it should suit the same arbitrary power by which it was assessed to
require it a second time.

A tax of the twentieth penny; or five per cent., was laid upon every
transfer of real estate. This imposition was perpetual.

Thirdly, a tag of the tenth penny, or ten per cent., was assessed upon
every article of merchandise or personal-property, to be paid as often as
it should be sold. This tax was likewise to be perpetual.

The consternation in the assembly when these enormous propositions were
heard, can be easily imagined. People may differ about religious dogmas.
In the most bigoted persecutions there will always be many who, from
conscientious although misguided motives, heartily espouse the cause of
the bigot. Moreover, although resistance to tyranny in matters of faith,
is always the most ardent of struggles, and is supported by the most
sublime principle in our nature, yet all men are not of the sterner stuff
of which martyrs are fashioned. In questions relating to the world
above; many may be seduced from their convictions by interest, or forced
into apostasy by violence. Human nature is often malleable or fusible,
where religious interests are concerned, but in affairs material and
financial opposition to tyranny is apt to be unanimous.

The interests of commerce and manufacture, when brought into conflict
with those of religion, had often proved victorious in the Netherlands.
This new measure, however--this arbitrary and most prodigious system of
taxation, struck home to every fireside. No individual, however adroit
or time-serving, could parry the blow by which all were crushed.

It was most unanswerably maintained in the assembly, that this tenth and