402 POLITICAL SCIENCE.
their appropriate work in fidelity by the fear of being brought
before the courts, of losing their charters, and possibly of
fine and even confiscation.
§ 246.
V. When, in the progress of society, a people substitutes
Taxing power of tne payment of taxes for personal service in
the state. faQ army ancj elsewhere, a double danger is in-
curred ; trained mercenaries are supported, who have a looser
connection with the nation than with the government, and
the nation loses the power of resistance to armed force, and
has less sway by its opinion, over the government, than
before. Hence, as we have seen, political rights have more
to do with the control of the people over the taxes than with
any other political action. It is a rule of safety and of justice,
that of all powers the taxing power should be kept closest in the
hands of the people by the constitution. The system of taxes
must neither favor nor oppress any class or kind of industry.
To tax the fewest articles and the least necessary, especially
those which will not be lessened in their consumption by the
tax because they are used by a wealthy class, will least inter-
fere with the pursuits of industry. Questions of ease and
cheapness of collection, and of so taxing as to prevent and
even not lay a snare for false returns;, are of extreme impor-
tance. Nor ought a people to be deceived by any indirect
process in which the expenses of the government are defrayed.
But the subject of taxation runs out on its practical side into
endless details; one branch of political economy is finance,
and on that branch nations hitherto have been only ap-
proaching towards settled views. A good system of taxes
founded on true principles is economical, not only by not
over-burdening industry, but by allowing it to expand with-
out needless restrictions.
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