STATE BY A PROPERTY TAX, AND A PERSONAL TAX ON HOUSEHOLDERS, AND FOR ABOLISHING ALL OTHER STATE TAXES,-is respectfully submitted to the Public in general, and to the Council of The Liverpool Financial Reform Association in particular, by LONDON, 1st August, 1862. THE AUTHOR OF "THE PEOPLE'S BLUE BOOK." INTRODUCTION AND PLAN OF THE WORK. ROGER BACON, the Monk of Ilchester, in the 13th Century, opens his "Opus Magnum," thus:-"There are four impediments to knowledge; first, too great dependence upon authority; second, allowing too great weight to custom; third, the fear of offending the vulgar; fourth, the affectation of concealing ignorance by the display of a specious appearance of knowledge." Lord Bacon, in the 16th Century, in his Opus Magnum-classifies the obstacles which obstruct man in the simple apprehension of truth, into four great divisions, under the head of Idola Tribus, Specus, Fori, et Theatri; which may be rendered :-Idola Tribus, the illusions common to the whole race of man, in virtue of the constitution of his mind: Idola Specus, the illusions of a man's own den, bred out of his peculiar nature, habits, and pursuits, Idola Fori, the illusions derived from common talk-the inaccuracy of language, producing inaccurate conceptions, and this inaccuracy being inseparable from the talk of the vulgar: lastly, Idola Theatri, the illusions derived from systems invented by the schools-the imaginary, or stage world occupying the place of the actual world. Lord Bacon utterly denies that we should submit to B the authority of men however great and good; "For disciples do owe unto their masters only a temporary belief, or a suspension of their own judgment, until they be fully instructed, and not an absolute resignation, or perpetual captivity." Adam Smith, the illustrious Father of the Science, or Art, (whichever it may be) of Political Economy, in the Eighteenth Century, opens his Opus Magnum, "THE WEALTH OF NATIONS," thus:— "The Annual labor of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labor, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations." "To explain in what has consisted the revenue of the great body of the people, or what has been the nature of those funds, which, in different ages and nations, have supplied their annual consumption, is the object of these Four first Books. The Fifth and last Book treats of the revenue of the Sovereign, or Commonwealth. In this Book I have endeavoured to show; first, what are the necessary expenses of the Sovereign, or Commonwealth; which of those expenses ought to be defrayed by the general contribution of the whole Society; and which of them, by that of some particular part only, or of some particular members of it; Secondly, what are the different methods in which the whole society may be made to contribute towards defraying the expenses incumbent on the whole Society, and what are the principal advantages and inconveniences of each of these methods: and, thirdly and lastly, what are the reasons and causes which have induced almost all modern governments to mortgage some part of this revenue, or to contract debts, and what have been the effects of those |