OLD BACHELORS. (Irish Times.)

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 301, 16 April 1874, Page 2

OLD BACHELORS. (Irish Times.)

Wb pay no attention, as a rule, to annonymous communications ; but wo are tempted on the present occasion to swerve for once from the ridigity of our practice. A correspondent to whoso identity we hare only two rather indefinite clues — takes exception to some remarks which we recently made on the advisability of relieving the burdens of the State by the imposition of a special tax on bachelors. " Independence " is a bachelor himself, and the purpose of his letter is the defence of the deluded class of mortals to which he belongs. Of course he maintains that single men are not a danger to society, but a benefit to it. Of course ho qaotea Stuart Mill on over-population. It is unnecessary to aay he cites Lord Bacon's authority to show that all great works were the product of unmarried or childless men. These arc features in his communication by the omission of which we should have been as much aslouished as by the sight of an adverment of the " Revulenta Arabica," with the cure of his Holiness Pius the IX. left out. But we were not a little shocked to perceive that "Independence " had seized upon some of the arguments with which we flagellated bachelorhood, and endeavoured to make use of them as offensive weapons against our position. We made the statement that single men were invariably the readiest and most active partisans of civil commotion, and we appeal with confidence to history to hear us out. Our correspondent lays hold of our assertion, flourishes iS over his head, and exclaims with triumph, "And these aro the men to whose shoulders you would shift a share of the burden which the married so tamely endure. Seriously speak.ng, 13 it your design to provoke them to uproot all the foundations of the social fabric ? " Adverting to the fact which we noticed that single men generally evade the house-tax by hring in furnished lodgings, he essays to I prove by a wilderness of figures, that they pay two-thirdj of thfr revenue by their consumption of cigars and stimulants. Finally, " Independence," returning to Mill and the over-population theory, accepts and glorias in our assertion that bachelors do not li7e as long as others, " thereby departing betimes from a world where there is not room enough for the survivors." The last argument used by our correspondent is a melancholy confirmation of the view which we felt it incumbent on us to advance, that bachelorhood and discontent were exchangeable terras. For the rest, it is needless to say that we still adhere to our opinion, rather the more for fact that the letter which we hold in our hands is suggestive of another feeling,, which wo believe to be closely connected with the class whose existence we deprecate — namely, deliberate one•ldedness of reasoning. To begin with the beginning, we submit that if Stuart Mill's precept and practice are to be taken &3 of equal weight, they destroy each other like positive and negative algebraical quantities, and make of him & neutral character, neither advocating matrimony nor recommending an evasion of the maxim that it is not good for m&n to livo alone. We admit that our correspondent*! suggestion, that it might be politically dangerous to place an impost on such an irascible class as bachelors, is not without possessing some foree — a deceptive force, hon ever. These offenders against social laws are, fortunately, greatly in the minority, and were they so criminally rash as to take up arms in defence of celibacy, we, for our part, would have no fear for the result of the social war. The great difficulty would consist in bringing them to submit to the tax quietly at first. Perhaps it would be well, in thij view, to give it a denomination a& little likely to hurt morbid self-esteem ascould be reconciled with the satisfactory collection of the revenue. It might be called, for instance, a Latch-key rate., or receive some other similar title, borrowed from the general habits of those on. whom it wai levied. Passing to " Independence's " attempt to show the benefits accruing to theState from the indirect contributions of his class, in the shape of duties paid by them, on brandy, loda-water, cigars, and such other commodities, we are compelled to smile at itssuperficiality. Clearly, our correspondent read his political ecomony to find support for his prejudices, not with theunbiassed mind of the earnest seeker after truth. Let uslook a hi tie into the yalue to society of the indirect contribution of the bachelor. He indulges, we must submit, much-, more frequently than others in the magic mixture symbolised, by the mysterious initials B. &, S. The state profits, to acertain extent, from his consumption of the blended elements, and the vendor, and those in his employ, are not without a share fn the benefit. But what profiteth it to him whotakes it ? We have high authority for the fact that it not only does not profit him, but actually "steals away his brains." The net total of the results- involved in the consumption of a measure of B. & S., therefore, amounts tothis : benefit to the State, benefit to the vendor, and neutral or deleterious effect on the purchaser. A married hian on the other hand, bays a pair of boots. We find the result bo be : profit to the State, profit to the vendor, and profit to- the purchaser ; for, when the transaction is at an end, the latter is plus fehe boots, and remains so until they are •worn out. Witb rcspecb to the last argument put forward by our correspondent, we certainly cannot refuse in toto to subscribe his view that certain bachelor* of the more aggravated type db really confer a benefit on society by departing from this sublunary sphere. But we have too much trust in the worth of humanity, mid too much hope in its future, tobelieve that the m«»»s of offenders will compel us by their obduracy to console ourselves with the knowledge that celibacy" snuffs itself out before the vital candle hat burned, down to the socket.