ll
taxpayer is a levy of alms.

In effect, direct universal suffrage, counted by heads, is in local
society a discordant element, a monstrous system, to which it is
adverse. Constituted as this is, not by human judgment, but by the
preponderance of numbers and their force, its mechanism is determined
beforehand; it excludes certain wheels and connections.[4206] That
is why the legislator must write laws which reflect the nature of our
existence, or, at least, translate this as closely as he can, without
any gross contradiction. Nature herself presents him with ready-made
statutes.[4207] His business is to read these properly; he has already
transcribed the apportionment of burdens; he can now transcribe the
apportionment of rights.

So, we have seen, local society renders two distinct services[4208],
which, that the expenses of both may be met, require two distinct
assessments, one personal and the other real, one levied on everybody
and of which the amount is alike for all, and the other levied only on
those whose amount is based on what he spends, on the importance of his
business, and on the income from his real estate.--In strict equity,
the amount of the former should be equal to the average amount of the
latter; in effect, as has been shown, the services defrayed by the
former are as many, as diverse, and as precious, still more vital, and
not less costly than those of which the latter is the price. Of the
two interests which they represent, each, did it stand alone, would be
obliged to secure the same services, to take upon itself the whole of
the work; neither would obtain more in the dividend, and each would have
to pay the whole of the expense. Accordingly, each gains as much as the
other in the physical solidarity which binds them together. Hence, in
the legal bond which unites them they enter into it on an equal footing,
on condition that each is burdened or relived as much as the other, on
condition that if the latter assumes one-half of the expense the former
shall assume the other half, on condition that if the latter quota on
each one hundred francs expended against calamities and for public roads
is 50 francs, the former quota shall also be 50 francs.--Practically,
however, this is impossible. Three times out of four the former levy
with this apportionment would not be returned; through prudence as
well as humanity, the legislator is bound not to overburden the poor.
Recently, in organizing the g