2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



expression in Rhode Island in a law that was passed in 1673, by 

 which it was provided that, under certain circumstances, a citizen 

 might be required " to give in writing what proportion of estate 

 and strength in particular, he guesseth ten of his neighbors, nameing 

 them in particular, hath in estate and strength to his estate and 

 strength." It is only fair to add, however, that this law was in- 

 tended to prevent tax-dodging, and only required a man to guess 

 with respect to the relative size of his neighbors' estates to his own, 

 when he himself was suspected of having undervalued his own 

 estate. Yery curiously this ancient law and practice find expression 

 to this day in Rhode Island in the circumstance that no citizen of 

 that State is qualified to vote upon any proposition to impose a tax, 

 or for authorizing the expenditure of public money, that has not 

 paid a personal property tax six days preceding such day of voting. 

 Lists of persons who are or may be qualified to vote generally are 

 published and placarded before election, with prefixes to each name, 

 showing the electoral qualification of its representative on the list, 

 whether the same is dependent on real estate or personal property 

 taxation. Any person who shall take down or destroy this list once 

 placarded is liable to a fine of three hundred dollars, or three months' 

 imprisonment. 



Then again very little of a citizen's property was situated without 

 the territorial jurisdiction of the taxing power, or indeed without 

 the territorial limits of the hamlet, town, or city in which the citizen 

 lived. Then a man could not very conveniently live in one place 

 and do business in another. Within a century an English court has 

 declared a contract invalid which stipulated that one of the parties 

 thereto should do an act in London and Oxford the same day, because 

 the stipulation involved in this particular an impossibility. Now 

 the distance involved could be traversed in about an hour. The 

 nature of property, as well as the means for moving it, was also 

 such as to render all transportation difficult, and rapid transporta- 

 tion impossible. The discrepancy in taxation as respects different 

 places was also so small that no great advantage could be gained by 

 shifting one's residence or property for the sake of evading taxation; 

 and the difficulty and inconvenience of so doing were so great that 

 the temptation could hardly have existed. But even in the most 

 simple condition of society the practical application of what may 

 be properly termed the " infinitesimal " system of taxation must 

 have been always attended with great difficulties, for the reason that 

 it involved and necessitated personal inquisitions, than which there 

 is nothing in government that men more dislike and resist; and, in 

 the language of a committee of the French National Assembly of 

 1789 (of which Talleyrand and Larochefoucald were members), the 



