Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/220

200 Revenue. [Ch.XI. dual can refuse to contribute, for the general purposes of the State. Sometimes, also, a slight additional burden may prove an incentive to labour, and a spur to greater diligence and ac- tivity. But if the load become too heavy, either in consequence of the greatness of the amount, or the impolitic mode of laying it on, the industry of a nation diminishes, its wealth necessarily disappears, the number of its people decreases, and the greater the occasion it has for resources, the fewer it will actually en- The constitution has vested a revenue in the King, in order to support his dignity, and maintain his power; being a portion which each subject resigns of his property in order to secure die remainder («). This revenue is either — 1st, ordinary, that is inherent in the Crown ; or, 2dly, extraordinary. Before the Revolution, the wants of government were princi- pally supplied by various ordinary lucrative prerogatives inhe- rent in the Crown, and which had existed time out of mind. After that event, which introduced England to an expensive continental warfare, it was discovered that such resources were very inadequate to the expenditure of the country, not so much on account of the decay which had befallen them, arising either from the profusion of the Court, the rapacity of favo- rites, or the negligence or treachery of officers; as from the unexampled magnitude of the wars, and the gigantic extent of the views and attempts of the government. A complicated system of taxation and finance was commenced, to which our ancestors were strangers, and which has been gradually, and perhaps necessarily, carried to an extent which may be consi- dered alarming, unless wisdom and prudence regulate its pro- gress, and a continued peace prevent its increase, and gradu- ally ameliorate the burthens it imposes. If that can be eifect- ed, it is a consolation to reflect, that the inhabitants of England have no great reason to regret (especially since the repeal of the income tax) the change which has taken place in the system and mode of supplying the exigencies of the State. History furnishes a most painful account of the endless, 0})pressive, and cruel hardships borne by the subject, in consequence of the jjiiliiary tenures, the grinding extortions of tyrannical adminis- <c) 1 Bla. Com. 281. trations, J