PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 477 



is only mitigated by the aid that comes through the extraordinary 

 pension fund extablished and distributed by the British Colonial 

 government. The Duke of Argyll, who has been Secretary of 

 State for India, tells us that " those only who have had any share 

 in the government of India can know what the anxiety is arising 

 out of such conditions of population " ; and extensive emigration 

 is now advocated as the best remedial action that can be taken. 

 Making allowance for different standpoints of observation, Mr. 

 Keay and Sir Richard Temple were, therefore, both right in 

 their conclusions. D. A. W. 



To the Reader : With the publication of the chapter in this 

 number of the Popular Science Monthly on " The Tax Experiences 

 of Switzerland," the first part of the plan laid out by the writer 

 for discussing the Principles of Taxation comes to a conclusion. 

 This plan, apart from an introductory survey of the subject, and 

 a review of the interesting and most instructive tax experiences 

 of the United States consequent on the civil war, and with which 

 the writer (as chairman of the United States Revenue Commis- 

 sion in 1865, and as United States Special Commissioner of Rev- 

 enue from 1866 to 1870), was officially and closely associated 

 (Chapters I and II), was to set forth the position of taxation in 

 literature and history ; and more especially to narrate the most 

 notable experiences of different countries and nations in compel- 

 ling contributions or exactions for the support of the state from 

 the people governed, and the far-reaching and important results 

 that have been contingent upon and have followed the different 

 policies that have been adopted for such a purpose. The under- 

 lying idea that suggested this plan was as follows : 



Every person of ordinary intelligence, if questioned, will prob- 

 ably admit that the subject of taxation is one of the most impor- 

 tant that can concern the masses of the people ; and that their well- 

 being and the continuance of good government, and even of civi- 

 lization itself, are more dependent on the involved power of its 

 administration and discretionary incidence than upon any other 

 agency a power so great that its right exercise in even the small- 

 est degree, according to the late Chief- Justice Marshall, " involves 

 the right to destroy." And yet the same citizen will probably say 

 that the subject, as ordinarily presented and discussed, is so dry 

 and uninteresting as to be exceedingly unattractive, and even repel- 

 lent ; that the conflict of opinion on the part of those who through 

 study claim to understand it is so diverse that any general concur- 

 rence of opinion in regard to fundamental principles is impossible ; 

 and, finally, that all experience shows that by reason of this state 

 of things mercenary and political considerations necessarily pre- 

 dominate in the construction of any general system of taxation. 



