First Complete Edition of Bentham's Supply Without Burthen
Supply without Burthen: or, Escheat vice Taxation:. being a proposal for a saving in taxes by an extension of the law of escheat: including strictures on the taxes on collateral succession, comprized in the budget of 7th Dec. 1795: to which is prefixed, (printed in 1793 and now first published), A protest against law taxes: shewing the peculiar mischievousness of all such imposition as add to the expense of an appeal to justice.
London: Printed for J. Debrett, 1795.
First complete edition. Two parts in one octavo volume (7 1/2 x 4 inches; 192 x 115 mm). viii, 64, 94 pp. "A Protest Against Law Taxes" with separate pagination and title page. Final leaf of preface bound in reverse order. Pages 17-32 of first sequence misnumbered 33-47, 88 but collates complete.
According to the ESTC, a printer's proof copy of only the the first part, "A Protest Against Law Taxes" was printed in Dublin in 1793, but we could find no copies at auction on Rare Book Hub or ABPC. But the present copy is the first with both parts together.
Half calf over contemporary marbled paper boards. Rebacked to style. Spine with red morocco spine label. Spine ruled and lettered in gilt. Top edge dyed brown, others speckled brown. Corners with some repair. Boards rubbed. Some occasional very minor foxing. Previous owner's armorial bookplate on front pastedown. Overall very good.
This book is a long answer to a riddle that Bentam asked of Charles Long, namely: "What is that pecuniary resource of which the tenth part would be a tax, and would not be felt by anybody?" The answer afforded was, in substance: "An extension of the Law of Escheat whereby property would revert to the State in case an intestate died leaving only distant relations" ... He maintained that, when once this alteration of the law had come into actual operation, there would be little or no feeling of disappointment among those excluded from succession ... He had no wish to impair, in any degree, the liberty of a testator in regard to the free disposal of his estates by will where such disposition was in favour of children or near relations ... Supply without burden, exclaimed Bentham, is victory without blood. But the plan presented grave difficulties; and it would have been no easy matter - if, indeed, at all possible - to convince the public that the suggested mode of raising supplies would be less burthensome or oppressive than a slight tax on collateral succession' (Atkinson, pp. 131-32).
Einaudi. Goldsmiths' 16310. ESTC T48958. Kress 2887.
HBS 68580.
$3,750.
Price: $3,750.00
Item #68580