Page:The Moral and Religious Bearings of the Corn Law.djvu/7

7 I. It is a violation of justice.

It is a tax upon bread. You may deny that it is a tax, but a tax it is nevertheless. It makes bread dearer than it otherwise would be. It is meant to do it. This is its plain design and natural operation. It would not answer any of the purposes contemplated by it, it would be an utter failure, it would falsify the hopes and the reasonings of its authors and its advocates, if it did not enhance the price of bread; and for this reason it is offensive. The things by which men live should surely be left free as air. Let the ornaments and luxuries of life be taxed, let the comforts and conveniences of life be taxed, but let not the necessaries of life be taxed. The iniquity of such a tax appears from its partiality. At first sight, indeed, it might seem impartial on the very ground that it presses upon all without exception, but it is to be remembered that it does not press upon all equally. Supposing the poor to eat only as much bread as the rich, it is obvious that a law which raises the price of bread affects the poor more than the rich. It may be that the poor spend half or a quarter of their income upon this first article of subsistence, but the rich may not spend upon it more than a hundredth or a thousandth part of theirs. In such a case the poor are taxed by it far more heavily than the rich; for taxes, like gifts, are to be measured by ability. But the fact is, that the poor consume more bread than the rich. The nature of their occupations requires strength, which can only result from solid and nutritious food, and plenty of that; whereas the rich may have recourse to other and more pleasant, though less nourishing provision.

We have spoken of the Corn Law as a tax, and a tax it is. But while it is so in all that is offensive and injurious, it is not so in anything that is good and useful. It comprises all the evils, and some of the excellencies of a tax. It yields but little revenue, comparatively, to the state. The money which it exacts goes not, for the most part, to purposes of