amount in value of the property dealt in on this Exchange alone in a fortnight, and what in the course of a year? It cannot be much less than £10,000,000,000. Enormous as must be the mass of wealth operated upon by the investing and speculative public in this market alone, it only forms a fraction of the whole when we consider the dealings in smaller but similar places, and to those must be added the dealings by the public privately, as well as the whole of the commercial transactions in the produce markets of the United Kingdom. The total quite baffles all attempts at calculation. Such then is the field for taxation, and a more legitimate field we think it would be difficult to find for the exercise of an unrestrictive tax. It will hardly be credited by the public that a region of such magnitude, and at the same time, if we may accept the authority of the Foreign Loans Committee, one of very doubtful utility-at any rate, so far as the merely gambling element of time-bargains obtains-has hitherto escaped all taxation of a direct kind. The contract note for the purchase or sale of a thousand pounds' worth of property now requires no higher revenue stamp than the sale of a £2 share-a penny receipt stamp at present does for both. Thus the speculator or gambler, whichever he may be called-the latest product of civilized society-goes away, with his profits in his pocket, untaxed from his self-imposed labours at the Stock Exchange, whilst the operation neither accelerates trade nor adds to the revenue or wealth of the country. It is suggested that a contract stamp, of the value of one shilling for every £1000 of nominal or face value, shall be attached to the contract note; but, when the market price exceeds the face-value of the stock, then on such increased premium value. The gambling-tables of Europe were always made profitable to the State; then why not the speculative exchanges of England?

V.

Some further particulars, however, should be given, by way of illustration, as to the different stamps which would have to be brought into use under the system of taxation proposed in this paper.

The Contract Stamp.-It is intended that this stamp should be applied to all contracts for the purchase and sale of property of every description in which the terms of the bargain are committed to writing, and in which a money value is declared. It would be required for all contracts affecting real estate and personal effects; all contracts for works, materials, and labour; all contracts for the purchase and sale of cotton, woolien, iron, and, indeed, of goods of every description whatsoever; all stocks, shares, and negotiable securities. The payment would have to be made by stamps to be affixed to the written document, or contract note, or other instrument, by the drawer of the deed, and by every transferree by indorsement of the same.

The scale of this species of stamp has been fixed at a rate so low, that when it is borne in mind the transaction would be rendered alto

gether illegal, and the amount be unrecoverable in a Court of Law, unless the deed was stamped, and moreover, that, in addition, its omission would render the parties subject to heavy penalties to the Crown, there is little fear of collusion, or any neglect of the moral and legal obligations the tax would impose.

Scale of Contract Stamps.

All Contracts not exceeding

£1,000

2,500

5,000

10,000

50,000 100,000 250,000 500,000

110002

1230000

5

0 10

1 0 2 6

0

0

0

0

and £10 for every £500,000 or fraction thereof.

The bulk of contracts in the produce and stock markets ranges between the first five or six of the above amounts; the larger dealings seldom occurring but in the home funds, and perhaps in French, Russian, and American National Stocks, most of the other markets being too small and too sensitive to admit of transactions of the magnitude of half a million in one transaction.

It is even doubtful if amounts of this magnitude are of frequent occurrence in the home market, though it is said that a contract for a million has occasionally been made by some of our large financial houses, such as Rothschilds, Barings, &c. ; but however this may be, we may reasonably suppose that speculators who can afford to deal so largely cannot object to a tax which upon £500,000 would only amount to £10, and would be at the rate of about fourpence on each £1000 of stock dealt in, while the commission payable to the broker at even one-sixteenth cent. would amount on the transaction to upwards of £300.

per

In reviewing the field for the operation of this tax-a tax which would hardly be felt by the speculative classes of the country, and one which could not fail to be highly approved by the non-speculative public-and inquiring into the matter by the light of such data as are available for the purpose, we have come to the conclusion that this stamp alone would produce a revenue approaching £2,000,000.

Labour Receipt Stamp.-This stamp would need to be affixed to the receipt of remuneration for every form and description of labour-i.e., wages, salaries, fecs, bills of work, commissions, &c.

and 10s. for every £100 or fraction thereof.

It is estimated, reckoning the gross receipts, that a revenue of up

wards of £2,500,000 would be obtained from the application of this stamp for labour.

Trade Bill Stamp.-This would have to be applied by all tradesmen to the bills of particulars of goods sold to the consumer.

and 5s. for every £100 or fraction thereof.

To a tax payable in stamps in the manner here indicated, two objections may be made; first as to the amount, second as to the trouble attending it. With respect to the amount of the tax we think that it cannot be considered a grievance. The amount being fixed and known, the tax could be readily taken into account in making out the sale price of the goods, and as it only amounts to one quarter per cent. (5s. in the £100), it would be no practical drawback to the sale of the goods and at the same time the amount of the stamps being so small, there would be no great inducement to respectable tradesmen to avoid the payment, or omit the attachment of the stamp in the regular way. With regard to the trouble of adding the stamp, we think that little inconvenience would be felt.

The bill-heads might be of different colours, bearing im pressed stamps of different amounts; and four or five colours would answer all the requirements of the most varied trade, where the sales range from £1 to £50 or £100 in one order.

Invoice Stamp.-Estimated to produce £1,500,000.-These are to be affixed to invoices by all dealers, manufacturers, merchants, &c. &c., vending produce and goods to the trade.

and 10s. for every £1000 or fraction thereof over £1000.

The Receipt Stamp.-Hitherto this useful little engine of revenue has been fixed of one uniform amount, and the attachment of a penny receipt stamp to the settlement of an account is sufficient legal evidence that the debt or obligation has been permanently discharged. The settlement of an account is perhaps of all others the most convenient opportunity for the application of a stamp, and à fortiori for a contribution to the national resources, so that we have no hesitation in recommending a slight alteration in the adjustment of the rate, which will not in any

way interfere with the stamp's use, or retard its application, but will produce a very large augmentation of revenue. It is simply that the larger the amount of the account,-though only at very considerable intervals of increase, the greater should be the value of the stamp. At present, the penny receipt stamp is sufficient legal evidence of the settlement of an account, no regard being had to the amount of the moneypayment for which the receipt is given, and the stamp is made compulsory on the settlement of all accounts of the amount of £2 and upwards. We now propose, first, that the stamp should be applied to the settlement of all accounts of £1 instead of £2. We propose, secondly, that the limit for the penny stamp should be £100. Afterwards, the stamp would be as under:

Thirdly, we propose that receipt stamps on this scale shall be applied wherever the receipt stamp is now applied. Fourthly, that such stamp be also applied by every indorsee of a banker's draft, cheque, or bill of exchange, when transferred as payment or presented for payment,-that is, whenever endorsed. Thus by extending the application of the receipt stamp down to amounts of £1, by increasing the value of the stamp to be applied in the case of larger amounts, and by making its use compulsory on the increasing scale in cases of all indorsements of money orders and credit notes, we anticipate a revenue from this source of upwards of £2,000,000.

Taxation we are aware can never be rendered pleasant and agreeable to the subjects, but it will be a great gain to the tax-payer if by any such system as we have here ventured to propose, taxes which press heavily on the consumer can be done away, and others which render the tradesman subject to all sorts of personal annoyances from an inquisitorial tax and its assessors and collectors, can be substituted by a better mode of levying and collecting.

LONSDALE BRADLEY.

THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES.

A STUDY OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY.

THE

IV.

HE initiation of Eleusis was open to women as well as men. Originally it constituted an exclusive privilege of the citizens of Athênai, for whom, as late as the date of the war of Peloponnêsos, it was regarded as an almost indispensable obligation. Foreigners, and illegitimate children whose birth deprived them of civic rights, were thus excluded from the mysteries. At that time it was necessary for an individual born out of Attikê to get himself adopted by an Athenian before he could be admitted to the initiation; and the mythological legend related that Hêraklês and the Dioskuroi had submitted to this formality. Naturalization had the same effect, and it is stated that this was granted to Hippokratês and Anacharsis in order to allow of their being present at the mysteries. Afterwards the rigour of these precepts was relaxed in practice. The law for the exclusion of foreigners, which was traced back to Eumolpos, was always maintained, but it was understood as making initiation an Hellenic and no longer an exclusively Attic privilege. The exclusion of foreigners meant that of barbarians in general, and moreover, in consequence of the Mêdian wars, a special and still more absolute exclusion was pronounced against the Medes and Persians. All Greeks who were foreign to Attikê were admitted within the sanctuary of Eleusis on condition of being introduced by an Athenian mystagogos. The isotelai were thus placed on the same footing in this respect with the citizens, and could serve as mystagógoi. The large number of instances which are known of Romans being admitted without difficulty to the initiation proves that at a still later date, when the power of Rome extended over Greece, the privilege of the Hellênes was granted to the Romans, as they had ceased to be