hovels, feeding on roots, drinking water, the house and window tax might be saved, also the land and malt tax, and both ordinary and extraordinary imposts upon port-wine; but habit and civilization have produced a liking for accommodations that may be not absolutely necessary. In civil society we do not estimate smallness of cost as a supreme good, the same holds in political establishments. Institutions are not good merely for being low priced, their goodness depends upon the aggregate of secure and permanent benefit, which they admit. The great proof of the benefit of revolution as an expedient of economy, was the savings that the new order of things had produced from France. "In consequence of the revolution," said the prophets of economy, "the people will have much less to pay, and republican France, for cheapness, is a
Page:Modern Literature Volume 3 (1804).djvu/186
This page needs to be proofread.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Modern_Literature_Volume_3_%281804%29.djvu/page186-1024px-Modern_Literature_Volume_3_%281804%29.djvu.jpg)