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COMPARATIVE PRICES OP SAFES.

of such article, and hence it follows, that in realityindiscriminate and extravagant expenditure,* ofwhatever kind, connected with the manufactureand sale of any article, must be paid for by a pro-portionate profit, which being paid by the purchaser,becomes a heavy and unnecessary tax upon thepublic.

We appear to be in such favour with indirecttaxation, that it is seldom we enquire what is theproportion of the sum we pay for an article whichgoes for extraneous and unnecessary expenses; butif the retailer were to tell us that on a 20 1. article51. went for such expenses, we should be as uneasyand as dissatisfied as we are in paying a direct tax,such as the income and property tax. Yet in toomany cases such is the fact.

A manufacturer, no matter of what article, whoby purchasing his materials at the cheapest hand,who adopts machinery and economises labour, who

* The cost of advertising at the various Kailway Stations in England,Ireland , and Scotland , added to the cost of indiscriminate advertisementsin the London and provincial periodicals and newspapers, amounts to thelarge sum of from £3,000. to £7,000. per annum. Such an expendituremay do very well for articles of general consumption, as medicine, provi-sions, wines and spirits, clothing, See., where the returns are so consider-able ; but even in these cases the public must pay for it. It must not beunderstood that I disapprove of judicious advertising: certainly not; asit is, without doubt, one of the best means of bringing any particulararticle before the notice of the class it may be intended for; but since theabolition of the duty on advertisements, and the alteration in the lawrespecting newspapers, so many of these, and other periodicals have startedinto existence, that it is a most difficult matter to decide, after selectingone or more of the London daily papers, one or more of the London weeklypapers, the “ Illustrated London News, ” the local journals, and the maga-zine peculiarly suited for the particular article, what others to makeuse of.