As for that species of consumption which has been always regarded with the least complacency,—the too long unprofitable consumption of government,—nothing can be more cheering than to mark the changes in its character from an early period of our empire till now. Viewed by itself, our government expenditure is a mournful spectacle enough; but the heaviest of the burdens we now bear were imposed by a former age; and our experience of their weight is a sufficient security against such being ever imposed again. We are no longer plundered by force or fraud, and denied the redress of a parliament; we are no longer hurried into wars, and seduced to tax our children’s children for their support. The sin is now that of omission, and not of perpetration. We do not shake off old burdens, or provide for public order and social improvement as we should; but we do not neglect the one and despise the other, as was done in days of old; and what is left undone there is a spreading movement to effect. The only irreclaimable human decree,—that of an enlightened multitude,—has gone forth against the abuses of the Church and the Law. The Army will follow; and there is reason to hope that a force is being already nourished which may grapple with the gigantic Debt itself. New and noble institutions are being demanded from all quarters as the natural growth from the renovation of the old ones. Religion must yield Education, and Law a righteous Penal Discipline. Schools must spring up around our churches, and prisons will be granted where the law must, if possible, mend criminals as effectually as it has hitherto made them. In time, we shall find that we have spare barracks, which may be converted into abodes of science; and many a parade may become an exercising place for laborious mechanics instead of spruce soldiers. Such are some of the modes of public expenditure which the nation is impatient to sanction. What further institutions will be made to grow out of these, we may hereafter learn in the schools which will presently be planted wherever families are congregated. All that we can yet presume is, that they will be as much wiser than ours as our extravagances are more innocent than the savage pageantries of the Henries, the cruel pleasantries of the Charleses, and the atrocious policy of the “heaven-born Ministers” who figure in our history. -------------- All the members of a society who derive protection from its government owe a certain proportion of the produce of their labour or capital to the support of that government—that is, are justly liable to be taxed. The proportion contributed should be determined by the degree of protection enjoyed—of protection to property; for all are personally protected. In other words, a just taxation must leave all the members of society in precisely the same relation in which it found them. This equality of contribution is the first principle of a just taxation.