much the taxes shall be, and who is to decide how much they
shall be, are always and in every stage of society questions of most
fundamental importance. And ever since men began to make history, a
very large part of what they have done, in the way of making history,
has been the attempt to settle these questions, whether by discussion
or by blows, whether in council chambers or on the battlefield. The
French Revolution of 1789, the most terrible political convulsion of
modern times, was caused chiefly by "too much taxes," and by the fact
that the people who paid the taxes were not the people who decided
what the taxes were to be. Our own Revolution, which made the United
States a nation independent of Great Britain, was brought on by the
disputed question as to who was to decide what taxes American citizens
must pay.

[Sidenote: What is taxation?]
What, then, are taxes? The question is one which is apt to come up,
sooner or later, to puzzle children. They find no difficulty in
understanding the butcher's bill for so many pounds of meat, or the
tailor's bill for so many suits of clothes, where the value received
is something that can be seen and handled. But the tax bill, though
it comes as inevitably as the autumnal frosts, bears no such obvious
relation to the incidents of domestic life; it is not quite so clear
what the money goes for; and hence it is apt to be paid by the head
of the household with more or less grumbling, while for the younger
members of the family it requires some explanation.

It only needs to be pointed out, however, that in every town some
things are done for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the town,
things which concern one person just as much as another. Thus roads
are made and kept in repair, school-houses are built and salaries paid
to school-teachers, there are constables who take criminals to jail,
there are engines for putting out fires, there are public libraries,
town cemeteries, and poor-houses. Money raised for these purposes,
which are supposed to concern all the inhabitants, is supposed to be
paid by all the inhabitants, each one furnishing his share; and the
share which each one pays is his town tax.

[Sidenote: Taxation and eminent domain.]
From this illustration it would appear that taxes are private property
taken for public purposes; and in making this statement we come
very near the truth. Taxes are portions of private property which a
government takes for its public