o gave for it, and the ground
about it, 35,000_l_." They built streets and houses on the site to
their great profit, the ground comprising twenty-four acres of land.

"TAXATION NO TYRANNY!"

Such was the title of a famous political tract, which was issued at a
moment when a people, in a state of insurrection, put forth a
declaration that taxation was tyranny! It was not against an
insignificant tax they protested, but against taxation itself! and in
the temper of the moment this abstract proposition appeared an insolent
paradox. It was instantly run down by that everlasting party which, so
far back as in the laws of our Henry the First, are designated by the
odd descriptive term of _acephali, a people without heads!_[122] the
strange equality of levellers!

These political monsters in all times have had an association of ideas
of _taxation_ and _tyranny_, and with them one name instantly suggests
the other! This happened to one Gigli of Sienna, who published the first
part of a dictionary of the Tuscan language,[123] of which only 312
leaves amused the Florentines; these having had the honour of being
consigned to the flames by the hands of the hangman for certain popular
errors; such as, for instance, under the word _Gran Duca_ we find _Vedi
Gabelli!_ (see Taxes!) and the word _Gabella_ was explained by a
reference to _Gran Duca_! _Grand-duke_ and _taxes_ were synonymes,
according to this mordacious lexicographer! Such grievances, and the
modes of expressing them, are equally ancient. A Roman consul, by
levying a tax on _salt_ during the Punic war, was nicknamed _Salinator_,
and condemned by "the majesty" of the people! He had formerly done his
duty to the country, but the _salter_ was now his reward! He retired
from Rome, let his beard grow, and by his sordid dress and melancholy
air evinced his acute sensibility. The Romans at length wanted the
_salter_ to command the army--as an injured man, he refused--but he was
told that he should bear the caprice of the Roman people with the
tenderness of a son for the humours of a parent! He had lost his
reputation by a productive tax on salt, though this tax had provided an
army and obtained a victory!

Certain it is that Gigli and his numerous adherents are wrong: for were
they freed from all restraints as much as if they slept in forests and
not in houses; were they inhabitants of wilds and not of cities, so that
every man should be his own lawgiver, with