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fund a very large sum, supposed to amount to several millions, part of which is deposited in a public treasury, and part is placed at interest in what are called the public funds of the different indebted nations of Europe, chiefly in those of France and Great Britain. What may be the amount of the whole expense which the Church, either of Berne or of any other Protestant canton, costs the State, I do not pretend to know. By a very exact account, it appears that in 1755, the whole revenue of the clergy of the Church of Scotland, including their glebe or church lands, and the rent of their manses or dwelling-houses, estimated according to a reasonable valuation, amounted only to £68,514 18. 51d. This very moderate revenue affords a decent subsistence to nine hundred and fortyfour ministers. The whole expense of the Church, including what is occasionally laid out for the building and reparation of churches and of the manses of ministers, cannot well be supposed to exceed eighty or eighty-five thousand pounds a-year. The most opulent Church in Christendom does not maintain better the uniformity of faith, the fervour of devotion, the spirit of order, regularity, and austere morals in the great body of the people, than this very poorly-endowed Church of Scotland. All the good effects, both civil and religious, which an established Church can be supposed to produce, are produced by it as completely as by any other. The greater part of the Protestant Churches of Switzerland, which in general are not better endowed than the Church of Scotland, produce those effects in a still higher degree. In the greater part of the Protestant cantons, there is not a single person to be found who does not profess himself to be of the established Church. If he professes himself to be of any other, indeed, the law obliges him to leave the canton. But so severe, or rather indeed so oppressive a law, could never have been executed in such free countries, had not the diligence of the clergy beforehand converted to the established Church the whole body of the people, with the exception of, perhaps, a few individuals only. In some parts of Switzerland, accordingly, where, from the accidental union of a Protestant and Roman Catholic country, the conversion has not been so complete, both religions are not only tolerated but established by law.

The proper performance of every service seems to require that its pay or recompense should be, as exactly as possible, proportioned to the nature of the service. If any service is very much under

paid, it is very apt to suffer by the meanness and incapacity of the greater part of those who are employed in it. If it is very much overpaid, it is apt to suffer, perhaps, still more by their negligence and idleness. A man of a large revenue, whatever may be his profession, thinks he ought to live like other men of large revenues, and to spend a great part of his time in festivity, in vanity, and in dissipation. But in a clergyman this train of life not only consumes the time which ought to be employed in the duties of his function, but in the eyes of the common people destroys almost entirely that sanctity of character which can alone enable him to perform those duties with proper weight and authority.

PART IV.

Of the Expense of supporting the Dignity of the Sovereign. OVER and above the expense necessary for enabling the sovereign to perform his several duties, a certain expense is requisite for the support of his dignity. This expense varies both with the different periods of improvement, and with the different forms of government.

In an opulent and improved society, where all the different orders of people are growing every day more expensive in their houses, in their furniture, in their tables, in their dress, and in their equipage, it cannot well be expected that the sovereign should alone hold out against the fashion. He naturally therefore, or rather necessarily, becomes more expensive in all those different articles too. His dignity even seems to require that he should become so.

As, in point of dignity, a monarch is more raised above his subjects than the chief magistrate of any republic is ever supposed to be above his fellow-citizens, so a greater expense is necessary for supporting that higher dignity. We naturally expect more splendour in the court of a king than in the mansion-house of a doge or burgomaster.

CONCLUSION.

The expense of defending the society, and that of supporting the dignity of the chief magistrate, are both laid out for the general D d

VOL. II.

benefit of the whole society. It is reasonable, therefore, that they should be defrayed by the general contribution of the whole society, all the different members contributing, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities.

The expense of the administration of justice too, may, no doubt, be considered as laid out for the benefit of the whole society. There is no impropriety, therefore, in its being defrayed by the general contribution of the whole society. The persons, however, who give occasion to this expense are those who, by their injustice in one way or another, make it necessary to seek redress or protection from the courts of justice. The persons again most immediately benefited by this expense, are those whom the courts of justice either restore to their rights, or maintain in their rights. The expense of the administration of justice, therefore, may very properly be defrayed by the particular contribution of one or other, or both of those two different sets of persons, according as different occasions may require, that is, by the fees of court. It cannot be necessary to have recourse to the general contribution of the whole society, except for the conviction of those criminals who have not themselves any estate or fund sufficient for paying those fees.1

Those local or provincial expenses of which the benefit is local or provincial (what is laid out, for example, upon the police of a particular town or district) ought to be defrayed by a local or provincial revenue, and ought to be no burden upon the general revenue of the society. It is unjust that the whole society should contribute towards an expense of which the benefit is confined to a part of the society.2

1 But, on the other hand, as Bentham argued, the very fact that a man is constrained to vindicate a right in a court of justice, is a proof that society, as far at least as he is concerned, has failed to accord him that security which society is primarily constituted to guarantee, whatever else it may be bound to do. Besides, it is plain that in many private wrongs law ignores, or scantily recompenses, the injury inflicted on the individual, and considers only the detriment which society has taken by the commission of crime. In these cases then at least, the individual should have justice done him at the general expense of the public; and it is probable, if more of the charges in

curred in the administration of justice
were put on the community, that the ex-
travagant cost of legal proceedings would
become matter of public animadversion.
2 The truth of this rule is indisputable.
But if it be true, its application must be
extended. Not only should local charges
be borne by the locality which is bene-
fited, or made liable to special charges,
but those persons within the locality
who are benefited by local expenditure,
because the effect of such expenditure
aids them in obtaining their revenue,
should on equitable principles defray the
charge. Now this is notoriously the case
with the maintenance of the poor, in a
very great degree, and with the con-

The expense of maintaining good roads and communications is, no doubt, beneficial to the whole society, and may therefore, without any injustice, be defrayed by the general contribution of the whole society. This expense, however, is most immediately and directly beneficial to those who travel or carry goods from one place to another, and to those who consume such goods. The turnpike tolls in England, and the duties called peages in other countries, lay it altogether upon those two different sets of people, and thereby discharge the general revenue of the society from a very considerable burden.

The expense of the institutions for education and religious instruction is likewise, no doubt, beneficial to the whole society, and may therefore, without injustice, be defrayed by the general contribution of the whole society. This expense, however, might perhaps with equal propriety, and even with some advantage, be defrayed altogether by those who receive the immediate benefit of such education and instruction, or by the voluntary contribution of those who think they have occasion for either the one or the other.

When the institutions or public works which are beneficial to the whole society, either cannot be maintained altogether, or are not maintained altogether by the contribution of such particular members of the society as are most immediately benefited by them, the deficiency must in most cases be made up by the general contribution of the whole society. The general revenue of the society, over and above defraying the expense of defending the society, and of supporting the dignity of the chief magistrate, must make up for the deficiency of many particular branches of revenue. The sources of this general or public revenue I shall endeavour to explain in the following chapter.

struction and repair of roads absolutely. But the maintenance of the sick and infirm poor is constantly put on those who do not use labour productively, and who are nevertheless made to insure such labour against its natural or adventitious

contingencies, while the repair of roads in the country is continually thrust on the inhabitants of towns, who repair their own roads at their own charges, and are as far as possible garrisoned by tollgates.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE SOURCES OF THE GENERAL OR PUBLIC REVENUE OF THE

SOCIETY.

THE

HE revenue which must defray, not only the expense of defending the society and of supporting the dignity of the chief magistrate, but all the other necessary expenses of government, for which the constitution of the state has not provided any particular revenue, may be drawn, either, first, from some fund which peculiarly belongs to the sovereign or commonwealth, and which is independent of the revenue of the people; or, secondly, from the revenue of the people.

PART I.

Of the Funds or Sources of Revenue which may peculiarly belong to the Sovereign or Commonwealth.

THE funds or sources of revenue which may peculiarly belong to the sovereign or commonwealth must consist, either in stock, or in land.

The sovereign, like any other owner of stock, may derive a revenue from it, either by employing it himself, or by lending it. His revenue is in the one case profit, in the other interest.

The revenue of a Tartar or Arabian chief consists in profit. It arises principally from the milk and increase of his own herds and flocks, of which he himself superintends the management, and is the principal shepherd or herdsman of his own horde or tribe. It is, however, in this earliest and rudest state of civil government only that profit has ever made the principal part of the public revenue of a monarchical state.

Small republics have sometimes derived a considerable revenue from the profit of mercantile projects. The republic of Hamburg is said to do so from the profits of a public wine-cellar and apothecary's shop. The state cannot be very great of which the

*See Mémoires concernant les Droits et Impositions en Europe, tome i. p. 73. This work was compiled by the order of

the Court for the use of a commission employed for some years past in considering the proper means for reforming tho

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