It is evident that the people
struggle with all their might against the old taxes, even authorized
and prolonged by the Constituent Assembly, and all that is obtained
from them is wrested from them.
Will the people be more docile under the new taxation? The Assembly
exhorts them to be so and shows them how, with the relief they have
gained and with the patriotism they ought to possess, they can and
should discharge their dues. The people are able to do it because,
having got rid of tithes, feudal dues, the salt-tax, octrois and
excise duties, they are in a comfortable position. They should do
so, because the taxation adopted is indispensable to the State,
equitable, assessed on all in proportion to their fortune, collected
and expended under rigid scrutiny, without perversion or waste,
according to precise, clear, periodical and audited accounts. No
doubt exists that, after the 1st of January, 1791, the date when the
new financial scheme comes into operation, each tax-payer will
gladly pay as a good citizen, and the two hundred and forty millions
of the new tax on real property, and the sixty millions of that on
personal property, leaving out the rest - registries, license, and
customs duties - will flow in regularly and easily of their own
accord.
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