Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/469

 CH. XIV.] deliberately made, is open to many errors and inequalities, which become the fruitful source of discontents, controversies, and heart-burnings. These are sufficient, in themselves, to shake the foundations of any national government, when no common artificial rule is adopted to settle permanently the apportionment; and every thing is left open for debate, as often as a direct tax is to be imposed. Even in those states, where direct taxes are constantly resorted to, every new valuation or apportionment is found, practically, to be attended with great inconvenience, and excitements. To avoid these difficulties, the land tax in England is annually laid according to a valuation made in the reign of William the Third, (1692,) and apportioned among the counties, according to that valuation. The gross inequality of this proceeding cannot be disguised; for many of the counties, then comparatively poor, are now enormously increased in wealth. What is Yorkshire or Lancashire now, with its dense manufacturing population, compared with what it then was ? Even when the population of each state is ascertained, the mode, by which the assessment shall be laid on the lands in the state, is a subject of no small embarrassment. It would be gross injustice to tax each house or acre to the same amount, however different may be its value, or however different its quality, situation, or productiveness. And in estimating the absolute value, so much is necessarily matter of opinion, that different judgments may, and will arrive at different results. And in adjusting the comparative values in different counties or towns, new elements of discord are unavoidably introduced. In short, it may be