NATIONAL TAXES 49 



England, in the sense that the nation has a 

 right to the whole or part of the rental, and 

 that a special tax on land-values is only the 

 assertion of this just claim, is in the light 

 of history an absurdity. No doubt the 

 people of England, or the Parliament in 

 which the sovereign power of the people is 

 vested, has the right of imposing any taxes 

 whatever, just as it has the right of putting 

 to death anyone of its subjects simply to 

 encourage the others. But in civilised 

 countries the exercise of arbitrary power 

 has long since been abandoned. Even in 

 the matter of taxation, it is absurd to say 

 that the State can impose any taxes it 

 chooses, if that means that under the name 

 of a tax it can appropriate the lands of 

 individuals regardless not only of contract, 

 but of well-established custom. 



We must next consider, then, if special 

 differential taxation of land is justifiable 



D 



