Then was I calm, lest they the more should grieve. The sixth day closed;-then, groping with my hand, Two days I call'd on those who were no more; Canto xxxiii. pp. 307–310. We wish that we had room for the scene in the tenth canto with Farinata and Cavalcanti. It exhibits close together one of those sudden contrasts of light and shade-the terrible and the tender-which Dante so often opens and closes in a moment, like a flash of lightning in the darkest night. The similes are in general equally characteristic. They are the vivid impressions of his own mind, interposing, amid the hellish glare and din, and accumulation of human anguish, a glance at nature, a thought of the sunny beauty of our upper world. In this point of view, the similes which enliven the opening of the twentysecond and twenty-fourth cantos with the pencil of Wouvermans or Berghem, are perhaps more beautiful than his Salvator sketches. We can give only one. It is of the latter class. He is describing the flight of the multitude of the damned from before the angel, who comes down to clear an entrance for the poets into the city of Dis O ye, with lofty intellects endow'd, Behold the secret lore intended here, Which my mysterious minstrelsy would shroud. Which shook both shores throughout the vast profound, Which, rushing swift to cool some fervid zone, And fills the beasts and shepherds with dismay.' Canto ix. p. 80. In praising Mr Wright, we must not be ungrateful to Mr Cary. His version had great merit in important particulars— correctness, conciseness, and a certain gravity of manner. Still it never prevented us from speaking of the untranslateable Dante. There was in it both more and less than was consistent with being a satisfactory copy of its original. The present volume, by Mr Wright, comprises only the first compartment of Dante's triple picture. The merit of the execution will unite all competent judges in cordially entreating him to proceed. An English translator in the nineteenth century may be doomed to meet with as many rebuffs from the different circles of our ordinary society, as Dante supposes himself to have experienced in the various circles of his Inferno. But the enthusiasm with which Mr Wright has undertaken his enviable task, is derived, we hope, from a higher source than the ebbs and flows of popular applause. Having taken up the mystagogue's hallowed wand, he must not think to lay it down till he has completed the pilgrimage on which he has had the fortunate temerity to set out. ART. VIII. Observations on the Income and Expenditure of Great Britain, during the years 1831 and 1832. 8vo. London: 1833. IN N our last Article on this important subject, we expressed our conviction that, though objectionable in some of its details, the System of Taxation in this country was bottomed on sound principles; and that no new system could be substituted in its stead, calculated to yield so large an amount of revenue, that would not be infinitely more objectionable. Such being our opinion, we congratulate our readers and the public on the determination evinced by the Government and the House of Commons to resist all reckless attempts for the reduction, and all ill-considered projects for the commutation of taxes. Notwithstanding the efforts that have been made to delude and poison the public mind, we feel satisfied that the favourite scheme of the destructives for a Graduated Property-tax, is viewed, as it ought to be, with disgust and aversion, by the vast majority of the people. The schoolmaster has been abroad to very little purpose, indeed, if the poorer, as well as the wealthier classes, do not see that their poverty would be rapidly increased, and rendered irremediable, by the adoption of any such iniquitous scheme. In the present state of the world, when all nations are aware of the vast advantages resulting from the acquisition of skill, capital, and industry, it would be worse than absurd to expect to throw any peculiar weight of taxes on property; or to establish the monstrous principle, that, because a man has, by superior sagacity, ingenuity, or economy, accumulated a fortune, he shall be liable, not only to a greater amount, but also to a heavier rate of taxation than others! A policy of this sort would, by paralyzing industry and invention, and driving capital and talent abroad, speedily bring about the total ruin of any country insane enough to adopt it. But we have little fear that we shall ever be subjected to any such scourge that the sober good sense of the people will be led astray by the blandishments of those who would tempt them to destruction. Our revolutionists have neither the cunning of serpents,' nor the 'tongues of angels.' They lack the art to conceal or varnish their schemes. The ass is perpetually peeping out from below the lion's skin. Every one sees that their complaints of the miseries and privations endured by the people, and their denunciations of aristocratical cupidity and hard-heartedness,' are mere hypocritical pretences, intended to cloak their own selfish designs. Their accession to power is fortunately out of the question; but we feel satisfied, that if they should ever, by any accident, be found at the head of affairs, they would prove themselves such intolerable tyrants, that in a few weeks they would be hurled back to their original insignificance. At the same time that we are ready to admit that the existing system of taxation is, in some of its details, exceedingly objectionable, we deny that the parts, against which so much clamour has recently been raised, are in this predicament. It is unnecessary at present to repeat the statements we so recently made with respect to the house and window taxes. Nothing has occurred to lead us to modify or change the opinion, that in all respects, save that of making a direct payment to the taxgatherer, they are really among the least objectionable taxes that can be devised. They give no encouragement to smuggling, they do not change the natural distribution of capital and industry, their assessment requires no officious interference with the affairs of individuals, and they are not easily evaded. Neither can it be doubted that in most towns the greater part of these taxes fall on rent, and have little or no influence on the profits of the occupiers. It was stated during the recent discussions on the subject in the House of Commons, that numbers of houses were empty in the Strand, Regent Street, and other principal streets in London; this untoward state of things was ascribed to the distress of the shopkeepers; and it was asked whether, under such circumstances, any thing could be more oppressive than to subject them to the full pressure of the house and window duties? But the facts set forth as forming the groundwork of this appeal ad misericordiam, show the little weight to which it is entitled. Had all the shops in town been let, or had there been a brisk demand for them, it might have been contended that the landlords dictated their own terms, and that the demand for shops was such that no tradesman could get one without burdening himself with the taxes laid upon it. Such, however, is very far, indeed, according to the statement of the complainers, from being a fair representation of the actual state of things. Shops are not deficient, but in excess; and, being so, it is quite clear that the taxes imposed on them, though paid in the first instance by the tenant, really fall on the landlord; the rent received by the latter being reduced proportionally to the amount of the taxes. Admitting, therefore, that the taxes in question were as objectionable as has been represented, we deny that the occupiers are the persons entitled to complain. The landlords might very properly petition for their repeal, but the tenants have no right to expect that their representations should have much influence with any dispassionate individual. They complain not of a real, but, as respects themselves, of an imaginary grievance. Supposing the assessed taxes were wholly repealed, their rents would, at no distant period, be proportionally increased. The fact is, that the depressed condition of many of the London tradesmen is owing to very different causes, and those far more difficult to deal with, than the house and window tax. A revolution has begun in the method of conducting most branches of business, and is now in the course of being accomplished, which, though certainly advantageous to the mass of the people, will, we fear, be ruinous to many individuals. The advantages resulting from the carrying on of a variety of businesses on a large scale, that were formerly divided amongst several individuals, are now beginning to be fully appreciated, not by capitalists only, but by the public, who find that they are able to supply themselves at the great marts with better and cheaper articles than could be furnished by dealers depending for their own support, and that of their families, on the profits of a comparatively small trade. The mercantile middlemen that were formerly so common in all great towns are now, also, rapidly disappearing; the shopkeepers finding it more convenient to apply directly to the manufacturers. In consequence of these and other changes at present in progress, the retail trade of all the great towns is in a state of transition, or is in the act of being arranged so that it may be carried on at less expense and by the agency of fewer hands. Nowhere, however, are the facilities for the introduction of this system so great as in London; and it is in it, consequently, that the change has been, and will be, most severely felt. It is to the circumstances thus briefly glanced at that the depressed condition of many of the London tradesmen is, we believe, mainly ascribable. The assessed taxes have no greater influence in the metropolis than in other places; but in London only can those great establishments that transact as much business as was formerly, perhaps, transacted by some forty or fifty tradesmen or shopkeepers, be successfully established. Hence the complaints of those deprived of their accustomed means of subsistence. We regret the privations entailed upon them, and should be glad, were it possible, to suggest any means by which they might be alleviated. Assuredly, however, this is not to be done by changing the whole scheme of taxation, or by repealing taxes that do not really fall on the suffering parties. Any individual who should form a notion of the house and window taxes from some of the speeches made during the recent discussions, would certainly suppose that they fall with the utmost severity on the lower classes; and that the rich enjoy an almost total exemption from their pressure. Those by whom such representations have been made, could not fail to know that they were destitute of foundation; and we leave it to others to enquire into their object in putting them forth. But they reckoned without their host if they supposed that their fallacies would not be detected and exposed. They were so, in the clearest and most convincing manner, by Mr Spring Rice. Every one, indeed, not wholly ignorant of the most common topics, knows that all houses valued at less than L.10 a-year are exempted from the house tax; and that all houses having less than eight windows are exempted from the window tax. Now it appears from the official returns laid on the table of the House of Commons by Mr Rice, that of the total number of inhabited houses in Great Britain, in 1831, amounting to 2,846,179, only 430,617, or between one-sixth and one-seventh part of the whole, were of the value of L.10 a-year, and paid house duty; and that only 377,471 houses, or between one-seventh and one-eighth part of the whole, had eight windows, and paid window duty. In despite, therefore, of all that has been said of the oppressiveness of the house and window duties, and of the selfishness of the aristocracy in exempting themselves that they might grind the faces of the poor'-in despite, we say, of these and a thousand similar statements, it is undeniable that the poor are totally unaffected by the house and window duties. It would be quite as correct to say that they are pressed |