O F THE

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF MANCHESTER.

An INQUIRY into the PRINCIPLES and LIMITS of TAXATION as a Branch of MORAL and POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY; by THOMAS PERCIVAL, M. D.. F. R. S. Lond. and Edinb. Member of the Royal Society of Medicine at Paris; of the Royal Soc. of Agriculture at Lyons; and of the Philofophical Soc. at Philadelphia, &c. &c.*

MAN

MANCHESTER MARCH 24, 1785.

AN has a natural right to life, liberty, and property. Life is the gift of God, and held under his difpofal and authority: Liberty is effential to the perfection of a rational, a moral,

and

• This little tract was written for difcuffion in the Literary and Philofophical Society, at a period when taxation was a fabject peculiarly interefting to the inhabitants of Manchester, on account of a recent duty on the cotton manufactory; which was afterwards repealed, through the candour and wisdom

of

and an accountable agent: And property refults from the exertion of thofe powers and faculties, which the Deity has bestowed, which duty calls forth into action, and which are neceffary to wellbeing, and even to felf-preservation. These feveral rights involve the lawfulness of their support, and the guilt of their invafion. An attack upon his life or liberty will justify a man, in the defence of them, even to the deprivation of the life or liberty of his enemy. And the invafion of his property will warrant his reprisals on the property of the invader. But the ability of an individual would frequently be inadequate to the defence or -protection of his rights; nor could he judge, with impartiality, concerning the punishment due to the violation of them. In a ftate of fociety, therefore, individuals give up to the civil magiftrate, as their representative, the right of protection and punishment. This right becomes a public one, and is to be defended by the collective power, and united expence of the community. From thefe principles flow the duty of allegiance, the authority of laws, and the claims of revenue. To refift the attack of foreign enemies, fleets and

of parliament. It was ballotted for infertion in a former volume of the Society's Memoirs, but was then withdrawn by the author, and has fince been revifed and enlarged. An Appendix is added, at the end of this volume, containing fupplementary notes and illuftrations.

armies must be provided; to fupport domeftic peace, to adminifter diftributive juftice, and to regulate the police of cities and diftricts, civil officers of various ranks and denominations are to be maintained and remunerated: And confiderable funds will be required for the encouragement of fcience, the advancement of arts, and the extenfion of commerce. Thus multiplied and complicated are the juft and neceffary charges of government.

The moral obligation to pay taxes refults from the ALLEGIANCE due to the fovereign power, for the PROTECTION which it affords to life, liberty and property; and for the energy which it exerts in the promotion of order, industry, virtue and happiness.

This obligation is common to the fubjects of every government; but under the happy conftitution of Great Britain, where fubfidies are never claimed by the fupreme magiftrate, without the confent of parliament, we become bound, by a VOLUNTARY COMPACT, made by our delegates, to contribute to the public exigencies, in fuch proportions, and according to fuch modes, as they have deliberately enacted.

And, by the refufal to grant fuch contributions, or by the evafion of them, we not only injure the public weal, but, indirectly, INVADE the PROPERTY of our FELLOW-CITIZENS, who must bear the bur

den of additional impofts, in consequence of our contumacious exemption.

The validity of these feveral obligations is equally clear and forcible. And as man is destined, by his intellectual powers and moral propenfities, no lefs than by his wants and weakneffes, for a ftate of fociety, the obligations are not merely voluntary, or of pofitive inftitution; but, fo far as they are effential to that focial ftate, originate in the law of nature, which can be deemed no other than the will of God. Yet, though government, in this fenfe, is of divine authority, it is so constituted by its adaption to the interefts and felicity of its fubjects. The rights of the people, therefore, are not only antecedent to, but included in those of the magistrate; and, consequently, there can never subsist a legitimate competition between them. Yet the hiftory of the world is one continued series of fuch competitions; and experience hath fully evinced, that they have generally fprung from the arrogance, the ambition and the defpotifm of rulers. To vindicate the facred and unalienable rights of the people is, in reality, to fubferve the true ends of government. A good citizen, under every legal, equitable, and well adminiftered polity, with duty and gratitude, will render unto Cafar the things that are Cafar's: But the decifion, concerning the things that are Cafar's, refts not on the unftable foundation of arbitrary will; and the appeal may, with confidence, be

made

made to the principles of reafon, of justice, and of patriotism. On these principles, I fhall endeavor to explain the limits of the feveral moral obligations, laid down in the three foregoing propofitions.* (A)

I. ALLEGIANCE is due for the PROTECTION of the fovereign power. But protection may be paid for at too high a rate. For, in every convention, a juft proportion fhould be preferved, between the price and the value of the commodity. "If, "to purchase a fword for my defence againft a "thief, I must empty my purfe, intereft will lead "me rather to make a compofition with the plun"derer; or prudence will dictate fome other lefs "chargeable means of fecurity."+ Lord Herbert of Cherbury relates, in his travels through Savoy, that "though the Duke had put extreme taxations " on his people, infomuch that they paid him not only a certain fum for every horse, cow, ox, "or fheep that they kept; but afterwards for every chimney; and, finally, every person by "the pole, which amounted to a piftole or four"teen fhillings a head or perfon, yet he wanted money: At which I did not fo much wonder, "as at the patience of his subjects." After the

The capitals refer to the notes in the appendix, which is placed at the end of the volume.

+ Abbé Raynal.

↑ Life of Lord Herbert,

B 3

cruel