578 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of effects to warrant the drawing of general and correct infer- 

 ences, it is nevertheless probably true that there is not, at the 

 present time, a single existing tax, decreed by despotism, or au- 

 thorized by the representatives of the taxpayers, which has been 

 primarily adopted, or enacted solely with reference to any eco- 

 nomic principles, or which has sought to establish the largest 

 practical conformity under concurrent circumstances to what are 

 acknowledged to be the fundamental principles of equity, justice, 

 and rational liberty. But, on the contrary, the influence of tem- 

 porary circumstances, as viewed, in most instances, from the 

 standpoint of a governmental administration despotic or re- 

 publican alike desirous of retaining power, has ever been the 

 controlling motive in determining the character of taxation ; or, 

 as Colbert, the celebrated finance minister of Louis XIV, is re- 

 ported to have expressed it, in saying that " the art of taxation 

 consists in so plucking the goose [i. e., the people] as to procure 

 the largest quantity of feathers with the least possible amount of 

 squawking." Hence, apart from its methods of distributing power 

 and patronage, the popular idea of evil, as connected with gov- 

 ernment, may almost always be referred back to unequal or ex- 

 cessive exactions ; and to the reality of which, as evils, more than 

 to any other one agency, may be referred most of he world's 

 political revolutions, and the ferocity with which, as was notably 

 the case in France, they have been often conducted. Hence, 



revenue cats. The horse, the ass, the goat, the hog, the chicken, the dog, the goose all 

 contribute their mites to the support of the state, said this financial reformer. The cat 

 alone is a parasite, paying nothing to any one and preying upon every one. But is the pro- 

 ject really practicable ? Certainly it is, replies its author, and he forthwith sets himself to 

 prove it. Every cat for which the tax a rather heavy sum is paid, would receive an offi- 

 cial colored ribbon for its neck, with a number and a government stamp. Every feline de- 

 faulter found without this ribbon would be seized and temporarily confined in the Cats' 

 Home. If not redeemed before the lapse of a fixed term say eight days it would be 

 sold or poisoned by the state." 



" A tax on beards was in operation for a long time and under various forms in Russia. 

 Peter the Great, knowing the attachment that his subjects had for the hirsute adornment 

 of the face, introduced a tax upon the beard in his empire. The beard is a superfluous 

 and useless ornament, said he, and, starting from this principle, he imposed a tax upon it 

 as an article of luxury. This tax was proportional and progressive, not in proportion to 

 the length of the beard, but to the social position of those who wore it. Each person upon 

 paying his tax received a token, which he had to carry upon his person, for the guards were 

 nexorable, and, always provided with scissors, ruthlessly cut off the beard of those who 

 could not show their badge." 



" Catharine I confirmed this tax. In 1728 Peter II allowed the peasants to wear a beard, 

 but kept up the tax for the other classes under the penalty of work on the galleys in the 

 case of non-payment. Czarina Anne rendered life still harder to bearded men, for not only 

 were they obliged to pay the special contribution imposed upon them, but also had to pay a 

 double tax upon everything else for which they were assessed. This tax was not abolished 

 until the reign of Catharine II (1 '762-1798)." 



