Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/90

461] It is evident that Petty was no stranger to the political ideal of Hobbes. In the "Treatise on Taxes" we are put in the way of tracing Petty's own conception of the functions of the State. The widest interpretation is given to its powers. There is no limitation to its interference. In education and in religion, it stands supreme over the individual. The subject has a subordinate position. He must be treated with an enlightened policy, because the prosperity of the State is dependent upon the prosperity of the subject. Every man is valuable because he represents a certain fraction of that labor power by which the State is enriched. The State should take care in no way to impair this energy, but at the same time it can interfere to secure the benefit to itself of the labor of its subjects.

Whenever Petty speaks on religious subjects we are conscious of a cynical strain in his thoughts. He uses the canting terms of his Puritan friends in an ironical way (3, 62). In the same sentence he significantly joins together ale-houses and monks, recommending that in Ireland the number of each should be diminished. In his will he again betrays Hobbes' influence, where his words mean that the authority of the state in religion is supreme; and in other places he recognizes no individual right in matters of conscience, against the state. An extension of this characteristic is to be found in his complete disregard of any principles of public morality. The obedience of the subjects of a government depends on the power of their rulers to reward or punish them (2). In his tract on Naval Philosophy he calmly asks the question whether it would not be better, instead of employing seamen in trade, to use the same