our, what she was obliged to give up
to the necessities of the state. Can America be said to be poorer, to be
more scanty of money than Scotland? No. What then follows? America must
be taxed.

It is in vain to pretend that the increase of the American territories,
and of the commodities, which they furnish to the British markets, has
reduced the price of any article; or placed the ancient colonists in a
worse situation than before the war; and consequently rendered them
incapable of bearing any additional burden.

Europe is still the same as in seventeen hundred and fifty-five, its
inhabitants are as numerous; therefore as Britons, with regard to it and
America, are, for the most part, but factors, the demand for American
goods must be as great, if not greater, than formerly; their value
cannot be diminished, nor can the Americans be worse situated than at
the commencement of the war.

It is equally idle to pretend that a tax on America must prove
prejudicial to Britain.

A tax for defending it must, as hinted above, be levied somewhere;
either in Britain or its colonies: and nothing is more manifest than
that those, on whom the tax is laid, or who advance the money, must be
the only sufferers, as in all dealings between two, what is taken from
the one is added to the other; it always requires some time to balance
accounts, by raising the price of commodities in proportion to the tax,
and to reduce every thing by the course of circulation to a level. What
America loses, Britain gains; the expences of the former are a saving to
the latter. All the world is sensible of the justness of this maxim, the
clamours of the colonists are a striking proof of it. If they were not
convinced of this truth, why grumble at the impost? If they did not know
that a tax upon them must prove comparatively detrimental to their
country, and serviceable to Britain, why exclaim against it? How absurd
then, is it to advance that as an argument for the abolition of the
tax, which was the principal one for opposing it? Indeed, to alledge
that England will gain more by laying the tax on herself, is to alledge
that a man, who gives his daughter an annual pension, becomes richer
than if he received an equal sum.

I own, if Britain, by any channel, receives in return a larger portion
than she bestows, she gains by the bargain. But that cannot be the
present case; for by taxing herself she raises the price of provisions,
which encreases that of l