Part 24

[6] One of the most respectable _English_ writers has been charged with having entirely given up the _American_ cause, which he had hitherto so strenuously supported; in my opinion it is a mistake. It was not to the _Americans_ that the Doctor was attached, it was to certain maxims, plain but fertile, by which they seemed to have been directed, and which the said author, establishes and recommends as the only guides for all Princes and Nations, to lead them to that point of prosperity the limits of which can be prescribed by Nature alone; the _Americans_ most probably will return to those maxims, and I presume to think, that they will instantly be restored to the favour of that worthy Divine; my opinions so nearly approach to those of that honest man on every point that truly concerns society, that I wish either to convert him, or to be perverted by him, with regard to the reimbursement. I must confess, that if the ideas which are the ground-work of my principles, be false, the error is mine alone; if I am right, the mistake of the Doctor, (like the imperfections in _Shakespeare_), is the fault of his age, not of himself. I shall further add, that the reimbursement, according to the principles I have laid down, is not a measure by any means material to the State; it is only a trifling injustice done to very little purpose, and not even suspected by those who sustain it, a _je ne sais quoi_ giving to one a little credit and a little uneasiness to others, keeping _the bulls and bears_ in spirits and the writers of paragraphs in full employ, but luckily productive of a light and transitory sensation only, and even that in a small part of the machine: so little is reimbursed at a time! so soon is one tired of reimbursing! Presently, the only essential object, the price of every thing shapes itself so well by the circumstances attending the reimbursement, that I should not hesitate to ascribe the ordinary, the infallible reparation of all evil, to the credit of one sole principle of all good, were it not my invariable maxim (as it is the Doctor’s and his friend _M. Turgot_’s) not to scandalise even those who do not believe in God.

There is a prejudice much more unaccountable in _England_, in the proud _England_, than the whim of a national reimbursement; it is that prejudice which all the _hired_ writers, _pro_ and _con_, endeavour to propagate from age to age in all countries, a prejudice, on the destroying of which every unhired writer can never be too intent, that prejudice stating, that _the prosperity of a State depends on one single individual_. Where is that _Phœnix_ to be found? There are always two pretenders at least, who cry at once, I AM THE MAN, and a thousand voices exclaiming together, HE IS THE MAN. _The prosperity of a State, be its extent what it may, solely depends on its agriculture, its industry, its knowledge, and on that degree of liberty with which those three objects can exert themselves in every way._ This is the grand truth which ought to be impressed on every mind.⸺Let one great man die in a country where great men are appreciated⸺stamp on the ground, and ten such men will start up: many more will start up when every body, without respect either to face or mask, is at liberty to stand as a candidate.

[7] Let the question on this very point be asked of any one, who can remember, and compare. I except no article whatsoever of industry, which is brought to perfection.

[8] It is truly farcical to hear and _see_ the deep-fetched sigh of a tradesman, when he is reminded by a purchaser, that the subject matter of the bargain is dearer than it used to be: “Alas! Sir, (says he) this very article is taxed one shilling; and, Sir, I say nothing of that cursed shop-tax.” But _why_? If the purchaser has some kind of labour, no matter what, and no matter how, to dispose of, it is evident that, as soon as the sigh will have gone round, the tax will be paid, _without any expence but that of some thousands of sighs exchanged by the community at large_.

[9] I must confess I wish also that a little time could be spared to examine whether all kinds of taxes, already devised or to be devised, already established or to be established, on any other object but _consumption_, whatever may be the appellation with which they may be honoured or disgraced, from the land-tax down to the shop-tax, _are not in fact so many poll-taxes_:—that is to say, I wish they would be pleased to examine, whether that man whose _hand_ is obliged, _under pain of distress_, to give at such a day such a sum, can, upon due recollection, disguise to himself that his _head_ is as really taxed, as if the subsidy to be paid was called _a poll-tax_, or _la taille_. If I am not mistaken, the case is this: the shopkeeper feels that he ought not to pay a tax upon his shop; he pays it and cries out like an eagle; he is right: the land proprietor does not know that he ought not to pay a tax upon his land; he pays it and says nothing; he is wrong: the Minister wanted money; he thought that nothing remained untaxed; he suspected that the land proprietor would at last cry out as loud as the shopkeeper, if the land-tax was increased; he taxed the shops: a shop, in truth, does not appear (very evidently at least) more sacred than the land upon which it is erected.—It is not at all impossible, but that in some few years all these misunderstandings will be talked of with as little reverence as witchcraft; but till then, the good mother Nature must work underhand, as she ever did, and probably ever will.

[10] In the Political Arithmetic of Mr. _Young_, may be seen the accounts, year by year, whence I have drawn the inferences here submitted to the Reader. It is but a few days ago that I thought of comparing with my own ideas the result of the whole of those accounts.

[11] It is a very good idea, according to the Navigation-Act, to restrain, as much as possible, the _English_ sugar-colonies, _which their strongest interests attach for ever to England_,—to restrain, I say, those sugar-colonies, in order to enlarge the faculties of some relics of timber, tar, and wheat-colonies, _which their strongest interests will detach from ~England~ as soon as_ they shall be strong enough to make the best of their timber, tar, and wheat. It is said in _England_, that the sugar-cane planters are so immensely rich, that they can well afford to pay 20 _per cent._ dearer to their _dutiful_ brethren, for what they could purchase 20 _per cent._ cheaper from their _revolted_ ones.—A sugar-cane planter, with a clear revenue of one or ten thousand pounds sterling in sugar, is neither more nor less rich than a freeholder in _Great-Britain_, with a clear revenue of one or ten thousand pounds sterling in wheat or grass; the one, as well as the other, is every day rich by the 2 or 4 pounds weight of food he can digest, and by the 6 or 10 or 15 _lb._ of cloaths he can wear; the one, as well as the other, picks out those 10 or 20 pounds from the materials that best suit his taste or fancy.—To the shame of thy power, ô Opulence, here thou must stop! _huc usque venies_.—Such is the truth, no greater is the truth, no less trivial is the truth, before which that _great globe itself_, that immense and _baseless fabric_ of premiums, prohibitions, restrictions, and so many other financiering _visions_—_shall dissolve, and leave not a wreck behind_!