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that Rapin says---“The king, in order to make his people fully sensible of their new slavery, affected to muster his troops, which amounted to 4000 well armed and disciplined men.” I think our army, at this time, consists of more than seventy regiments.
The method of taxing by excise was first introduced amidst the convulsions of the civil wars. Extreme necessity was pretended for it, and its short continuance promised. After the restoration, an excise upon beer, ale and other liquors, was granted to the [1]king, one half in fee, the other for life, as an equivalent for the court of wards. Upon James the Second’s accession, the parliament [2]gave him the first excise, with an additional duty on wine, tobacco, and some other things. Since the revolution it has been extended to salt, candles, leather, hides, hops, soap, paper, paste-boards, mill-boards, scale-boards, vellum, parchment, starch, silks, calicoes, linens, stuffs, printed, stained, &c. wire, wrought plate, coffee, tea, chocolate, &c.
Thus a standing army and excise have, from their first slender origins, tho’ always hated, always feared, always opposed, at length swelled up to their vast present bulk.
These facts are sufficient to support what I have said. ’Tis true, that all the mischiefs apprehended by our ancestors from a standing army and excise, have not yet happened: But it does not follow from thence, that they will not happen. The inside of a house may catch fire, and the most valuable apartments be ruined, before the flames burst out. The question in these cases is not, what evil has actually attended particular measures---but, what evil, in the nature of things, is likely to attend them. Certain circumstances may for some time delay effects, that were reasonably expected, and that must ensue. There was a long period, after the Romans had prorogued his command to [3]Q. Publilius Philo, before that example destroyed their liberty. All our kings, from the revolution to the present reign, have been foreigners. Their ministers generally continued but a short time in authority[4]; and they themselves were mild and virtuous princes.
- ↑ 12 Char. II. Chap. 23 and 24.
- ↑ 1 James II. Chap. 1 and 4.
- ↑ In the year of the city 428, “Duo singularia hæc ei viro primum contigere; prorogatio imperii non ante in ullo facta, et acto honore triumphus.” Liv. B. 8. Chap. 23. 26.
“Had the rest of the Roman citizens imitated the example of L. Quintius, who refused to have his consulship continued to him, they had never admitted that custom of proroguing of magistrates, and then the prolongation of their commands in the army had never been introduced, which very thing was at length the ruin of that commonwealth.” Machiavel’s Discourses, B. 3. Chap. 24.
- ↑ I dont know but it may be said, with a good deal of reason, that a quick rotation of ministers is very desirable in Great-Britain. A minister there has a vast store of materials to work with. Long administrations are rather favorable to the reputation of a people abroad, than to their liberty.
