Chapter Of the Expense of supporting the Dignity of the Sovereign.

PART IV. Of the Expense of supporting the Dignity of the Sovereign.

  Over and above the expenses necessary for enabling the sovereign to
  perform his several duties, a certain expense is requisite for the support
  of his dignity. This expense varies, both with the different periods of
  improvement, and with the different forms of government.

  In an opulent and improved society, where all the different orders of
  people are growing every day more expensive in their houses, in their
  furniture, in their tables, in their dress, and in their equipage; it
  cannot well be expected that the sovereign should alone hold out against
  the fashion. He naturally, therefore, or rather necessarily, becomes more
  expensive in all those different articles too. His dignity even seems to
  require that he should become so.

  As, in point of dignity, a monarch is more raised above his subjects than
  the chief magistrate of any republic is ever supposed to be above his
  fellow-citizens; so a greater expense is necessary for supporting that
  higher dignity. We naturally expect more splendour in the court of a king,
  than in the mansion-house of a doge or burgo-master.




  CONCLUSION.

  The expense of defending the society, and that of supporting the dignity
  of the chief magistrate, are both laid out for the general benefit of the
  whole society. It is reasonable, therefore, that they should be defrayed
  by the general contribution of the whole society; all the different
  members contributing, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their
  respective abilities.

  The expense of the administration of justice, too, may no doubt be
  considered as laid out for the benefit of the whole society. There is no
  impropriety, therefore, in its being defrayed by the general contribution
  of the whole society. The persons, however, who give occasion to this
  expense, are those who, by their injustice in one way or another, make it
  necessary to seek redress or protection from the courts of justice. The
  persons, again, most immediately benefited by this expense, are those whom
  the courts of justice either restore to their rights, or maintain in their
  rights. The expense of the administration of justice, therefore, may very
  properly be defrayed by the particular contribution of one or other, or
  both, of those two different sets of persons, according as different
  occasions may require, that is, by the fees of court. It cannot be
  necessary to have recourse to the general contribution of the whole
  society, except for the conviction of those criminals who have not
  themselves any estate or fund sufficient for paying those fees.

  Those local or provincial expenses, of which the benefit is local or
  provincial (what is laid out, for example, upon the police of a particular
  town or district), ought to be defrayed by a local or provincial revenue,
  and ought to be no burden upon the general revenue of the society. It is
  unjust that the whole society should contribute towards an expense, of
  which the benefit is confined to a part of the society.

  The expense of maintaining good roads and communications is, no doubt,
  beneficial to the whole society, and may, therefore, without any
  injustice, be defrayed by the general contributions of the whole society.
  This expense, however, is most immediately and directly beneficial to
  those who travel or carry goods from one place to another, and to those
  who consume such goods. The turnpike tolls in England, and the duties
  called peages in other countries, lay it altogether upon those two
  different sets of people, and thereby discharge the general revenue of the
  society from a very considerable burden.

  The expense of the institutions for education and religious instruction,
  is likewise, no doubt, beneficial to the whole society, and may,
  therefore, without injustice, be defrayed by the general contribution of
  the whole society. This expense, however, might, perhaps, with equal
  propriety, and even with some advantage, be defrayed altogether by those
  who receive the immediate benefit of such education and instruction, or by
  the voluntary contribution of those who think they have occasion for
  either the one or the other.

  When the institutions, or public works, which are beneficial to the whole
  society, either cannot be maintained altogether, or are not maintained
  altogether, by the contribution of such particular members of the society
  as are most immediately benefited by them; the deficiency must, in most
  cases, be made up by the general contribution of the whole society. The
  general revenue of the society, over and above defraying the expense of
  defending the society, and of supporting the dignity of the chief
  magistrate, must make up for the deficiency of many particular branches of
  revenue. The sources of this general or public revenue, I shall endeavour
  to explain in the following chapter.