constantly increasing for more than two
centuries, and which now occupies a position of influence not second to
that of the throne itself. The importance of the Bank increased with the
growth of the debt, and the effects of their combined influence appeared
on every hand. They were the national pledges for the stability of the
Government.

Every fresh rumor of preparation on the part of the exiled Stuarts to
enter England, filled the people with alarm for the safety of the Bank.
And when, in 1745, Charles Edward landed in Scotland, and made his
romantic advance into the kingdom, an enormous run was begun on the
Bank. It was prevented from doing harm only by the patriotism of the
London merchants. In this brief rebellion the people realized the
important financial interest which each citizen had acquired in the
permanency of the existing Government and the stability of the reigning
house.

At first Parliament had proceeded in the imposition of its taxes on the
principle that a tax, to be equitable and easy, should be distributed
over a great variety of articles. It was argued that a man would pay a
small duty on a large number of things with less inconvenience and
consciousness of burden than if the same tax was levied upon a few
prominent articles. The pettiness of the tax would keep him in a kind of
deception as to the total amount he was paying, which not even the
frequency with which he was called upon to pay it would entirely remove.
This theory, together with a condition of state in which the wants of
Government were constantly increasing, produced, in the time of William
and Mary, a constant multiplication of petty taxes. In the early part of
the following reign many of these were consolidated in separate funds,
which were designated to pay specific parts of the national debt.

But the number of articles subject to taxation was not reduced. The
restlessness of the people under the numerous exactions of the excise
soon, however, suggested the necessity of a change. Government now
passed to one of those extremes which were only too common in an age
when political economy had not yet risen into a science, and legislation
was only an art of shifts and expedients. In 1736 a tax of five dollars
upon the gallon was imposed on all English-made spirits, with a
corresponding protective tariff on those of foreign manufacture. The
result of this extraordinary tax proved the folly of its originators. It
failed as a source