demands
of great sums from the treasury, and some other drains of perhaps as
great consequence,[40] we now see ourselves reduced to a state (since we
have no friends) of being pitied by our enemies; at least, if our
enemies were of such a kind, as to be capable of any regard towards us
except of hatred and contempt.

Forty years are now passed since the Revolution, when the contention of
the British Empire was, most unfortunately for us, and altogether
against the usual course of such mighty changes in government, decided
in the least important nation; but with such ravages and ruin executed
on both sides, as to leave the kingdom a desert, which in some sort it
still continues. Neither did the long rebellions in 1641, make half such
a destruction of houses, plantations, and personal wealth, in both
kingdoms, as two years campaigns did in ours, by fighting England's
battles.

By slow degrees, and by the gentle treatment we received under two
auspicious reigns,[41] we grew able to live without running in debt. Our
absentees were but few: we had great indulgence in trade, a considerable
share in employments of church and state; and while the short leases
continued, which were let some years after the war ended, tenants paid
their rents with ease and cheerfulness, to the great regret of their
landlords, who had taken up a spirit of oppression that is not easily
removed. And although, in these short leases, the rent was gradually to
increase after short periods, yet, as soon as the terms elapsed, the
land was let to the highest bidder, most commonly without the least
effectual clause for building or planting. Yet, by many advantages,
which this island then possessed, and hath since utterly lost, the rents
of lands still grew higher upon every lease that expired, till they have
arrived at the present exorbitance; when the frog, over-swelling
himself, burst at last.

With the price of land of necessity rose that of corn and cattle, and
all other commodities that farmers deal in: hence likewise, obviously,
the rates of all goods and manufactures among shopkeepers, the wages of
servants, and hire of labourers. But although our miseries came on fast,
with neither trade nor money left; yet neither will the landlord abate
in his rent, nor can the tenant abate in the price of what that rent
must be paid with, nor any shopkeeper, tradesman, or labourer live, at
lower expense for food and clothing, than he did before.

I have be