or "Revenue," wherewith to pay our soldiers, sailors, judges, civil servants, postmen, as well as for the battleships, guns, and other armaments for the Navy and Army; also to provide for war pensions and meet the interest upon, and to pay off bit by bit the immense national debt contracted in time of war. As there are millions of people who cannot pay much, it is plain that some folks must contribute a very large sum every year into the National Exchequer.

INCOME TAX

The device employed to make men with big incomes pay more than the men with small means is called the Income Tax. Every year a man has to state truly (he can be heavily fined if he gives false information) the amount of his income. This information goes to a Collector of Inland Revenue, who then sends him a notice that he must pay before a certain date such and such an amount of Income Tax. The Income Tax is always fixed for the year when the Chancellor of the Exchequer brings in the "Budget Bill" (see p. 17). You should inquire what is the present rate per £ and look out next April, when the Chancellor introduces his Budget, to see whether any alteration is made in this tax. To lessen the burden upon the poorer classes, nobody pays income tax whose entire income from all sources is less than a specified amount. On the other hand, rich men pay a super-tax, i.e. an additional income tax.

DIRECT AND INDIRECT TAXES

Since a man pays the income tax directly into the hands of a Government Official, this tax is called a direct tax. Other direct taxes are those like gun licences, dog licences, carriages and motor-car licences, etc., etc., which have to be taken out at a post office. The money in that case is also paid over directly to an officer of the government. Then, too, the stamps that are put upon legal documents, or which you put on a receipt for payments over £2 in value, are direct taxes. There are, however, a great number of taxes which are not paid directly over to the Government, but which get into the Exchequer in rather a roundabout way. When, for instance, you buy a pound of tea, though you may not know it, you are paying a tax to the Government in an indirect manner. Every

purchaser of a glass of beer, wine or spirits, or ounce of tobacco is contributing indirectly to the Revenue. How does he do this? Take the case of tea as an illustration. The man or merchant who buys the tea in India or China and “imports it into this country, is not allowed by the Customs Authorities to retail it to the public until he has paid a tax of a few pence (varying from time to time) on every pound. This tax he, of course, adds to the cost of the tea, and then he adds his profit to arrive at the price at which it shall be retailed to the consumer. When, therefore, the housewife comes out of the shop with a pound of tea in her basket, for which she perhaps pays 2s. 8d., she has paid a tax upon the tea just as really as if she had first handed 2s. to the shopkeeper for the tea, and then gone outside and paid 8d. to a government official for the tea tax.1 In our country we try to tax only the luxuries and not the necessities of life. As tea has only been known in England for about 300 years it cannot really be called a necessity, though many people have come to think it so; whilst we could certainly live without intoxicating liquors and tobacco. These are all deemed luxuries, and are taxed accordingly.

But we cannot live without corn and meat, and these things are not taxed, though it is occasionally suggested that some imported foods might be taxed.

EFFECT OF TAXES

Taxes inevitably make commodities dearer, so it would be a hardship on the very poor to tax food. These are, however, political subjects unsuited to this little book, which is written simply to tell you about the position of the citizen in the State, and the duties of the State towards him, and of him towards the State. You will, however, not escape from the question of the taxation of food when you come to manhood or womanhood, and unless you bring sound and accurate knowledge to bear upon such matters, you will not know which way to vote. Try, therefore, to get at the basic principles of taxation, and thus prepare your mind for applying these principles to your politics. At present one of the principles that governs the taxation of this country is to regard taxes as unfortunate necessities, and levied solely to raise Revenue. Another principle is that taxes should press as lightly as possible 1 Presuming the tax were 8d. on the lb.

upon the poorest members of the community, and that as few things as possible should be taxed, and these in the nature of luxuries. Thus we tax tea, wine, spirits, and tobacco, but not food; carriages and motor-cars, but not tradesmen's carts or farm waggons; dogs kept for pleasure, or hounds for hunting, but not the shepherd's faithful companion or the blind man's guide. Wealthy men have to pay for leave to keep butlers, footmen, grooms and menservants generally, also for displaying "coat of arms upon the panels of their carriages, etc., but there is no tax upon the less wealthy housekeepers who can only afford to keep a female domestic servant. No country in the world levies so few taxes as we do upon imports. Whether that is a sound policy or not is the battleground of the great controversy between Protection and Free Trade-a subject of the highest importance, and one upon which you should keep an open mind until you have mastered all the facts.

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CUSTOMS AND EXCISE

To collect the Revenue upon all the tea, tobacco, wine, etc., that come into the country a small army of officials is required. You have, no doubt, read in various story books of exciting encounters between revenue officers and smugglers. Every rocky bit of coast-line has its "smugglers' cave " and some romance connected therewith. What is smuggling? It is simply an attempt to get goods into the country without paying customs duty." Tobacco, silk, lace, and brandy were the favourite objects of the smugglers' trade, and even to this day there is a certain amount of evasion of the revenue duties. When a traveller arrives at any port in this country from the continent or elsewhere, he is unable to get off the wharf until his baggage has been examined by the customhouse officers. The traveller is asked this question: "Have you anything to declare? which means, have you any goods in your trunk or portmanteau which are "dutiable"? Sometimes the officer will take the traveller's word for it, and sometimes he insists upon searching the baggage for any cigars, tobacco, spirits, or other dutiable articles. If a false statement has been made and the traveller is found, after having denied it, to be in possession of such goods, he is heavily fined, and the goods are confiscated. Then, too, in order that small vessels may not run across from the continent to our shores laden

with "dutiable goods," many parts of the coast are patrolled day and night by coastguardsmen who keep a sharp look-out for smugglers. By means such as these the revenue is protected against the illicit and fraudulent entry of goods upon which duty ought to be paid.

When beer is brewed or whisky distilled in this country, the brewery or distillery is closely watched by the " excisemen who measure the quantity of liquor brewed or distilled, and do not allow it to go out to the consumer until it has paid the excise duty. Thus you see the Customs look after goods arriving in ships at a port, whilst the "Excise concerns itself with the commodities which are made inland, and are subject to taxation.

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QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND RESEARCH

1. Consult "Hazell's Annual " or "Whitaker's Almanack,' and ascertain how much was expended last year out of the taxes upon (1) the Army; (2) the Navy; (3) the Civil Service; (4) Education; (5) Old Age Pensions; War Pensions; (6) Interest on the National Debt.

2. How was the National Debt incurred? How large is it? Are we paying it off?

3. How much is the Poor Rate in the £ in your town or district ? How much also is the Borough Rate or General District Rate? What is the total per £ of your rates?

4. Consult the reference books named in Question 1 to ascertain how much Revenue was raised last year from (1) the income tax; (2) the tea tax; (3) spirit tax; (4) beer tax; (5) sugar tax; (6) tobacco tax.

5. From the same volumes find what we pay in tax on every lb. of tea, and tobacco, and sugar; how much on every gallon of "proof " spirit, and on every barrel of beer.

6. How much does a dog licence cost? 7. Rates and taxes are said to be "

good of all." How far is this true?

payments made by all for the

8. Are church and chapel buildings assessed to the rates? What papers have you seen affixed to your church or chapel door or hung in the porch thereof ?

9. Why is a stamp on a letter not usually regarded as a tax?

10. What incomes are exempted from tax and at what income does super-tax begin? If for sake of argument you call him a rich man who pays super-tax, how many rich men (i.e. super-tax payers) are there in the kingdom (see " Whitaker's Almanack "), and by how much would each of us benefit if their income were divided up amongst us all? Compare that share with the drink bill per head (man, woman, and child) of the population.

CHAPTER IX

COURTS AND JUDGES

THE COMMON LAW

IF every one observed the Golden Rule, and did to his neighbours as he would that they should do unto him, there would be no need for Courts and Judges, Fines and Penalties, Prisons and Policemen. But among the millions of citizens there are always some who act unjustly towards their fellow-men, and we must, therefore, have some authority to settle disputes, and to decide what punishment must be meted out to those who commit crimes, or otherwise break the law.

Like every great institution in our land, the law has very slowly grown into what it is at present. Far away in the distant past, long before the Norman Conquest, our Saxon forefathers had their rules and customs by which land was bought or sold, held, and cultivated, and by which crime was punished. They had their meetings or councils for arranging their local affairs, and their rough-and-ready courts for trying persons charged with crime. We should not nowadays approve of all their methods either of trial or of punishment, but they believed in a public trial, and that no man ought to be a judge in his own cause, or take the law into his own hands. These are sound principles of justice which we hold to this day. It is certain that no people in the world, except perhaps the Romans, had so strong a sense of law and order as our "rude forefathers of the hamlet." When William the Conqueror established himself in this country by force of arms, he found a number of customs and laws existing which he was far too wise to try to uproot. The Normans had no written laws of their own to bring with them when they invaded this country where Kings had been lawgivers. So in the 4th year of his reign, when the work of conquest had been completed, William ordained that