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Show 122 POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SUBJECTS 123 BUT complain you will; and no lboneris felf was not originally quite fatisfied with the «one Recital of imaginary Grievances filenced Jufiice of your Caufe ',---and mutt have feen and confuted; but, like the Hydra in the Fable, up {tarts another. Let us fee, therefore, what is your next Objeé‘tion, whichI think, is the lalt, that with all your Zeal, and Goodwill, you are able to mui'ter up.---" The lnexpedienCy " and Excefiivenefs of fuch a Tax l a Tax ill" timed in itfelf, and ill digei'tedl unfeafonably " laid on 1 and xceeding all Rules of Propor"‘ tion in regard to the Abilities of thole who 4‘ are to pay it l" Now, my Friend, had there been any Truth in thefe Affertions, which I lhall foon make to appear, that there is not ~,---but had there been, the Plea itfelf comes rather at the latch, and out of Place from you:---From you, I fay, who peremptorily objefi to the very Power and Authority of the Britiflz Parliament of laying (my internal Taxes upon the Colonies, great or linall or at any Time leafonable, or unfealonable. And therefore had you been able to have prov-ed the j/rigalz'ty of fuch a Tax, it would have been quite fuperfluous to have informed us afterwards, that this Ufurpation of your Rights and Liberties was either an excefiive, orun- iEafonable Ufurpation. But as you have failed in this full: Point; nay, as all your own Argu- ments have proved the very reverfe of what you intended 5 and very probably, as you will: et abundant Reafon before this Time to have altered your former hafly, and rafh Opinion -,---I will therefore wave the Advantage, and now de- bate the Point with you, as though you had ac- knowledged the Parliamentary Right of Taxati- on, and only excepted to the (Luantum, or the Mode, the Time, or the Manner of it. Now two Things are here to be difcufl'ed; fitl't, the pretended Extcfivem'fs of the Tax; and fecondly, the Unfm/omzélemft of it. As to the Excelfivenefs of the Stamp Duties, the Proof of this mutt depend upon the Proof of a previous Article,---the relative Poverty, and Ina- bility of thofe who are to pay it. But how do you propofe to make out this Point ? And after having given us for fome years pal't fuch Difplays of your growing Riches and encreafing Magnificence, as perhaps never any People did in the fame Space of Time; how can you now retract and call yourfelves a poor People; Remember, my young Man, the leveral Extioflulations I had with your deceafed Father on the prodigious Increafe of flmerican Luxury. And what was his Reply? Why, that an lncreafe of Luxury was an infeparable Attendant on an Increafe of Riches; and that, if 1 expected to tontinue my Nori/z-flmerimiz Trade, I multfuit my Cargo to the Tafte of my Cuf'tomers; and not: |