Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/348

296 The public revenues are not to be measured by what the people are able, but by what they ought, to give; and if they are measured by what they are able to give, it ought to be at least by what they are able to give for a constancy.

HERE have been instances in particular monarchies, of small states exempt from taxes, that have been as miserable as the circumjacent places which groaned under the weight of exactions. The chief reason of this is; that the small state can hardly have any such thing as industry, arts, or manufactures, because in this respect it lies under a thousand restraints from the great state in which it is inclosed. The great state that surrounds it, is blessed with industry, manufactures, and arts; and establishes laws by which those several advantages are procured. The petty state becomes therefore necessarily poor, let it pay ever so few taxes.

And yet some have concluded from the poverty of those petty states, that in order to render the people industrious, they should be loaded with taxes. But it would be a much better conclusion to say that they ought to have no taxes at all. None live here but wretches who retire from the neighbouring parts to avoid working; wretches who disheartened by pain and toil make their whole felicity consist in idleness. Rh