Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

The beneficial influence of Taxation upon a large community is not immediately perceptible, because the advantage is so equally distributed. The question may be simplified by being narrowed. Suppose a thousand men, with their families, agree to colonize. The proprietorship of the soil is vested in 50-these are the gentlemen; 50 more undertake to cultivate it, and pay rent, these are the farmers; 400 are agricultural labourers; 400 more are artisans and tradesmen, who calculate upon gaining support by supplying the wants of the proprietors, of the agriculturists, and of themselves; the other 100 are servants and persons of uncer tain dependence. The quantity of land is limited; but the population have a capacity to increase, not in the immediate proportion of the corn grown, but in the proportion of profitable labour, whether agricultural or mechanical; for this community may buy corn of its neighbours, and its industry, producing wealth, will always command a market. They begin without any of the expenses of government, and consequently without taxes. They go on so for 20 years, without increasing the number of agricultural labourers: the population is stationary; there might be more corn grown by improved culture, or corn might be imported; but the demand for the fruits of the earth is limited, while the modes of employ do not vary or increase. There has been no artificial energy created, and the people have consequently remained in a tranquil and unambitious state-some in splendour, some in competence, and some in poverty. The land continues in the same families the cultivators are the same-the mechanics, the tradesmen, the labourers, the servants-the same. All communities which are not put in artificial activity by the expenditure of a government, naturally resolve themselves into casts. Imagine the community described falling into excesses, and consequently obliged to form an executive government. They choose a director, legal officers, and their necessary agents; taxes are raised for the remuneration of these, which taxes are contributed according to every man's ability. An extra demand for labour is immediately created;

public offices must be built, and there must be something expended on state splendour; talent is rewarded, and industry encouraged. Imagine, further, this community liable to be attacked by its neighbours—an army is formed; 200 of the labourers, servants, and persons of uncertain dependence, are organized; they must be clothed and fed; new taxes are raised for their support. These taxes return to the industrious in payments for produce and manufactures. There are no superfluous labourers left, and the demands of the state require an increased energy. Machines are invented; labour becomes valuable in proportion to the demand; the population increases as money circulates; application and skill realize wealth, and property changes hands. The inequalities of society are diminished; because the object of a government is to spend its money, while individuals principally desire to accumulate. The same principles apply to large as well as small communities-to millions as well as to thousands. The wealth of the state is a fountain which spreads in a thousand streams ;-the property of individuals is a well which supplies the wants of a very narrow circle. There are limits to these advantages. Taxes may be unequalmay be excessive; they then become inflictions of evil; but the evil is not lessened by violent reductions. Taxes are stimulants, which are only fatal when they are intemperately applied or suddenly withdrawn.

K.

VOL. I.

§ III.—LIVES OF EMINENT ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS, WRITERS; &c.

LORD BACON.

IN recording the lives of the most distinguished benefactors of this nation, we propose to invite our readers to contemplate with admiration the mighty genius of Newton, and the profound wisdom of Locke; the one as the great benefactor of astronomical science, the other as the sagacious instructor of his countrymen in the philosophy of the human mind. But we first claim their reverence for a philosopher who swayed an empire of intellect still more extensive; whose wonderful powers of investigation compassed the whole field of science which his genius illumined; penetrating through the darkness which obscured the learning of his own age, and casting forward its radiance over an immense tract of knowledge yet unknown, which his sagacious instructions enabled future generations to explore.

This extraordinary man was Francis Bacon, Lord High Chancellor of England, whose eminent abilities as a lawyer and as a statesman were eclipsed by the superior magnitude of his renown as a philosopher; and who will be regarded to the latest posterity as the founder of that character for practical wisdom which this nation has obtained throughout the world.

We have the honour to boast of an ancestor who was well qualified to appreciate the value of that amazing learning and wisdom which combined to raise Bacon to the highest honours of philosophy. While a student at the bar, he had occupied the rooms in Gray's Inn erected by that illustrious man, and from this early association imbibed such a vene ration for his profound writings, that he employed many years in preparing a valuable edition of his

works, which he lived not to see completed, although it was given to the world, after his decease, by the learned Dr. Birch. An hereditary regard for Bacon's name has thus led us to offer a short notice of his life, and to claim the homage due to his memory as the Father of Experimental Philosophy.

It is neither consistent with the plan of this work, nor necessary to the information of our readers, to enter into a particular statement of those errors, which, under the name of philosophy, amused and led astray all who pretended to a knowledge of abstract science, previous to the time of Bacon. Although the purer light of Christianity had exposed the absurdities of Paganism, the fanciful theories of the Grecian philosophers continued to mingle in strange union with the doctrines of the Christian church. The disputations of the Schools engaged the minds of theologians in the most absurd and useless controversies, until these were at length superseded by the sounder principles introduced by Bacon and his followers.

The philosophy of Aristotle had debased every department of learning. Error had become venerable from its antiquity, and was handed down from age to age, and believed upon no better authority than prescription. All was theory and speculation;-the most childish fancies were adopted under the sanction of great names, and were received and supported as the maxims of truth and wisdom. The genius of Bacon alone was capable of overthrowing these false systems. At an age when others are pursuing elementary studies, or busied with the pleasures of the world, he had already detected the fallacy of the prevalent opinions, and had resolved to expose them. An amazing fund of learning, acquired under every advantage which that period could supply, rendered him completely master of all the science then existing; and to this he added a sagacity and a patience of investigation peculiar to himself. Thus accomplished, he formed the design of showing his countrymen a surer road to true wisdom. He saw that facts and experi

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »