A N

APPENDIX

то THE

INQUIRY CONCERNING THE

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION;

CONSISTING OF SUPPLEMENTARY

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

ADVERTISEMENT.

IN the following Notes the Author has not deemed it neceffary to confine himself ftrictly to the fubject of Taxation; but has touched upon various other topics, relative to political ceconomy, and to the foundation of civil government. As thefe are intimately connected with, and illuftrate each other, he trufts the reader will excufe the latitude he has taken, in this Appendix; which is inferted at the end of the prefent volume, rather than at the close of his Differtation, on account of the length to which it has been extended.

APRIL I, 1789.

A

LEARNED friend, of diftinguifhed rank both in the church and in the republic of letters, to whom I communicated the Inquiry concerning the Principles of Taxation, "regards property "as very much the creature of civil fociety, and the fupreme "magiftrate as authorized to apply the whole of the property of "every individual, to the use of the whole community.”*

Notwithstanding the deference and refpect I feel for the decifion of one, whom I know to be a very able judge of the fubject of legiflation; yet I am strongly inclined to controvert the doctrine advanced, which by leaving nothing that a man may call his own, (to adopt the expreffion of Lord Clarendon), feems to fubvert the interest we have in Society itself.

I. A defire of poffeffion, and tenaciousness of what is attained. are manifested in the earliest stages of life. They are modifications of one and the fame principle, which grows with our growth, is independent of fociety, and fubfifts in as full force among favages as in the most cultivated nations. The like principle is common even to the brutes. The beaft of prey

* A fimilar opinion is advanced by Puffendorf,

afferts

afferts an exclufive right to his den, and to the provifions he has stored for himself, or for his offspring. The cock drives every invader from his dunghil. And the rooks punish with severity the marauders, that come to pilfer their nefts. But to enter into a discussion of the origin of property would exceed the limits of a note. Suffice it to obferve, that we can clearly deduce it from the neceffities, the defires, the affections, and other active energies of man. Of these energies, civil fociety is the confequence and not the cause; and its office is to regulate them, to augment their vigour, and to afford more complete fecurity in whatever is acquired by them. If, therefore, the powers of his nature be man's exclufive right, every thing refulting from them must be equally appropriate. And the juft claim of government extends only to an equivalent to the benefits enjoyed under it.

II. Juftice, fidelity, and veracity imply, in their exercise, the focial ftate: But their obligation is independent of, and prefuppofed by the political union; and conftitutes its only rational and legitimate bond. Is property, more than those moral virtues, the creature of civil fociety? All of them may fubfift without government: For if only two men dwelt together on a defart island in a state of perfect equality, each would have his appropriate rights of poffeffion; and the claim to juftice, fidelity, and veracity would be reciprocal.

III. The focial union is a combination of numbers, for mutual affiftance, comfort, improvement, and protection. If every individual concur in the public acts of fuch a community, at the first view, there might seem to be no violation of private rights. It should be remembered, however, that the circumstances and opinions of those individuals may vary in the lapfe of time; and that the rights of pofterity, alfo, are involved in their decifions. The present inhabitants of Denmark are now enslaved by the rafh furrender of their liberties, which was made in 1660. Befides, the public acts of a community, if large, muft neceffarily be acts only of the majority: And a majority may, indeed frequently does, as the hiftory of all nations evinces, commit violence on the rights of the minority.

Fanaticilm

Fanaticism, like that which fubfifted amongst the anabaptists of Munfter, about two centuries ago, may induce the civil magistrate to order every man to bring forth his gold, filver, and precious effects, to be depofited in a public treasury, and to be difpenfed, for common ufe. But this would be an act of power, not of justice or legitimate authority.

IV. Grants of money, in almost every country, are made on express conditions, and as voluntary facrifices of private rights to public good.

* Whenever the public good requires the involuntary facrifice of the good of an individual, great attention is paid, in all just and moderate governments, to do as little violence as poffible; and to make full recompenfe for the injury fuftained. This feems to be an unequivocal acknowledgment of the existence of private property, in the ftrictest sense of the word.

V. As every man has a natural right to life, he must have the fame natural right to the means of supporting life. On this principle, the Athenians feem to have confidered that share of a man's property, which is neceffary to his fubfiftence, as abfolutely exempt from taxation. Thus a rent of five hundred measures of corn was affeffed in the yearly contribution of a talent. A rent of three hundred paid half a talent. A rent of two hundred paid one fixth of a talent; and land of a lower produce paid no fubfidies at all. In the early days of Rome, feven acres were the utmost extent of landed property, which a Roman citizen was allowed to hold. This portion was, probably, not more than adequate to the fupply of a family.

VI. There is a species of acknowledged property appertaining to states, over which they exercise an exclufive power of disposal, which bears a close analogy to private poffeffions. It confifts in crown-lands, public buildings, highways, fortifications, &c. Can public levies, to a confiderable extent be, like this, regarded as the abfolute right of the civil magiftrate?

VII. But it may be urged, that the greateft part of property, whether perfonal or real, is enjoyed by inheritance under the

Dominium eminens: Tranfcendental property.

authority