, we have no doubt would operate as a most salutary check
on the vagaries of Chancellors of the Exchequer.

It is strange that the Khan should not, in this case, perceive the fallacy
of his own argument, or see that the power of the sword must always
virtually rest with the holder of the purse; since immediately afterwards,
after enlarging on the enormous amount of taxes levied in England, the
oppressive nature of some of them, especially the window-tax, "for the
light of heaven is God's gift to mankind," he proceeds--"In other
countries it would perhaps cost the king, who imposed such taxes, his head;
but here the blame is laid on the House of Commons, without any one
dreaming of censuring the sovereign, in whose name they are levied, and
for whose use they are applied;" citing as a proof of this the ease with
which the insurrection of Wat Tyler and his followers, against the
capitation tax, was suppressed by the promise of the king to redress their
grievances. The subject of English taxation, indeed, both from the amount
levied, and the acquiescence of the people in such unheard-of burdens,
seems to have utterly bewildered the khan's comprehension.[4] "All classes,
from the noble to the peasant, are alike oppressed; yet it is amusing to
hear them expatiate on the institutions of their country, fancying it the
freest and themselves the least oppressed of any people on earth! They are
constantly talking of the tyranny and despotism of Oriental governments,
without having set foot in any of those regions, or knowing any thing
about the matter, except what they have gleaned from the imperfect
accounts of superficial travellers--deploring the state of Turkey, Persia,
and other Mahommedan countries, and calling their inhabitants slaves, when,
if the truth were known, there is not a single kingdom of Islam, the
people of which would submit to what the English suffer, or pay one-tenth
of the taxes exacted from them."

[4] The views of Mirza Abu-Talib on this important subject, are
far more enlightened and correct than those of Kerim Khan. "The
public revenue of England," he observes, "is not, as in India,
raised merely from the land, or by duties levied on a few kinds of
merchandise, but almost every article of consumption pays its
portion. The taxes are levied by the authority and decree of
parliament; and are in general so framed _as to bear lightly on
the poor_, and that _every person should