96 ON TAXATION 



are occasions where such duties cause little or 

 no loss to the nation. Upon the whole, they 

 must, like all other duties and taxes, with certain 

 exceptions to which reference will be made, im- 

 pede the national progress ; but such obstruction 

 is in the nature of the case, and is not to be 

 deplored where the duties of government are 

 thoroughly well carried out; for without good 

 government a nation would quickly drop from 

 bad to worse. 



For the purpose of raising a revenue, capital 

 may be placed in three classes. In the first class 

 we must put such capital as may be partly 

 annexed by Government, with little or no dis- 

 advantage to the industrial progress of the nation. 

 In the second class we must put such capital as 

 cannot in any part be annexed without the 

 gravest disadvantage to the industrial progress 

 of the nation. It is necessary to have a third 

 class, because there is so much capital that can- 

 not be, even in part, annexed without causing 

 some palpable industrial disturbance, but with- 

 out any such disturbance as would amount to 

 the great disadvantage following annexations of 

 capital of the second class. 



In the chapter on the employment of capital 

 an attempt was made to show that waste is an 

 enormous consumer of capital, probably a far 

 more enormous consumer than Government itself, 

 which indeed is, necessarily, owing to the con- 

 stitution of mankind, an administrator of partly 

 wasted funds. 



One of the most wasteful things that men can 



