on a matter of course, so that there is no effectual resistance
made to its power. Incapacity to pay comes at last, and defeats the
end; but, between incapacity and resistance, the difference is very
wide.

As calculators have been predicting the moment of a total stoppage to
the increase of revenue for nearly half a century; as ministers,
themselves, have never ventured to lay on a new burthen, except when
forced to it by necessity. {92} As taxes have been laid on at random,
in a manner similar to that in which the streets and houses of old cities
were built, without regularity or design, and as the effects predicted
have not taken place, it is fair to conclude, that the subject is not well
understood. If it were, the evil would be in the way to be obviated; but
still the conclusion would be the same, that increased taxation tends to
bring on discontent, and to drive men and capital from a country. The
degree of tendency, and the rapidity of its operations, are a question;
but respecting the tendency itself there can be no question.

Two things more are to be observed, relative to the effects of taxation,
as tending towards decline. The first is, that the taxes are levied by
and expended on men, who, having income only for their lives,

---
{92} Mr. Pitt seems an exception to this; but the establishment of a
sinking fund, at the end of the war, was as necessary for his
administration as any of the loans, during the war, were for Lord
North; and both measures required new taxes.
-=-

[end of page #108]

generally leave families in distress. Those who lose their parents when
young are often left destitute, and those who are farther advanced are
frequently ruined by being educated and accustomed to a rank in life
that they are not able to support. This is a very great evil, and is
renewed as it were every generation. As the revenues of a country
increase, this evil increases also: for, except what goes to the
proprietors of money in the stocks, all the public revenue, very nearly,
goes to people whose income perishes with themselves. To begin with
those who collect the taxes, custom-house officers, excise men,
collectors, and clerks of every rank and demonination =sic=, there is
not one in ten who does not die in indigence; and if he leaves a family,
he leaves it in distress.

It is no doubt the lot of the great bulk of mankind, that is to say, the
labouring part of the community in every country, to leave childre