580 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



definition, however, which makes no distinction between contri- 

 butions levied at his unrestrained will or caprice, and for any 

 purpose, by a bandit whom circumstances have raised to the head 

 and government of a petty tribe or community ; or by an abso- 

 lute and ignorant Oriental potentate, like Ismail Pasha, Khedive 

 of Egypt (1863-'79) ; * or by a European monarch, like Louis XIV, 

 who said, " I am the state," and those contributions which repre- 

 sent that part of the wealth of a state which is taken from its 

 citizens with their free consent for exclusive public purposes, in 

 accordance with a well-defined and intelligent public policy ; a 

 definition that recognizes no distinction between these two meth- 

 ods and objects of taking, obviously can not be scientifically 

 correct ; for there can be no more analogy between the two meth- 

 ods than between a payment for value received and an act of 

 highway robbery. \ Obviously, also, there can be no science of 

 taxation predicated or formulated on such a definition, for there 

 can be no science of irregularity and arbitrary action. 



Again : " So long as people use words which have no precise 

 signification, which may be interpreted in a variety of ways, and 

 which present at once to the mind different ideas more or less 

 obscure, more or less mixed up with one another, there will be 

 uncertainty in the theory, or rather there will be a vague, incom- 

 plete, and ill-co-ordinated theory ; and then, as all practice is 

 the application of a theory, the practice resulting from it will be 

 faulty." M. Menier. 



The celebrated French economist above quoted also makes the 

 following well- warranted criticism on the current definitions of 

 taxation : " They have," he says, " one general fault : they try to 

 point out the employment of taxes, but they do not show the 

 origin of taxes." 



What, then, will be a correct definition of a tax ? 



" The definition of both Webster (Daniel) and Story (Juptice) is, that a tax is a contri- 

 bution imposed by Government on individuals for the service of the State." Miller, on the 

 Constitution of the United States, p. 235. 



" Taxes are defined as the enforced proportional contribution of persons and property 

 levied by the authority of the State for the support of the Government and for all public 

 needs." Cooley on Taxation, p. 1. 



" A tax is a portion, or the value of a portion, of the property or labor of individuals 

 taken from them by Government and placed at its disposal." /. R. McCulloch. 



* The revenue annually exacted, under the name of taxation, by Ismail Pasha, espe- 

 cially during the latter years of his reign, from an exceedingly poor population a little in 

 excess of five million in number, was reported to have been about $75,000,000. 



f Despotic rulers in all ages of the type of Louis XIV, the Khedives of Egypt, the Sul- 

 tans of Turkey, and the Czars of Russia have undoubtedly regarded their expenditures of 

 money exacted under the name of taxation from their subjects for the maintenance of 

 great armies, harems, mistresses, pensions to favorites, and the like, as for legitimate pub- 

 lic purposes. 



