290 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and can have, therefore, but one meaning namely, money j be- 

 cause money is the indispensable and practically the only means 

 of defraying the expenses of the state and efficiently administering 

 its government ; and taxation is the process by which the state 

 obtains money from its citizens, who in turn obtain (as before 

 pointed out see Chapter III) it in exchange for some product of 

 their labor or for some direct personal service. In short, money 

 is an expedient that finds its sole justification in its adaptation to 

 a special purpose. 



At the same time it is important to bear in mind that the 

 raising or procurement of money with the view or purpose of 

 accumulating wealth is not a legitimate function or object of 

 civil government. 



This point, which, stated and regarded as an abstract proposi- 

 tion, may seem to the reader as a matter of interest but of little 

 practical importance, finds a very interesting and most instruc- 

 tive exemplification in the recent attempt to govern South Africa 

 by means of a chartered company "The South African Com- 

 pany." The attempt failed by the confusing on the part of the 

 company of two things which are absolutely irreconcilable and 

 ought never to be associated namely, the prerogative of govern- 

 ing men on the one hand and the desire of making money on the 

 other. This the company in question attempted to do by taxing 

 the inhabitants of the territory embraced in its charter for the 

 purpose of making dividends for shareholders, who as a rule did 

 not live in the country, but mainly in England. The result has 

 been a thoroughly vicious and intolerable form of government, 

 one which "has operated to deaden the sense of responsibility 

 among the rulers, who are here to-day but are gone to-morrow, 

 and answerable to nobody but the company." 



Now, if these premises are correct and it is difficult to see 

 how they can be disproved it would seem to follow that to seek 

 to make taxation, which is a fit contrivance only for raising rev- 

 enue, an instrument for effecting some ulterior purpose, be it 

 never so just and legitimate, to seek to use it for the attainment 

 of any other advantage than the obvious one of raising money, is 

 to lose sight of a fundamental principle of every free government 

 and to forbid all expectation of recognizing any other basis for 

 the exercise of this great sovereign power of the state than expe- 

 diency, which in turn will depend upon the actions, passions, and 



able in tobacco ; and in Massachusetts, Indian corn, musket balls, dried peas, cattle, and 

 beaver skins were made legal tender for the payment of taxes until the early years of the 

 eighteenth century. Ultimately, and in all cases as civilization advanced, such media for 

 the payment of taxes, or the discharge of other forms of indebtedness, have been found to 

 result in terrible currency confusion and to be wholly impracticable. 



