ElementSy chap. I, sect. i

68. Eléments, chap. Il, sect. ii, 4. — Parmi Ie& radicaux philoM^ phiques, il en est qui déjà trompent Téconomie politique de leurs maftret trop préoccupée de viser i Taccumulation du capital, & Texclusionde tonte autre fin. Austin, dans la <c Revue de Westminster » (oct. 1824) remarfue à quel point le sophisme est fréquent, qui consiste à prendre le magfoi pour la fin, et il ajouta : « Even Mr. Bicardo, to whose piercing and oonn prehensive genius political economy is indebted fôr its pretensiona to the name of a science, is sometimes entangled in thisbesettingsophiam. Vfhea treating of the causes which accelerate or retard accumulation, he aometimes forgets, for a moment, that accumulation, like every thing elae, is subordinate to the great end, happiness. A falTaçy which could impose^ though bat once, and for an instant, upon the mind of that great man, is •certainly pardonable in another » (p. 509).

69. Eist. ofBrit. Ind.y vol. I, pp. 299 sqq : TheHindu mode of raising the revenue of the state, wholly, or almost wholly, by taking as much as necessary of the rent of the land, >vhile it is the obvious expecGènt which first présents itself to the rudest minds, bas no incoosiderablff reoommendation from science itself... If the whole of what is strictïy rent were taken away, the application ot labour and capital to the land would resemble the application of labour and capital to wood or iron; and the same principles, in both cases, would détermine their rewaid (pp. 324-325). A James Mill revient Hionneur d'avoir été fe premier s établir scientifiquement le véritable caractère du Zemindar Bindoii, percepteur de Tirnpôt foncier, et non pas propriétaire foncier ou sef- ^eur féodal, comme Pavaient cru les conquérants anglais, égarés par des associations d'idées européennes. — James Mill ajoute : The objections to the Hindu System of providing for the expenses of govemorat, arise rather from the mode than the essence. — By aiming at the receipt of a prescribed portion of the crop of each year, and with a very imperfect distinction of the lands of différent powers, the

(Pp. 91-95) NOTES. 411

Hindus incurred most of the evils which a bad method of raitiiig a tax is liable to produce... A tax, oonsisting ot aay portion of the gross prodace of the soil, raises the priée of that produce; because the tax raised from the poorestof the cultivated land must be returned, along with the expense of cultiva tion, in the exchangeablA value of its produce. In this manner a tax is levied upon the consumers of corn, which surpasses the sum paid to the govemment, and enriches the owners of the best land at the cost'ofthe community (pp. 32&-327). — Cf. Ricardo, Principles, chap. LV, pp. 91 sqq.