manufacturing districts I 

 found that a pound was nearer the mark for 

 sustaining life and health. I will not enter 

 into the causes which every one sees, or thinks 

 he sees, viz., that the butchers are the cul- 

 prits, or that the farmers are extortioners. 

 I exonerate both. I now proceed to shew 

 the real cause of butchers' meat being so near 

 to famine prices, and I shall have to assert 

 that in consequence of the mode of levying 

 taxes on the transfer of commodities from 

 nation to nation, or place to place, the land- 



holders of this country alone are burdened 

 with the weight of ^244,800,000 odd annually; 

 whereas, if the taxes were levied direct, 

 ^74, 500,000 would suffice, and this would en- 

 able the government, to emancipate the people 

 from the burdens which tlie present fiscal 

 system subjects them to. The budget that 

 I recommend is one by the author of "The 

 Peojjle's Jilue-book," as follows : — 



1. Property tax (10 per cent.) ;^36,o6i,525 



2. I'crsonal or householders' tax, from £\ 



to/'io per house according to value .. 34,500,000 



5. Crown lands 447)723 



6. Miscellaneous 3,205,253 



Cost of collecting about one million ...;^74,2i4,50i 



Nos. 3 and 4 are the post and telegraph 

 profits, but the author does not consider 

 these legitimate sources of revenue ; these 

 profits he would appropriate to the general 

 good, by lowering still further the price of 

 friendly and commercial intercourse of the 

 people (and would also take the railway 

 system, and use it for the same purpose). 

 I5ut to return to the point (the cause) of 

 higher prices ; it is the same thing that 

 causes these high prices in everything else 

 as well as butchers' meat. Well, butchers' 

 meat is the produce of the land ; ten millions 

 of acres are thrown out of the cultivation in 

 Ireland alone through the operation of the tax 

 upon malt. This crop is not much cultivated 

 in Ireland in consequence of the prohibitory 

 excise duty, which makes the Irish agricul- 

 turist pay to the State ^^70 out of every 

 ;^ioo worth of barley he malts. The result 

 is that, instead of the most economic and 

 scientific mode of agriculture, viz., the four- 

 course shift, in which barley would take its 

 legitimate place (Ireland being the best barley 

 country in the world as to soil and climate) 

 the agricultural operations are thrown into 

 chaos, and the best land into grass, which 

 does not produce anything in the winter 

 season for sustaining the quantity and quality 



