few commodities, it makes the fiscal pressure more obvious and more felt, and furnishes proportionately greater scope for popular agitation. “When the public attention is fixed exclusively on a few leading and indeed necessary articles,” says Mr M’Culloch, “it is all but certain that the duties on them, even should they be moderate, will come to be looked upon as being, in no ordinary degree, objectionable and oppressive. But were a great variety of articles, suitable for the consumption of all classes, subject to duties, there would be but little probability of the public attention being concentrated on a few only.” And what are the few commodities which now furnish the principal part of our revenue? As we have seen, precisely those which are consumed in greatest quantity by the bulk of the people. There is no real inequality in the distribution of our taxation; for the Income-Tax, the Succession-Duties, &c., do not fall at all upon the lower classes, and have been framed so as to keep the balance of taxation equal between the rich and the poor. But we fear this fact will not be fairly considered by the masses, who, under the influence of demagogues like Mr Bright, are too prone to think themselves unjustly dealt with. Two months ago we pointed out this feature of Mr Gladstone’s financial policy, as one eminently provocative of agitation against some branches of our revenue which it is indispensable to preserve. Mr M’Culloch holds a similar opinion. He says— “When such duties apply to all kinds of things [the raw materials of industry and the prime articles of food being excepted], it is seen that they must affect, in one way or other, every class, and, indeed, every individual, and being merged in and forming a part of the price of the articles on which they are charged, they attract little or no attention. But such will not be the case with us in time to come. Consumption duties have ceased to be general, and are now (1862) unfortunately restricted to a few leading articles, comprising some of the principal necessaries and luxuries of the labouring poor. So striking and momentous a change cannot fail to rouse the public attention; and will, it is to be feared, give rise to a belief that it is essentially partial and unfair. And such belief will be better founded than it is at all desirable it should be; for, while we admit various luxuries of the rich and the great, including the most _recherché_ wines, at very low duties, and many more, comprising, among others, the finest laces, velvets, porcelain, tablecloths, carpets, silks, gloves, ornamental furniture, bronzes, and so forth, free of all charge, we lay heavy duties on the tea and sugar, which are indispensable to the labouring poor, and heavier still on the tobacco, the spirits, and the beer which constitute their luxuries. Is it to be supposed that such a policy should be considered by the bulk