221 INTELLIGENCE RESPECTING ARTS. Oft. IQ. 



to the diUurii of perfons in power, and to fubmit to their 

 mandates with the moft paffive obedience ; There was a time 

 when every fervant of the fervant of the Grown, down 

 to the very loweft of their order, was deemed a facred 

 perfon, whofe operations none durft challenge, far lefs controul : 

 There was a time not very remote, vvhen every revenue board 

 thought it their indifpenfible duty to fupport their officers in 

 every cafe, whether they had acted properly or not in the 

 difcharge of the funflions of their office: There was a time, 

 v/hen thefe revenue boards thought they were authorifed to 

 allow the fines that Judges awarded againll the officers of re- 

 •Venue for tranfgieffions in the difcharge of their duty^ to be 

 paid out of the public revenue of the Crown, inftead of being 

 paid by tl)e individual who had tranfgrefled the law: But' 

 now it is to be hoped thefc times are pafTed, and that as man-; 

 kind are become more aciive and more enlightened, fuch fer-, 

 vile principles will be held in deteftation, and fuch improper 

 modes of atting will be abandoned, as fuiting only the days 

 of barbarifm and ignorance. 



We can hardly fuppofe it poflible that any board ot 

 revenue can now be lo little informed, as not to know that 

 tlie amount of the revenue paid by any number of people, mufb 

 ia all cafcs be proportioned to the degree of profperity which 

 that people do actually enjoy ; we cannot iuppofe them to be fo 

 little acquainted with the duties of their office, as not t© know" 

 that they are bound alike to guard againft frauds that tend to' 

 diminilh the king's revenue, and frauds that tend unjuftly to 

 diflrefs the king's lieges ; we cannot fuppofe them to be fo 

 blind as not to know, that where injufHce fliall be fufFered to' 

 pafs w ilhout redrefs by thofe who are put into office, ex- 

 pielly for the purpofe of giving that redrefs, thofe who fuffer 

 by it in the prefent age will not complain of it as a hardfhip. 

 They cnnnot be fo fliort-fighted as not to fee, that if thefe 

 complaints become loud and general, they muft and will be at- 

 tended to elfewhere. It is impoffible for us to conceive that all 

 thcfcjihings Ihould not be obvious, and being obvious, that they 

 Ihould not be guarded againft, by a ftrifl and impartial admi- 

 niftration of juftice, when they are called on for that effeft. 



^Liberty is the firll; and greateft bleffing that heaven can 

 confer upon a n.',!!on; but Uceyithufnefs^ which fo often alTumcs 



