Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/200

192 adopt popular measures. I established a free representative government and trial by jury. My Home Rule was not one of the Squelchers and the Squelched such as they are clamouring for in Ireland. I relieved the people from one-half of the taxes [think of that, ye plundering, insatiable Australian Parliaments—ye sons or daughters of the thirsty horseleech, think of that], supplying the deficiency by imposing a duty on all British goods imported and exported. I increased the salaries of the clergy, even that of the bishop—not forgetting, as richer governments do, the humble curates. Some of the latter had lived on twelve pounds a year, a sum upon which the foxhound of an English squire would starve. Consequently, I had pulpit eloquence on my side. I took the public schools and fisheries under my care, and compelled all public defaulters to cash up without delay. I next formally released (though without authority) the people from all debts due to the Crown of my native country, which had shamefully withheld the money subscribed for their relief by the nations of Europe, especially the English, after the terrible calamities of 1783. [The volcanic eruptions of that year from the Skeidara covered several fertile districts with lava, poisoned the water and atmosphere all around, drove the fishes away from the coasts, and caused a famine and pestilence which in two years destroyed 9,000 people, and thousands of horses and cattle.] Nor was I idle in organizing military defences. I established an army of eight hundred soldiers, well armed and mounted, and placed six guns in position to defend the harbour. Indeed, I am quite serious when I tell your Majesty that the laws and regulations I then made were so good that I have reason to believe they remain unaltered to the present day.

'I now thought it advisable to make a tour of the island. The country was very beautiful, with high and precipitous