THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

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proposed to reform the finances of his country, by institutingin the room of the greater part of other taxes, this most ruin-ous of all taxes. There is nothing so absurd, says Cicero ,which has not sometimes been asserted by some philosophers.

Taxes upon butcher’s meat arc still more common thanthose upon bread. It may indeed be doubted whetherbutcher’s meat is anywhere a necessary of life. Crain andother vegetables, with the help of milk, cheese, and butter,or oil, where butter is not to be had, it is known from ex-perience, can, without, any butcher’s meat, afford the mostplentiful, the most wholesome, the most nourishing, and themost invigorating diet. Decency nowhere requires that anyman should eat butcher’s meat, as it in most places requiresthat he should wear a linen shirt or a pair of leather shoes.

Consumable commodities, whether necessaries or luxuries,may be taxed in two different ways. The consumer mayeither pay an annual sum on account of his using or consum-ing goods of a certain kind; or the goods may be taxedwhile they remain in the hands of the dealer, and before theyare delivered to the consumer. The consumable goodswhich last a considerable time before they are consumed al-together, are most properly taxed in the one way. Those ofwhich the consumption is either immediate or more speedy,in the other. The coach-tax and plate-tax are examples ofthe former method of imposing : the greater part of the otherduties of excise and customs, of the latter.

A coach may, with good management, last ten or twelveyears. It might be taxed, once for all, before it comes outof the hands of the coaclunaker. But it is certainly moreconvenient for the buyer to pay four pounds a year for theprivilege of keeping a coach, than to pay all at once forty orforty-eight pounds additional price to the coaclunaker; ora sum equivalent to what the tax is likely to cost him duringthe time he uses the same coach. A service of plate in thesame manner, may last more than a century. It is certainlyeasier for the consumer to pay five shillings a year for everyhundred ouuces of plate, near one per cent, of the value,than to redeem this long annuity at five-and-tvventy or thirtyyears’ purchase, which would enhance the price at least five-and-twenty or thirty per cent. The different taxes whichaffect houses are certainly more conveniently paid by mo-derate annual payments, than by a heavy tax of equal valueupon the first building or sale of the house-