232 GovsRXMENT, Laws, [Part II. 



of government. The army, if it can be so called, 

 costs but a mere trifle. It consists of a few men, who 

 are absolutely necessary to keep forts from crumbling 

 down, and guns from rotting with rust. The navy is 

 an object of care, and its support and increase a cause 

 of considerable expense. Kut the government, reljing 

 on the good sense and valour of a people, who must 

 hate or disregard themselves before they can hate or 

 disregard that which so manifestly promotes their own 

 happiness, has no need to expend much on any species 

 of warlike preparations. The government could hot 

 stand a week, if it were hated by the people ; nor, 

 indeed, ought it to stand an hour, it has the hearts of 

 the people with it, and, therefore, it need expend no- 

 thing in blood'tnoney, or in secret services of any kind. 

 Hence the cheapness of this government ; hence the 

 small amount of the taxes ; hence the ease and happi- 

 ness of the People. 



425. Great as the distance between you and me is, 

 my old neighbours, I very often think of you ; and 

 especially when I buy salt, which our neighbour 

 Warner used to sell us for 19s. a bushel, and which I 

 buy here for 2s. 6d. This salt is made, you know, 

 down somewhere by Hambel. This very salt ; when 

 brought here from England, has all the charges of 

 freight, insurance, wharlJage, storage, to pa}-. It pays 

 besides, one third of its value in duty to the American 

 Government before it be landed here. Then, you will 

 observe, there is the pro/it of the American Salt Mer- 

 chant, and then that ot the shopkeeper who sells me 

 the salt. And, after all this, 1 buy that very Hamp- 

 shire salt for 2s. 6rf. a bushel, English measure. What 

 a government, then, must that of the Boroughnu>ngers 

 be ! The salt is a gift of God. It is thrown on the 

 shore. And yet, these tyrants -will not suffer us to use 

 it, until we have paid them 15*. a bushel for liberty to 

 use it. They will not suffer us to use the salt, which 

 God has sent us, until we have given them 15*. a 

 bushel for them to bestow on themselves, on their 

 families and dependents, in the payment of the interest 

 of the Debt, which they have contracted, and in pay- 

 ing those, whom they hire to shoot at us. Yes ; England 



