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through Italy, Hannibal led his legions over the Alps, and carried for a season victory in his march. But a people like the Romans, with every freeman possessed of some title to his native soil, might lose battles, but could not be subdued, and "they triumphed over their fierce and inveterate foes.

The observations as yet made in this section, have failed very much in their object, if the following positions have not been established by them:

That taxation, or the encroachment on a people's means of subsistence, if unjust in principle, partial in distribution, or severe in pressure, will cause a high-spirited and enlightened people to bring the question to issue by an appeal to arms-will, in other circumstances, force a nation to rise up, and, under the influence of distress, burst forth into violence, and overturn the very fabric of society—will, among a people of disjointed materials, and of deficient energy, act like a curse on the soil, so as "to cause the tree to be cut down for its fruit,"-will, among a fierce and barbarous people, rouse the passions of fanaticism and revenge, and spread fire and sword wherever defenceless men and women are to be found as victims.

As practical lessons are designed by these notices, it will be well to take one from the terrible calamity that befell the British arms in Cabul, where the barbarous tribes were roused, to overwhelm in slaughter an entire army, because our government in India thought proper to withhold a tribute which it had stipulated to pay to the chiefs of the tribes that caused such disasters.*

* Since the above was written, the British Army has evacuated Affghanistan, after having released the prisoners who were kept under the power of the native chiefs, and restored them to their country.

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PART II.

PASSAGES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY, PREVIOUS TO THE REVOLUTION OF 1688,

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE HARSH NATURE OF TAXATION STIMULATING THE NATIONAL CHARACTER.

In another branch of this work, a sketch is given of the progress of fiscal despotism in this country, from the reign of Charles the First down to the alteration, in 1842, of the tariff, and the imposition of a tax on the income of the industrious citizen. In this section, a few passages from English history, previous to the civil wars which led to the Revolution of 1688, will be adduced, in order to show how taxation stimulates society.

The Roman period was one of iron rule, and was characterized by the dead calm of a province of a powerful empire, or only disturbed by the inroads of barbarous tribes. The persons and properties of the inhabitants were completely at the mercy of the conquerors. The abandonment of the country by the Romans in the fifth century, was the signal for a domestic struggle among the various tribes or nations of the island, and for an irruption of Saxons, Danes, and other races, from the neighbouring continent. The Danish invaders were the most ruthless in their exactions, as they appeared, in their fiscal character, to possess hearts of flint and arms of iron; and they imposed a land-tax, to which history and tradition have given the odious name of “Danegelt." The object of those ferocious hordes, was rather to overrun and plunder the country, than to seize and settle on its lands.

Alfred was a king raised to make head against them, but his romantic and glorious career was insufficient to turn them off from the shores of the island.

The annals of the country, from the departure of the Romans to the descent of William of Normandy, tell the tale, oft repeated, of the imposition of harsh taxation, and of outbreak and insurrection of the people.

The inhabitants were divided into two classes-freemen and slaves-both exposed to the taxing power.

In those rude times, any symptom of civilization, and love of the arts of peace, that appears, is hailed with satisfaction in the present age:-such as the law of Athelstan, for the promotion of commerce, by raising every merchant who had made three voyages of trade, to the rank of noble.

A few years before the Conquest, there occurred an incident, that displayed the powerful effect which the extreme misery of the people produced on the mind of Godiva, the queen of the country. This misery was caused by the excessive taxation imposed by her despotic husband, and so roused her sympathy as to make her sacrifice herself by riding naked through the town, as the condition, or penance, fixed by the tyrant, for redeeming the people from their miseries; and how terrible this state of affairs must have been, thus to overcome, in the mind of the noble Godiva, the feelings of female modesty!

This abjectness of condition of the people, produced by the fiscal power, and the ignorance caused by the spiritual dominion of a corrupt priesthood, prepared the way for the advance of the Norman and his relentless followers, to the possession of the property, and to the command over the lives, of all orders and classes of men in the country. From these two circumstances, can also be accounted for, the ease with which any determined band or horde of foreign barbarians could overrun and occupy the soil.

This may be the proper place to refer to the humiliating fact, established by the history of the British Islands, that

a foreign enemy once landed on their shores in such force as to maintain his ground, has always either subdued the inhabitants first settled, or established himself in an independent position. The Roman conquest is not particularly adduced as a case in point, because that people were so infinitely superior to the natives in military power and discipline, and in the knowledge of the arts of peace, and science of government, that their conquest and occupation of the country were similar to proceedings in the present day, of white men armed with the musket against naked and almost defenceless savages. But the wonder is, to see tribes of mixed races come over from the opposite shores of Germany, Denmark, Holland, and France, and take the country from the hands of inhabitants, of the same stamina and courage as themselves; for, man to man, the British islands have always reared a people equal to any race of men on the earth. This is a very interesting subject of inquiry, but there is no space here to go into it, and all that can be attempted is, to point to the peculiar condition of the society, arising from the insular nature of the territory.

In ancient times, when there was little commercial intercourse with foreign nations, facilities were afforded to the chiefs exercising the military and political power, to curb their subjects, deprived of every chance of getting foreign aid, or of escaping to foreign countries. An enemy making a descent on an island does so at great advantage; he has the excitement of an assailant, and dashes on with high hopes and spirits. The attack is necessarily a sudden one, if winds and weather be at all favourable to the enterprize, and it may be made on a point where the inhabitants are taken by surprise, and perhaps beaten and dispersed in considerable force. In all attacks from seaward on a people, a sudden surprise is a victory, which, promptly followed

up, may lead to the most decisive results. An insular people naturally confide in the security of their position, and are therefore thrown off their guard by the unexpected appearance of a foreign enemy on their shores. A people with a land-frontier against an enemy, can always have their eye directed to the points of danger, and be ready to defend them.

The last time that Great Britain saw and heard the confusion and uproar of battle within her borders, was within these last hundred years; and the proceedings of the Pretender, in the year 1745, throw a fearful interest on this subject. Although the rebellion was expected by the government to break out, the country was so completely taken by surprise by the flash of arms, that had the Pretender to the crown acted more like a soldier, and pushed his advantages, instead of wasting time in the mummeries of royalty in the palace at Edinburgh, there is little doubt that he could have marched into the capital itself, and seized the treasury of the kingdom. As it was, he penetrated into England, notwithstanding the distracted nature of his own military counsels, which brought on the ruin of his cause. The real defenders of a country are its inhabitants, and not foreign armies: but if the mass of the population be slaves, or in circumstances of extreme misery, perhaps they will view the yoke of a foreigner preferable to the grinding power of domestic tyrants. Prince Charles, in his manifesto to the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland, and to foreign states, urged as arguments for his cause, the oppressed state of the tenants of these countries, and the system of intimidation and bribery practised at elections of members of the legislature. From this digression. let us go back to ancient times.

As William held out to the French the spoils of England

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