This practice seems to us very absurd; and we wonder that the Roman
people should tolerate it, since it is evident that the means for
defraying these expenses must come, ultimately, in some way or other,
from them. And yet, absurd as it seems, this sort of policy is not
wholly disused even in our day. The operas and the theaters, and other
similar establishments in France, are sustained, in part, by the
government; and the liberality and efficiency with which this is done,
forms, in some degree, the basis of the popularity of each succeeding
administration. The plan is better systematized and regulated in our
day, but it is, in its nature, substantially the same.
[Sidenote: Amusements for the people.]
In fact, furnishing amusements for the people, and also providing
supplies for their wants, as well as affording them protection, were
considered the legitimate objects of government in those days. It is
very different at the present time, and especially in this country. The
whole community are now united in the desire to confine the functions of
government within the narrowest possible limits, such as to include only
the preservation of public order and public safety. The people prefer to
supply their own wants and to provide their own enjoyments, rather than
to invest government with the power to do it for them, knowing very well
that, on the latter plan, the burdens they will have to bear, though
concealed for a time, must be doubled in the end.
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