768 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which, question, if any answer could be made, it must be that 

 those would suffer most who were weakest in mind or body, either 

 by nature or by position. Indeed, such persons would almost in- 

 fallibly be slaves. If there were any justice, therefore, in the 

 theory of justice under consideration, those who are the least ca- 

 pable of helping or defending themselves, being those to whom the 

 protection of Government is the most indispensable, ought to pay 

 the greatest share of its price ; the reverse of the true idea of dis- 

 tributive justice, which consists not in imitating but in redress- 

 ing the inequalities and wrongs of Nature. Government must be 

 regarded as so pre-eminently a concern of all that to determine 

 who are most interested in it is of no real importance. If a per- 

 son or class of persons receive so small a share of its benefit as 

 make it necessary to raise the question, there is something else 

 than taxation which is amiss, and the thing to be done is to rem- 

 edy the defect instead of recognizing it and making it a ground 

 for demanding less taxes." 



M. Menier, of France, widely known as a manufacturer of 

 chocolate, but who has shown himself to be an economist of re- 

 pute and a most valuable member of the French Chamber of 

 Deputies, in a comprehensive treatise on taxation (U Impost sur 

 le Capital, Paris, 1874 ; English translation, London, 1880) re- en- 

 forces the conclusions of Mr. Mill respecting the popular theory 

 of discriminating taxation by different though not less forcible 

 arguments and illustrations, taking as a text the following remark 

 of M. Le*on Faucher, another distinguished French writer on eco- 

 nomic subjects : " It seems just that he who, thanks to his talents, 

 to his property, or his capital, procures for himself and his family 

 the enjoyments of luxury should pay to the state a tribute pro- 

 portionately more considerable than he who has only the produce 

 of his daily labor to nourish and bring up his family." " To 

 those," says M. Menier, " who do not reflect, nothing seems more 

 simple than this proposition. A minimum of wants is spared 

 taxation. In proportion as income increases the tax increases. 

 Let us see the consequences. 



" A principle is or is not. A principle recognized as true ought 

 never to be given up, whatever may be its apparent dangers. Once 

 admitted, it must be submitted to, followed out to the end, and its 

 consequences accepted. If by following out its consequences we 

 perceive that we are getting at the absurd, we must return to the 

 principle, and subject it again to the touch of observation. There 

 are many who content themselves with stopping halfway, not 

 daring to advance, and afraid to turn back to discuss the principle 

 on which they have long relied. They are the inventors of 

 compromises, who adjourn questions instead of solving them. 



" But taxation, it is claimed, may be ' wisely progressive/ I 



