i86 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is, even among those least swayed by this awe, a vague faith in the im- 

 mediate possibility of something much better than now exists a tacit 

 assumption that, even with men as they now are, public affairs might 

 be much better managed. The mental attitude of such may be best 

 displayed by an imaginary conversation between one of them and a 

 member of the Legislature. 



" Why do your agents, with no warrant but a guess, make this 

 surcharge on my income-tax return ; leaving me to pay an amount that 

 is not due, and to establish a precedent for future like payments, or 

 else to lose valuable time in proving their assessment excessive, and, 

 while so doing, to expose all my affairs? You leave me to choose 

 between two losses, direct and indirect, for the sole reason that your 

 assessor fancies, or professes to fancy, that I have understated my in- 

 come. Why do you allow this ? Why in this case do you invert the 

 principle which, in cases between citizens, you hold to be an equitable 

 one the principle that a claim must be proved by him who makes it, 

 not disproved by him against whom it is made ? Is it in pursuance 

 of old political usages that you do this ? Is it to harmonize with the 

 practice of making one whom you had falsely accused pay the costs of 

 his defence, although in suits between citizens you require the loser to 

 bear all the expense ? a practice you have but lately relinquished. 

 Do you desire to keep up the spirit of the good old rulers who im- 

 pressed laborers and paid them what they pleased, or the still older 

 ones who seized whatever they wanted ? Would you maintain this 

 tradition by laying hands on as much as possible of my earnings and 

 leaving me to get part of it back if I can : expecting, indeed, that I 

 shall very likely submit to the loss rather than undergo the worry, 

 and hindrance, and injury, needful to recover what you have wrong- 

 fully taken ? I was brought up to regard the Government and its 

 officers as my protectors; and now I find them aggressors against 

 whom I have to defend myself." 



" What would you have ? Our agents could not bring forward 

 proof that an income-tax return was less than it should be. Either the 

 present method must be pursued, or the tax must be abandoned." 



" I have no concern with your alternative. I have merely to point 

 out that betw T een man and man you recognize no such plea. When a 

 plaintiff makes a claim but cannot produce evidence, you do not make 

 the defendant submit if he fails to show that the claim is groundless. 

 You say that, if no evidence can be given, nothing can be done. 

 Why do you ignore this principle when your agents make the claim ? 

 Why from the fountain of equity comes there this inequity ? Is it to 

 maintain consistency with that system of criminal jurisprudence under 

 which, w r hile professing to hold a man innocent till proved guilty, you 

 treat him before trial like a convict as you did Dr. Hessel ? Are 

 your views really represented by these Middlesex magistrates you 

 have appointed, who see no hardship to a man of culture in the seclu- 



