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Topic: Property

SECTION VI.: APPLICATION. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 2 [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 2.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

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SECTION VI.

APPLICATION.

A word or two may not be amiss respecting the application of the produce. In general, this topic may seem foreign enough from the consideration of the supply itself; but that, as we shall see, is not altogether the case here.

In time of full peace, the floating debt provided for, there are but two options with regard to the application of a new supply: reduction of debt and extinction of taxes; for current service is already provided for by existing funds.

In time of war, there are two additional options: pledging for interest of loans, and application to current service.

I will begin with the case of war; for though the measure would be equally fit for establishment at either season, yet war is certainly that which holds out to it the most promising chance for being actually established. Necessity, the mother of invention, may then be the mother of adoption too, which of the two, is by much the hardest offspring to bring forth.

I should not wish, or even expect, to see the produce of this resource appropriated to current service; I should not wish, or even expect, to see it among the mass of pledges given as security for a loan. The novelty of its complexion, the uncertainty of its amount, both seem to preclude it from either destination: it may be prodigious, it may be nothing; there is no saying what it may be taken for; resources more according to the usual model, and therefore regarded as more certain—taxes, in a word, would be the supplies naturally destined to such service.

There remain, discharge of debt, and extinction of taxes. Between these two employments I would wish to see it divided, and perhaps pretty equally divided.

There is one portion that could not well be refused to the discharge of public debt—even in war-time—even under the pressure of any exigency: I mean the portion which exists already in that shape—where the property consists of a debt due from government, to be discharged by an annuity till paid off; in a word, property in government-annuities, or (as it is commonly termed, to the great confusion of ideas) money in the funds. The extinction of so much of the debt is here so natural a result, that it may be set down as an unavoidable one:—to keep the debt alive, and sell it for the benefit of government (just as, if it had fallen into individual hands, it might have been sold for the benefit of individuals,) will surely not be thought of.

Remit taxes? and that in war time? That would be an extraordinary employment for it indeed! Extraordinary, indeed, but not on that account the less eligible: novel blessings shine but the brighter for being new.

An opportunity would, by this incident, be presented, and perhaps this is the only incident by which such an opportunity could be presented, of shaking off the yoke of some of the most oppressive taxes. The whole list would then be to be overhauled, and the worst chosen, picked out, and expunged.

Those which, to my conception, would stand at the head of the list, are, as I have said already, the taxes upon justice. In relation to these, I can speak with confidence, having sifted them to the bottom, and demonstrated them—or I know not what demonstration is—to be the worst of all taxes, actual or possible.

Further from the precise limits of the subject I will not attempt to stray; unless it be for a fantastic moment in the way of reverie. Pure as we have found the resource to be from hardship, and, in all human probability, from odium, how pregnant may we imagine it at least to be of relief! No law-taxes—no prohibition of justice. No tax on medical drugs—no prohibition of relief from sickness and from death. No window-tax—no prohibition of air, light, health, and cheerfulness. No soap-tax—no prohibition of cleanliness. No salt-tax—no prohibition of the only sustenance of a famished people.* Make the most of this resource, and, if not all these reliefs, at least the most essential of them, might, perhaps, be afforded, even under the pressure of the war. To do all this, and government never the poorer! To do all this, and have a rich surplus for the sinking fund! what a feast for humanity! what a harvest of popularity! what a rich reward for wisdom and virtue in a minister!

It is scarce necessary to observe, that neither in any of those ways, nor in any other, should specific relief be engaged for, till the means of relief are actually in hand. The produce should be taken for nothing, till it is actually in the Exchequer. When a year of probation is elapsed, the amount will, for any reason that can be alleged to the contrary, be as uniform as that of the steadiest tax.

[]Fresh taxes have, in many instances, been repealed upon fresh experience of their ineligibility or unpopularity; examples of the repeal of an old-established tax are rare indeed.

That of the tax on coals borne coastwise is an instance as honourable to those with whom the repeal originated as it is rare. As to the taxes not taken off, but reduced, on the institution of the commutation tax, the reduction was made, not because they were ill-chosen, for they were nothing less than ill-chosen, but because they had been strained so high as to become unproductive: it was made, not for relief, but for revenue.

[* ]Fish to the Highlanders of Scotland.