And even this sum is fifteen times greater than the expences of government are in America; and it is also greater than the whole peace establishment of England amounted to about an hundred years ago. So much has the weight and oppression of taxes increased since the Revolution, and especially since the year 1714.
1 At Paine's trial, Chapman, the printer, in answer to fa
question of the Solicitor General, said: "I made him three
separate offers in the different stages of the work; the
first, I believe, was a hundred guineas, the second five
hundred, and the last was a thousand."—Editor.
2 Error. See also ante, and in vol. ii., p. 435.
Washington had retracted his original announcement, and
received his salary regularly.—Editor.
To shew that the sum of 500,000L. is sufficient to defray all civil expences of government, I have, in that work, annexed the following estimate for any country of the same extent as England.—
In the first place, three hundred Representatives, fairly elected, are sufficient for all the purposes to which Legislation can apply, and preferable to a larger number.
If, then, an allowance, at the rate of 500L. per annum be made to every Representative, deducting for non-attendance, the expence, if the whole number attended six months each year, would be.......75,000L.
The Official Departments could not possibly exceed the following number, with the salaries annexed, viz.:
[ILLUSTRATION: Table]
Three offices at
10,000L.
each
30,000
Ten ditto at
5,000
u
50,000
Twenty ditto at
2,000
u
40,000