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Basic Constitutional Concepts
are parties on one side, and the debtors on the other. Justice ought to hold
the balance between them. Yet the other parties are and must be themselves the judges; and the most numerous party, or, in other words, the
most powerful faction, must be expected to prevail. Shall domestic manufactures be encouraged, and in what degree, by restrictions on foreign
manufactures? are questions which would be differently decided by the
landed and the manufacturing classes; and probably by neither, with a
sole regard to justice and the public good. The apportionment of taxes on
the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the
most exact impartiality; yet, there is perhaps no legislative act in which
greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party,
to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number is a shilling saved to their own pockets.
It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust
these