later, when the whole country ran wild with the
South Sea Bubble, it was so nearly involved in a mortal struggle. Under
the influence of the Bank, the business of the nation gradually acquired
an evenness and stability which was unknown to any former age.

But while the establishment of this National Bank supplied the
Government with a ready and economical method of procuring funds, it did
not do away with the necessity of taxes. A new form of taxation was now
furnished by the Dutch. This small and ingenious people, in the defence
of their liberty, had been early forced into extraordinary expenditures,
and were in advance of every other nation in the perfection of their
system of taxation. The English Parliament had, in the preceding age,
borrowed from them the excise. They now took from the same source the
idea of stamp duties. This species of tax had been invented in a
competition for a prize offered by the Dutch Government for the
discovery of a new form of tax, which should press lightly on the
people, and, at the same time, produce a large revenue to the state.
Stamps were introduced in England in the year 1693. The nation was now
in possession of the four most important methods of taxation: customs,
excise, licenses, and stamps. The first had existed in the island from a
period of immemorial antiquity. The second was introduced by the Great
Rebellion. The third and fourth came in with the wars attendant upon the
accession of William and Mary.

Of these different forms it may be said, that the second is most
obnoxious to the people, and the third most unequal. We should add,
perhaps, to this list the land tax, which, founded on the new assessment
made by William, became from this time a regular source of revenue. In
this period, we see, was laid the foundation of the whole system of
taxation now in use in this country and in Great Britain. The hundred
years that followed produced no new species of tax. The five forms which
we have mentioned, however, were diligently cultivated. In the nine
years which immediately followed the accession of William and Mary,
about forty distinct acts of taxation were passed by Parliament. Still
it was impossible for a nation counting less than six million
inhabitants to pay the expenses of a vast and protracted war by
immediate taxation. In 1697 a debt existed of about one hundred million
dollars. This is the foundation of that national debt which, with
trifling exceptions, has been