1492. political progrefs of Britain. 239° 
rious, when every subject of Britain pays of public 
taxes between two and three pounds sterling per an- 
num. At this rate, twenty pounds sterling are ex- 
acted every year from a family that consists of eight 
persons ; and if the poor pay ten pounds lefs, it is 
equally certain that the rich must pay ten pounds 
more, and so in proportion. The sums which have 
been squandered since the revolution, upon foolifh wars, 
and uselefs colonies, on the balance of power, and the 
balance of trade, would have been ten times more 
than sufficient for converting both Britain and Ire- 
land into a garden. Had this been the case, our si- 
tuation would have been as much superior to what it 
is now, as we are at present superior to those naked 
savages who gave battle to Julius Cesar, on the coast 
of Dover, lam, tc. 
Laurencekirk, Timotuy THUNDERPROOF, 
May 31. 1792: 
P. S. The practice of hiring foreign mercenaries, 
so frequently mentioned in the preceding letters, must 
provoke the disapprobation ofevery reader. If we can- 
not or dare not fight our own battles, what right have 
we to fhed the blood of a fhoal of wretches, driven to 
slaughter at so much per head by their worthlefs sove- 
reign? Thenecefsities of the state may, perhaps, insome 
cases, supersede the common obligations of morality; 
and a philosopher may forgive, though he cannot vio- 
dicate, the infidelity of an American congrefs, who, 
three hundred thousand pounds. At three and a half per cent. the interest 
of this sim amounts to nine hundred and ninety thousand five hundred 
pounds; and this deluge of incerezt we coatinue to pay for a loan which 
never was advanced. 
