§. 140. It is true governments cannot be supported without great charge, and
it is fit every one who enjoys his share of the protection should pay out of
his estate his proportion for the maintenance of it. But still it must be with
his own consent — i.e., the consent of the majority, giving it either by
themselves or their representatives chosen by them; for if any one shall claim
a power to lay and levy taxes on the people by his own authority, and without
such consent of the people, he thereby invades the fundamental law of property,
and subverts the end of government. For what property have I in that which
another may by right take when he pleases to himself?
