17926 on the coal duties in Scotland. 299 
ings, the manner in which the paradoxical phenomenon I 
have here stated is produced, let the following fact be ad. - 
verted to.. 
Little are many of thofe who call out loudly againft taxes, aware of 
the infinite benefits he derives from them; or of the dreadful ftate to 
which he would be reduced, were he deprived of the refources that 
thefe afford to his induftry. 
The expence of government is another fource of clamour to unthink- 
ing men in the prefent day; and the multitude have been taught to 
believe, that wherever the expence of government is fmall, the admi- 
niftration is good; and the reverfe. ‘his is one of thofe arguments 
well calculated to infiame the minds of the people; becaufe every one 
has a natural propenfity to believe, that men who have the handling 
of public money will mifapply it—which is a truth that will not be de- 
nied by any thinking perfon.— That fuch mifapplications may be found 
in every government, have no doubt : andin our own as readily as any 
other. This is a good argument for attention and a careful inveftiga- 
tion of particulars: but as tothe general argument, which proceeds on 
the fuppofition that abufes of any one government muft always be in 
Proportion to the expence of it when compared with that of another 
country, nothing can be more falfe. ; 
The expence of government muft ever keep pace in fome meafure 
“with the wealth of the people, governed; for a very obvious reafon ; 
viz. becaufe no man will lfave his private bufinefs or amufements, 
when his fortune is fuch as to permit him to indulge them, in order 
to appropriate his time to the public fundtions of the State; unlefs he 
fhall obtain emoluments proportioned to what he would confider as a 
fufficient compenfation ‘for his time. At the era of the. Union, for 
example, a merchant or manufacturer in Scotland, would have been 
reckoned a very refpectable man, who could afford to {pend a hundred 
pounds a year upon his family ; but at the prefent day it is nothing 
uncommon to finda merchant or manufacturer there who can fpend 
a thoufand pounds a year ; and a proportional advance hag taken place 
in other departments. It follows then, that one hundred pounds a 
year, fhould, at the Union, have been deemed nearly the fame tempta- 
tion for a man to abandon his private bufinefs, and accept of fome de- 
partment undér government, as a thousand pounds would now be. 
Can it therefore be fuppofed that the fame bufinefs can now be-carried 
on by government, at the fame expence as formerly ? ‘That is impof- 
fible. Does not every man in Edinburgh know, that the falaries of the 
Judges were lately confiderably augmented ; and that they are {till fo 
low, that it is with great difficulty government can find an advocate, of 
abilities, who enjoys good bufinefs, that will accept of a gown, till he 
has either made fo much money, or has become fo old, as to with for 
more eafe than he can enjoy while pradtifing at the bar. It is there- 
fore an unavoidable confequence, that in a wealthy country, the ex- 
pence of government muft of neceffity be greater in proportion to the 
functions it has to perform than in a poor one, altogether independent 
of mifmanagement or other circumftances, 
