40 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



rescntalives in the Government were the only or even the principal 

 benefit received from Government, there miglit be the iijij^hest reason 

 in exempting the non-votins^ infant or alien from taxation ; but this 

 privilege to any particular individual, as compared with the protec- 

 tion of life, liberty and property, is really insignifican ; and so long 

 as all persons cannot participate in Government, the limits of exclu- 

 sion and admission must always be determined on considerations of 

 general public policy. 



It is not doubted that, so far as can be prudentl}- and safely per- 

 mitted, all who are to pa}' taxes should be allowed a voice in raising 

 them ; if for no other reason, because those the}' vote for they will 

 more willingly and cheerfully pay ; as Locke expresses it in his 

 Treatise on Civil Government, when comparing a burden imposed 

 with one voluntarily assumed, ''it may be all one to the purse, but 

 worketh diversely to the courage." 



But the maxim that taxation and representation go together is 

 only true when understood in a territorial sense, which embraces the 

 State at large ; every person in the State being represented in its 

 Legislature, and that body determining the taxation not only for the 

 State at large, but also, within certain limits, for each division and 

 municipality of the State. 



All definitions of taxation imply that it is to be imposed only for 

 public purposes. This is as true under one form of government as 

 under another. But it is the right and duty, in the first instance, of 

 the legislative department to determine what are, and what are not, 

 public purposes. It falls there of necessity, because the taxing 

 power is a branch of the legislative, and the Legislature cannot lie 

 under the necessit}' of requiring the opinion or the consent of 

 another department of the Government before it will be at liberty to 

 exercise one of its acknowledged powers. 



The Legislature must, consequently, determine for itself in every 

 instance, whether a particular purpose is or is not one which so far 

 concerns the public as to render taxation admissible. 



But it is also true that the legislative determination on this sub- 

 ject is not absoluteh' conclusive. It may be sufficientl}' so to put 

 the administrative machinery of the State in motion, but when the 

 exaction is made of an individual, and the power of the State is 

 made use of to compel submission, he has always the right to invoke 

 the protection of the law ; and the courts cannot refuse to pass 

 judgment, otherwise an unlimited power in the Legislature to make 



