The objections to the present device are, that it operates unfairly; that it exacts as much from the annuitant and the professional man as from the landed proprietor or the fundholder; and that, in regard to men in trade, the inquisitorial nature of the surveillance to which they are liable is intolerable; and that, after all, the grossest injustice prevails both for and against the tax-payer. We do not think that anybody has objected seriously to the standard, as the legislature has settled it. Persons worth barely 1507. a-year are generally of opinion that 2001. would have been a better line; but there is a sort of suspicion on our minds that if 2001. had been taken, the same argument would have held-ay, and been repeated at 4007. and 5001., and perhaps 10007. We will conclude, therefore, that the 1507. line is a fair one; and so address ourselves to the matter in dispute between income and property.

the country will bear it, he shall remit the tax; and that, perhaps, the increased facilities afforded to commerce may enable him to gratify both himself and the country in this way three years hence. We quite believe him. We do not doubt that, if it were possible to maintain the public credit, and keep the wheel of government going without the imposition of taxes of any kind, Sir Robert Peel would propose their total abolition. But this is not possible, neither is it at all probable that trade can take such a start within three years, as to bring in, by means of the reduced duties, an increase of five millions sterling to the treasury. Our chances of getting rid of the income-tax through the operation of ordinary causes seems, therefore, to us to be small indeed. But supposing these causes to operate, and the returns from the customs and excise to go beyond their former productiveness to the amount of five millions, or more, is it therefore certain that the income-tax And here, the first question which occurs to us shall cease? We think not. Manufacturers and is, what do men mean by property? If you and I trading gentlemen generally resemble, in more possess each ten thousand pounds, and you, being ways than one, the monster in the tale of Vathek, a man of moderate wishes, invest your capital in who though fed with little children, never seemed the funds, or the purchase of land; while I, envious to get his belly full. If reductions in duties to of higher things, go to Manchester, and purchase the amount of three millions add so much to their a mill, and become a manufacturer, does it theregains that they can afford to pay five millions for fore follow that my property ceases to be property them, how much will they not gain provided the because it makes thrice the return that yours does? three-million reduction become six? Besides, and would it be fair, while you paid three per cent. though four hundred and thirty articles be exempt, on your three hundred a-year to the state, that I there remain still four hundred, and more, to be should pay nothing on my twelve hundred? The released in like manner. Will not the tea-mer-truth is, that the capital which men embark in chant assert, and with reason, that he has the trade is not only property, in every sense of the same claim to consideration with the sugar-mer-term, as much as the moneyed man's money and chant? And are we to put out of view altogether the landed proprietor's land, but it is that which the corn-merchant, the most oppressed of all im- theirs is not-improvable property, accumulative porters at least, in the opinion of the League? property-property that goes on increasing itself, Surely not. Surely, this experiment, if it prove as successful as the last, will lead to another, and another, till the brightest dream of the economist is realized, and trade left free to find its own level, unbolstered by protecting duties on the one hand, and unshackled by drawbacks and restrictive impositions on the other.

Once more, therefore, we cannot disguise from ourselves, that the carriage is rushing down the pass at a tremendous rate. Not that we object either to the pace or the position. The former, though rapid, will carry us the sooner through our perils; the latter, though beset with some dangers, has a considerable touch of security in it too, and we will tell our readers where to look for it.

and therefore of twice the worth of theirs, even at the outset. True, the merchant and trader have many risks to encounter; for, though a wealthy man to-day, he may be a beggar to-morrow. But whose doing is this? He prefers the risk of loss and the chance of gain to the quiet of repose. Is he, therefore, a fit subject for exemption from those burdens which the necessities of the state impose upon its subjects?

No, it will be said; but, in truth, merchants and traders seldom know what they are worth. Their returns may be great for awhile; but, supposing circumstances to arise which shall induce them to wind up the concern, it may come to pass, not only that their incomes are terribly diminished, but that they find it impossible to realize even the amount of capital which they brought with them originally to the concern. Is it fair, then, to tax them from year to year upon an income which has no more solid foundation to rest upon than luck or the current of trade?

The evident tendency of the new system of taxation (for a new system has arisen, and will be carried out vigorously) is to relieve, as much as possible, the poorer classes, and to lay the burden upon the richer. All direct taxation seeks this end, provided it do not degenerate into a poll-tax for to tax property is to tax directly and, even if We really think that it is quite fair. Subject there were no line beneath which the tax-gatherer they doubtless are to all the contingencies that are were forbidden to go, the heavy end of the property- here enumerated, but they are not the only classes tax must, in the very nature of things, be borne by of persons whom contingencies of the sort affect. such as possess the largest share of this world's A fall in the funds would reduce the property of goods. And he who cannot perceive that the the fund-holder; to a less extent, perhaps, but present government is gradually substituting direct still sufficiently so to place him, in regard to prinfor indirect taxes must be very short-sighted indeed. ciple, on the same footing with the trader. And, So far, therefore, we think that the minister de- as to land, the frequency with which, within the serves both approval and support. And though last thirty years, it has changed its owners, and the views which we are disposed to take of the the prodigious fluctuations in value to which it has operations of an income, as contradistinguished been liable, show that not even when standing on from a property-tax, may not, perhaps, prove popular, we shall not, therefore, hesitate to give them.

our own dirty acres can we tell, within many thousand pounds, what we are worth. The only difference, indeed, between us and the merchant is,

that while we can, he cannot always leave nis business to his children, or keep it from breaking down in his own hands. But, so far as regards the returns which it makes to him on his capital, it must be a very poor business, indeed, if it do not pay a better interest than either the three per cents or the very best of the marsh lands in Lincolnshire or the Isle of Ely. Besides, in proportion to the diminution of the incomes of both, the tax-gatherer's demand becomes less startling; and if, unfortunately, we sink below the line of 150l. we shall both of us become exempt altogether. Well, but the very existence of a trader may depend upon the maintenance of his credit; and hence your prying tax compels him, in very many instances, to pay for a larger income than he receives. Or if he be a thorough-paced curmudgeon, he will make his returns as small as he can, and so cheat the state, while he cultivates habits of falsehood and knavery in his own bosom.

ing, will sell out, at a great loss doubtless, but still for something, and withdraw with the wreck of his property to some better land. But what becomes of the merchant and the professional man? The former is beggared at once; the latter finds that his clients, or patients, or parishioners, as the case may be, have something else to do with their money than to pay his tithes or fees. And so he finds himself suddenly, though a man of consummate talent and enterprise, cast out into the street. We think, then, that merchants and professional men, when they complain of the injustice of an income-tax, are forgetful of the one great purpose for which all taxation is imposed. They do not take into account that of the various classes of society they stand the most in need of the protection which a good government affords, and that to grumble because they are requested to contribute equally with other classes towards its maintenance is to show themselves not very grateful for the protection which they enjoy.

Both propositions are admitted; but what then? The legislature cannot help either result. If men Again, one obvious consequence of the remission are so dishonest as to describe themselves to be of the tax on income, and the substitution in its that which they are not, what power on earth is room of a tax on realized property, would be that there to prevent it? For he who makes a false the amount of realized property in this country return in order to bolster up a failing credit deserves would diminish from day to day. Who would to pay for his whistle; indeed, the chances are keep his capital locked up in the funds in order that, in his case, the law is doing good to many, that a percentage from it might be applied to the inasmuch as it is hurrying forward a crisis which uses of the state, while all who chose to embark cannot come too soon. The bane of this, and of theirs in speculation or trade were excepted from all other commercial countries, is the readiness the impost? Land, to be sure, must remain; and with which men, virtually insolvent, are kept if you think it just to tax land, and not to tax the above water till they contrive to drag down hun-profits of cotton mills and Chinese adventures, dreds with them. We cannot pay the smallest the land must pay. But the price of stocks will heed to men who wilfully represent themselves to be in a flourishing condition when they know that they are on the eve of bankruptcy. And as to your curmudgeon, the fact that he is able to cheat the tax-gatherer, even if it be at the expense of his personal honor, proves that the law is neither so inquisitorial, nor so inflexible as it is generally represented to be. But this is not all.

very soon tumble down under such a system to the lowest figure, inasmuch as every holder that can, will realize his property, and, should things come to the worst, purchase with it Pennsylvanian bonds; that is, supposing the drab men to have the effrontery to bring any more of their wastepaper into the money-market. The obvious consequence of a tax on realized property, to the exemption of mere income, from whatever source derived, would therefore be extreme confusion in the money-market, and an eager rushing by all classes into trade, out of which would come national disgrace and universal beggary.

The opponents of the income-tax have no objection to impose burdens upon realized property. They object only to an arrangement which treats the uncertain profits of trade and life-incomes as if they were of equal value with the rents of land or half-yearly dividends. We admit that, if you look It appears, then, to us that, having fairly changed to the individuals, neither a profession which brings his system, having seen the exact point beyond annually a thousand pounds, nor a business which which indirect taxation could not be carried, havclears as much, is half so desirable as a landed ing had the boldness to avow this, and to shape estate or a capital invested in the three per cents, his plans accordingly, Sir Robert Peel has entered each of which makes a similar return. But the upon the one course which held out a prospect of state, we apprehend, cannot view the matter in permanent security to the throne and to the great this light. The object of all governments is to institutions of the country. For his income-tax is preserve order and to afford adequate protection to sure to become more and more productive, in prothe life and property of the subject. Now order portion as the trade and commerce of the empire and good government are doubtless necessary to extend. We will venture to predict that the the quiet enjoyment by the land-owner of his rents, effect of the removal of the duty on glass alone and by the fund-owner of his dividends. But are will be to set up scores of glass manufactories, they not, at least, as necessary to the merchant each of which will turn out a profitable concern, and the professional man? Nay, are not the two and by the tax on its profits add to the surplus of Catter more dependent on good government by far the next year's revenue. And as to the weaving than the two former? Suppose the machine of and working up of cotton, and the impulse that is atate to get out of order. Such a result seldom about to be given to the sugar-trade, we cannot arrives in a day; but suppose the symptoms of a speak in terms too sanguine as to our anticipations revolution to become so manifest that nobody can concerning them. Moreover, we feel that we are avoid to notice them, who is in the worse plight yet only in the beginning of things. Other indithen, the land-owner or the merchant, the profes-rect taxes will go; and, through the relief which sional man or the fund-owner? Surely the merchant and the professional man. Landed estates have survived many revolutions, and continued in the families of their ancient proprietors. The prudent fund-owner, when he sees the storm com

their removal affords, we shall not feel the weight of the income-tax, though we may marvel to behold how, from year to year, it goes on increasing in its productiveness.

One argument more there is in favor of the new

system, which has probably occurred, ere we par- in pasture and of the house, which was a very ticularize it, to most of our readers. There is no good and commodious one of two stories, having kind of tax so easy of collection-so little expen- large store-rooms in the lower one, which served sive to the state-so little dangerous to public as a depôt for the produce from the estate above, morals, as an income-tax. Falling as it does upon until it should be forwarded to market in the town. persons in a certain station of life, you have a As there was good shooting along my road, I reright to assume that they will make, for the most solved to leave my pony here until my return, and part, an honest declaration of their means, and pay proceed on foot. Having six miles farther to without or not, perhaps, without reluctance-but travel, and that entirely through woods and precertainly without equivocation, as the seasons of cipitous mountains, an excellent cup of café-au-lait, payment come round. A body of collectors, com- and some American cracker-biscuits with plenty paratively small in point of numbers, will get the of fresh butter-the latter being a great rarity in whole in; and a moderate percentage on the sums the island-I found most acceptable. This first collected will repay them for their trouble. Where-breakfast over, I clad myself in my shooting habilias customs and excise not only require whole ments, and struck into the woods by a narrow armies of officers to do their bidding, but are the path, the only one to the plantation, and which fruitful sources of dishonesty, sometimes of vio- could only be used as a bridle-and-foot one, I lence, in many quarters. We cannot hope that went alone, for the way was familiar to me from the day will ever arrive, when we shall be able to having been several times before along it. I shall pay the public creditor, and defray the ordinary not stop here to describe the grandeur of the expenses of the state, without both customs and Arauca forests; suffice it to state, that they are excise. But the less we depend upon them for composed of nature's choicest selection of tree and the realization of the revenue the better it will be shrub, among which a variety of animals roam, for the moral as well as the physical well-being and numerous birds of varied hue and plumage, of the masses, who, being less able to resist temp-worthy of such a dwelling, abide and disport. I tation than their superiors, ought, by a wise gov-wended my way leisurely, now bringing down a ernment, to be more guarded from its influence.

brace of parrots from a flock of those noisy creaIf we have succeeded in making our meaning tures, as they would clamorously fly across, or sit plain, the readers of Regina will understand that, feeding among the branches above my head. At in our humble opinion, the whole frame-work of another time, diverging a little from my path, ensociety in this country is in a state of transition. ticed by their cooing, I would bag a scallop-necked The changes proposed seem, moreover, to be good pigeon, or a mountain dove. While in quest of in many respects; and the manner in which they an agouti, or Indian rabbit, which I had espied not are conducted is both considerate and wise. We far off, I shot a prehensile porcupine, which reshall have no revolution; no more nonsense about quired a second and a third shot to bring it down, People's Charters, Parliamentary Reform, Repeal of the Union, and suchlike; but a gradual though steady settling down of old tory opinions and prejudices, and a thorough alteration in matters, both civil and ecclesiastical, which, twenty years ago, were supposed to be immovable as the hills. We are content to abide the issue; and, though somewhat dizzy, as we have more than once taken occasion to observe, full of hope that we shall yet reach the plain, without any damage to our horses, ourselves, or even hurt to the carriage.

so fast did it cling to a branch with its tail. A herd of pecaries or wild hogs crossed me at too great a distance for destruction; but a brace of pawies, which are a sort of wild turkey, I succeeded in adding to my stock of game. The road was exceedingly rich in the picturesque. It was, as it were, a kind of forest-clad Bolan-pass, for the most part; now crossing a deep ravine, presently ascending and winding along a ledge affording hardly room to proceed even with the greatest caution, and anon leading across a roaring torrent, and then a gentle stream, while innumerable shrill-toned birds and cricketing insects, drowning the laments of the plaintive dove, lent to the feelings of romance AN EXCURSION TO A CACAO OR CHOCOLATE which were raised by the ever-varying locality.

From the Colonial Magazine.

PLANTATION IN THE WEST INDIES.

I at length reached the plantation. Reconocimiento, (in English, Gratitude,) like the lovely SOME years back, while residing in the town of but rare virtue which its name represents, bursts Port-of-Spain, the capital of the island of Trinidad, suddenly and brightly upon one's view, when at one fine morning at daylight, which begins there last found, and not the less so from its being una little after five, I mounted my hardy Venezuelian expected. On coming thus suddenly upon it, it pony, and started off at a brisk canter, for the has the appearance of one vast forest-orchard, if I purpose of spending a few days with my excellent may make use of the term, planted in the space and esteemed friend, the mayor-domo or manager formed by a hollow between two mountains, which of Reconocimiento cacao, or chocolate plantation, have here receded a good deal more than they are situate about twenty miles off, in the heights of wont to do at any other point. It is placed in what the quarter or district of Arauca. I had despatch- the West Indians term a punch-bowl-a designation ed my gun and portmanteau, on the day before, by which will give one a very good idea of its situa trusty black. After a smart and delightful ride ation, if he supplies to it, in his mind's eye, the of nearly two hours along an excellent road, having mouth of a milk-pot at two of its sides, to serve as handsome sugar-plantations on both sides of it, I an entrance on the one and an exit on the other. arrived at an establishment called “The Pens,” a The mountains rise to, I should suppose, nearly sort of better half-way house, on the road to Rec- 1,500 feet above the level of the cultivation, which onocimiento, about fourteen miles from Port-of- is itself nearly 1000 feet above the level of the sea. Spain, at the foot of the northern range of moun-One's sensations on reaching this calm and lovely tains of Trinidad, and on their southern side. This spot, after a rugged and toilsome, although excitplace was a dependency of the plantation for which ing, journey of six miles, are pleasurable in the I was bound, and consisted of a few acres of land extreme. The place appeared to me, on my first

and that malignant fevers, such as occur in the low lands, were there unknown.

all the natural vegetation. This is effected in several ways; but the most common is to cut down the wood, allow it to dry, very thoroughly, and then to burn it off. The plantation is then drained, and, if necessary, small trenches are cut so as to carry off all superabundant moisture; when all this was done, the land is ready to receive the cacao plants.

It is peculiarly necessary to defend this tree from the scorching rays of the sun, and at the same time sufficient warmth should be afforded to secure the vegetation. This is done by planting it, as before stated, with the plantain-tree and the erythrina, which answer all the objects desired. The cacao plants which are transplanted should not exceed three feet in height; where they are larger, they are less manageable, and more apt to die. The nurseries of the cacao require very fine land, well dressed, and free from wet. They should be sheltered from the sun. Small heaps of earth are collected, into which two seeds of the cacao are set; for the first twenty-four hours the heaps are covered with plantain-leaves. The ground is watered, if necessary, but no water is allowed to remain on it. The period best suited to this operation is in the month of November. When the two seeds in each heap have germinated, the weakest plant is destroyed, to give greater vigor to the remaining one. The plantain-trees should be carefully cut down when they become old, lest in their fall they should injure the cacao-trees. By the time the plantain-trees are cut down, the erythrinatree, which is called by the Spaniards, French, and English by the respective names of madre-delcacao, bois-immortel, and coral tree, has attained, from its rapid growth, a sufficient height to protect the cacao plant, and in five or six years becomes a lofty tree, affording a congenial shade to its protegée, which begins to bear fruit when three years old, and comes to perfection in about fifteen years, at which time it is from ten to fourteen feet in height.

The cacao, or chocolate-tree, is known to botanists by the generic name of Theobroma, signifying, in the Greek language, food for a god; a name which was bestowed upon it by Linnæus, to mark his opinion of the excellent quality of its seeds. Benjoni, however, who travelled in the sixteenth century, formed a very different estimate of its merits, and declared that chocolate was a drink "fitter for a pig than a man ;" an opinion for which nothing but gross ignorance could account, so totally false and absurd is it. I know it to be good for both; and not the less so for man, because it is exceedingly fattening for the swinish fraternity. There are three species of the Theobroma-the Theobroma cacao, of which I am now treating; the Theobroma Gujanensis, and the Theobroma bicolor; this genus belongs to the class Polyadelphia, and to the order Pentagynia. The sort under consideration is produced by a tree seldom rising above the height of twenty feet; it is equal in size to an orange-tree, and its leaves are large, oblong, and pointed. Herrera, the historian, compares the leaves with those of the chestnuttree; but there is very little, if any, resemblance. The whole tree more resembles the cherry-tree than any other I can compare it with, the leaves, however, being infinitely larger than those of that plant. The flowers, which are small, and of a pale red color, spring from the large branches, and also from the trunk; they are succeeded by ovalpointed pods, grooved like a melon, and, indeed, not unlike that fruit, although the cacao-pod be smaller in girth than the melon. They contain a white pithy substance, which is of a sweetish, but sickeningly mawkish and disagreeable taste, and surrounds numerous seeds: these are the cacao of commerce. These seeds are oval-formed, and about as large as a moderate-sized almond-kernel, but not so slender; they are, internally, of a dark brown color, approaching to dun, and are covered with a thin skin or husk, of a light reddish-brown It may be inquired why this particular plant is color. The nuts are very numerous, but vary in used to protect the cacao, in preference to any this respect, some pods containing as many as other. It is chosen on account of its affording fifty, while others do not yield more than twenty the most agreeable covering. The cacao-tree, to seeds; they are, as is well known, of a very oily prosper, although requiring little sun and light, nature. The tree produces fruit twice a year, or yet, like all other plants, must have the exact rather its principal bearings are two, although it quantum which its peculiar nature calls for. Other may be said to be never altogether without some trees would afford it either too much or too little, pods on it. The trees are raised from seed, which but the erythrina seems to have been formed by is sown, in the first instance, in nurseries, shaded nature as the maternal guardian of it, capable of by the plantain or banana-tree. They are then ministering to all its exigencies, for which it is transplanted in straight lines, so as to make a required, no doubt, by some hidden service to itcross, or quincunx, formed by the junction of the self. There are two kinds of erythrina, one apices of two triangles, or are arranged in the smooth, and the other prickly, both of which are form of squares. The distance of the trees from used for the above purpose. It grows to the each other is about fourteen feet in good soil, and height of more than sixty feet, and its foliage is about twelve in that which is inferior. Much delicate and sparse, and of a light-green color. nicety and judgment are necessary in selecting a It entirely drops its leaves towards the end of the soil and situation appropriate to this kind of pro- dry season, about the end of March or beginning duce. The Spaniards, who are the principal of April, and then becomes covered with flowers growers of cacao at Trinidad, do not trust to the of a bright crimson, and shaped like a cimiter. results of analysis, to the color, or to any charac- At this season, an extensive plain covered with ter or quality, except that derived from the luxuri- cacao-plantations, is a magnificent object when ance of the trees growing on it. The exposure viewed from a height. The far-stretching forests should not be to the north, and the situation of Erythrina present then the appearance of being should be on the banks of a river, from which the clothed on the summit with flames, the fresh northbenefits of irrigation may be derived when the east trade-wind adding to the illusion, as it sweeps seasons are too dry, and against any sudden over- over their tops in apparent fleecy clouds of smoke. flow of which there are sufficient safeguards. AI must not omit to mention that a plantation of piece of land having been chosen, it is cleared of cacao has many enemies; deer, a small kind of