by Thomas Babington Macaulay 1800-1859

Roses and Poor-Rates

When Robert Southey called for a fairer and greener economy, Thomas Macaulay warned that only politicians and bureaucrats would thank him.

1830

Queen Victoria 1837-1901

Introduction

There is nothing new in calling for high taxes to subsidise a fairer, greener economy. Poet Robert Southey did it in 1829, dreaming of a de-industrialised England of apple-cheeked labourers, charming cottages and smiling prosperity. Macaulay dubbed it ‘rose-bushes and poor-rates, rather than steam-engines and independence,’ and reminded him what State-funded projects too often look like.

by Thomas Babington Macaulay 1800-1859

abridged

A PEOPLE, he [Robert Southey] tells us, may be too rich: a government cannot: for a government can employ its riches in making the people richer. The wealth of the people is to be taken from them, because they have too much, and laid out in works, which will yield them more.*

We are really at a loss to determine whether Mr Southey’s reason for recommending large taxation is that it will make the people rich, or that it will make them poor. But we are sure that, if his object is to make them rich, he takes the wrong course.

It scarcely ever happens that any private man or body of men will invest property in a canal, a tunnel, or a bridge, but from an expectation that the outlay will be profitable to them. No work of this sort can be profitable to private speculators, unless the public be willing to pay for the use of it. The public will not pay of their own accord for what yields no profit or convenience to them.*

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* Even Edmund Burke (1729-1797), known in Westminster as a scourge of government overspend and empire-building, lauded taxation as a ‘refreshing rain’ irrigating the national economy. William Cobbett (1762-1835) set him straight in his characteristic, no-nonsense fashion: see Hard Rain.

* Or more precisely, for what they hope will yield profit or convenience. See The South Sea Bubble. On the other hand, some apparently hopeless investments can turn out surprisingly well. See The Investor of Nisibis.

Précis

In 1829, poet Robert Southey proposed a de-industrialised Britain in which increased taxes would be spent on infrastructure projects to boost national well-being. Thomas Babington Macaulay declared Southey’s plan doomed to fail, and began his explanation by saying that private investors take care to judge an infrastructure project on how much the public will use it.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Southey wanted taxes raised. He wanted the money spent on public works. Macaulay said it would be wasted.

See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.

ICall. IIHike. IIIWarn.

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