RAISING THE WIND

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LII, Issue 37, 8 May 1931, Page 3

RAISING THE WIND

NOW AND THEN.

"Thick and fast they came at last And more, and more, and more." A sense of humour is a happy characteristic of our race, and this allows us to quote "Alice in Wonderland" even when writing on the thorny subject of Taxation, with the Damoclean sword of the impending Budget hanging over us. ' It is a recognised phase of human nature that some consolation is derived from the thought that if we must suffer, we feel a little comfort from the fact that our ancestors were, and our descendants will be, toads under the self-same harrow. Below we give a reproduction of a Broadside issued a century ago. In this British humour breaks in even when telling about the use of brass coffin nails in our grandfathers' days: TAXES upon every Article which enters the Mouth, or covers the Back, or is placed under the Foot; TAXES upon every thing which is pleasant to See, Hear, Feel, Smell and Taste; TAXES upon "Warmth, Light and Locomotion; TAXES on everything on Earth, and the Waters under the Earth; on everything that comes from abroad or is grown at home; TAXES on the raw Material; TAXES on every value that is added to it by the industry of Man; TAXES on the Sauce which pampers Man's appetite, and the Drug that restores him to health; on the Ermine which decorates the Judge, and the Rope which hangs the Criminal; on the BRASS NAILS of the COFFIN,.and the RIBBANDS of the BRIDE, AT BED or AT BOARD, COUCHANT or LEVANT, we must pay. The School Boy whips his Taxed Top; The beardless Youth manages his Taxed Horse with a Taxed Bridle on a Taxed Road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his Medicine which has paid 7 PER CENT, into a spoon which has paid 30 PER CENT, throws himself back upon his CHINTZ BED which has paid 22 PER CENT. makes his Will and expires in the arms of an Apothecary who has paid £100 for the privilege of putting him to death. HIS whole Property is then TAXED from 2 to 10 per Cent.; Besides the Probate, large Fees are demanded fojr burying him in the Chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on Taxed Marble, and he is then gathered to his Fathers to. be TAXED no more.