Social England : a record of the progress of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science, literature and manners, from the earliest times to the present day . out that our Parliamentary good faithbrought to our feet the treasures of all the moneyed men ofEurope; that Ave could raise loans at half the interest that itcost the French; that Ave could still borroAv at 3 per cent.;and that governments must consider not merely the maxim of paying your Avay, but also Avhat the people are able and Avliatthey are Avilling to bear. As Henry Fox said, a land tax of 4s. inthe
Social England : a record of the progress of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science, literature and manners, from the earliest times to the present day . out that our Parliamentary good faithbrought to our feet the treasures of all the moneyed men ofEurope; that Ave could raise loans at half the interest that itcost the French; that Ave could still borroAv at 3 per cent.;and that governments must consider not merely the maxim of paying your Avay, but also Avhat the people are able and Avliatthey are Avilling to bear. As Henry Fox said, a land tax of 4s. inthe £ on a true assessment Avould have brought in enough tomake both loans and custom duties superfluous; these, there-fore, Avere the penalties of popular ignorance and impatienceof taxation, Avhich had rejected poll taxes and hearth taxes, andAvould submit to no increase in excise or in AvindoAV tax or landtax. Heavy as the load Avas, it Avas in the nature of mortgageson ncAvly acquired estates ; and the nation could afford to payout of its victory over its commercial rivals and the consequentenormous expansion of its own resources. It Avas no idle boast FINANCE AND ECONOMICS. 441. 1784] when Burke, in 1767, offered to prove that England was themost Hghtly taxed State, and its revenue the best constituted,of any that ever the workl had beheld. In 1763 the fourteen North American colonies contained a Taxing the population just over ^°^°°^®^-two millions, of whomthree-quarters werewhites. That is, thecolonists were thennearly one-third as nu-merous as the inhabit-ants of England andWales. But their rateof increase was so muchmore rapid than thehome rate, that Malthus (p. 655) was able to prove from it thecapacity of population to double itself in less than twenty-fiveyears. The total volume of English trade had increased enor-mously in the eighteenth century; and yet the proportionwhich Ens^lish trade with these colonies bore to the total hadincreased in a far greater ratio
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