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CHAP. III.

_Of increased Taxation, as an Interior Cause of Decline.--Its
different Effects on Industry, according to the Degree to which it is
carried.--Its Effects on the People and on Government_.

There has been no instance of a government becoming more
economical, or less expensive, as it became older, even when the
nation itself was not increasing in wealth; but, in every nation that has
increased in wealth, the expenditure, on the part of government, has
augmented in a very rapid manner.

Amongst the interior causes of the decline of nations, and the
overthrow of governments, the increase of taxes has always been very
prominent. It is in the levying of taxes that the sovereign and the
subject act as if they were of opposite interests, or rather as if they
were enemies to each other.

In every case almost, where the subjects have rebelled against their
sovereign, or where they have abandoned their country to its enemies,
the discontents have been occasioned by taxes that were either too
heavy, imprudently laid on, or rigorously levied.

Sometimes the manner of laying on the tax has given the offence;
sometimes its nature, and sometimes its amount. The revolution in
England, in Charles the first's time, began about the manner of levying
a tax. The revolution of the American colonies began in the same way;
and it is generally at the manner that nations enjoying a certain degree
of freedom make objection. The excise had very nearly proved fatal to
the government of this country, as the stamp duties did to that of
France, and as the general amount and enormity of taxes did to the
Western Empire. {87}

---
{87} The system of taxation was ill understood amongst the Romans,
and its execution, under a military government, is always severe. The
Romans were so tormented, at last, that they lost all regard for their
country. Taxes seem to be the price we pay for the con-[end of page
#102] stitution we live under, and as they increase, the value of the
purchase lessens. The difference between value paid, and value
received, constitutes the advantage or loss of every bargain.
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Perhaps the chief motive for submitting to the difficulties, the
oppressions, and the burthens, which people submit to under
republican forms of government arises in deception. They seem to be
paying taxes to themselves, and for themselves, when, in reality, they
are not doing so any more than under a monarchy, where