portant,  and  actually  most  costly,  functions  of  government :
because  the  utilities  provided  by  these  functions  cannot  be
apportioned,  with  even  approximate  exactness,  among  the
individual  members  of  the  community.  And  this  is,  I
think,  implicitly  recognised  in  the  common  use  of  the  term
"  tax  "  :  since  it  is  just  in  the  cases  where  the  individual's
payment  to  government  fails  to  correspond  to  an  individual-
ised governmental  service,  that  the  applicability  of  the  term
is  most  clear  and  unmistakable.  Take,  as  a  leading  example,
the  case  of  defence  against  foreign  foes :  considering  the
mildness — as  regards  individuals — of  modern  civilised  war-
fare, it  cannot  surely  be  maintained  that  the  object  of
warlike  expenditure  is  mainly  the  protection  of  the  life  and
property  of  individuals :  and  though  it  is  undeniable  that
different  classes  in  the  community  are  interested  in  very
different  degrees  in  the  maintenance  of  national  existence,
or  national  honour,  or  prestige  or  power,  it  would  be  idle  to
attempt  to  frame  an  estimate  of  these  different  degrees  of
interest  which  could  be  taken  as  a  basis  of  distribution  of
taxation.
