PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 439 



mitted the several States that were parties thereto to interfere 

 with their mutual trade and commerce by multiple and conflict- 

 ing systems of taxation, was one of the principal factors that led 

 to the formation and adoption of the Federal Constitution. 



It is also now generally admitted that to the cruel and extraor- 

 dinary abuse of the power of taxation, more than to any other 

 one agency, is attributable not only the French Revolution, but the 

 extraordinary ferocity with which it was conducted. 



No text in the New Testament has been so little understood for 

 want of any recognition of its connection with the subject of taxa- 

 tion, as that one which declares that " it is easier for a camel to go 

 through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the 

 kingdom of God." By many theologians and secular advocates of 

 social reform the Russian Tolstoi being a recent notable exam- 

 ple of the latter it has been regarded as a disapproval of the at- 

 tainment or accumulation of wealth, and has doubtless served as 

 the basis for innumerable sermons on the " sin of riches ; " when a 

 little reflection and acquaintance with social economy would have 

 led to the conclusion, as Buckle has clearly expressed it, " that of 

 all the results which are produced among a people by their cli- 

 mate, food, and soil the accumulation of wealth is the most impor- 

 tant. For, although the progress of knowledge eventually accel- 

 erates the increase of wealth, it is nevertheless certain that in the 

 first formation of society, wealth must accumulate before knowl- 

 edge can begin, because without wealth there can be no taste or 

 leisure for that acquisition of knowledge on which the progress 

 of civilization depends." And surely a disapproval of this almost 

 self-evident truth could not have been the intent of an inspired 

 teacher. To understand the true meaning of this text it is neces- 

 sary to go back and consider the time and circumstances under 

 which the declaration it embodies was made. Judea at this period 

 was a subjugated Roman province, and what the wisest and best 

 men of Rome thought of the people of such provinces and of the 

 right of Rome to grind down the nations that it had subjugated, 

 is clearly shown by the following extract from the oration of 

 Cicero against Verres, who was prosecuted for extortion when 

 governor of the province of Sicily: "If," he said, "we have 

 esteemed the revenues of the provinces as the nerves of the 

 republic, we shall not hesitate to say that the order which raises 

 them is the mainstay of the other orders. The provinces ' and 

 countries subject to tribute are the lands of the Roman people. 

 If Verres is guilty, it is not because of his rapacious exactions, 

 but because he diverted them to his own use rather than to that of 

 the republic." And as for the sufferings of the tributary people, 

 he alludes to them for the necessities of his cause, but he regards 

 them of so little importance that in his oration for Fonteius he 



