England had been able to produce her own corn, and all imported corn was taxed. Indeed, not only corn, but few articles came into the country at this time that were not taxed. In the words of Sydney Smith, there were "taxes upon every article which enters the mouth or covers the back or is placed under the foot; taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste; taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion; taxes on the raw material; taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man; taxes on the sauce which pampers appetite and the drug that restores health; on the ermine which decorates the judge and the rope which hangs the criminal; on the poor man's salt and the rich man's spice; on the brass nails of the coffin and the ribbons of the bride—at bed or board, downlying or uprising, we must pay. The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages the taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid 7 per cent., into a spoon that has paid 15 per cent, flings himself back upon his chintz bed, which has paid 22 per cent, and expires in the
