certained without prying into the privacies of the citizen; or subjecting his household to an inquisition. In like manner PUBLIC STOCKS ought to be selected above every thing else, and all visible capital that accumulates by interest or usury.

The antiquated doctrine, that all taxes fall ultimately upon land, has been long since exploded; and the rational maxim is now admitted, that the consumer pays the tax. This principle settles at once the equitable character of all imposts upon commodities, lands, or public stocks. But if there is finally any general interest upon which the onus of taxation rests, it is upon labour-for after all, labour is the fountain whence gushes all wealth, and the rock which endures all burdens, tempests, and storms.

Taxes upon personal income, are odious and oppressive-so, likewise, are all excises upon particular professions, trades and occupation. A tax upon shopkeepers, for example, equals the most arbitrary oppressions of despotic Turkey. No tax should ever enter a man's door, but by a voluntary act of his own. Tax his house, or his land, but nothing within "his castle,” or about his person.

All other modes of taxation are light and unoppressive, compared with that insidious and artful compound of impost, a public debt; or what is denominated the FUNDING SYSTEM. This, though not a tax in form, is a double one in reality. It operates as a perpetual and unceasing tax. First, the interest that accrues on it, must be paid by a tax. Second, by increasing the price of labour, it operates as a tax on industry; and thus burdens the community by a twofold operation. Yet a public debt, instead of being considered a tax, has been pronounced a blessing;-so artful are govern

ments to conceal their extortions, and palliate their misdeeds.

In the same way, all monied corporations are taxes upon industry, and every bank bill that issues, carries a burden upon labour. The taxation is indirect, to be sure, but it is not the less effectual; it is not less onerous than imposts on consumption; it is not so light and innoxious as a direct tax of the same amount.

In respect to government, taxes which abstract labour from the productive classes, to constitute the revenue of the nation, may be rendered not only innoxious, but positively beneficial to a country, through a judicious method of expenditure. By the encouragement of science; the cultivation of literature; the institution of colleges, universities, and other means of disseminating knowledge; by premiums for useful inventions; and manifold other applications of public revenue; this onerous burden on the working men of a nation, may be directed into the most beneficent and productive channels. I am aware that this public consumption of labour has been represented as wholly unproductive. This point will admit of contestation. The tax is again expended by government among the productive classes; whether we take the department of the navy, the army, the judiciary, or the legislature. Taxation is not a total destruction of value. The amount of labour abstracted, soon returns into the stream of circulation, and reunites with its congenial element.

Suppose a tax levied, to prosecute internal improvements. There is a positive and direct benefit derived from the partial abstraction of individual wealth to the public revenue. It is a productive consumption of value, which begets other values, and leads to compound labour. On the contrary, a tax applied to pamper

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court favourites in voluptuous pleasures and refinements, would be highly pernicious to a country, by the destruction of value, which could never be replaced. This is the case in Turkey, England, France, Russia, and the other monarchies of Europe and Asia.

Taxes may also be imposed in the form of lotteries. This is the most pernicious of all modes, because of the consumption of wealth, and destruction of value ; for it is accompanied by an effect which obstructs all production-idleness, speculation, and the countless evil attendants of the passion of gaming.

CHAPTER XXI.

Of Credit-Public Credit.

MAN, impatient of labour and eager in the pursuit of gain, is forever tempted to anticipate the future, in order to enjoy the present moment. Credit was one of the first fruits of this passion in commerce, as soon as wealth began to crown the efforts of industry. All were desirous to receive labour, without an immediate payment of an equivalent; but stipulating at a future day the payment of the amount agreed on between the parties. Hence the origin of commercial credit-promissory notes-bills of exchange-book credits, and other modes of specifying payment at a given period of futurity. In some cases, necessity and convenience were no doubt equally the inventors of this system, of which, indolence, rapacity and avarice soon availed themselves of the advantage.

This species of commercial credit would very soon extend itself to the utmost limits of human cupidity, as far as the convenience of trade, or the prospect of fortune allured enterprise, or tempted ambition. The danger of keeping large sums of money, together with the profits to be derived from lending out bills of credit, drawn upon the industry of those who labour, would speedily stimulate individuals to become bankers; as well to negotiate commercial exchanges, as for other purposes of discount and brokerage. The immense fortunes made by this absorption of the labour of the industrious, soon gave rise to incorporated companies,

or joint stock proprietors, under the denomination of banks; endowed by law with power to coin as much fictitious money as their rapacity should prompt to. The bills of these companies, called bank notes, are bills of credit, drawn upon the labour of society, for the exclusive profit of the proprietors of stock. At first these associations of stockholders were formed on the substantial basis of gold and silver capital: but as experience showed them that public faith, enforced by law, seldom or never brought any great demand for these metals, beyond the mere small coin currency-the idea was suggested of making banks on a capital entirely fictitious; or, with a metallic basis so small as to be equivalent to a fiction. Thus banks became instituted with one twentieth part of their capital only; the first instalment only being paid-the stock being then pledged, or hypothecated to the bank, and a loan obtained on it equivalent to the future instalments. Thus, as in compound labour, banks became the instrument of compound credit; generating one fictitious capital upon another, until the basis was entirely hidden in the clouds of fiction, and the fogs of interminable speculation. And this compound generation of credit, with all its profits, interest, and costs, falls exclusively upon labour. The bank becomes a mere machine for absorbing the product of industry. By lending out its capital with a prodigal hand, it can cause a rise in the price of property, by making money abundant, which will tempt the most sedate to view it as a flood of prosperity which cannot fail to enrich them. The tempting bait soon engulfs in ruin, not only the unwary adventurer, but with him, the whole community become losers to those who perceive the issue of the speculation. The bank now contracts its issues, or