PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 437 



tribes were due to the refusal of the successor of Solomon to 

 accede to the demands of their representatives that he should 

 abate the (tax) exactions of the preceding reign ; and to his threat 

 in response that he would make his yoke even heavier in this 

 particular than his father's. And the first significant act recorded 

 of the revolt that followed was the stoning to death of the man 

 Adoram, who " was over the tribute," or the chief of the tax col- 

 lectors. 



After the Persian war, the states of Greece, united under what 

 was termed the confederation of Delos, agreed to make contribu- 

 tions i. e., pay taxes to Athens, to be used by her for the com- 

 mon defense; and these contributions, assessed in the first in- 

 stance by Aristides, whose reputation for justice commanded the 

 confidence of all, occasioned no complaint. But finally Athens, 

 having assumed the direction of the confederacy, not only in- 

 creased the contributions beyond the assessments of Aristides, but 

 also assumed the right to use them arbitrarily, notably for forti- 

 fying and beautifying the city. The result was a revolt, followed 

 by the Peloponnesian war, and from that date and occurrence the 

 decline of Athens, and indeed of all the- states of Greece, is trace- 

 able. 



Oppressive taxation prompted the so-called massacre of the 

 " Sicilian Vespers " in 1282, resulting in the slaughter or expulsion 

 of all the French from the island of Sicily. 



The assumption and exercise of authority on the part of Pope 

 Leo X in 1517, to enforce contributions for the rebuilding of the 

 cathedral of St. Peter's at Rome was, as is well known, the pri- 

 mary cause of the disruption of the Roman Catholic Church, the 

 Protestant secession led by Luther, and the almost innumerable 

 wars and social disturbances that followed in consequence. 



The history of the struggle of the people of England against 

 arbitrary taxation is the history of the English Constitution. 

 Thus, the attempt to arbitrarily collect an unjust poll tax was 

 the primary cause of the rebellion of Wat Tyler in England in 

 1378, in the reign of Richard II ; as was the " misuse of taxes " 

 the occasion of the rising of the commons of England in the next 

 century (1450) against the government of Henry VI, and under 

 the leadership of Jack Cade.* 



Shakespeare, who apparently analyzed and comprehended the 

 subtle philosophy of all human motives and tendencies, seems 

 also in the play of Henry VIII to ascribe the fall of his great 

 minister, Wolsey, to abuse of the power of taxation ; and whether 



* Recent historical investigations favor the idea that the leader of this rebellion was 

 not an illiterate rascal and buffoon one of " the filth and scum of Kent," as portrayed by 

 Shakespeare in Henry VI but rather a gentleman of gentle and possibly of noble birth. 



