unparalleled in any country--a wild spirit of speculation--and,
with all, an appearance of astonishing prosperity in the midst of a most
exhausting war, we see the reflection of our own condition, and find the
lessons by which we should be governed. We have now, for the first time,
become a people conscious of taxation. It is clear that the burdens of
the future must be still greater than anything we have yet borne in the
past. The questions as to the best modes of taxation have already begun
to call forth the anxious deliberation of the nation. The question is
asked by some if we have not already reached that limit where taxation
ceases to be a contribution from the surplus of society, and beyond
which it will become a draught on the vital, productive energies of the
country. It cannot be unprofitable, at such a time, to examine the
history of English taxation in the great periods of similar trial
through which that nation has passed.

The great rebellion marks the era of the adoption of a regular system of
taxation in Great Britain. 'From a period of immemorial antiquity,' says
Macaulay, 'it had been the practice of every English Government to
contract debts; what the Revolution introduced was the practice of
honestly paying them.'

The change is significant of the triumph of the people. It was found, on
the breaking out of the rebellion, that not even an army of Puritans
could be sustained without money. The plan of weekly assessments was at
first adopted. It was unequal and frequently oppressive. In 1643 it was
proposed, in the republican Parliament, to place a tax on the
manufacture of beer and cider. The proposition was not at first
favorably received. That solemn body had no objection to checking the
abominations of beer drinking, but it hesitated to inaugurate a species
of taxation which seemed to infringe upon some of the most cherished
rights of Englishmen. After much discussion the bill was carried, though
with the express declaration that it was compelled by the necessities of
the state, and should not be renewed. The tax was soon found too
convenient to be dispensed with. In spite of the good resolutions of
Parliament, the act was again and again renewed. As the necessities of
the state increased, the list of articles was enlarged, and the rate of
duty gradually augmented. Thus the excise was introduced to the English
people, and thus, almost before they had ceased to look upon it as an
intruder, it had ac