(How Unequal are
our Ways: These Officers must have large Half-Pay, while the
common Soldiers are not allowed small Half-Pay--who have
been exposed generally to greater Hardships than their
Officers. Either let all have Half-Pay or none. The Soldiers
are to be respected as well as their Officers and are as
necessary,) and that high Taxes _very high_ be laid on all
Pride and Luxury, wherever it is found, the Clergy and the
Women not excepted; And that great Taxes be laid on the
Rich. I have an Income of but about eighty Pounds Sterling a
Year, including my own Hands Labour, nevertheless I am
freely willing to pay one quarter Part of it in Taxes till
my Public Debts are paid. Others that have Two hundred a
Year, can with Ease pay one half of it in Taxes, if need be.
_Pay thy Debts_; Owe no man anything is Law, _Divine and
Moral_. Immoral Men are in the road that leads to Hell; if
they attend Public Worship, they are Hypocrites, like the
Scribes and Pharisees, of whom _Christ_ said, Ye are of your
Father the Devil. If I understand the Apostle, when such Men
sit or kneel at a Communion Table, it is a Table of Devils
to them. Pray, Sir, tell your Placemen that the vast
Multitude of your Subjects are very uneasy that so much of
the Public Money, when raised is sunk in the Gulph of
Exhorbitancy. My Governor, Mr. Francis Bernard, demands a
thousand Pounds Sterling a Year; one half that Sum is more
than Enough, especially as the Nation is ready to sink with
the Weight of its Public Debt. The _Clergy_ can tell their
Congregations that the New Testament rather reproves than
commands the wearing of costly Array and faring sumptuously
every Day; And I may venture to tell my Readers that all
those who neglect taking a conscientious care to pay their
Debts, private Debts, as well as public, are in the high Way
to Destruction; the commonness of the Sin don't abate the
Malignity of it.

P.S. Your Majesty sees how diligent Governor Nehemiah was in
reforming what was amiss in Israel. He was obliged indeed to
contend with the Nobles and the Rulers who opposed him, but
he subdued them, and no wonder! Because he feared God and
not Man.

From a loyal Subject of my King and a sincere Friend to his
Kingdom.

TIMOTHY PICKERING.

Mr. Pi