The Revolution 359 



absurd in theory. I am informed (February 1792) that the 

 confusion arising from this cause in almost every part of the 

 kingdom is great. The tax of 300,000^000 laid on the rental of 

 France would not be more than 2s. 6d. in the pound; too great 

 a burden on just political principles, but not a very oppressive 

 one, had it been once fairly assessed, and never afterwards varied. 

 But, by pursuing the jargon of the produit net, and making it 

 variable, instead of fixed, every species of inconvenience and 

 uncertainty has arisen. The assembly divided the total among 

 the departments ; the departments the quotasamor\g the districts ; 

 the districts among the municipalities; and the municipalities 

 assembled for the assessment of individuals: the same decree 

 that fixed the tax at 300,000,000 limited it also not to exceed 

 one-fifth of the produit net ; every man had therefore a power 

 to reject any assessment that exceeded that proportion; the 

 consequence was, the total assigned to the municipalities was 

 scarcely anywhere to be found but upon large farms let at a 

 money-rent in the north of France; among the small proprietors 

 of a few acres, which spread over so large a part of the kingdom, 

 they all screened themselves under definitions of what the produit 

 net meant; and the result was, that the month of December, 

 which ought to have produced 40,000,000, really produced but 

 14,000,000. So practicable has this visionary' nonsense of the 

 produit net proved, under the dispensations of a mere democrac}-, 

 though acting nojninally ^ by representatives. The fact has 

 been, that this ill conceived and ill laid land tax, which, under a 

 different management, and under the orderly government of the 

 settled part of America, might have been effectively productive, 

 has been so contrived that it never will, and never can, produce 

 what itwasestimated atin France. The people, without property, 

 have a direct interest in seconding the refusals of others to pay 

 that are in the lowest classes of property, and who can really ill 

 afford it; one great objection to all land taxes, where possessions 

 are much divided. With power in such hands, the refusal is 

 effective, and the national treasury is empty. But supposing 

 such enormous difficulties overcome, and these little properties 

 valued and taxed on some practicable plan, from that moment 

 there must be a new valuation tvery year; for, if one has wealth 

 enough to improve beyond the capacity of the rest, they im- 

 mediately shift a proportion of their tax on him; and this has 



^ Whether nominally or really is not of consequence, if effective qualifica- 

 tions of property be not, at every step, the guard, as in the .American 

 constitutions. — Author's note. 



