To an expenditure of money add an
expenditure of lives, should it enter upon a war of generosity or of
propaganda. Now, to all these expenditures that it does not approve
of, the minority contributes as well as the majority which does
approve of them; so much the worse for the conscript and the tax-payer
if they belong to the dissatisfied group. Like it or not, the
collector puts his hand in the tax-payer's pocket, and the sergeant
lays his hand on the conscript's collar. -
In the second place, and in many circumstances, not only does the
State unjustly take more than its due, but it uses the money it has
extorted from me to apply unjustly new constraints against me. Such
is the case,
* when it imposes on me its theology or philosophy;
* when it prescribes for me, or interdicts, a cult;
* when it assumes to regulate my ways and habits,
* when it assumes to limit my labor or expenditure,
* when it assumes to direct the education of my children,
* when it assumes to fix the prices of my wares or the rate of my
wages.
For then, to enforce its commands and prohibitions, it enacts light or
serious penalties against the recalcitrant, all the way from political
or civil incapacity to fines, imprisonment, exile and the guillotine.
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