Page:Political Tracts.djvu/185

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TAXATION NO TYRANNY.
175

leſs people, who having worked hard for bread in a wild country, and obtained by the ſlow progreſſion of manual induſtry the accommodations of life, are now invaded by unprecedented oppreſſion, and plundered of their properties by the harpies of taxation.

We are told how their induſtry is obſtructed by unnatural reſtraints, and their trade confined by rigorous prohibitions; how they are forbidden to enjoy the products of their own ſoil, to manufacture the materials which Nature ſpreads before them, or to carry their own goods to the neareſt market: and ſurely the generoſity of Engliſh virtue will never heap new weight upon thoſe that are already overladen, will never delight in that dominion, which cannot be exerciſed but by cruelty and outrage.

But while we are melting in ſilent ſorrow, and in the tranſports of delirious

pity