PLAN OF AN

IMPROVED INCOME TAX

AND

REAL FREE TRADE,

WITH AN EQUITABLE MODE OF

REDEEMING THE NATIONAL DEBT,

AND SOME OBSERVATIONS

ON THE EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF THE PEOPLE-ON SYSTEMATIC

COLONIZATION-AND ON THE WELFARE OF THE LABOURING CLASSES.

BY JAMES S. BUCKINGHAM.

LONDON:

JAMES RIDGWAY, 169, PICCADILLY,

AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.

1845.

NOTE.

As no consideration of profit leads to the publication of this Pamphlet, no Copy-right is claimed for it; but free permission is hereby given to any one who desires to reprint the whole or any portion of it for the wider diffusion of its contents.

INTRODUCTORY.

IT is no new observation, that each successive period of life has its peculiar gratifications adapted to the years attained.-Those of youth embrace the pleasures of hope, in active and untiring pursuit of some object of desire or ambition; those of manhood consist chiefly in the realization and enjoyment of professional success; those of age are formed mainly of the pleasures of memory, and pleasing retrospect of the past, accompanied now and then with the satisfaction of witnessing the progress of views once deemed visionary, but progressively yielding to the force of circumstances and the necessities which compel their adoption.

I have had my full share of each in their turn:the ardour of pursuit in youth, the fulness of enjoyment in manhood, and the retrospect of the past in age; and so equally have these been participated, that I know not which has yielded me the greater amount of happiness; but I am equally grateful for all.

Among the latter, however, I may be pardoned for naming the extreme satisfaction I have derived from the progressive adoption of views and

opinions, to which it was my misfortune according to some, and my indiscretion according to others, to have given utterance and publicity long ago, when the period had not yet arrived for their popularity, and when they were accordingly received with distrust, visited with punishment, and either ridiculed and abused, or condemned as impracticable and unjust. It will be sufficient perhaps to name only a few of these; for the catalogue would be too long if all were included.

In the West Indies, forty years ago, I maintained the opinion that the abolition of Slavery would be found perfectly practicable, without blood-shed or revolution; and that the planters themselves would, ultimately, perceive the system of slave labour to be most unproductive as well as unjust. And in London, twenty years ago, before ever the Anti-Slavery Society had entertained the idea of immediate emancipation, I published an article, entitled "On the Justice, Policy, and Safety, of giving Immediate Freedom to every Slave in the West Indies. This was denounced by nearly all parties as utterly impracticable, and dangerous even to broach; but in nine years after this, their emancipation was peaceably effected in a single day, on the 1st of August, 1834.

In the East Indies, I drew the attention of the Bengal Government to the practicability of the

* "Oriental Herald," for March, 1825, p. 330.

Overland Route, by Egypt and Suez, in the year 1818; but was regarded by all the then existing members of it as a dreaming visionary, though I had myself surveyed the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea, for the Pasha of Egypt, and navigated it throughout its whole extent. In little more than ten years afterwards, this route was adopted, and all parties are now receiving its benefits.

In Bengal, from 1818 to 1823, I advocated, among other changes in the laws, customs, and administration of India, the following:

1. The Abolition of the Suttee, or Burning of Widows.-2. The Renunciation of the Idol Revenue of Juggernaut.-3. The Colonization of India, by British Settlers.-4. The Extension of Trial by Jury to British Subjects.-5. The Freedom of the Press, subject only to the laws, instead of the caprice of an irresponsible censor.-6. The Right of Settlers to purchase and hold land.-7. The Abolition of the East India Company's Commercial Monopoly.8. Free Trade to every part of India and China. -9. Extension of Education among the Natives of India, subject to our rule.

There was not one of these which was not declared, at the time, to be not only impracticable, but the mere discussion of them fraught with the utmost danger to the very existence of our Eastern Empire; and for persisting in their advocacy only, I was at length banished from India, without trial of any