68 PUBLIC REVENUE. lightened philosopher Baron Humboldt, who, speak- ing of the stai'e of the natives of New Spain, makes the following reflection, which is unexceptionably applicable to the Indian islanders, though certain- ly a more vigorous, moral, and improved race than the Americans. " In an age when it was formally discussed, whether the Indians were ration- al beings, it was conceived granting them a benefit to treat them like minors, to put them under the perpetual tutorage of the whites, and to declare null every act signed by a native of the copper-co- loured race, and every obligation which he contract- ed beyond the value of fifteen francs. These laws are maintained in full vigour, and they place in- surmountable barriers between the Indians and the other castes, with whom all intercourse is almost prohibited. Thousands of inhabitants can enter in- to no contracts which are binding ; and, condemn- ed to a pei-petual minority, they become a charge to themselves, and the state in which they live."* In almost all the countries of the Archipelago, something in the form of a capitation oy poll taa: is levied, but, when more closely examined, this im- post is discovered to be another form of assessing the land, being a tax levied on the cultivation or culti- vators jointly, and on no other class of the people. It does not bear a proportion to the rent or quali-
- Political EssoTj on New Spain, Book II. chap. 6.
