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 ¬their game as if the fate of the universe was at stake on every card ; and they pay one another with slips of paper, which they pleasantly enough call exchequer hills, as they are to be paid only b}- similar slips of paper when they become due." — I never witnessed such a scene. — It was inhuman to laugh as I did, but it would have been more than human to resist. — I wish that high councils of state, when a quarrel is engendering between nations, and peace or war are in the balance, would a little more con- sider the consequences before the die is cast; as nothing short of invasion and conquest can in- flict upon a nation so severe an evil as a de- vouring taxation, which fastens upon all the springs of life. — But no revenue should ever ap- proach the sanctuaries of justice, to drive their votaries into dungeons, whilst luxury can shew herself in the streets. ¬When from this pressure of taxation, and the entanglements of forms too technical and expen- sive, the law had ceased to be a plain and simple ¬remedy ¬