But my
consideration is narrow, confined, and wholly limited to the policy of the
question. I do not examine whether the giving away a man's money be a power
excepted and reserved out of the general trust of government, and how far all
mankind, in all forms of polity, are entitled to an exercise of that right by
the charter of nature; or whether, on the contrary, a right of taxation is
necessarily involved in the general principle of legislation, and inseparable
from the ordinary supreme power. These are deep questions, where great names
militate against each other, where reason is perplexed, and an appeal to
authorities only thickens the confusion; for high and reverend authorities lift
up their heads on both sides, and there is no sure footing in the middle. This
point is the great
"Serbonian bog,
Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,
Where armies whole have sunk."
[Footnote: 42]
I do not intend to be overwhelmed in that bog, though in such respectable
company. The question [Footnote: 43] with me is, not whether you have a right to
render your people miserable, but whether it is not your interest to make them
happy.
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