TAXATION. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. R. COLLIER'S PAPER. 
(Read March 27th, 1873.) 
The Lecturer said he should take it for granted that the money 
now raised by taxes was only sufficient for necessities, and that the 
best mode of raising the money was by direct taxation. He should 
not say anything about local taxation, of which an honourable 
baronet in this neighbourhood had assumed the copyright. In 
raising money by direct taxation, they should take as much as 
possible from the rich, and as little as possible from the poor ; but 
no class should be entirely exempt from paying taxes, in order that 
every person might have an interest in keeping down the public 
expenditure. But already every poor man paid quite enough in- 
directly in taxation on food, which gave him a very lively interest 
in the taxation of the country. He deprecated hard and fast 
limits to private incomes, but he thought some rich men might 
pay more in taxation than they do at present. And if more money 
were taken from the rich and given to the poor man, there would 
not only be an individual benefit, but the poorer classes in general 
would be benefited. The rich spent a great deal of their money 
in luxuries, whilst the poor had to expend theirs in necessaries ; 
but if the graduated scale of taxation were introduced, a certain 
class of persons who sold necessaries would increase, whilst other 
persons would, of course, suffer in a similar ratio. He scorned the 
idea of philosophers, that riches and happiness were divorced. 
There was now no real pleasurable luxury in having a large re- 
tinue of servants, and a large number of acres ; but he took 
pleasure in them, because their numbers exceeded those of their 
neighbours. If the gradual scale of taxation were introduced, 
the richest man in the country would still be richer than his 
neighbours, though not to so great an extent as he had previously 
been. The introduction of a graduated scale would not cause as 
much misery as the introduction of a great labour machine. The 
