advantages of a property tax, in constituting the tax-voting class, the tax-paying class, are yet greater than any or all that have been enumerated.

These, however, open so wide a field, that a separate chapter must be devoted to their dis

cussion.

CHAPTER XIII.

ON THE MISCHIEVOUS TENDENCIES OF THE FAMILY MONOPOLY, OR LAW OF PRIMOGENITURE; AND THE CONSEQUENT EXPEDIENCY OF ITS ABOLITION.

The standard of splendor might be lowered; but that of comfort would be raised !”—Dilemmas of Pride.

PRIOR to discussing the collateral benefits of the substitution of a property tax for every other tax, it will be necessary to devote a short chapter to an exposition of the evil tendencies of the law of primogeniture; the subject being, though too important for mere incidental mention, so intimately connected with that oppressive taxation of the industrious classes, which the substitution of a property tax for every other tax is calculated to obviate, that to enumerate the evil tendencies of the law of primogeniture, is but to complete the array of arguments in favour of the adoption of a property tax.

The law of primogeniture is, in short, at once the source both of the temptations to commit, and of the power to perpetrate public depredation.

Nay, as long as the family monopoly of primogeniture exists, the whole amount of national wealth which can be got to flow into that great reservoir, the public purse, may be said, on so doing, to become exclusively the private property of the property class for, while ever the more than just influence which preserving properties entire in the heads of families gives to those heads of families, enables them to secure to their younger branches a preference, amounting to a monopoly, of, not only sinecures, places, and pensions, but also, of all that is worth having in army, navy, church, and even law, the taxes, and other funds, which support all these establishments, are strictly speaking, one great general subscription, or rather compulsory rate, for the maintenance of the younger branches of the property or influential class.

It is here well worthy of remark, that all but the elder sons of that class commonly considered the independent class, become, when the subject is thus viewed, in the eye of reason and common honesty, the most utterly dependent class in the whole community; the false pride of their own order, not only depriving them of their claim on the parent fund, and thus casting them, like the blue school boys, or charity school girls of a found

L

ling hospital, on the subscriptions of the public; but, by forbidding them, as they become adults, the use of their natural powers, for earning (in any honest way) their own subsistence, reducing them still further, to a continued, and hopeless species of dependence, resembling rather that of the mutilated pensioners of some hospital for the maimed, the halt, and the blind; without, however, the respectable claims, whether for past services, or unavoidable misfortunes, possessed by such persons.

But poverty, or independence obtained by any useful species of activity would, according to the absurd verdict of that court fool in cap and bells, called Fashion, have equally excluded them from exclusive society; the only remaining resource, therefore, was to get them billeted upon the industry of other classes of the community, and thus keep those other classes poor, despite their diligent exertions, and frugal habits, that they might be rich, notwithstanding their utter idleness, and lavish expenditure.

It is, however, but justice to believe, that few of the thoughtless beings, thus "provided for," (as it is called) have ever seriously reflected that their idle pursuit of pleasure, inflicts sufferings incalculable on thousands of the industrious, who are, while they ought not to be the poor. It was "a Government appointment:" it is "Government money," and "Government money," that is, the people's money, the idle, pampered few,

have too long been in the habit of considering a Fortunatus's purse, which no extravagance could exhaust; a lottery fund, legally the property of whoever was happy enough to draw a prize, without a thought of where it all could possibly come from! Had these careless recipients of "Government money" been enabled, by a reasoning education, to discern the financial statements for each year truly made out, not in pounds, shillings, and pence; but in oppressive taxation's original coin; hunger, cold, and wretchedness; broken spirits, and broken hearts; rooflessness, and hopelessness; recklessness and crime; they could not, they would not have sought to draw enjoyments from sources such as these.

In short, a pampered aristocracy, in a nation, which from natural limitation of surface, and consequently of raw material, is, as may be said of Great Britain, strictly an operative nation, is exactly the species of drawback to the real prosperity of that nation, (that is, the comfort of the bulk of its population ;) which an idle, prodigal son would be to both the growing rich, and the enjoyments of an industrious father, who had no means of supplying the extravagancies of his son, but the profits of his, the father's labour: he, the father, the more extravagant the son became, must, it is manifest, work the harder, and fare the worse himself, and yet still continue poor.

Such a nation, therefore, should surely maintain