eved the working classes of
the taxes on corn, cattle, coffee, sugar, and provisions generally; and
imposed a considerable proportion of the taxes from which they have been
relieved on the middle and upper ranks. Yet these measures have produced
but little improvement in the condition of the working people. They have
not applied the principle of Reform to themselves. They have not begun
at home. Yet the end of all Reform is the improvement of the individual.
Everything that is wrong in Society results from that which is wrong in
the Individual. When men are bad, society is bad.

Franklin, with his shrewd common sense, observed, "The taxes are indeed
very heavy; and if those laid on by the Government were the only ones we
had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many
others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed quite as much
by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as
much by our folly; and from these taxes the Commissioners cannot ease or
deliver us by allowing an abatement."

Lord John Russell once made a similar statement to a body of working men
who waited upon him for the purpose of asking relief from taxation. "You
complain of the taxes," he said; "but think of how you tax yourselves.
You consume about fifty millions yearly in drink. Is there any
Government that would dare to tax you to that extent? You have it in
your own power greatly to reduce the taxes, and that without in any way
appealing to us."

Complaining that the laws are bad, and that the taxes are heavy, will
not mend matters. Aristocratic government, and the tyranny of masters,
are nothing like so injurious as the tyranny of vicious appetites. Men
are easily led away by the parade of their miseries, which are for the
most part voluntary and self-imposed,--the results of idleness,
thriftlessness, intemperance, and misconduct. To blame others for what
we suffer, is always more agreeable to our self-pride, than to blame
ourselves. But it is perfectly clear that people who live from day to
day without plan, without rule, without forethought--who spend all their
earnings, without saving anything for the future--are preparing
beforehand for inevitable distress. To provide only for the present, is
the sure means to sacrificing the future. What hope can there be for a
people whose only maxim seems to be, "Let us eat and drink, for
to-morrow we die"?

All this may seem very hopeless; yet it is not