XXll INTRODUCTION. 



spected, and punisliing breaches of the laws concerning 

 it ; and it will guarantee the proprietor against arbitrary- 

 exactions. The taxes should be regulated in such a 

 manner as to take from the agriculturist only a portion 

 of the increase arising from his labors ; for, if he have 

 no surplus over his immediate wants, there will remain 

 to him neither the means of improving his modes of cul- 

 tivation, nor of supporting his family with comfort ; 

 neither will it be possible for him to renew his stock of 

 domestic animals, nor to augment their number. Any 

 government which does not leave to the farmer a 

 great part of the profits proceeding from his harvests, 

 soon puts a stop to the production of them, and thus real- 

 izes the fable of the goose with golden eggs. 



By encouraging improvements in agriculture, and fa- 

 voring the increase of production, government enriches 

 the agriculturist less than its own revenues ; since by 

 these means the quantity of taxable matter is increased, 

 and the right of government recognised under all its 

 forms, whether the article produced be employed in its 

 crude state for domestic use, or whether it furnish the 

 workshop of the artisan with the materials of his handi- 

 craft. 



Though the territorial imposts have been much dimin- 

 ished within a few years, they are still far too high for the 

 prosperity of agriculture. A bad harvest, a mortality 

 amongst the animals upon a domain, or a prevailing ep- 

 idemic, exhausts the scanty store which the economy of 

 the farmer had enabled him to reserve from a favorable 

 season ; and thus the greater part of them are forced 

 to contract debts. A succession of abundant harvests 



