Ir may be objected to every tax that it tends more or less to the hindrance of trade, and that in the ideal community no taxes should be raised, nor should any individuals be employed in such unproductive engagements as Government officers, police, teachers of youth or professors of religion. In such a community every man's Jabour would be employed in some renumerative occupation, and the wealth of the whole, being made up of that of each individual member, the national prosperity would continually tend to increase. Now practically there are communities in this ideal position, where every man works for himself, where no useless taxes are raised, and where there is no fabric of government, but each man does as he himself thinks right, so far as his neighbour will permit him. So far, however, from their being possessed of wealth they are poor in an extreme degree, and the safety of the individual is insured so long as he is able to protect himself; but no longer. Mankind, to get rid of this condition has hit on the device of governments, and as governments are not self-supporting they have to be upheld by taxes raised in a more or less easy manner. It is natural that the man who pays the taxes should prefer to shift the obligation on to his neigh hours' shoulders, and as all taxes bear in themselves the element of being more or less burdensome, the even regulation of the burden to be borne becomes a matter of nice adjustment.
No one expects that the tax-collector should be received with open arms; scant politeness is the most he can look forward to; but the man who has plotted scheme for getting rid of him altogether and afterwards finds him returning as usual, is perhaps apt to wince more at a repetition of his visits than if he bed never succeeded in obtaining a temporary respite. It is under these circum. stances that those dealers in opium who have taken up a temporary residence in the French Concession feel fa special amount of chagrin at the recent action of the Municipal Council in endeavouring to bring them back within the fold. So long as like. other sheep they abode within the fold; their voice was mute and they obeyed with plaintive humility the wish of the shepherd; but when they have once wandered beyond the bounds and think they lave found a new shepherd who seeks not to possess himself of their fleeces, the attempt to draw them back naturally provokes all the opposi~ tion that their nature is capable of. They cannot be blamed for their opposition; far from it; others have their burdens to bear in the way of tax. ation, and would willingly lighten them, It may, however, be asked, what have those sheep who have left the fold done that others should straightway bend their backs beneath the load in order that they may go soot free? Tai is no doubt unpleasant, but it is borne in order to avoid worse evils bat why should one section of the com. inanity be loaded still further so that another, which, enjoying all advan. tages therefrom arising, should be en abled to run about and do their business without contributing to the common fand? Nobody is aware that dealers in opium have done anything for humanity in general or the community of Shanghai in particular, that they should be entitled to escape from the Municipal obligations born by dealers in tea or piece goods who have sub. mitted to the obligation for so many years, Rather, one may point to many reasons why the incidence of the tax on opium importers should be more cheer-fally borne. Perhaps the principal of those is the fact' that in proportion to the value of the trade opium demands a less amount of ordinary expenditure than any other commodity entering the market. When itis seen that an opium importer, whose sales amount to thirty or forty thousand taels per mensem, is able to perform all his business in one or two offices without an expensive staff of clerks or need for large godowns, it is but natural to enquire by what means he bears his adequate proportion of the necessary expenses of the foreign Settlement of which be forms a unit. Hitherto he has done so by payment of wharfage dues, in return for which he has enjoyed all the protection for life and property afforded by his own residence on shore and the proximity of the ship where his drug is
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.