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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.