FANCY FINANCE.

Press, Volume XVIII, Issue 2551, 5 July 1871, Page 3

FANCY FINANCE.

[From taVPdll Mall Gazette.]

. There is probably no subject on which suggestions are offered so freely as taxatibu. Every morning the postman leaves in Downing street numerous letters advising the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the time being to impose taxes on every conceivable article which is used by mortal man. Prom pianofortes to toothbrushes nothing comes amiss to the tax-adviser, and: each writer fancies that he has discovered an easy method of paying off .the National Debt, and_ will_..reeeive. -no slight -remuneration as a reward for his ingenuity.' There can be little doubt that had Mr Lowe succeeded in imposing his match tax dozens of these tax-advisers would have claimed the idea as their own and urged, their claims tjpon ' his consideration. Indeed it would be difficult for "a Chancellor "of the ;Exebequer to devise auy new tax that has not at one time or other been suggested to him, and the records of the Inland Eevenue Department,io wluclr these suggestions wefe formerly and probably are still fprwarded-T----nominally for. report * but. practically to get rid of them—would furnish materials sufficient to supply the wants of the most insatiable student of "fancy finance." A" 1 stamp on railway tickets is a iveryjfavqrite plan of .amateur Chancellors of the Exchequer—a tax. on hats -is another. Bat -it-may-safely be said that, with the'exception of the pfcn posed match tax, none of the many ingenious ideas, propounded by-outsiders for increasing the revenuejhas _ever been .seriously—entertained of late years. -They all" as a rule are .impracticable or inconvenient, -yet some advantage; might be gained if taxes .were' sometimes imposed not so much for. ..financial considerations as for the purpose o£ putting" a stop :to practices injurious to-the community. Peter the Great imposed a tax of a. hundred roubles on beards, probably because he-thoaght people would be better without them-roa the" same principle, a tax might be imposed on hair dye, on chignons, on late hours kept for purposes of pleasure, on""low gowns," on sensational novels, on ltfng sermons, on various wines used at the same dinner, on a-profu-sion of entries j in: fact there "is, an almost, inexhaustible cropifpf evils that have grown up like rank weeds ra oar social system, and offer > a fof a financier's-" scissors. The Chancellor of ;the Exchecraer, with .thg immense ppwer bjj possesses of making himself disagreeable; mightleffect immense good penal Dudget.