into another class, or on which, duties would have to be maintained because of their close relation to finished products of a very similar kind. So long as we maintain a duty upon spool cotton, for instance, it would not be safe or judicious to remove all duties upon fine cotton thread which could be imported in the skein and reeled here. But these are all small matters of detail. Suffice that the revenue which is now derived from spirits, tobacco, beer, and sugar, from silks, furs, and fancy goods, and from laces, embroideries, and the fine textile fabrics which are articles of luxury rather than of utility, is so large that it would suffice to meet all the ordinary and all the extraordinary expenditures of the Government.
But there is another element to be considered. When a reform of the English tariff was laid down on these lines under the direction of Sir Robert Peel, even he could not anticipate the prosperity which would ensue from the removal of the little petty obstructions to the commerce of the globe, which had yielded only a small part of the customs revenue. He expected a deficiency in the revenue from the duties on imports in consequence of the abatement of the duties on the articles made free; and to meet this expected deficiency he carried a temporary income tax for three years, beginning in 1842 to end in 1845. But such was the stimulus given to industry, trade, and commerce with all the world, that the revenue on dutiable imports soon rose to the same amount that had been yielded before the reform. By 1845 the previous deficiency in the revenue had been surmounted and the Treasury of Great Britain had a surplus to dispose of for the first time in many years.
But the lesson had been learned. Opposition to tariff reform almost ceased; in 1845 another list of articles of more importance was added to the free list. Still it could not be conceived that the revenue would not be diminished and the income tax was again imposed for the term of three years. But again the revenue from dutiable imports increased rapidly, again the consuming power of the people had increased with their prosperity. Then came the Irish famine. The corn laws went by the board by Orders in Council, afterward justified by act of Parliament. The prosperity of England went forward by leaps and bounds. And in 1853 Gladstone completed the work that Peel had begun.
We have yet to learn how to increase the public revenue by the abatement of obnoxious and obstructive taxation; even the simple system which is herein presented, under which even an excessive expenditure can be met by a very simple system of taxation, under which every necessary article in our domestic manufactures will be free could it be put in force, would be immensely disappointing, and in the same way in which Peel and his coadjutors
