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destroys that establishment. Now it is no answer | telligible; it encourages no activity which is useto this objection, it is no apology for the grievance, ful or productive.

to say,

that nothing is taken out of the neighbour- The sum to be raised being settled, a wise hood; that the stock is not diminished: the mis-statesman will contrive his taxes principally with chief is done by deranging the distribution. Nor, a view to their effect upon population; that is, he again, is the luxury of one family, or even the will so adjust them as to give the least possible maintenance of an additional family, a recom- obstruction to those means of subsistence by which pense to the country for the ruin of nine others.- the mass of the community is maintained. We Nor, lastly, will it alter the effect though it may are accustomed to an opinion, that a tax, to be conceal the cause, that the contribution, instead just, ought to be accurately proportioned to the of being levied directly upon each day's wages, circumstances of the persons who pay it. But is mixed up in the price of some article of con- upon what, it might be asked, is this opinion stant use and consumption, as in a tax upon founded; unless it could be shown that such a candles, malt, leather, or fuel. This example illus-proportion interferes the least with the general trates the tendency of taxes to obstruct subsist-conveniency of subsistence? Whereas I should ence; and the minutest degree of this obstruction | rather believe, that a tax, constructed with a view will be felt in the formation of families. The example, indeed, forms an extreme case; the evil is magnified, in order to render its operation distinct and visible. In real life, families may not be broken up, or forced from their habitation, houses be quitted, or countries suddenly deserted, in consequence of any new imposition whatever; but marriages will become gradually less frequent.

to that conveniency, ought to rise upon the different classes of the community, in a much higher ratio than the simple proportion of their incomes. The point to be regarded is, not what men have, but what they can spare; and it is evident that a man who possesses a thousand pounds a year, can more easily give up a hundred, than a man with a hundred pounds a year can part with ten; It seems necessary, however, to distinguish be- that is, those habits of life which are reasonable tween the operation of a new tax, and the effect and innocent, and upon the ability to continue of taxes which have been long established. In which the formation of families depends, will be the course of circulation, the money may flow back much less affected by the one deduction than the to the hands from which it was taken. The pro- other: it is still more evident, that a man of a portion between the supply and the expense of hundred pounds a year would not be so much subsistence, which had been disturbed by the tax, distressed in his subsistence, by a demand from may at length recover itself again. In the in- him of ten pounds, as a man of ten pounds a stance just now stated, the addition of a tenth year would be by the loss of one: to which we family to the neighbourhood, or the enlarged ex- must add, that the population of every country penses of one of the nine, may, in some shape or being replenished by the marriages of the lowest other, so advance the profits, or increase the em- ranks of the society, their accommodation and reployment, of the rest, as to make full restitution lief become of more importance to the state, than for the share of their property of which it deprives the conveniency of any higher but less numerous them; or, what is more likely to happen, a reduc- order of its citizens. But whatever be the protion may take place in their mode of living, suited portion which public expediency directs, whether to the abridgment of their incomes. Yet still the the simple, the duplicate, or any higher or interultimate and permanent effect of taxation, though mediate proportion of men's incomes, it can never distinguishable from the impression of a new tax, be attained by any single tax: as no single object is generally adverse to population. The proportion of taxation can be found, which measures the above spoken of, can only be restored by one side ability of the subject with sufficient generality or other of the following alternative: by the peo- and exactness. It is only by a system and variety ple either contracting their wants, which at the of taxes, mutually balancing and equalising one same time diminishes consumption and employ- another, that a due proportion can be preserved. ment; or by raising the price of labour, which ne- For instance: if a tax upon lands press with cessarily adding to the price of the productions greater hardship upon those who live in the and manufactures of the country, checks their country, it may be properly counterpoised by a sale at foreign markets. A nation which is bur- tax upon the rent of houses, which will affect thened with taxes, must always be undersold by principally the inhabitants of large towns. Disa nation which is free from them, unless the diftinctions may also be framed in some taxes, which ference be made up by some singular advantage shall allow abatements or exemptions to married of climate, soil, skill, or industry. This quality persons; to the parents of a certain number of belongs to all taxes which affect the mass of the legitimate children; to improvers of the soil; to community, even when imposed upon the proper-particular modes of cultivation, as to tillage in est objects, and applied to the fairest purposes. But abuses are inseparable from the disposal of public money. As governments are usually administered, the produce of public taxes is expended upon a train of gentry, in the maintaining of pomp, or in the purchase of influence. The conversion of property which taxes effectuate, when they are employed in this manner, is attended with obvious evils. It takes from the industrious, to give to the idle; it increases the number of the latter; it tends to accumulation; it sacrifices the conveniency of many to the luxury of a few; it makes no return to the people, from whom the tax is drawn, that is satisfactory or in

preference to pasturage; and in general to that industry which is immediately productive, in preference to that which is only instrumental; but above all, which may leave the heaviest part of the burthen upon the methods, whatever they be, of acquiring wealth without industry, or even of subsisting in idleness.

V. EXPORTATION OF BREAD-CORN-Nothing seems to have a more positive tendency to reduce the number of the people, than the sending abroad part of the provision by which they are maintained; yet this has been the policy of legislators very studious of the improvement of their country. In order to reconcile ourselves to a practice which

appears to militate with the chief interest, that is, I discover or adopt a mechanical improvement, will, with the population of the country that adopts it, for some time, draw to themselves an increase of we must be reminded of a maxim which belongs employment; and that this preference may conto the productions both of nature and art, "that it tinue even after the improvement has become is impossible to have enough without a super-general; for, in every kind of trade, it is not only fluity. The point of sufficiency cannot, in any a great but permanent advantage, to have once case, be so exactly hit upon, as to have nothing preoccupied the public reputation. Thirdly, after to spare, yet never to want. This is peculiarly true every superiority which might be derived from the of bread-corn, of which the annual increase is possession of a secret, has ceased, it may be well extremely valuable. As it is necessary that the questioned whether even then any loss can accrue crop be adequate to the consumption in a year of to employment. The same money will be spared scarcity, it must, of consequence, greatly exceed to the same article still. Wherefore, in proportion it in a year of plenty. A redundancy therefore as the article can be afforded at a lower price, by will occasionally arise from the very care that is reason of an easier or shorter process in the manutaken to secure the people against the danger of facture, it will either grow into more general use, want; and it is manifest that the exportation of or an improvement will take place in the quality this redundancy subtracts nothing from the num- and fabric, which will demand a proportionable ber that can regularly be maintained by the pro- addition of hands. The number of persons emdace of the soil. Moreover, as the exportation of ployed in the manufactory of stockings, has not, I corn, under these circumstances, is attended with apprehend, decreased since the invention of stockno direct injury to population, so the benefits ing-mills. The amount of what is expended upon which indirectly arise to population from foreign the article, after subtracting from it the price of commerce, belongs to this, in common with other the raw material, and consequently what is paid species of trade; together with the peculiar advan- for work in this branch of our manufactories, is not tage of presenting a constant incitement to the less than it was before. Goods of a finer texture sail and industry of the husbandman, by the are worn in the place of coarser. This is the promise of a certain sale and an adequate price, change which the invention has produced; and under every contingency of season and produce. which compensates to the manufactory for every There is another situation, in which corn may other inconveniency. Add to which, that in not only be exported, but in which the people can the above, and in almost every instance, an imthrive by no other means; that is, of a newly provement which conduces to the recommendasettled country, with a fertile soil. The exporta- tion of a manufactory, either by the cheapness tion of a large proportion of the corn which a coun- or the quality of the goods, draws up after it many try produces, proves, it is true, that the inhabitants dependent employments, in which no abbreviation have not yet attained to the number which the has taken place. Country is capable of maintaining: but it does not prove but that they may be hastening to this limit with the utmost practicable celerity, which is the perfection to be sought for in a young establishment. In all cases except these two, and in the former of them to any greater degree than what is necessary to take off occasional redundancies, the exportation of corn is either itself noxious to population, or argues a defect of population arising from some other cause.

From the reasoning that has been pursued, and the various considerations suggested in this chapter, a judgment may, in some sort, be formed, how far regulations of law are in their nature capable of contributing to the support and advancement of population. I say how far; for, as in many subjects, so especially in those which relate to comVI. ABRIDGMENT OF LABOUR.-It has long merce, to plenty, to riches, and to the number of been made a question, whether those mechanical people, more is wont to be expected from laws, than contrivances which abridge labour, by perform-laws can do. Laws can only imperfectly restrain ing the same work by fewer hands, be detrimental that dissoluteness of manners, which, by diminishor not to the population of a country. From ing the frequency of marriages, impairs the very what has been delivered in preceding parts of the source of population. Laws cannot regulate the present chapter, it will be evident that this ques- wants of mankind, their mode of living, or their ton is equivalent to another,-whether such con- desire of those superfluities which fashion, more trivances diminish or not the quantity of employ- irresistible than laws, has once introduced into ment. The first and most obvious effect undoubt-general usage; or, in other words, has erected into elly is this; because, if one man be made to do necessaries of life. Laws cannot induce men to what three men did before, two are immediately enter into marriages, when the expenses of a discharged: but if, by some more general and re- family must deprive them of that system of acEnter consequence, they increase the demand for commodation to which they have habituated their work, or, what is the same thing, prevent the di- expectations. Laws, by their protection, by asminution of that demand, in a greater proportion suring to the labourer the fruit and profit of his than they contract the number of hands by which labour, may help to make a people industrious; it is performed, the quantity of employment, upon but without industry, the laws cannot provide the whole, will gain an addition. Upon which either subsistence or employment; laws cannot principle it may be observed, first, that whenever make corn grow without toil and care, or trade a mechanical invention succeeds in one place, it is flourish without art and diligence. In spite of all ressary that it be imitated in every other, where laws, the expert, laborious, honest workman, will the same manufacture is carried on; for, it is mani-be employed, in preference to the lazy, the unthat he who has the benefit of a conciser opeTation, will soon outvie and undersell a competitor who continues to use a more circuitous labour. It is also true, in the second place, that whoever first

skilful, the fraudulent, and evasive: and this is not more true of two inhabitants of the same village, than it is of the people of two different countries, which communicate either with each other, or with

the rest of the world. The natural basis of trade | and general law of enfranchisement, partition, and

is rivalship of quality and price; or, which is the same thing, of skill and industry. Every attempt to force trade by operation of law, that is, by compelling persons to buy goods at one market, which they can obtain cheaper and better from another, is sure to be either eluded by the quick-sightedness and incessant activity of private interest, or to be frustrated by retaliation. One half of the commercial laws of many states are calculated merely to counteract the restrictions which have been imposed by other states. Perhaps the only way in which the interposition of law is salutary in trade, is in the prevention of frauds.

Next to the indispensable requisites of internal peace and security, the chief advantage which can be derived to population from the interference of law, appears to me to consist in the encouragement of agriculture. This, at least, is the direct way of increasing the number of the people: every other mode being effectual only by its influence upon this. Now the principal expedient by which such a purpose can be promoted, is to adjust the laws of property, as nearly as possible, to the two following rules: first, "to give to the occupier all the power over the soil, which is necessary for its perfect cultivation;"-secondly, "to assign the whole profit of every improvement to the persons by whose activity it is carried on.' What we call property in land, as hath been observed above, is power over it. Now it is indifferent to the public in whose hands this power resides, if it be rightly used; it matters not to whom the land belongs, if it be well cultivated. When we lament that great estates are often united in the same hand, or complain that one man possesses what would be sufficient for a thousand, we suffer ourselves to be misled by words. The owner of ten thousand pounds a year, consumes little more of the produce of the soil than the owner of ten pounds a-year. If the cultivation be equal, the estate in the hands of one great lord, affords subsistence and employment to the same number of persons as it would do if it were divided amongst a hundred proprietors. In like manner we ought to judge of the effect upon the public interest, which may arise from lands being holden by the king, or by the subject; by private persons, or by corporations; by laymen, or ecclesiastics; in fee, or for life; by virtue of office, or in right of inheritance. I do not mean that these varieties make no difference, but I mean that all the difference they do make respects the cultivation of the lands which are so holden.

enclosure; which, though compulsory upon the lord, or the rest of the tenants, whilst it has in view the melioration of the soil, and tenders an equitable compensation for every right that it takes away, is neither more arbitrary, nor more dangerous to the stability of property, than that which is done in the construction of roads, bridges, embankments, navigable canals, and indeed in almost every pub lic work, in which private owners of land are obliged to accept that price for their property which an indifferent jury may award. It may here, however, be proper to observe, that although the enclosure of wastes and pastures be generally beneficial to population, yet the enclosure of lands in tillage, in order to convert them into pastures, is as generally hurtful.

But, secondly, agriculture is discouraged by every constitution of landed property which lets in those, who have no concern in the improvement, to a participation of the profit. This objection is applicable to all such customs of manors as subject the proprietor, upon the death of the lord or tenant, or the alienation of the estate, to a fine apportioned to the improved value of the land. But of all institutions which are in this way adverse to cultivation and improvement, none is so noxious as that of tithes. A claimant here enters into the produce, who contributed no assistance whatever to the production. When years, perhaps, of care and toil have matured an improvement; when the husbandman sees new crops ripening to his skill and industry; the moment he is ready to put his sickle to the grain, he finds himself compelled to divide his harvest with a stranger. Tithes are a tax not only upon industry, but upon that industry which feeds mankind; upon that species of exertion which it is the aim of all wise laws to cherish and promote; and to uphold and excite which, composes, as we have seen, the main benefit that the community receives from the whole system of trade, and the success of commerce. And, together with the more general inconveniency that attends the exaction of tithes, there is this additional evil, in the mode at least according to which they are collected at present, that they operate as a bounty upon pasturage. The burthen of the tax falls with its chief, if not with its whole weight, upon tillage; that is to say, upon that precise mode of cultivation, which, as hath been shown above, it is the business of the state to relieve and remunerate, in preference to every other. No measure of such extensive concern appears to me so practicable, nor any single alteration so beneficial, as the conversion of tithes into corn-rents.

CHAPTER XII.

This

There exist in this country, conditions of tenure which condemn the land itself to perpetual sterility. Of this kind is the right of common, which pre-commutation, I am convinced, might be so adjusted cludes each proprietor from the improvement, or as to secure to the tithe-holder a complete and even the convenient occupation, of his estate, with- perpetual equivalent for his interest, and to leave out (what seldom can be obtained) the consent of to industry its full operation, and entire reward. many others. This tenure is also usually embarrassed by the interference of manorial claims, under which it often happens that the surface belongs to one owner, and the soil to another; so that neither owner can stir a clod without the concurrence of his partner in the property. In many manors, the tenant is restrained from granting leases beyond a short term of years; which renders every plan of solid improvement impracticable. In these cases, the owner wants, what the first rule of rational policy requires, "sufficient power over the soil for its perfect cultivation." This power ought to be extended to him by some easy

Of War, and of Military Establishments. BECAUSE the Christian Scriptures describe wars as what they are, as crimes or judgments, some have been led to believe that it is unlawful for a Christian to bear arms. But it should be remembered that it may be necessary for individuals to unite their force, and for this end to resign themselves to the direction of a common will; and yet

it may be true that that will is often actuated by criminal motives, and often determined to destructive purposes. Hence, although the origin of wars be ascribed, in Scripture, to the operation of lawless and malignant passion; and though war itself be enumerated among the sorest calamities with which a land can be visited, the profession of a soldier is nowhere forbidden or condemned. When the soldiers demanded of John the Baptist what they should do, he said unto them, "Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages." In which answer we do not find that, in order to prepare themselves for the reception of the kingdom of God, it was required of soldiers to relinquish their profession, but only that they should beware of the vices of which that profession was accused. The precept which follows, "Be content with your wages," supposed them to continue in their situation. It was of a Roman centurion that Christ pronounced that memorable eulogy, "I have not found so great faith no, not in Israel. The first Gentile converts who was/received into the Christian church, and to whom the Gospel was imparted by the immediate and especial direction of Heaven, held the same station: and in the history of this transaction we discover not the smallest intimation, that Cornelius, upon becoming a Christian, quitted the service of the Roman legion; that his profession was objected to, or his continuance in it considered as in any wise inconsistent with his new character.

upon its ultimate utility; that this utility, having a finite and determinate value, situations may be feigned, and consequently may possibly arise, in which the general tendency is outweighed by the enormity of the particular mischief: but she recalls, at the same time, to the consideration of the inquirer, the almost inestimable importance, as of other general rules of relative justice, so especially of national and personal fidelity; the unseen, if not unbounded, extent of the mischief which must follow from the want of it; the danger of leaving it to the suflerer to decide upon the comparison of particular and general consequences; and the still greater danger of such decisions being drawn into future precedents. If treaties, for instance, be no longer binding than whilst they are convenient, or until the inconveniency ascend to a certain point, (which point must be fixed by the judgment, or rather by the feelings, of the complaining party;) or if such an opinion, after being authorised by a few examples, come at length to prevail; one and almost the only method of averting or closing the calamities of war, of either preventing or putting a stop to the destruction of mankind, is lost to the world for ever. We do not say that no evil can exceed this, nor any possible advantage compensate it; but we say that a loss, which affects all, will scarcely be made up to the common stock of human happiness by any benefit that can be procured to a single nation, which, however respectable when compared with any other single nation, bears an inconsiderable proportion to the whole. These, however, are the principles upon which the calculation is to be formed. It is enough, in this place, to remark the cause which produces the hesitation that we sometimes feel, in applying rules of personal probity to the conduct of nations.

In applying the principles of morality to the affairs of nations, the difficulty which meets us, arises from hence, "that the particular consequence sometimes appears to exceed the value of the general rule." In this circumstance is founded the only distinction that exists between the case of independent states, and of independent indi- As between individuals it is found impossible viduals. In the transactions of private persons, to ascertain every duty by an immediate reference no advantage that results from the breach of a to public utility, not only because such reference general law of justice, can compensate to the is oftentimes too remote for the direction of private public for the violation of the law; in the concerns consciences, but because a multitude of cases arise of empire, this may sometimes be doubted. Thus, in which it is indifferent to the general interest by that the faith of promises ought to be maintained, what rule men act, though it be absolutely necesas far as is lawful, and as far as was intended by sary that they act by some constant and known the parties, whatever inconveniency either of them rule or other and as, for these reasons, certain may suffer by his fidelity, in the intercourse of positive constitutions are wont to be established in private life, is seldom disputed; because it is every society, which, when established, become as evident to almost every man who reflects upon obligatory as the original principles of natural the subject, that the common happiness gains justice themselves; so, likewise, it is between inmore by the preservation of the rule, than it could dependent communities. Together with those do by the removal of the inconveniency. But maxims of universal equity which are common to when the adherence to a public treaty would en-states and to individuals, and by which the rights stave a whole people; would block up seas, rivers, and conduct of the one as well as the other, ought er harbours; depopulate cities; condemn fertile to be adjusted, when they fall within the scope regions to eternal desolation; cut off a country from its sources of provision, or deprive it of those commercial advantages to which its climate, produce, or situation naturally entitle it: the magnitude of the particular evil induces us to call in question the obligation of the general rule. Moral Philosophy furnishes no precise solution to these doubts. She cannot pronounce that any rule of orality is so rigid as to bend to no exceptions; or on the other hand, can she comprise these exceptions within any previous description. She confesses that the obligation of every law depends

• James iv. 1. I Luke vii. 9.

Luke iii. 14. § Acts. x. 1.

and application of such maxims; there exists also amongst sovereigns a system of artificial jurisprudence, under the name of the law of nations. In this code are found the rules which determine the right to vacant or newly discovered countries; those which relate to the protection of fugitives, the privileges of ambassadors, the condition and duties of neutrality, the immunities of neutral ships, ports, and coasts, the distance from shore to which these immunities extend, the distinction between free and contraband goods, and a variety of subjects of the same kind. Concerning which examples, and indeed the principal part of what is called the jus gentium, it may be observed, that the rules derive their moral force, (by which I mean the regard that ought to be paid to them by

federacy of states, be strong enough to overwhelm the rest. The objects of just war, are, precaution, defence, or reparation. In a larger sense, every just war is a defensive war, inasmuch as every just war supposes an injury perpetrated, attempted, or feared.

The insufficient causes or unjustifiable motives of war, are the family alliances, the personal friendships, or the personal quarrels, of princes; the internal disputes which are carried on in other nations; the justice of other wars; the extension of territory, or of trade; the misfortunes or accidental weakness of a neighbouring or rival nation.

There are two lessons of rational and sober policy, which, if it were possible to inculcate them into the councils of princes, would exclude many of the motives of war, and allay that restless ambition which is constantly stirring up one part of mankind against another.

The first of these lessons admonishes princes to "place their glory and their emulation, not in extent of territory, but in raising the greatest quantity of happiness out of a given territory." The enlargement of territory by conquest is not only not a just object of war, but in the greater part of the instances in which it is attempted, not even desirable. It is certainly not desirable where it adds nothing to the numbers, the enjoyments, or the security, of the conquerors. What com monly is gained to a nation, by the annexing of new dependencies, or the subjugation of other countries to its dominion, but a wider frontier to defend; more interfering claims to vindicate; more quarrels, more enemies, more rebellions, to encounter; a greater force to keep up by sea and

the consciences of sovereigns,) not from their internal reasonableness or justice, for many of them are perfectly arbitrary, nor yet from the authority by which they were established, for the greater part have grown insensibly into usage, without any public compact, formal acknowledgment, or even known original; but simply from the fact of their being established, and the general duty of conforming to established rules upon questions, and between parties, where nothing but positive regulations can prevent disputes, and where disputes are followed by such destructive consequences. The first of the instances which we have just now enumerated, may be selected for the illustration of this remark. The nations of Europe consider the sovereignty of newly-discovered countries as belonging to the prince or state whose subject makes the discovery; and in pursuance of this rule, it is usual for a navigator, who falls upon an unknown shore, to take possession of it, in the name of his sovereign at home, by erecting his standard, or displaying his flag upon a desert coast. Now nothing can be more fanciful, or less substantiated by any considerations of reason or justice, than the right which such discovery, or the transient occupation and idle ceremony that accompany it, confer upon the country of the discoverer. Nor can any stipulation be produced, by which the rest of the world have bound themselves to submit to this pretension. Yet when we reflect that the claims to newly-discovered countries can hardly be settled, between the different nations which frequent them, without some positive rule or other; that such claims, if left unsettled, would prove sources of ruinous and fatal contentions; that the rule already proposed, how-land; more services to provide for, and more ever arbitrary, possesses one principal quality of a establishments to pay? And, in order to draw rule, determination and certainty: above all, from these acquisitions something that may make that it is acquiesced in, and that no one has power up for the charge of keeping them, a revenue is to to substitute another, however he might con- be extorted, or a monopoly to be enforced and trive a better, in its place: when we reflect upon watched, at an expense which costs half their these properties of the rule, or rather upon these produce. Thus the provinces are oppressed, in consequences of rejecting its authority, we are led order to pay for being ill-governed; and the orito ascribe to it the virtue and obligation of a pre-ginal state is exhausted in maintaining a feeble cept of natural justice, because we perceive in it that which is the foundation of justice itself,— public importance and utility. And a prince who should dispute this rule, for the want of regularity in its formation, or of intelligible justice in its principle, and by such disputes should disturb the tranquillity of nations, and at the same time lay the foundation of future disturbances, would be little less criminal than he who breaks the public peace, by a violation of engagements to which he had himself consented, or by an attack upon those national rights which are founded immediately in the law of nature, and in the first perceptions of equity. The same thing may be repeated of the rules which the law of nations prescribes in the other instances that were mentioned, namely, that the obscurity of their origin, or the arbitrariness of their principle, subtracts nothing from the respect that is due to them, when once established.

War may be considered with a view to its causes and its conduct.

The justifying causes of war, are, deliberate invasions of right, and the necessity of maintaining such a balance of power amongst neighbouring nations, as that no single state, or con

authority over discontented subjects. No assignable portion of country is benefited by the change; and if the sovereign appear to himself to be enriched or strengthened, when every part of his dominion is made poorer and weaker than it was, it is probable that he is deceived by apppearances. Or were it true that the grandeur of the prince is magnified by those exploits; the glory which is purchased, and the ambition which is gratified, by the distress of one country without adding to the happiness of another, which at the same time enslaves the new and impoverishes the ancient part of the empire, by whatever names it may be known or flattered, ought to be an object of universal execration; and oftentimes not more so to the vanquished, than to the very people whose armies or whose treasures have achieved the victory.

There are, indeed, two cases in which the extension of territory may be of real advantage, and to both parties. The first is, where an empire thereby reaches to the natural boundaries which divide it from the rest of the world. Thus we account the British Channel the natural boundary which separates the nations of England and France; and if France possessed any countries on this, or England any cities or provinces on that, side of the sea, recovery of such towns and districts

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