^40 REPORT — 1861. 



The Income-Tax. By the Rev. Canon Eichson. 

 The author quoted the report of the late Committee of the House of Commons, 

 in which they declined to interfere with the present mode of levying the tax, 

 and described the case of a clergyman deriving £150 from a living in a large 

 parish in Manchester, the extent of which necessitated the employment of 

 two curates. The clergyman gave up the whole of his income towards the pay- 

 ment of his assistants, but both he and they were compelled to pay income-tax, 

 though he did not receive a farthing in the way of personal emolunient. Taking 

 therefore into consideration the refusal of the report to recommend any modification 

 of the present Acts for levying and collecting the income-tax ; that the number of 

 persons who suiier unjustly from the operation of the present Acts is vei-y large ; 

 that there are sutficiently definite objections to their operation in whichpersons 

 concur, without involving those subjects of discussion wherein there is little im- 

 mediate prospect of agreement ; that the operation of the present Act leads to habi- 

 tual frauds, injm-ious to commercial integrity; and, finally, that the efiforts of indi- 

 viduals are imequal to the necessary conflict with the prejudices and interests 

 arrayed against such a revision of the Acts as then- verj' terms appear to justify', — he 

 considered that, after so unsatisfactory a result of two committees of the House of 

 Commons as was indicated by the present report, it was useless to expect equitable 

 improvement, unless they who are dissatisfied with the existing anomalies are pre- 

 pared, for the present, to sink their differences of opinion in respect to an entire 

 modification of the bases of the tax, and to form an extensive association, with the 

 restricted and clearly defined object of promoting the application of the Income- 

 Tax Acts in harmony with their declared objects. 



Can Patents he defended on Economical Grounds 1 

 By Professor J. E. T. Sogers, M.A. 

 The author contended that patent laws did not stimulate invention ; they did 

 not come within the definition of protection to propeity and the acknowledged 

 duty of the state to maintain intact the labour of individuals ; they acted as a 

 hindrance to improvement by being a check on the freedom of beneficial discoveiy; 

 they were an illogical acknowledgment that the accidental property of discovery 

 was the ground for allowing a sole property. AU reasonable advantages were 

 seciu-ed by secresy, and were constantly superseded bysecresy; and they were a 

 tax in the fullest sense on the consumer. 



On the Definition and Incidence of Taxation. 

 By Professor J. E. T. Rogers, 3I.A. 

 The author gave the following definition of a tax : — " A tax is a contribution 

 imposed by an acknowledged authority on a community, for the pui-pose of public 

 utility, whether this utility be the discharge of obligations incurred for past ser- 

 vices or for the maintenance of present capacities of production, the tax being 

 . levied on the ground that the utility procm-ed, service rendered, or functions per- 

 formed by the administration of this contribution, cannot possiblv be procured, 

 rendered, or perfoi-med by individuals, or by inferior cooperative agencies, and can- 

 not be so economically discharged by them." The incidence of a tax he indicated 

 to be as follows : — '' If a tax be levied on sources of income which are of an elastic 

 character — that is, on the services of productive labour, — it must be paid by the 

 consumer : and though such an incidence may be inexpedient to the community, it 

 is not unjust to the person who is the channel of the tax. But if it be levied on 

 income which is not elastic, it may be imjust to the person who pays it, as well as 

 inexpedient to the person or persons who represent the constmier." 



On some Account of the Manchester Gasworhs. By John SflUTTiEWOETH. 



Manchester was the first place in which the regular and complete application of 

 gas for economical purposes was successfully tested. This was effected under the 

 direction of Mr. "William Murdoch, in 1805, at the cotton-miU of Messrs. Phillips 

 and Lee, and had made Manchester a sort of starting-point in all historical notices 

 of the subject. Their townsman, Dr. Henry, was the first to direct attention to the 



