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be deprived of life, liberty or property, except by due process of law ; 

 secondly, the practical independence of the judiciary ; and, finally, the 

 exclusive control of the limit, and the ways and means of taxation, by 

 the legislative department. Ultimately, however, the governmental, or 

 regal, power was, in England, transferred from the king to a parliamen- 

 tary commission, depending, in effect, for the continuance of its official 

 existence, upon the House of Commons ; by which, on the whole, the 

 function is fairly well administered. But in this country, while the gov- 

 ernmental functions are still, to a considerable extent, left in the President, 

 or other head of the government, they have, in the main, been absorbed 

 by the legislative department, and are necessarily exercised by it through 

 committees of a temporary nature, generally unknown to the public, ami 

 hence, to a large degree, irresponsible. Thus the governmental, and the 

 legislative functions, having become, in the main, united in the legislative 

 body, the power of taxation has become entirely unlimited, and the prop- 

 erty of the citizen has come to be wholly at the mercy of the irresponsible 

 power of the legislature ; and thus, the principle of the immunity of 

 private property from governmental aggression, established in the mother 

 country by the bloody struggles of six hundred years, has been entirely 

 eradicated from our Constitution. The only difference is, that the unlim- 

 ited power of taking the property of the citizen, once asserted by the 

 king, who might, at times, be able and honest, is now freely exercised, 

 without challenge, by bodies of men, who, experience seems to teach 

 us, cannot possibly be either. Hence has resulted the constant increase 

 of taxation, both in the federal and constituent States, and in municipal- 

 ities and counties ; and the obvious fact is disregarded, that taxation may 

 be carried to the extent of actual confiscation of all visible property, and 

 may thus result — as it did in the case of the Roman empire — in the actual 

 destruction of the State. For this evil, the obvious remedy would seem 

 to be, to take from tlie legislative, and to restore to the governmental 

 department, all strictly governmental functions, including the initiative of 

 all legislation, and especially of legislation determining the amount of 

 money required for the needs of the government, but leaving to the legis- 

 lature, to whom the function properly belongs, the initiative of deter- 

 mining the ways and means of raising the amount required. 



This, indeed, would necessitate a large increase in the powers and 

 functions of the government, or governmental department. But this, 

 too, is desirable, and indeed is one of the most pressing demands of our 

 age and country ; and it cannot be doubted that governments vested with 

 larger powers and more responsible functions, and thus naturally enjoy- 

 ing that respect and consideration for the governmental power that has 

 almost died out with us, would be capable of more efficient service than 

 under our present system. 



(9) The nature of the governmental power is more complicated and 

 less familiar than that of the legislative department. It is best expressed 

 by the terms, royal, regal, imperial ; all of which have been applied to it 



