historian, is compelled to say of that conquest, “It would be difficult to find in all history a revolution more destructive, or attended with a more complete subjection of the ancient inhabitants.  Contumely seems even to have been wantonly added to oppression; and the natives were universally reduced to such a state of meanness and poverty, that the English name became a term of reproach; and several generations elapsed before one family of Saxon pedigree was raised to any considerable honours, or could so much as obtain the rank of baron of the realm.”—­Yet the English people owe much to the ancestors of the aristocracy, who introduced among them the arts and refinements of civilization, and by their wisdom and disciplined valour have raised the country to that pitch of greatness, so justly termed “the envy of surrounding nations.”  I do not contend, that because a nation may have acquired the name of great, that therefore the people are more happy; but am rather inclined to think the contrary, for conquests are generally made and wealth is accumulated for the benefit of the few, and at the expense of the many.

A law has been lately passed by the legislature of Pennsylvania, taxing wholesale and retail dealers in merchandize, excepting those importers of foreign goods who vend the articles in the form in which they are imported.  This act classes the citizens according to their annual amount of sales, and taxes them in the same proportion.  Those who effect sales to the amount of fifty thousand dollars, constitute the first class; of forty thousand dollars, the second class; of thirty thousand dollars, the third class; of twenty thousand dollars, the fourth class; of fifteen thousand dollars, the fifth class; of ten thousand dollars, the sixth class; of five thousand dollars, the seventh class; and all persons effecting sales not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars, constitute the eighth class.  The first class shall pay for license, annually, fifty dollars; the second class, forty dollars; the third class, thirty dollars; the fourth class, twenty-five dollars; the fifth class, twenty dollars; the sixth class, fifteen dollars; the seventh class, twelve dollars and fifty cents, and the eighth class ten dollars.

Direct taxation has been found in all cases to be obnoxious, and this particular mode, I apprehend, is calculated to produce very pernicious effects.  The laws of a republic should all tend to establish and support, as far as is practicable, the principle of equality, and any act that has a contrary tendency must be injurious to the community.  Now this act draws a direct line of demarcation between citizens, in proportion to the extent of their dealings; and as in this country a man’s importance is entirely estimated by his supposed wealth, the citizens of Pennsylvania can henceforth only claim a share of respectability, proportionate to the class to which they belong.  The west country ladies have shewn a great aptitude for forming “circles of society,” and the promulgation of this law affords them a most powerful aid in establishing a store-keeping aristocracy.