104 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii. 



must necessarily increase the proportion of de- 

 mand to the supply ; and the conversion of the 

 revenue of individuals into the revenue of the 

 government, which is the effect of taxes properly 

 imposed, hov^^ever hard upon the individuals so 

 taxed, can have no tendency to diminish the 

 general amount of demand. It will of course 

 diminish the demands of the persons taxed by 

 diminishing their powers ofpurchasing; but to the 

 exact amount that the powers of these persons are 

 diminished, will the powers of the government 

 and of those employed by it be increased. If an 

 estate of five thousand a year has a mortgage 

 upon it of two thousand, two families, both in 

 very good circumstances, may be living upon the 

 rents of it, and both have considerable demands 

 for houses, furniture, carriages, broad cloth, silks, 

 cottons, &c. The man who owns the estate is 

 certainly much worse off" than if the mortgage- 

 deed was burnt, but the manufacturers and la- 

 bourers who supply the silks, broad-cloth, cottons^ 

 &c., are so far from being likely to be benefited 

 by such burning, that it would be a considerable 

 time before the new wants and tastes of the en- 

 riched owner had restored the former demand ; 

 and if he were to take a fancy to spend his addi- 

 tional income in horses, hounds and menial ser- 

 vants, which is probable, not only would the 

 manufacturers and labourers who had before sup- 

 plied their silks, cloths and cottons, be thrown 

 out of employment, but the substituted demand 

 would be very much less favourable to the increase 

 of the capital and general resources of the country. 



